Book Reviews and Recommendations part... the next.

Ladies and Gents, I've been in Germany for about 2 weeks, and in that time I've read three books.

Koko Takes A Holiday

On impulse, or, because I'd seen the book sitting on the bottom shelf (so many authors having a last name beginning with S, just happened to be the luck of the alphabet) and, well...  cover art counts for a lot sometimes.

BUT I do love Lori Petty.

Sometimes.

Also, specifically in this case.

The tag at the top of my copy reads: "Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon with a dash of Tank Girl attitude" - Library Journal.  Honestly haven't read or heard of Altered Carbon, but I am a fan of Tank Girl.

(The comic.  Not the movie.)

Strong recommendation?  Check.  Awesome cover?  Check.  Strong Female Protagonist?  THAT'S MY JAM!

Koko is a retired mere running a whore house on the chain of islands known as The Sixty Islands.  Run by a mega-corporation in the 25th century, the Islands cater to every perverse and violent whim of the human soul that money can buy.  In fact, nearly the entire world, after multiple wars, disappearing resources, and massive civil unrest is being retaken by mega-corporations.  When one bad night ends up with a few undesirables dead in her bar, Koko is hunted all over and above the planet by a former comrade in arms.

So, after about a month of mulling it over, I finally gave in to it burrowing into my brain and picked it up to read it in my down time.  Long story short:  It took a few days.  Getting into it was a bit difficult.  While it was definitely an entertaining read, it wasn't something that I felt was hard to put down.  It's an fun concept, the world was built very well, and instead of spending too much time explaining the ins and outs of every little thing, the story jumps into an established setting that you get to know over the course of the book.  Koko is a strong female anti-hero that - unfortunately - falls into the trope of needing a swinging dick to save her right at the end.  (Spoilers).  It was kind of disappointing in that regard.  The decidedly hardcore mercenary makes it through nearly the entire book as a badass, only to be reduced to a cliche right at the end.  Fun book, just not something I'd go out of my way for next time.  However, I am looking forward to reading more from Kieran Shea.  Strong starter for him, serious potential.

The next two are the first two of the Baxter Zevcenko series.

Apocalypse Now Now and Kill Baxter

Dark, brooding, and once again: eye catching covers.

Charlie Human delivers a powerfully funny, action packed, dark ride through a sociopathic newly introduced to a magical underworld (that shits all over Harry Potter in the best way possible) teenager's life as he struggles to manage a porn distribution business with his gang, maintaining the peace with other gangs, finding his girlfriend that got kidnapped by a serial killer, and dealing the duality of his ancient Afrikaner inner self that also happens to be half Crow - sworn to kill the other half of who he is and other fantastical creatures.

Baxter is an unlikeable, abusive, manipulative, dick.  For whatever reason, as a protagonist, he is both flawed and amazing.  Every character in this series has hard, rough edges, are at least somewhat relatable, and, not gonna lie, I was emotionally invested in more than one of them.  The humor is sharp and barbed.  The story is trippy and woven perfectly.  I finished both books in the span of three days (staying up well into the wee hours of the morning to read) because I was compelled to find out what happened next.  If you're looking for some urban magic, this is your next series.  Charlie Human is exactly where he needs to be.

Oh, and I could hear the South African accent the whole time.

All three books (by strange coincidence) are published through Titan Books.

(I may try them next).

Now now (adv.) A common South Africanism relating to the amount of time to elapse before an event occurs.  In the near future; not happening presently but to happen shortly.  -Charlie Human