Popular Urban Fantasy Series: A Glimmer of Death and Magic Bites

10 Nov
Cover of A Glimmer of Death: A Merry Gentry Novel by #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Laurell K. Hamilton. Illustration depicts a red lace mask tangled in vines with thorns against a black background. Red petals are falling around it. Quote says, "Hamilton remains one of the most inventive and exciting writers in the paranormal field."-Charlain Harris
Cover of Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author. The First Kate Daniels Novel includes a Prequel Story and Bonus Material. Features a young woman with her brunette hair in a braid wearing a blue sleeveless shirt and a sword strapped to her back. Behind her is the face of a male lion.

A Glimmer of Death
Laurell K. Hamilton
A Glimmer of Death, the latest in the Merry Gentry series, was like catching up with an old friend. The last entry in this spicy urban fantasy series came out all the way back in 2014 so I was eagerly awaiting seeing what Hamilton had in store for her readers. In the previous novel, Meredith nicknamed Merry, a half human fairy princess employed as a detective, had given birth to triplets who were fathered by her fairy lovers (each child has multiple biological dads). The triplets are now toddlers and Merry is settling into happy family life when she gets the request to solve a series of attacks against actresses that seems magic related. Another personal mystery also emerges when a close friend of Merry may have returned but looking very different. Hamilton does a good job at working in recaps about who the various characters are and their relationships earlier on in the novel so if it has been awhile since you read the other books in the series or you are new to it, you won’t be struggling. The storyline deals with instance of violence and sexual assault that may be triggering for some readers, but these are handled as deplorable behaviors and this is not a dark romance, but strongly champions issues of consent. This is the penultimate novel in the series; A Ghost of Daylight, the final novel, is scheduled to come out in Spring of 2027. If you enjoy spice heavy romances and fairy tales with an Urban Fantasy twist then check out this thrilling series.

Magic Bites
by Ilona Andrews
Magic Bites is the first in Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series about an Atlanta mercenary who handles magical problems in a world where technology and magic are at odds and necromancers and shape shifters form factions. Kate must try and solve a series of unusual murders and disappearances, which may lead to the solution to a mystery of Kate’s own. I enjoyed listening to the dramatized audiobook which brings the story to life with a full cast of actors. If you enjoy Magic Bites you can also check out several more novels and novellas in the series. This series should delight urban fantasy fans of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series and Kim Harrison’s Hollow series. It also might be triggering for readers who are sensitive to violence against women so please be advised. You can also read my blog about Andrews latest This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Campfire Short Scares from Stephen King: Riding the Bullet & Stationary Bike

5 Nov

It’s the season of sitting by the fire on dark nights, with the cold flowing around. What lies beyond the darkness, and what could appear in a passing car light. I found companions for these nights: Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet and Stationary Bike audiobooks on Hoopla. Each is 1 hour 30 minutes.

Riding the Bullet

Book cover for Stephen King's "Riding the Bullet," featuring a hitchhiking hand giving a thumbs-up over a dark road, a misty graveyard, and a large full moon.

This was a very solid ghost story, and I genuinely found myself trapped in this horror’s slow burn. In classic King style, we’re brought into the main character’s doubt as he navigates a “what if” situation.

Alan races to a Maine hospital to visit his Mom after a stroke. ‘What if I don’t get to her in time before she dies?’ So the only way to get there is to hitchhike. He meets both the good and the bad, escapes, but with miles still to go, he must get one last ride.  

The ghost does not hide its marks on its neck or its hands, but the car is dark, so Alan can only deduce, but every deduction leads to the realization that this may be his last ride. The ultimatum becomes life or death, but is it for him?

The dread isn’t that Alan is in a car with a ghost, but that the ghost makes him question his morals and humanity. For me, Alan’s debate is about his childhood memories and how they’ve circled back to him through the paranormal encounter.

You can find the audiobook on Hoopla here.

You can reserve the adapted movie in the BCCLS catalog here.

Stationary Bike

Book cover for Stephen King's Stationary Bike. The cover includes an indoor room featuring a dark room with a checkered floor, a dark brick wall, and a black stationary bike facing away. On the wall behind the stationary bike, there is a large framed picture of workers on a path.

It’s a mid-life crisis manipulated to the question of ‘what if I don’t do what the doctor tells me? Will I make it?’

Richard’s cholesterol is sky-high, and in the doctor’s words, inside Richard is a crew of workmen fighting the grime and sludge of fast food he’s putting into his body. They’re angry for what he’s doing to himself. Exercise. Exercise. Exercises.

That’s the medicine, so Richard buys a stationary bike for his basement. Richard paints a rustic country-road mural on the wall to pretend he’s biking through it.

Then, the hallucinations begin. The crew shows up, and they’re angry.

The drive to be better and healthier, mixed with the power of a metaphor, drives the horror of Stationary Bike.

You can find the audiobook on Hoopla here.

Stationary Bike is in Just After Sunset, a collection of King’s short stories, in the BCCLS catalog here.

Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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