Harry Connolly, Circle of Enemies

Third in the Twenty Palaces urban fantasy series revolving around Ray Lilly, a man with a ghost knife who is both attracted and repelled by the organization for which he works.
My Take
Phfft…this is a bunch of “friends” Ray is much better off without! Friends who betray and rob each other at the drop of a hat.
How sick is this? Wally claims he’s doing these things to his old circle because Ray helped him in high school???
Why is it people never seem to grasp when to shut up and be still in a dangerous situation?
Ray’s had questions about the Society and about Annalise before, but Csilla’s actions are just beyond, way beyond, acceptable. Nor is Talbott’s attitude a help. The pressure Annalise uses on the boat captain…
Connolly will keep you on your toes and flipping pages to learn the why of it all. Will Ray survive it, save the world? And another small step for Ray to move forward in his own evolution…eee-yewww.
So much greed. The betrayals. That panting desire for the easy way. Taking from someone else to feed your own wants.
The Story
A touch from the past when Caramella appears in Ray’s bathroom with a message from Wally. His old friends are dying because they knew him.
Wally found his old crew and needed a few favors. How better to pay Ray back for everything—high school and that fiasco back in Seattle. The crew? Well, they’re all greedy enough to jump on, too greedy to question it. And Arne believes Ray owes him one.
One more job. But it never stops there. Betrayals and abandonment. Future promises that aren’t what was thought. Predators coming through bathtubs, the back of the couch, the floor.
The Characters
Ray Lilly finds odd and menial jobs trying to keep his head above water. He’s an ex-con specializing in car theft and he fell into a situation with Twenty Palaces. Now he’s one of them. More accurately, he’s Annalise’s wooden man. A pawn whose purpose is to take the heat. Besides some spell tattoos on his body from Annalise, his only other weapon is his ghost knife.
Annalise Powlis and Csilla Foldes are peers in the Society and while both are incredibly powerful, Csilla is very old and getting ga-ga. Talbot is new and Csilla’s wooden man. His future will depend on Ray’s.
Ray’s old gang includes:
Caramella Harris is with Luther, a loyal dumb idiot who was the first to take Wally up on his offer; Arne Sandler is their leader; Leonard is still a guard; Ty is a fitness instructor now (Dale is his boyfriend); Fidel Robles, a.k.a., Robbie, is Arne’s second-in-command but has set up his own crew with some of Arne’s team; Bud and Summer are married; and, Violet Johnson was Ray’s old girlfriend. She’s not the loyal type in spite of what Ray did for her brother Tommy. Jasmine is her little girl and Maria is Vi’s mother. King has given them powers and they’re heading for the big time. Too bad King didn’t define what he meant by “big time”.
Wally King is a psychopath whom Ray met back up with two years ago. One who put a spell on Ray’s best friend, summoned predators, and caused too many to die, all while claiming Ray was his friend. Now he’s filled with predators and they feed upon each other. Wally has plans for the world. Really short-term plans.
Lino Vela is an historian caring for a house full of antiquities. Magical ones. The house belongs to the owner of the Bugatti, Steven François whose ancestor, Georges François, stole one of the spell books. Wardell Shoops was a pro football player until he beat his manager so bad that he went to prison. Now he’s hired muscle for François.
The Twenty Palace Society is an organization “of sorcerers committed to…hunting down magic spells and the people who used them”, taking a scorched earth policy to the extreme. The Empty Spaces, the Deeps, are on other planes and filled with predators, creatures eager to enter our world and feed.
The spell books that made the primaries, secondaries, etc. seem to be a small group of types which are repeated within a “family”: The Smith Book of Oceans, the Jones Book of Grooves, the Mowbray Book of Oceans, the Lilly Book of Motes, the King Book of Oceans. We’ll see how much information Connolly dribbles out in the next book.
The Cover
The cover is orange (the title), browns, and black. Inside an old building with open-back wooden stairs and a wooden floor pierced by a hole and rimmed in flames leading to the Empty Spaces.
The title is too right. Ray is surrounded by his own Circle of Enemies.

Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith, Greyfriar

First in the Vampire Empire steampunk fantasy series about a world split into a Northern Vampire and a Southern Human worlds.

My Take
What were they thinking? Totally unprepared. No clue how to take down a vampire. Yet, in their smug superiority, they decide to send both heirs to the throne out on this chancy tour? Lord Kelvin definitely bears watching.

For the most part, gag. The Griffiths have a good story going with the requisite heroes and villains, but their characters do so many stupid things… The only characters I really liked are Adele, Anhalt (Simon doesn’t count), Greyfriar, Gareth, and Morgana. Both kings are pretty out of it, controlled by the people around them.

After 150 years, you’d think they’d know a lot more about their enemy instead of hunkering down and cowering under the heat.

One undercurrent is a shunning of religion, the metaphysical. It’s all about the science. Not that they’re doing much on the vampire analysis.

interesting that Gareth is fascinated by humans. He points out that vampires “make nothing and create nothing”. He’s appalled by the laziness and decadence into which the vampires have fallen. The Griffiths have certainly played up the nastiness of the vampires by pointing up the filth, bones, and stench. Ragged remnants, broken windows the norm.

How stupid of Adele to slay Ghast in front of all those vampires, especially Cesare when she knows how tenuous things are between Gareth and Cesare. What did she expect to accomplish?

The bad guys—I include Clarke here—are almost caricatures. Even Gareth is in some ways—such a noble, suffering hero.

The Griffiths’ writing needs a greater maturity in the sentences—those uttered by characters and as text. The scene where Greyfriar reveals himself is so hokey. As well as Adele’s snide comments later. No, don’t get me wrong. She’s perfectly entitled to be somewhat skeptical, I would also expect that she would be intelligent enough to weigh his actions with his words.

I did appreciate the subtle difference, point(?), Gareth is making about wanting the worthy to survive. Wanting to maintain the balance of the clans. He is planning for a more honorable survival for both sides whereas Cesare wants to wash in the blood of humans.

The discussion about writing was cute between Gareth and Adele. An unexpected perspective. Oh god, it’s so sad how excited Gareth is about his library. It sounds so wonderful and then Adele sees it.

Interesting background on vampire babies.

The Story
The vampires rose and destroyed humanity and its infrastructure in the Great Killing of 1870, forcing mankind to flee to the warmer climes where vampires could not follow. It’s been 150 years since that cold winter night and the marriage between Princess Adele and the great American hero, Senator Clarke, will unite two of the strongest empires, paving the way to take the battle to the north, destroy the vampires, and reclaim their homelands.

Only it all goes awry with the attack on the fleet and the kidnapping of the princess. She’s Prince Cesare’s prisoner and he intends to manipulate his clans to war!

It’s Greyfriar who disrupts those plans. The human hero and his weak brother Prince Gareth. Both a thorn in Cesare’s side.

The Characters
Princess Adele is the heir to the throne, the future empress of Equatoria. Prince Simon, her younger brother and second in line to the throne, has all the desires of a little boy and he idolizes the Greyfriar, “a hero who fights the vampires in the North”. Greyfriar treasures books, especially Sir Geoffrey Randolph’s book on vampire anatomy.

Mamoru is a samurai who has been teaching Adele the power of weaponry and spirituality. Too bad he hasn’t covered magic yet. Selkirk is a geomancer and spy for Mamoru in England. Colonel Mehmet Anhalt, a Gurkha officer, is in charge of the princess’ White Guard. Lord Kelvin is the prime minister and totally and completely hung up on protocol. Laurence Randolph, Lord Aden, is one of the richest men in the Empire and his wealth is derived from coal, timber, and oil. His Imperial Majesty, Constantine II, is the emperor of Equatoria.

Nzingu Mamenna is a sorceress from Zululand and Sanah the Persian collects arcane religious rituals. Sir Godfrey and Mamoru have something going on behind the scenes.

Prince Gareth is Dimitri’s heir, but prefers to live in Edinburgh in the castle with his faithful vampire servant, Baudoin. Gareth really needs to be more politically savvy. He appreciates humans, but is mystified by their absorption in art, books, reading, and writing. Morgana is a human servant at the castle who provides human perspective on Gareth.

Prince Cesare is lord of Ireland, a totally de-humanized Ireland. He actually expects Adele to tell him their war plans as well as about any spies in England. He wants to lead the clans to war so he will be acclaimed heir. Flay is Prince Cesare’s war chief and is a formidable warrior. King Dimitri rules England and his barbaric, ruthless, younger son Cesare rules him.

Senator Clarke is Adele’s Intended. A war hero and vampire killer. All based on one battle for one city which he lost the following year. He’s only in this marriage for the notoriety and the power, using everyone around him. He arrives early for the wedding in his ship, the U.S.S. Ranger, captained by Root. He prefers show battles. Major Stoddard is Clarke’s second-in-command and doesn’t like the senator.

The Cover
The cover is all grays and blacks with the blackest forming Greyfriar and Adele making a stand. It’s possible that it’s his brother’s airships hovering far overhead.

The title introduces a fantastical folk hero, The Greyfriar, almost the only hope left for humanity.