Monday, March 18, 2013

McGuire, Seanan: Discount Armageddon

Set in the USA where, as elsewhere, there are cryptids, non-human beings such as basilisks, bogeymen, dragon princesses and so on who are hunted by the Covenant, an age-old organisation devoted to wiping them out.   The Price family were renegade members of the Covenant who now try to protect the cryptids while being willing to kill those which endanger human life.   The heroine of the book is Verity who, though fully trained while growing up, has always wanted to be a ballroom dancer and is
now doing this in New York while her family carry on in the Northwest.   To support herself she works in a strip bar as a waitress, the bar being owned by a bogeyman who employs several crypts who can pass as human.   The book tells of a rumour that there is still a live dragon dormant under Manhattan which someone is trying to wake up by sacrificing virgins to it.   Her investigations cross pass with a
young Covenanter who is persuaded to modify the extreme views he has been taught while aiding her in the quest.   The tale moves along at a reasonable pace though the fighting skills that Verity has are a
little hard to accept.  Not bad though I wonder why I bought the book.