Customer Reviews

Smoke and Mirrors (Smoke, Book 2)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Smoke and Mirrors, by Tanya Huff, is the second book in her new Tony Foster series, highlighting the mystical adventures of a production assistant (and junior wizard) who occasionally pals around with vampire Henry Fitzroy in his off time. The first book was quite good; the second book is fantastic. A traditional "haunted house" story, it simply explodes beyond the confines of the genre, primarily through the strength of Huff's writing and characterization. Fans of shows like Forever Knight or Buffy: the Vampire Slayer or even Blood Ties--based on the Vickie Nelson/Henry Fitzroy series by Huff--may find great pleasure in the affectionate skewering of the type in this book. Smoke and Mirrors has a wry sense of humor. It's laugh-out-loud funny in some places and genuinely horrific in others, manipulating reader's emotions deftly as Tony and his hapless companions set out to save the day.

Some readers, I know, have been disturbed by the fact that Huff's hero is gay--unabashedly so--and some reviewers have mentioned discomfort with Tony's active, on-page love life. I personally found nothing distasteful about Tony's interactions with other men, which are no more explicit than I've encountered in many other books of this type and *considerably less so* than some (Laurell K. Hamilton, anyone?). If the idea of men kissing is a buzz-killer for you, you probably ought to look for another series. For me, the protagonist's keen interest in his love life just contributes to his three-dimensional nature. I find him charming.

Smoke and Mirrors dazzled me from very nearly the first page, and I read the whole with tremendous pleasure. It goes on my "enthusiastically recommend" list, and I will be looking forward tremendously to my opportunity to read Installment 3.

"Smoke and Mirrors" is the second in Tanya Huff's new series about Tony, a former street-kid, rescued by vampire Henry Fitzroy. Tony has moved out of Fitzroy's home and is now working as a production assistant on TV show "Darkest Night", which ironically is a fictional show about a vampire detective.

In the first episode, Tony and Henry defeat a Shadowlord planning to possess the cast and crew of "Darkest Night". Tony discovers he has wizard powers and must somehow manage to control them. In my opinion, the backstory from "Shadows" was a critical part left out in "Mirrors." Just a few paragraphs would have made "Mirrors" a more stand-alone book.

In "Mirrors" the cast and crew is filming a haunted house story---in a haunted house. Of course, they don't know that when the Boss probably got a cut-rate price on rental of the site....When one of the crew gets cut, the malevolence in the house comes alive. All doors shut at dusk and the deaths of the malevolence's victims is played over and over....The pattern is---murder, then suicide, and each one of the multiple deaths is a separate story in itself.

They'll be freed---if they can survive the night. Meanwhile, cast members are slowly going crazy and suspicious of one another. Tony, the low person on the totem pole, is a very suspicious character in most's book because he's the only one who can both see and communicate with the ghosts. His powers are untrained and most don't even believe in them---making him a likely target to be 'kicked off the island' by suspicious higher ranking cast members.

Add to that all the histrionics of show biz folks, stir in the Boss' two pre-teen daughters, Tony's unrequited lust for the show's co-star, and oh yeah, a warning not to go in the basement.

"Mirrors" is defintely a good, fast-paced read, but not the book it could have been. The backstory from the first book is necessary for new readers and even those of us who bought "Shadows" in hardcover a year or so ago. Still, I'll go out on a limb and say I'll still buy the next book in the series.

Smoke and Mirrors is the middle novel in the Smoke trilogy which tells the continuing story of two characters from Tanya Huff's Blood... series. Henry Fitzroy is a vampire, retired nobility and romance writer who, with lover/friend Tony Foster, has moved to Vancouver. Tony is the real star of these stories - grown up from a trouble making street kid into an adult determined to make his way in the city's vibrant filmmaking business. Tony has landed a job as junior assistant gofor in the production company of a vampire detective TV series. A production company with a knack for falling into supernatural traps.

Tony discovered that he has the makings of being a wizard in the previous volume. Despite this potential, Tony really just wants to be your basic production assistant with a cute boyfriend. Unfortunately, life (or rather, unlife) has different plans for him. Sure enough, when the company rents a spooky old house to film in for a week you can bet that it's not just the atmosphere that is spooky. A whole host of ghosts lurk in the corners re-enacting their violent endings. It seems that the house has a particularly unpleasant history. Lurking in the basement is something that wants everyone to die screaming and fuels its effort to ruin the neighborhood.

Tony, as a neophyte wizard is the only one who is aware of all that is going on. In short order he is trying to keep everyone alive (fails), keep the cameras running (fails), and get the ghost problem under control (fails). Henry flies to the rescue, but this is a locked house crisis, and the simple fact is that Tony must work through his personal issues and solve the mystery of the strange force in the basement all on his own - or with the aid of a few helpful ghosts and some very paranoid movie people.

Tanya Huff is too well established a writer for it to be necessary for me to laud her skills. Smoke and Mirrors, like all the volumes before, continues to present an approach to the vampire/supernatural thriller that combines an intelligent story and good characters into a whole that will always please a reader interested in more than blood oriented bodice rippers. I'm looking forward to reading the next volume, and believe that you will quickly become a fan if you aren't already.

The house was great for the next episode of Darkest Night and CB Productions had rented it for the whole week. It was the perfect turn of the century, last century, mansion and was a great setting for the ghost story.
Only problem Tony Foster had with it was that it really had ghosts. Lots of ghosts. Many who had died in the house. The house, or something in the house, fed off the ghosts. And it wanted more food.
Now Tony, without Henry Fitzroy to help him, must find out what is going on, get the rest of the crew to listen to him and get out using his knowledge of how the house works and what magic he knows. Before too many people die.
Dark humor, not that scary unless reading it at night, good, dirty, fun. In some ways I enjoyed this more than Smoke And Shadows.

A group of people with a history are stuck all night in a haunted house. Sounds familiar? Well, Huff manages to give it a interesting twist in that one of the stuckees is a not very skilled wizard who also happens to be a lowly production assistant in the crew of Darkest Night, the Most Popular Vampire Detective Show in Syndication.

There are some shivery moments and some 'oh how sad' moments but mainly the entertainment value is watching Huff do a send up of how low budget horror television shows are made.

I probably should note that I did not read the first book so it is possible to enjoy the second book without having read the first. The exposition in the second was enough to clue me in on what was happening.

I must admit I throughly enjoyed this book & was surprised to find I had trouble putting it down [this lead to some very bleary-eyed work days]. Fans of the Blood series should enjoy it, but I strongly recommend reading the first in the series, Smoke & Shadows, as there's very little time spent on filling in the back story and you may find yourself a little lost otherwise. As it was a while since I read the first book, I had to look up some of what had happened to understand some of Tony's references. The other criticism I have is I would have liked to see more of Henry, but then the point of the book was Tony starting to come into his own, and that would have taken away from it. I loved all the dry humor and sarcasm, which at some times was subtly Bristish in flavour. There is just something inherently fun in reading about people who produce a fictional TV series about a vampire detective having to deal with the supernatural in 'reality'. Particularly as they tend to find the supernatural antics unoriginal compared to their fictional TV plots and experiences. I kept turning the page to find out what happened next, with the suspense building as the night wore on. Definitely a solid entry into the series.

While I also enjoyed Smoke and Shadows better, I still enjoyed Smoke and Mirrors. Tony Foster has long been one of my favorite Tanya Huff characters. He's both realistic and a riot to read. There were a few points that I would have liked to have been dealt with further, but I'm guessing (hoping) that there will be a third book in which these things will be further addressed.

And I would personally love to see a crossover book featuring Tony and Henry and my other favorite Tanya Huff cast of characters, the Summon the Keeper gang. Can you even imagine Tony and Diana working together? They would definitely test the patience of Henry and Claire.

Looking forward to more!

I read a large chunk of this book while working on a film set for an indy short, and found myself thinking over and over, "This is my life, but with a bigger budget!" For the first chapter or so, at any rate. For the later chapters, it was less with the spooky on my end.

The book was very well written, which is what we have come to expect of Ms Huff. The sense of humour and well-paced story kept me vastly entertained through several 15-hour days of hurry-up-and-wait. I highly recommend it.

Tony is learning to balance work as a production assistant on Darkest Knight, self-training in wizardry, and his relationship with his ex, vampire Henry Fitzroy. But when the show starts filming in a genuine haunted house, it turns out to be a bit much for a production assistant to handle. When the cast and crew are trapped inside, Tony may be the only one who can stop the malevolent force in the basement from using them all to reenact a century old pattern of murders - if he can get anyone to listen to him.

The second book in the Smoke series has more of everything I liked about Smoke and Mirrors - especially the mix of lighthearted humor and genuinely scary threats. I enjoyed seeing more of Tony's co-workers - an interesting and varied bunch - and of Tony on his own. He's turned into a more solid main character then I would have guessed from the Blood books.

I hadn't watched the Bloodlines shows or read the books, I'm not sure why I bought this book but it took me awhile to finally read it and then I was hooked. I went back to the first book and of course bought the third and am waiting for the rest. I have lent this book to friends and they are now hooked. I first gave it to a good friend who is gay, I told him the main character seemed like someone I would have as a friend, he reminds me of many of my favorite gay friends. He's just a really nice guy, who's a wizard in training. If you like Dresden Files you'll probably love this series. The regular characters win a place in your heart and they get better with each book. This is a haunted house book but not like any other I've ever read. The thought of someone who is a vampire's "friend" working on a CBC production of a Vampire detective show is just funny. I hate people who tell you the story, that's why you read, but if you like the paranormal, are comfortable with gay issues, but this is wonderfully handled, I think you'll love this series. The vampire is a minor character in many ways. I love Tony, the lead character, I bet you will too. As I said, I'm hooked.