Showing posts with label Mercy Thompson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mercy Thompson. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Mercy Thompson: Homecoming

Mercy Thompson: Homecoming
written by Patricia Briggs and David Lawrence ; painted artwork by Francis Tsai and Amelia Woo

For fans of the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series by Patricia Briggs, this is an essential addition. Originally published as a series of comic book issues, this storyline has now been gathered into a beautiful graphic novel format. The painted art, by Francis Tsai and Amelia Woo captures the characters fairly well, but it is the story, by Briggs and David Lawrence, that worked best for me. This is almost an "origin story" for the Mercy Thompson character. It tells of her earliest experiences after first moving into to the Tri-Cities area of Washington State, and therefore pre-dates the first book in the series. Looking for Mercy's first encounters with all of the regular characters in the series, like Adam, Stefan and Zee? This is it! A fun read, full of action. My only complaint is that they switched artists partway through the project, which is a bit jarring, although each of the artists did a good job on their own. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ official Homecoming page on the official Patricia Briggs web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Bone Crossed

Bone Crossed
by Patricia Briggs

Mercy Thompson returns in the fourth volume of this popular contemporary urban fantasy series -- the first to appear in hardback! Mercy -- a young auto mechanic who can shapeshift into coyote form -- finds herself under threat of death from the leader of the local vampire seethe, who attempts to use Mercy's vampire friend Stefan as a weapon against her. Meanwhile, Mercy is approached by an old classmate, seeking help with an apparent haunting at her house in Spokane -- Mercy's "awareness" of ghosts has become public knowledge, and after a load of bad publicity following the events of Iron Kissed, Mercy could really use the opportunity to get out of town and out of the public eye. And on top of all this, Mercy is trying to decide how she feels about committing herself, body and soul, to Adam, the local werewolf Alpha (pack leader). Mercy is most definitely an intriguing, strong, multi-layered protagonist, and the world Briggs has constructed around her is full of interesting, curious characters. I've enjoyed all of the volumes in the Mercy Thompson series so far, but this one at times felt a bit bogged down in all the "relationship" stuff, often at the expense of the main plotline. I will admit, though, that I was intrigued to see what direction the author was going to go with the friendship between Mercy and Stefan and the lengths to which they'd protect each other from the threats in each of their lives. Not quite as engaging as the first three, but still a great read! -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ official Patricia Briggs web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

Ten (or more) new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.