Customer Reviews

Red Hot Fury (A Shades of Fury Novel)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Reading Kasey MacKenzie's Red Hot Fury, the first in a new urban fantasy series, is like walking into a movie ten minutes after it's started. Though you are able to follow along well enough, you feel slightly disoriented, constantly in the need to catch up, and even if you enjoy it, it ends leaving you as though you've missed something.

That was precisely my experience with MacKenzie's book, though it wasn't for lack of effort from the author. Indeed, my guess is that because there's such a full back story spread throughout Red Hot Fury, readers such as myself will mistakenly believe it's not the first in the series. I actually did a web search looking for book number one when I realized I'd just finished it.

The sheer amount of world-building attempted by the author only added to the problem. Most urban fantasy series, wisely, expand the universe of "others" over a period of books so as not to overwhelm readers. Unfortunately, MacKenzie features so many types of "Arcanes," as she calls them, in book one of her series, that readers may easily be overwhelmed and confused.

What drew me to the book was my interest in Greek mythology. You may recall that the Furies are goddesses of vengeance who punish criminals by driving them insane. Red Hot Fury's lead character, Marissa, the Chief Magical Investigator for the Boston PD, is also a Fury. In MacKenzie's world, both genetics and choice are involved in being a Fury, and the twist is this: A Fury is essentially a host to two serpents who lie dormant as tattoos on her arms unless she calls them forth. If at some point, however, her serpents are killed, she ceases to be a Fury and becomes a Harpy, the irony being that Harpies are considered crazy.

While I appreciated that bit of irony, not enough of the story focused on the ancient Greeks and their religion, again because the author threw so many types of "Arcanes" into the mix, including the Irish Sidhe, and once the Sidhe storyline became clear, MacKenzie's world began to seem derivative of series penned by Lora Leigh and Keri Arthur, among others.

After Marissa is called in to investigate the death of a sister Fury, she realizes something is "off." The tattoos don't look quite right, but before can fully investigate, she is suspiciously suspended from her job and nearly killed. She must turn to her ex-boyfriend, the Warhound Scott Murphy, for help. They'd broken up two years earlier over what turns out to be a lack of healthy communication, and though the book is not a romance, their reconnection is one of its best aspects, though more than occasionally frustrating.

Naturally Marissa has stumbled upon a dangerous plot that gets thicker and thicker, involving both the Arcane and the Mundane, secret quasi-government facilities, and contracts out for her head from more than one source. None of this is new either, and it's a draw as to how much suspense the author creates. On the one hand the main red herring baddie was obviously a red herring to me and the true baddie not difficult to suss out, but on the other, fairly late in the story the author reveals a whopper of a surprise that totally shocked me.

The urban fantasy field has become saturated; there are as many bad-ass heroines as there are dukes in Regency-set English historical romances, and choosing which series to follow gets more and more difficult every day. In the end Kasey MacKenzie doesn't quite deliver on the promise offered in Red Hot Fury, and I doubt I'll be back for book two.

Red Hot Fury concerns Marissa, or Riss, a red hot fury of legend. It turns out that at some point in the past arcanes (this author's version of what to call magic folk) decided to move into the human world as something was going wrong with theirs - there was a war - then a truce and now arcanes and mortals live together in an uneasy peace. Furies act as the arcane police to protect humans from magic folk.

Our mystery begins with the finding of a dead body that turns out to be very similar to Riss' missing friend and turns into a series of assassination attempts and rescue missions.

Here are some good things about the book. It moves along quickly which helps to keep you engaged in the action. The actions scenes are well rendered for the most part so when fighting occurs you are pulled in and taken along. There are a bevy of supernatural creatures with different powers and abilities. Parts of the plot are pretty neat ideas. No matter how slowly I did eventually finish reading the book - at least interested in the final outcome.

For the not so good I have to start with my main one, which is Marissa. She's our main character and narrates the entire story. The problem with this is she's kind of an annoying person and there's never a break from her. She's constantly telling you how awesome furies are and how kick butt she is, which would be fine if the action bore that out, but she spends most of the time getting injured, the crap beat out of her and making stupid mistakes and rushing in without thinking. So she comes off more as a blow hard. You've only ever *told* me how good you are, Riss, you've never shown me. This blow hard effect isn't helped by the fact that she almost as constantly tells you how great looking she is and how her uniform, a hot, red, leather outfit (you can see it on the cover) makes her so hot and kick butt looking and commands respect. Really?

One issue for he-men like me (why are you laughing?) is that what promised to be an action tale turned out to be 75% "love" story. Our kick butt, tough as nails, heroine spends half the time mooning over her ex who (of course) she has to go to for help. He's the only one she can trust even if they did have a messy break up. The type where someone walks out the door calling it the END before the other person actually explains why they've done what they've done. And love is in quotes because I'm never made to believe they were or are in love at any point - I'm told about it. It really seems more like they are in lust to me.

Another distraction is vagueness. Want to know more about that arcane human war? Too bad. Do you want to know how magic works? I hope not because it just happens when it needs too. There's vague mention that it comes from the earth but that's about it - who can wield it how and when is a mystery. Want to know the powers of the various creatures? Maybe you will maybe you won't. It's just that there's so much glossed over that when something new happens it seems like the rule was made up on the spot. For example, early on we learn that Riss can fly and change shape to some extent and is strong (well she says so) but did you know she can create magic force fields? Me neither until she needed one. Did you know that war hounds are always born in hound form then shortly change to human afterwards? The reader doesn't either until its important for a certain character.

There is the magic itself. It's a bit clunky and obtrusive. Aside from the above there are also attempts to combine magic with technology. But when someone describes magic email and someone pulls out a magic GPS (seriously, they do) it's just a bit silly sounding. We learn that one magic wep (as Riss annoyingly calls weapons) will stun you with one shot, kill you with two, but the kill shot is worth two magic bullets so if you shoot someone twice for a kill it is worth three bullets. You read that right - the rules for magic guns (hey that's just as short a word as weps) come right out of a video game manual.

Other distractions? Half of everyone has a nickname so it's like you have to learn and remember names twice. The "Scottish" character's name is Patrick MacAllister, Mac for short. All furies are magic cops, all giants can dig, all war hounds are fiercely loyal, all goblins are untrustworthy, all harpies are nasty - are humans the only creatures with more than one personality trait or defining characteristic? More than one person uses "fox faced" as an insult. There are lots of clunky bits of dialog. Rage - always capitalized. What is Rage? I don't know. I know Riss must always keep it in check or risk turning into a Harpy, I know it is always capitalized so must be more than just getting mad, and I know she mentions it over and over and over again to the point that I thought if I saw the word "Rage" again I'd be sick.

OK, I know it sounds like I'm completely dogging the book. But for a light read it's not bad. Aside from the language and lusty scenes it might make good young adult reading. I did finish it and want to get to the ending but it was slow work. The problem was that every time I picked it up I'd hit one of the above distractions and be pulled out of the book (eyes rolling at times) and being pulled out of the book that often does not good reading make.

I hate this book so much that I distrust my own opinion, so indulge me as I enumerate what I think author Kasey Mackenzie gets wrong.

1) In the first paragraph of page one, our narrator and protagonist, Marissa Holloway, drops not two, not three, but four sardonic witticisms. This sets the tone for the whole book. Marissa's style nakedly rips off hundreds of East Coast-based crime movies in which the heroic but jaded cop uses sarcasm to keep everyone else at arm's length.

2) Apropos of nothing, on page 4, Marissa announces her years-long romantic drought, a main theme of the book. I'm heartily sick of fantasy mysteries by women authors in which they can only make their heroines human by giving them no luck with men. With a whole orchestra of human experience, they only blow one note on the oboe.

3) Marissa starts out angry, gets angrier, and, until two pages from the end, never demonstrates any emotion but some form of anger. Except lust, which in her case consistently smacks of anger. Then she complains that few people like or trust her. May I mail her a clue?

4) By chapter two, Marissa is suspended from duty. The action is manifestly unjust, forcing her to go rogue to solve the crime. But this is fantasy, so she seeks help from the council of Furies, supernatural police. They too shut her down. Mackenzie double-dips from the Cliché Store.

5) Moments after suspension, Marissa engages in a shootout. Her partner is wounded. Name me a cop movie that doesn't feature this. But since we haven't reached page twenty, this feels unearned. Instead of affecting us, the author manipulates us.

6) With nowhere to run, Marissa seeks out her ex, a mercenary. She hates him with such passion that you know they'll fall in bed by the end. He wants her, she wants him, and it takes only a few pages for old misunderstandings go bye-bye, but she still refuses to have sex. Who is she punishing? Just take your clothes off and do it already!

7) Marissa's world suffered a massive war between supernatural beings and humans, so recently that veterans remain alive and active. This war changed society NOT ONE BIT. When Nancy Holzner and Kelly Gay create fantasy worlds where magic occurs openly, they imagine changed worlds. Mackenzie can't be bothered.

8) Marissa blames a local Mafioso for her sister-in-law's disappearance. She believes it so fiercely that we know he must be innocent. Indeed, we know they'll be allies by the end. That subplot wastes our precious reading time.

9) One ensemble character is supposedly Scottish. His first words in this story? "Aye, lassie." My best friend is from Edinburgh, and in seven years, I've never heard him say either "aye" or "lassie." Mackenzie should expand beyond gangster-film ethnic stereotypes.

10) Someone attacks Marissa inside her ex's family compound. She induces that his family must (gasp!) harbor a mole. Seasoned readers start a suspect list and test it against mounting evidence. Marissa does not. Thus, the climactic revelation surprises nobody... except Marissa.

11) Near page 200, Marissa's wounded partner returns (see #5 above). Though she was shot just days ago, she is out of the hospital and back on the force. I don't believe this for a minute, because a real cop who takes a bullet, even if it misses bones and vital organs, faces months of physical therapy, and may still get forced out with a disability pension.

12) If you probed a case involving shape-shifters, and two people you thought dead returned, wouldn't you be a bit suspicious? But for someone who vigorously nurses grudges, Marissa is remarkably trusting when she should be skeptical. Mackenzie rewards this slovenliness by letting this discrepancy come to nothing.

I could continue, but it gets mean, and this approaches spoiler territory. Notice how often I mention movies. I see little between these covers to suggest that Mackenzie reads recreationally. Perhaps she'd prefer writing screenplays. Maybe she thinks this book will give her a boost in Hollywood. I'd rather read books that didn't waste my scarce time.

The description of this book sounded fun, a Fury assisting police investigating magical murders, very much in the vein of Weather Warden or Dresden. And while the author may have been shooting for something that good, the result is a mess. The writing is so far over-the-top that I had trouble not LOL, the characters are bad caricatures that belong more in poor television shows, and the author writes cussing about as uncomfortably as a 10-year-old on the school playground.

Regarding poor writing: The first chapter was a jumble of exposition that was obviously exposition. I had trouble following exactly what was going on because the sentences were too cluttered with messy modifiers that didn't accomplish anything. And most descriptions were so long that I forgot what it was they were actually describing. "The missing flunky now inhabited a desk across the antechamber, fingers flying across the keys of a laptop computer as she sorted through emails from earthbound Furies that would run the gamut from petty complaints about their current posts to noteworthy news gained while performing their various duties." (p. 25)

Regarding caricatures: The main character is a tough-talking, butt-kicking, supernatural baddy who actually does good by protecting poor mortals - even though those mortals don't appreciate her for it. (Seen that before.) Her best buddy - whom she hasn't seen in three years - is found dead...but the body is not really her best buddy. (Umm...saw that one coming.) Her mortal cop superior doesn't like her and finds joy in her pain. ("Lieutenant Detective Tony Zalawski drawled the words so gleefully I almost offered him a cigarette. When his nasty, chapped lips peeled back to reveal even nastier yellow teeth, I decided the last thing he needed was another smoke." P. 11. Hah!) And the only person she can turn to for help is a shape-shifting Warhound who also happens to be a rockstar in bed: "A warm, solid length pressed against my back and rear as wakefulness stirred. I sighed, burrowing closer to it. Consciousness beckoned, and I finally let it rush over me. My body tensed when I realized Scott and I were spooned together...." (p. 183).

While the author may have been trying for the grittiness of Anita Blake combined with the scrappiness of Harry Dresden, she really just ended up with a bad stereotype of a fan-fic. As hard as I've been on the book, though, I'm still giving it two stars instead of only one because the world she created has interesting ideas and a ton of possibilities. The idea of a Fury interacting in the modern world is cool. If her writing can rise to the level of her imagination, she can have some truly excellent novels. At the moment, however...no.

The only reason why I considered this book was because of the author endorsement by Nalini Singh on the cover. I've always enjoyed Nalini Singh's books so I thought I might like a new series that she reviewed.

However, I really struggled to finish reading this book, which is an interesting feat because I am an extremely fast reader.

The premise of the book was interesting in that beneath all the paranormal aspects, it boiled down to political intrigue, mystery, and action. Unfortunately, the author did not protray the world, characters, and the events that well. Often times, I felt like I was reading a chick lit that tried to cash in on the hot market of urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

Overall, the plot, world building, and characters were not executed very well, and made for a very dry read that made me not really care if I finished reading the story or not. I would not recommend this book at all.

If you'd like to try for a great Urban Fantasy read, I'd highly recommend reading Patricia Briggs' "Mercy Thompson" and "Alpha & Omega" series instead.

Red Hot Fury by Kasey MacKenzie

This is the first edition in a new Urban Fantasy series and it features an extremely strong and seemingly capable heroine named Marissa Holloway. Marissa (or Rissa) is a Fury packed full with multiple 'talents'. While starting an investigation of the death of what appears to be another Fury, she is immediately suspended from her job and then quite suddenly she finds human assassins trying to take her out. So what does she do? She runs to a past lover that she happens to hate (sort of) right now, but would seriously like to bed. Of course he is a Warhound shape-shifter and with it comes a lot of other uber powers so we can ratchet up the amount of disbelief that we have to suspend. Chaos reigns with people seemingly ratting Marissa out and the bad guys always able to find her. She takes a lot of hits for the team though!

If there is a way to get out of a tight situation, she can do whatever it takes to get herself out. She can shift her looks, she can fly, she has snakes on her arms (tattoos) that can come alive and inject poison into the enemy, she can channel rage and become even more deadly...why I think that she can even leap tall buildings in a single bound! After all this is speculative fiction, right? As I've mentioned in order to read this and to enjoy it we need to suspend our disbelief. But the problem as I see it, is that Marissa is a Mary Sue character...a caricature of every Super Power comic book heroine you can think of. And I don't mean that in a good way. She is poorly drawn, silly, overly sarcastic and not in a funny way. Her ex Scott, seems castrated and powerless next to Marissa and her uber powers. The mystery of the story is easily figured out and it took me a lot of will power to finish this so I could give it the review that it deserves.

This is a debut book and perhaps the series will get better, and if you are compelled to read all of the books in speculative fiction like I am, may I heartily suggest that you take this one out from the library.

Marissa is a fury (they start off as humans) who also happens to be the Chief Magical Investigator for the Boston PD. As an arcane (non human) she faces different challenges than a mundane (human). While investigating the death of an arcane she stumbles onto something that no one ever expected. It's going to take all her talents to come out of the situation alive. Especially after she gets suspended from her job (and her resources) and nearly falls victim to an assasin's bullet.

I thought the plot here was really interesting. Of course there is the obligatory war and coming out of the non humans but it's what happened after the war that is important. With traitor's all over and things long thought dead appearing magically you sort of suspect that something big is beneath it all. This is, by no means, a heavy romp through major literary territory but its not billed that way. This is a rolicking enjoyable amazing read that has you cheering for Riss and those around her. It's like Butcher's The Dresden Files and Kim Harrison's Witch books and every bit as good. The magnificent writing kept me completely into the story and I read it in one sitting.

Marissa (Riss) is clearly a strong take charge female who relishes her strengths. Trin, her mortal partner, dedicated to her job. Of course you've got the werehound Scott, Riss's former lover, who Riss needs now more than ever. The rest of the cast is equally as strong and play a critical role in the story. There are a lot of characters but I never had trouble keeping track of them or who they were in terms of their relationship to the story. The plots the same way -- builds up as you go with clues along the way.

The world created is a stunning one very fleshed out and believable. The descriptions are fabulous and the magical creatures just come at you with as much speed as a harpy. From Sidhe to Fury to everything in between. The plot is tight and the action non stop. Fantastic. This folks is urban fantasy done right. Way right. 5 stars all the way. I was completely transfixed -- cannot wait for the next one!

Forgive me if this review contains some ranting. Red Hot Fury started off on a bad note for me. The main character instantly comes off as an irritated cop. There is entirely too much slang and attitude in the first few pages. Complain, complain, give someone attitude, yell at someone, attitude, attitude, complain. Needless to say, the main character Riss got under my skin from the start. I got past it and started to be interested in the mystery. A thought to be extinct group of paranormals turns out to be alive and part of a breeding program. Riss meets up with her ex, fights with him a lot, and works on solving the mystery. The culprit is pretty predictable, and the storytelling here is as flawed as the main character. The mystery solving is slow, and most of the novel is comprised of characters going from place to place getting into groaning matches with each other. The main character and her ex bicker constantly, no one seems to get along with each other, and honestly it was physically irritating to read. I wanted to grind my teeth and throw something numerous times.

The world building is a bit sketchy as well. We get a history lesson from our main character about some of the paranormal beings (arcanes) but nothing is explained completely. I don't necessarily like being told every little detail about every single race, but throwing them around haphazardly and hoping the reader figures it out isn't good enough either. There was never, hello reader, I am a fury and I have the following abilities. Instead it was "oh by the way look at this blue stuff I can make" halfway into the novel. I'm also not sure if furies by nature are mean, rude, obnoxious, and generally unpleasant, or if that was just the main character. She gets mad over EVERYTHING. That may be part of the nature of a fury, and if so I really don't see how that is supposed to be appealing.

There is one thing that made me almost stop reading this book more than any other, and it is the dreaded "but wait, that would mean...no it can't be." Let me explain. When Riss is trying to figure out what type of being Mac is she sees that his eyes are green, almost comes to a conclusion, and then says no it couldn't be. Obviously, the author is trying to draw our attention to this fact. If Riss would have said he had green eyes, I would have read right past it and not though about it. Instead she draws our attention to it, says it must be impossible, and I instantly figure it out. I don't like figuring things out only to have them revealed to me later like they are some big secret. It happened again toward the end when the traitor is being discovered, but I won't get into that one. Hey, was that Colonel Mustard leaving the conservatory? What's that in his hand? A candlestick...but that would mean...no it can't be.

In summary, Red Hot Fury has irritating characters, a barely passable mystery and plot, bad world building, and constant bickering. Just because this book has a main character that is not your typical vampire or werewolf does not mean it is unique or interesting. Also, frequent cursing, an atrocious attitude, and a short temper, does not make a character tough and is not appealing in the slightest.

I've been looking forward to this book for a while, considering I've been seeing snippets and scenes of it for the last few years as Kasey worked on it at Forward Motion. I've seen it process from the skeleton of a scene to a full fledged novel that she worked hard to get represented and published. The end product... Excellent.

The main character is Marissa Holloway, a Fury. She comes complete with sass and red leather only an urban fantasy heroine can pull off. Riss, as she's called for most of the book, is part of a magic sect entirely comprised of women called the Sisterhood of Furies. The Fury genes are passed down through bloodlines. Men can be carriers, but can't be Furies. Only females can.

The story starts off with Riss discovering a corpse that is supposed to be her missing best friend, but something isn't quite right with it. This sends Riss headfirst into a nice little conspiracy that just keeps getting deeper. Her only option, of course, is to go to someone she knows she can trust... Her ex. I don't know about you, but I'm not entirely sure if I broke this dude's heart if he'd have my best interest at heart. It was a little bit of a stretch for me to accept that he'd be cool with protecting her ass after she took off on him. (At least that's what I think his POV on this would be, because that's how I think.)

I think my favorite characters were the magic snakes that keep Riss healthy and alive and I'll be the first to admit, I was a little pissed the couple of times she put them through the wringer. And I sort of wish the two snakes had just a little more to do during the story than they did, but that's just my love of secondary characters talking. I also love Mister, Bob, and Mouse more than I love Harry in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I'm a sucker for lovable secondary characters.

The one thing I think might bother people about the story is that the bad guy was pretty simple to pick up on. I won't go into it, for spoiler's sake, but I guessed the bad guy pretty early on in the story. Of course, I usually do and it helped I had some spoilers over the last few years, LOL. Even with that, it was an awesome, well-written story. The banter between Scott and Riss was awesome and I found myself laughing at a few awkward situations they found themselves in. I'll definitely be waiting for Book 2 and not because Kasey is such a nice person... Though she really is.

I chose this book because I love urban fantasy, and even paranormal romance when done well. Unfortunately, I think this book was just trying too hard. I felt like the entire beginning of the book was screaming "see, look how original my world is!" by throwing descriptions at the reader. When, it fact, most of the elements were taken from other popular urban fantasy series. Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, and Marc Del Franco have already done most of what's here including: 1) the uber-powerful Council of Wizards, err, Elders, that won't intervene 2) an accord/treaty between supernaturals and non 3) a hero/ine working with the mortal police on supernatural matters 4) even the gangster who's bad but necessary to the case (Marcone, Trent, Carrington). Plus, I think I may be bored with the kick-butt heroine who is, once again, being set-up as part of a massive conspiracy and has to go to her scorching hot ex that she is still in love with for help. This is where I feel Red Hot Fury veered into paranormal romance rather than being the urban fantasy it is billed as. In the middle of crisis, she's thinking how sexy his voice is? Leaving her sixteen year-old niece to run for the car while she rushes to save him in a fight? It just didn't work, for urban fantasy or para romance. Lastly, the character development is weak. Everyone comes off as a cardboard cut-out, even Marissa. So, why did I give it three stars?

The book got an extra star for the creation of Furies (based somewhat on valkyries and the like), with their living tattoos. It's tough to invent, or reinvent, a supernatural race that hasn't been done to death before. I liked how Furies come into being, their powers, wings, etc. All would make for exciting material, if executed better. Not every urban fantasy series has to have earth-shattering conspiracies that could doom the human race. Why not someone secure in their role, with an established relationship, solving crimes? Why does a heroine always have to be a b!tch? This wasn't a bad book, especially for someone who is looking for paranormal romance, or just getting their feet wet in urban fantasy. However, for avid readers of the genre, this just wasn't up to par. I don't think I'll be back for more.