Customer Reviews

Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin, Book 1)

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If Urban Fantasy were a poker game, and UF authors were the players, Jennifer Estep would be the one who sat down at a high stakes game full of steely-eyed gamblers, pushed a huge pile of chips into the middle of table and said, "All in." In a genre full of gritty locales and bada** heroines, Estep found a way to up the ante.

Gin Blanco, the heroine of Spider's Bite, is an assassin. She's not a former assassin. She's not an assassin in the service of some higher cause, she has no special dispensation from angels or demons or any other supernatural group that hands out licenses to kill. She's an assassin for hire and she takes real pride in a job well done. Gin does prefer to kill people who deserve it - she does a fair amount of "pro bono" work, as she calls it - but this is one book that doesn't gloss over the fact that even her charitable activities leave bodies on the floor, wives without husbands, children without fathers.

The plot is fast-paced, a real page-turner. As the book opens, Gin is just finishing one job and, once the deed is done, she's immediately sent on another. She prefers a little more prep time, but the contract is worth $5 million and the job doesn't sound too hard: all she has to do is kill a middle aged accountant within a certain time frame. For an assassin of Gin's caliber, nothing could be easier. But just as she's about to pull the trigger, Gin discovers she's been double-crossed: the client who took out the contract on the accountant took out another on Gin herself. The plan was for Gin's death to tie up any loose ends related to the accountant's murder and keep suspicion away from the client. But things don't go as planned. Gin kills the assassin hired to kill her rather than the other way around, and then she goes looking for revenge.

Gin isn't squeamish about killing, but she does have a softer side and she's utterly dedicated to the few people in the world who she really cares about. Saying she'd protect them with her life is putting it mildly. I found Gin surprisingly likable. She's so confident, so at ease with herself, and she throws herself into whatever she does 110%. I was really convinced by her personality, by the mix of deep feeling and heartless violence, and I rooted for her even as the bodies piled up.

The fantasy aspect here has a lot of supernatural species running amok in the world - dwarves, vampires, and giants - but especially elementals. Elementals have magic related to one of the four elements: fire, stone, air, and ice. In some cases, two. Gin is a Stone elemental, and the villain of Spider's Bite is an Air elemental. The magic is pretty thoroughly integrated into the story, but all of the characters behaved like humans. There didn't seem to be any kind species-centric personality traits - no werewolves with pack instinct, no vampires who can't control their bloodlust, etc. This made the magic feel a lot more mundane...which might be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective.

Spider's Bite didn't make me jump up and down with glee, but it's probably the best series-starter I've read in a couple of months, and I'm eager to read the sequel.

Review courtesy of [...]

Gin, aka the Spider, is an elite assassin for hire. As she puts it, she's got the skills, blood doesn't bother her, and the money is good. She does have her own code of ethics that limit her services to the truly deserving (as well as a strict no pets, no kids policy). When her current client double crosses her and kills someone close to her, Gin has a clear conscience in vowing revenge, and enlists the help of the only honest cop in Ashland (a metropolis in an alternate South) who has been hunting Gin ever since she killed his partner.

I loved the thoroughness of the world building in Spider's Bite. Magic is common. Some people are gifted with magical abilities tied to various elements (Stone, Ice, Earth, and Fire) and vampires, dwarves, and giants are part of the population. And I definitely think that the urban fantasy genre was ripe for a good female assassin

It should come as no surprise that Jennifer Estep is a self proclaimed fan of the show Alias. In the opening scene of Spider's Bite, Gin is trying to escape from an insane asylum in a way that is very reminiscent of one of my favorite episodes of Alias. Gin had to be resourceful, patient and quick on her feet. And as an assassin, I liked her immediately. When she wasn't killing people? Not quite as much.

Gin is an extremely aggressive character in every sense of the word. Alpha with a capital `A.' In her professional life, that aggression is vital. She would have died long ago without it. In her personal life? It's a little hard to take.

Normally I prefer at least a little romance in my urban fantasy, but I hate to say that I think Spider's Bite would have fared better without it. That's not to say there actually is any romance in this book, there isn't. But there is a fair amount of sex. I'm all for strong women and all that, but Gin came off as very masculine in her encounters with Detective Donovan. Which in turn made Donovan look like a chick. The way she objectified him, the way her fought his lust for her because of moral reasons...we've seen it before in a hundred other books (and movies) with the roles reversed. It sounds like it would be a fun switch, but I found it off-putting. On a side note this type of switch worked amazingly well in the movie Point of No Return which incidentally also featured a female assassin. So it can work, I just don't think it did here.

What did work was the meta-narrative that was set up for the series. The history of Gin, who killed her family and why. It's clear that Jennifer Estep has an endgame in mind with this series. The next two books in the Elemental Assassin series are scheduled for release in 2010 (Web of Lies in June and Venom in October). I'll be looking forward to them, hopefully Gin will lighten up just a little with her personal life. In her professional life? She already kills.

Sexual Content: References to rape and pedophilia. Several brief but semi graphic sexual fantasies. A scene of sensuality. A sex club with vague references to people having sex in public. A brief ménage a trois. One long, graphic sex scene.

My Rating: 3 out of 5

As a teenager, Gin Blanco lost her family to a brutal attack which left her homeless, friendless, and running scared. All that changed after she met Fletcher, the kind own of a local BBQ joint. Fletcher got Gin back on her feet while wiping away her fear with the knowledge of how to protect herself and those she loves. Years later, she's become a tough assassin, known as the Spider, with a killer record. And if her sharp knives don't do the trick, Gin's ace in the hole happens to be an affinity for stone, making her a rare elemental.

After agreeing to a risky contract which ends up going south, Gin quickly finds herself fighting tooth and nail to protect those she loves while trying to stay alive herself. But the only way she's going to make it out alive in the corrupt and brutal city of Ashland is by aligning herself with by-the-book Detective Donovan Caine. Which can only complicate matters since said easy-on-the-eyes Detective happens to loathe every single aspect of Gin's chosen profession. Figures.

Jennifer Estep has created an intriguing new world in her newest series Elemental Assassins. As a dangerous and corrupt city with dirty cops ready to look the other way, Ashland reminds me of a southern Gotham City with an added bonus of powerful magic. Though equipped with an appealing world-building concept, I struggled to connect to Gin as a character. Even in the face of tragedy, I never really felt that her grief was genuine. Sad to say, her narrative often seemed forced and quite repetitive. I often found myself hearing Gin describe the same types of scenes over and over again. Her enemies were always "sloppy, sloppy, sloppy" and every description of the attractive Detective Caine ended with "Mmm." While I'll give you that a good lookin' man can be mouth watering, I don't need the blatant reminder every time he pops up. Though I did catch a glimmer of chemistry between Gin and Caine, their awkward exchanges tended to leave me surprisingly uncomfortable and a little squeamish more often than not. How unfortunate. Gin's story really had the potential for becoming a honest and hard-hitting UF series but Spider's Bite ultimately failed to deliver on the entertainment front.

On a side note, I am actually totally digging this cover. In a Urban Fantasy market awash of books that have no relation whatsoever to their story, the cover art for Spider's Bite is refreshingly accurate, and really eye-catching.

After her entire family was killed, Gin wandered the streets of Ashland, trying to stay alive, looking for food and dying little by little. In her wanderings, she turned up in an alley behind a restaurant named the Pork Pit. The man who owned the restaurant happened on her, fed her and eventually adopted her - even if it wasn't in name, but in feelings. Fortunately for her life/unfortunately for her lifestyle, her new adopted family was into some very shady dealings. Once the restaurant owner realized that the girl could do elemental magic, he trained her to become one of the most deadliest assassins in town, The Spider. You see in Gin's world there are humans, but there are also, giants, vampires, etc., as well as elementals. The elementals have control over air, fire, water and earth. Their powers can be used for good or used for evil. Gin is a mixture of both - there have been times she has killed for others (pro bono even), but also times she has killed for only money. The main story of the book is a deal gone bad. Gin is hired to take out a guy who was embezzling from his employer, but the entire hit goes awry and Gin is on the run with a cop of all things. To sweeten matters even more, the cop, Detective Donovan Caine, has vowed to catch The Spider and make her/him pay for his partner's death.

I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. From the first to last page, my interest was firmly fixed, and I even read the book as slowly as I possibly could just so I wouldn't have to see the end. While the romance was there between Gin and Donovan, it definitely was not a romance. This is Urban fantasy at it's finest - gritty, realistic and bloody. The author has to be one of the most inventive women to ever pick up a pen, because the world she has created is at once fascinating and terribly compelling. If you haven't ever read an Urban fantasy, make this your first. If you have, I guarantee you will rate this a keeper and at the top of your list. *Applause to Ms. Estep*

This book is a good example of a promise unfulfilled. It started out with a bang (indeed, it reminded me of the TV show Alias, of which the author is apparently a fan). But, a few chapters in, I simply gave up. The world building is decent but not innovative, but most importantly, the main character is two-dimentional and hard to relate to. Now, this is a matter of taste; I'm personally a fan of emotionally complex characters, and Gin left me cold. The sad thing is, she could have been much more interesting. The main problem here is the writing. It's uninspired and in some places, cringeworthy. Another reviewer here commented on how repetitive it gets. She wasn't kidding. For example, I counted Gin saying "I looked at it/him/her with my grey eyes" no less than 5 times in the first few chapters. This is a big problem especially considering the book is written from the first person: people simply don't talk about themselves this way. Add to this phrases like "emotions were for those too weak to turn them off", and you get a good idea of the black and white, cardboard-like rendition of the main character, and most others. There is no life, no spark here; Gin simply isn't likeable, and the tough chick shtick is hammered down readers' throats with a little too much vigor to be palatable. With a keener editor and a subtler touch, the book could have been better. As it is, I couldn't bring myself to care.

As I've mentioned before, I didn't finish the book, and cannot comment on the entire plot. I suppose if you have a lot of time to kill and aren't fussy about the things I described above, you should give the book a shot. However, to those who don't have much time to waste, I recommend looking elsewhere. There are a lot of great paranormal and urban fantasy books out there (off the top of my head, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Seanan McGuire, Richelle Mead, Chloe Neill, Gail Carriger, Lucy Snyder, Jim Butcher, Jeaniene Frost and, for lighter fare, Molly Harper, and this is just a small portion of what's out there). And it seems, there is a new fantasy book released every day. So if you are like me, feel free to give this one a miss.

I'm surprised this book got published with the writing that's going on here. I know some other reviewers mentioned it, but the repetitiveness of the writing is atrocious. Gin uses the same "sloppy, sloppy, sloppy" for every enemy she encounters. She uses "Mmm" everytime she sees Detective Caine. She doesn't look at things with her eyes, she looks with her "grey eyes." Considering this is in first person, people don't go around thinking "Oh I see that with my blue/green/brown/whatever eyes."

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

Furthermore, the author spends a lot of writing reminding the reader of the same things. "Gin hasn't cried in seventeen years." Fletcher drinking chicory coffee, Finn drinking chicory coffee. The firemage killed her family. The redundancy makes the plot seem slow and tedious to follow.

I saw some reviewers disliked Gin's masculine-like sexual inner monologues. At first I actually liked that she was a sexual person and comfortable with that, but it does become more of a parody than a realistic portrayal of a dominant woman who is comfortable with her sexuality. Especially, with the usage of "Mmm" after every one of those scenes.

This is urban fantasy with an over-the-top, tough-as-nails heroine. Gin is an assassin and is inapologetic about it. She is good at it. The money is good. She has her standards -- no kids, no pets. Her mentor and handler who took her in off the streets when she was thirteen is encouraging her to retire -- but there is always one more job. Only this one goes badly wrong. Gin escapes the double-cross and returns to find that her mentor has been brutally killed by an air elemental. She must team with the only honest police detective in Ashland (who wants to bring her to justice for killing his partner) to try to figure out what is going on and get revenge for the death of her mentor.

I liked the character of Gin. I found her backstory interesting and moving. The flashbacks to her childhood and the murder of her mother and sisters illuminate her character. I like the mythology of the elementals and other paranormals in this world. The violent scenes were graphic and the sex scenes were very hot. After all, what would be more likely than being hot for the cop who is trying to bring you to justice for the murder of his partner and for him to be hot for you despite his better judgment.

I found this book extremely frustrating. I so wanted it to be good, and the first chapter had so much promise. But I found the story lacking in authenticity. Bottom line: I wanted Gin to be competent; I wanted her to be professional and awesome. She let me down. For an assassin who is supposed to be the most feared and anonymous assassin in the US, Gin Blanco sure has a lot of people who know who she is, where to find her, and what she does: her handler, her handler's son (who is a notable business person and ladies' man in the community), the people who work in the restaurant, her clean-up crew, other assassins... You'd think if she wanted to be so safe and sound from discovery, she'd be a little more careful to construct a more isolated alterego WHO DOES NOT KILL PEOPLE, or something. I also thought it was odd that she had no better way to get around town undetected than to have her notable business associate hot-wire expensive SUVs. Ooooo-kay? Because the best assassins always travel in the height of luxury, according to their associate's preference. Oh, and they also spend oodles of time undressing men with their eyes during jobs. UGH.

The world building, necessary for all UF series, was lacking compared to other series I've read. I like the idea of elemental magic, but it came off here a bit like the wonky Planeteers (earth, wind, water, fire, and heart, remember?). Stone, Fire, Air, and... Ice? It really was never satisfactorily explained to me why those were the major elements. Maybe I'm the only person who feels this way, but I don't get Ice as a major "element" over water. Water seems more like an element, and ice seems like a facet of the element water. I don't get it. And it *really* bugged me.

I agree with everyone who said that the repetition was grating. I got tired of Gin looking at things with her "grey eyes" and drinking chicory coffee and saying "Mmmmmmmmmmmmm" whenever Donovan Caine was around.

I just wasn't sold on the merits of Gin Blanco, despite Jennifer Esteps best attempts to the contrary. No matter how many times she told me Gin was The Spider, Gin just didn't measure up.

Jennifer Estep has created a new series with a quintessential antiheroine, Gin, an assassin with enough moral ambiguity to make mafia dons proud. Far removed from Estep's lighter fare, Spider's Bite is a dark urban fantasy featuring a very complex character, Gin Blanco, a woman who has suffered unthinkable loss and tragedy and turned herself into a deadly weapon to survive. But don't rally behind her too quickly, because while there are certainly aspects of Gin's character that are sympathetic and even one or two that are endearing, she's unapologetic about her profession. She has lines that she doesn't cross - no killing kids or pets, no torture, that sort of thing - but she's racked up an impressive body count and her assassin tag, The Spider, instills fear into the hearts of those who may end up a victim of her blades.

When a lucrative job goes as bad as it possibly can, Gin is double-crossed, almost killed, marked for death, her handler is brutally tortured and killed, and she's framed for a murder she didn't commit. She goes on the offensive to discover who hired her and why. With the help of her handler's son, Finn, and the one honest cop on the whole of the Ashland police force, she's committed to finding out who is responsible for killing her handler Fletcher and killing the hell out of them right back...or she'll die trying. In the alternate universe Estep's created, Gin lives in Ashland, a strange blend of crime, corruption, and picture-perfect suburbia, populated by humans, vampires, giants, gnomes and others, and Elementals - magic uses who control the elements of Stone, Ice, Fire, and Air. Gin is an Elemental with control over Stone and a lesser ability with Ice, but she eschews her magical talents when it comes to assassinations, preferring to rely on her wit, patience, and blades.

The strongest aspect, and my favorite aspect, of Spider's Bite is the character of Gin. Estep did an impressive job with her character definition and development. I very much appreciated her complexity, depth, and intelligence. She's flawed, damaged, and almost sociopathic, and I was fond of the combination of internal strength, fortitude, and physical aptitude. I liked her friend/associate Finn, as well, and though he wasn't as fleshed out as Gin and he played a careless playboy roll a little too often, I sympathized with him over the loss of his father. The cop, Detective Donovan Caine, was a bit too morally superior and WAY more judgmental and critical for me to warm up to him too much.

While I'm a huge Gin fan, however, I'm not as big a fan of the plot and climax of Spider's Bite. I thought the beginning was weighed down by too much exposition and the middle dragged as the book practically plodded towards a not too surprising (though it tried to be) conclusion. And the plot itself: assassin double-crossed, handler killed, has to find out who did it and fast - wasn't all that compelling or dangerous and felt a bit cliched.

I also had some serious issues with technical aspects of the book. I felt there was way too much repetition, most notably in descriptive passages (if I had to read about Donovan's soapy scent one more time, or Gin's cold, gray eyes/stare, or see anyone else's eyes flash with emotion I was tossing my Kindle out the window). There were far too many awkward and unnecessary analogies used, as well, also as a descriptive tool that fell flat ("Finn's voice dripped with sarcasm like grease off a piece of bacon." "Emotions flashed in his eyes like lightning."). It got to a point where almost everything described was "like" something else. Analogous narrative can be a useful tool, but it was horribly overused here. I also had a problem with a couple of Gin's "hits." I admit, I'm no expert in human biology or pathology, but it felt like it should have taken a lot longer for Gin's targets to die from their wounds (in one case a screw perforating the trachea) than it did in several instances in the book. I'd have preferred either better description of the wounds inflicted or an explanation that a major organ - like the heart - or a major artery (like the brachial artery - thanks Basil!) was hit. Either that or be a little more realistic in length of time between a wound and death. I wish an editor had tightened up all those aspects of the book a bit more, because it got very distracting for me and I struggled at times to stay in the story.

I have to say, though, points to Estep for the wickedly subtle but nifty series cross-over with the mention of Fiona Fine's menswear collection. If you're unfamiliar with the fab Ms. Fine, check out Estep's delightfully campy and fun Bigtime series. Estep's second book in the An Elemental Assassin series will be out on May 25, 2010, and I look forward to continuing the tales of Gin, because regardless of the issues I had, I'm still interested enough to keep going with the series.

Something was missing from this book; nobody seemed to have any real emotions or responses that I could relate to or understand. Spoilers: Gin is so attracted to the cop, but he despises her, insults her every time he talks to her, and looks at her like she's covered in crap. In one look, every time she sees him, she has graphic images of sweaty sex with him, detailed to the point where I just skim the pages until I get to what happens next. Why? I guess it's just that it's all a bit ridiculous that someone wets her pants over some guy she's never even talked to and she knows would kill her if he knew who she was. Part of it is that none of these characters are easy to relate to; their actions and thought patterns don't make much sense in relation to what is happening at that time in the story. The sex parts are soooo cliché, and so unrealistic too. Seriously, she's at the funeral for the closest thing she has to a father/family member/ loved one, the man who saved her from a life on the streets and prostitution, and then decides she'd shove her tongue down the cops throat in a passionate wrestling match kiss to prove to him that he came to see her because she's everything he wants sexually -- really?!?? Her and the cop are hiding in a storage closet while one of the thugs for the deadliest elemental in the city is searching for them, a closet that it took the cop about 2 minutes to find, and they decide to get half naked and do the nasty. It's just really stupid. I'm just assuming this author watches way too many primetime TV action thriller shows. I'm debating if I'll read the next book in this series. The story started off with the potential to be great, then reading it was akin to trying to sprint through knee deep mud, then the ending picked up and it all got really exciting. I'd like to know what happens next, but I just don't know if I can get through it all again.