Review of An Artificial Night

	An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire 368pp (Paperback) My Rating: 8/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.45/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.35/5

An Artificial Night is the third book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, this year's John W. Campbell Award winner for Best New Writer. The first two books in this urban fantasy series about faerie are Rosemary and Rue and A Local Habitation, respectively. There has been a very short wait in between books, and both the fourth and fifth books are scheduled for publication next year (Late Eclipses in March and The Brightest Fell in September, continuing the trend of beautifully worded titles taken from Shakespeare).

Life is never dull for Toby Daye, a changeling private investigator who does work for the Faerie court. One moment she's capturing Barghests who have taken over the feast hall of one of the Faerie nobility. The next morning her own personal Grim Reaper shows up at her front door, cheerful and eagerly awaiting Toby's imminent death. As if that weren't enough, Toby comes home from breakfast to a frantic call from her friend Stacy who needs her to come look into a situation. Two of Stacy's children disappeared in the middle of the night, and one of her other children will not wake up.

It turns out other children are missing as well, including a human girl. Toby soon learns that this means Blind Michael is stealing children to become animals and riders for his Wild Hunt. With so many taken, including some who are dear to her, Toby cannot do anything other than try to retrieve the children - even if the appearance of death at her door means this does not bode well for her.

---

Each book in the October Daye series is better than the last, and this series has become one of my top three urban fantasies (right after the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews and the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs). The second book was a big improvement over the first one, and this latest installment was slightly better than the second one. The plot was tighter with a wonderfully creepy atmosphere in the realms of Blind Michael. It's dark and there is not a vampire or werewolf to be found - it's all about the fae.

One of the reasons this book seems stronger than the others may be that it's not about solving a mystery - the cause of the disappearing children is discovered early in the story and most of the book was about how to rectify the situation. While I mostly love Toby as a character, I'm afraid I don't actually believe in her as a private investigator. She seems to have issues grasping simple clues in each book, and her ability to solve cases seems to rely more on sheer luck than any actual skill. Perhaps good fortune is part of Toby's changeling heritage that hasn't been revealed yet since she did admit in the beginning of this novel that solving her latest case had nothing to do with her prowess as an investigator (plus, she does seem pretty lucky not to be dead by now as often as she's nearly been so in these three books). When it came to figuring out who took the children, she also didn't do a whole lot of problem solving but instead came to the conclusion by coincidence leading her to the person she needed to talk to. Admittedly, she'd had a rough morning with Mae, her own personal Fetch who looked like her and was just waiting to carry her off after she died, showing up at her door. Yet I can't ignore this or think of it as a special case since she's seemed equally dense at figuring out clues in the previous books.

In spite of the fact that I am hoping there is an explanation for Toby's less than stellar investigative skills, I do enjoy reading about her. She's funny with a rather amusing way of phrasing her narration, and she's certainly not all powerful. Her tough but vulnerable attitude and willingness to dive into danger reminds me a lot of other urban fantasy heroines, but her voice in the second book went a long way toward making me like her. However, I did find myself thinking Toby's voice was not as strong or full of personality in this installment as the previous one. After some thought, I don't think that there was a big difference between the second and third book narration, but Toby's voice no longer seemed as "Toby." The last book I read by Seanan McGuire was Feed, a novel she wrote as Mira Grant, and I found myself thinking at times that Toby's narrative style sounded very much like George, the narrator in Feed.

Most of the characters other than Toby are also very enjoyable to read about, both new and old. Luna's past is explored, and it was fun to learn more about her origins. The rose goblin Spike was fleshed out a little more and even though he can't speak to Toby, he has his own personality and endearing ways. Tybalt remains my favorite and even though there wasn't as much of him in this novel as the second one, the parts that were here were very good. Part of his allure is just how mysterious he is so I don't really mind if that is dragged out a little, especially considering we did get some setup hinting there may be more about him soon. There were also several references to Toby's mother that made me quite curious about where that may be going. This part of the series is handled very well - even though each book stands on its own with a definite conclusion there are some tantalizing bits to anticipate in future installments.

My personal preference for fae is the darker the better, and I am beginning to wonder just how dark these fae are. Although there are certainly some who are on the creepy side such as this book's villain Blind Michael, many of them seem to genuinely care about others. There are times they look out for themselves or do good if it benefits them, but I am beginning to wonder if some of the fae are further on the Tinkerbell side of the faery goodness spectrum than I'd initially thought. Since all the important characters are at least partially fae, the average reader may not be able to sympathize with them if they seemed too inhuman, though. It's a difficult balance to maintain, and there is at least still plenty of blurriness when it comes to motive for many of them.

Although I do have one major issue with the series so far - the main character's incompetence at her job - An Artificial Night is an entertaining read that kept me turning the pages. It's dark and eerie with some delightful characters I'm looking forward to reading more about.

My Rating: 8/10

Where I got my reading copy: ARC from the publisher.

Reviews of other books in this series:

• Rosemary and Rue
• A Local Habitation

Other Reviews of An Artificial Night:

• Dreams and Speculation
• Lurv a la Mode
• The Book Smugglers

Review of Feed

	Feed by Mira Grant 608pp (Paperback) My Rating: 7/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.29/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.24/5

Feed is the first book in the Newsflesh trilogy about the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse and will be followed by Deadline and Blackout. The series is by Mira Grant, another name for urban fantasy author Seanan McGuire. Normally I do not go near zombie stories, being very squeamish about blood, gore and descriptions of eating brains. However, I made an exception in this case for several reasons - and was glad I gave it a chance.

In the year 2014, a cure is developed for both cancer and colds. Unfortunately, this is not as idyllic as it sounds since there is a major disadvantage to these cures: they form the Kellis-Amberlee virus which, in turn, creates zombies. All of humanity has technically been infected with this virus, although it remains inactive for a time. Usually, people do not become zombies until their death results in resurrection as undead or they come into contact with the virus in its live state.

As one may imagine, the world has greatly changed as a result. Going outdoors or gathering in large crowds is no longer safe, and anytime a person is about to enter into contact with others they must undergo tests to make sure the virus is not alive, sometimes multiple times in a short period. One of the big changes is that the traditional media has been replaced by bloggers, who were instrumental in saving lives when the outbreak first occurred. They had no agenda other than ensuring survival and were allowed to freely state what they saw and learned. Many lives were saved due to their efforts and each one had a special place on the Wall, a collection of final blog entries to honor those who died in pursuit of truth.

Georgia ("George") Mason is part of a blogging team, along with her brother Shaun and their friend Buffy (who renamed herself instead of being just another "Georgette" in honor of George Romero). George is a "Newsie," the type of writer who strives to present an unbiased, factual viewpoint. As an "Irwin," Shaun is likely to end up getting himself killed since he makes the news by entering danger zones and getting up-close and personal footage of the zombies. Buffy writes fiction, but she's also a genius when it comes to technology. Together, they will soon make blogging history when they are chosen to cover the presidential campaign for Senator Peter Ryman, one of the front-runners for the Republican candidate. However, they discover an even bigger story after a couple of zombie outbreaks and George begins to suspect foul play.

---

Even though I occasionally experiment with horror, it's not my genre of choice, especially if it's the gory type that has body parts strewn everywhere. So I don't go near books that proclaim "ZOMBIES INSIDE" and almost overlooked this one when a copy showed up in my mailbox. Then I noticed that Mira Grant was the same as Seanan McGuire, whose October Daye series has become a must-read for me. That made me curious enough to read the opening paragraph, which had the same light, humorous narration as the author's other books:

Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot -- in this case, my brother Shaun -- deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens. As if we didn't already know what happens when you mess with a zombie: The zombie turns around and bites you, and you become the thing you poked. This isn't a surprise. It hasn't been a surprise for more than twenty years, and if you want to get technical, it wasn't a surprise then. [pp. 5]

After this, I was considering trying it, but I moved it to definite when Seanan McGuire left a comment saying it was more political science fiction than horror. After reading it, I'd definitely agree - it's not scary or full of graphic descriptions of blood spurting everywhere. Although there are jokes made about brains getting eaten, I was thankful there were no actual occurrences of this nature. As far as being grossed out goes, it was fairly mild - there was nothing that was described in such detail that it turned my stomach and I've read plenty of fantasy books containing parts that were far more disgusting than anything in this book.

That's not to say there is no sense of danger or excitement. Although it is about bloggers covering a political campaign, it is set in a world in which field reporting is not a safe profession. The very first scene in the novel has George and Shaun being chased by zombies, and this isn't the only such event - but fortunately the book is about much more than that. It's part adventure and part political thriller, but it's also an examination of what the world might be like 26 years after a cataclysmic change. It's also about the value of truth. Throughout the text are several entries from different blogs, many of which are both thoughtful and emotionally powerful reflections on the media and the world.

Although the details of how the world has changed since the Kellis-Amberlee virus was unleashed were very interesting, there was too much explanation about the world at times. This was definitely a fascinating take on the zombie apocalypse, and I much preferred reading about what it meant for the world than constant attacks by the undead. However, sometimes description about how different life has been since the zombies went on for long paragraphs and interrupted the momentum of the narrative, which was all from George's point of view.

The ending was amazing - it was a very unusual, gutsy conclusion but strongly moving. It elevated my opinion of the book quite a bit.

While reading, I did feel like the main political candidates were too extreme. The Senator George and her team were reporting for seemed too good to be true - an honest, well-meaning man. His opponents were a woman who boosted her place in the polls by wearing little clothing and low-cut tops and a religious fanatic who thought the virus was God's punishment on the world. Not a single one of them seemed like a well-balanced individual characterized by various good and bad traits, but seemed to fall into categories that were each on one extreme or the other: the good guy, the floozy and the crazy, hateful one.

Even though I usually would treat a zombie book like zombies themselves and run the other way, I'm glad I read this one. It contains the undead and has some tense chases involving them, but the focus is more on the political campaign, conspiracies, issues with news and media and a look at a world that has had to adapt to survive. It's not too heavy since there is a sense of humor that runs through the main character's voice, although sometimes this narrative does get bogged down by long descriptions of every little detail of the way life is after the zombie apocalypse.

My Rating: 7/10

Where I got my reading copy: Review copy from the publisher (they sent me both the ARC and the final copy and this review is based on the final published version).

Other reviews:

• Dreams and Speculation
• Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
  
• Jawas Read Too!
• The Book Smugglers

The Leaning Pile of Books

This week I am hoping to get up a review of Feed by Mira Grant, which is about halfway written. After that there is only one book left to review, Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I might get caught up over this next week.

This week I received one book in the mail that I am very excited about reading.

An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire

The third book in the October Daye series will be released on September 7. The second book was released earlier this year, and I really enjoyed it so I'm looking forward to reading this one. Rosemary and Rue was good, and A Local Habitation was even better so I'm eager to see if this one continues the trend (although I'll be pretty happy if I just like it as much as A Local Habitation). Faery, a tough but not even close to all-powerful heroine and Tybalt King of Cats... I may have to read this one before September.

Experience the thrill of the hunt in the third October Daye urban fantasy novel.

October "Toby" Daye is a changeling-half human and half fae-and the only one who has earned knighthood. Now she must take on a nightmarish new challenge. Someone is stealing the children of the fae as well as mortal children, and all signs point to Blind Michael. Toby has no choice but to track the villain down-even when there are only three magical roads by which to reach Blind Michael's realm, home of the Wild Hunt-and no road may be taken more than once. If Toby cannot escape with the children, she will fall prey to the Wild Hunt and Blind Michael's inescapable power.

Review of A Local Habitation

	A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire 400pp (Paperback) My Rating: 8/10 Amazon Rating: 5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.5/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.17/5

A Local Habitation is the second book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. The first book in this urban fantasy series is Rosemary and Rue, and I would definitely recommend beginning with that novel since it tells a lot about the different characters and the world. Even though A Local Habitation just came out earlier this month, the third book, An Artificial Night, will be released in September 2010.

The morning after a drunken girls' night out, Toby receives a visit from her liege lord, Sylvester Torquill. Sylvester is worried about his niece January since he hasn't heard from her in three weeks when she normally calls weekly, but due to area politics, he cannot visit her in Tamed Lightning without raising the suspicions of those nearby. Since January is his only living relative other than his daughter, Sylvester would like to make sure she is ok. So he requests that Toby go visit her for 2 or 3 days to check up on her while bringing his page Quentin along for the educational experience. Although she's not ecstatic at the thought of playing baby-sitter, Toby cannot refuse her liege lord and sets out to Tamed Lightning.

Toby and Quentin arrive at January's computer software company where they meet several of her employees and get a snack before they get to talk to January herself. At first January does not trust that her uncle actually sent them, but once she smells Toby's magic, she is convinced they did indeed come from Sylvester. January insists that nothing is wrong, but she seems very nervous and Toby gets the feeling she is lying and something is not right with the place. The next morning when she and Quentin return to January's office, she discovers her instincts were right - one of January's employees was just murdered and this is not the first time this has happened.

---

While the previous book was enjoyable, this new installment was a big improvement. Although I was eager for more by the end of the first novel, Rosemary and Rue did take a little while to get going and immerse me in the story, but this one had me hooked right from the start (it probably did not hurt that the first chapter had a lot of Tybalt, who is my favorite character). The pacing was much better since there was not a dull moment from the beginning to the end. Although there were still quite a few infodumps like the first book, they were also spread out better and they also contained enough humor that reading them was not tedious.

The books in this series are told from the first person perspective of Toby, and her narrative voice seemed much stronger in this book. Her comments had a lot of personality and wry humor - she seemed a lot more alive and likable. Although she was still tough at times, the softer side of her that was sometimes apparent in the first book seemed more at the forefront and she seemed more confident, more like she fit into the fae world even though she's trying to keep one foot in the human world in which she chooses to live. It wasn't hard to see that she really cared about many of the other characters. Even though she initially complained about feeling like a baby-sitter to Quentin, she got over it pretty quickly since she liked the kid and had fun with him and they (mostly) got along very well.

Very little of this novel takes place in San Francisco as most of it happens in Faerie. This was great since the world of Faerie is a wonderful place to visit and contains many different types of fae - Daoine Sidhe, Cait Sidhe, Kitsune, and a dryad living inside an information tree in a computer to name a few. Toby is half Daoine Sidhe, half human and cannot do much magic at a time without wearing herself out, although she does have very powerful blood magic due to her mother. She's not magical enough to be good in an offensive battle, but she does have a few handy tricks up her sleeve and finding out more about what she could do was interesting.

There were several new characters introduced since it mostly took place at January's computer software company, but there were some old favorites as well. Sylvester was occasionally present, and Quentin and Connor were both major characters. Fortunately, Tybalt was also there quite a bit - he and Toby are so fun together, especially early on when Toby was drunk. At the end of the first book, he was my favorite character and by the end of this one, I loved him even more.

Although there are some great humorous moments, there is also plenty of tragedy. This novel can be on the darker side - Toby is not perfect and not everything always works out for the best. If something does go wrong, it's not all magically fixed at the end like some books. Personally, I love this about them but those who like their perfect happy endings may want to look elsewhere for reading material.

My main complaint is that as much as I liked Toby, there were some times I couldn't believe how stupid she was being. It would be a spoiler to explain that in detail, but basically she had a lot of clues that something wasn't quite right and you would have expected her to figure it out a bit earlier with the observations she made.

Overall, A Local Habitation is a lot of fun to read and is an even better novel than the first book in the October Daye series. It had great pacing, plenty of both dark and humorous moments, an intriguing look at Faerie and some memorable, three-dimensional characters (if a bit slow-on-the-uptake on occasion). After reading this one, I am very glad the next book is due this fall because I'm very invested in this series now.

My Rating: 8/10

Where I got my reading copy: I received an ARC (thus the lack of quotes - I was about to quote some of the drunk conversation between Toby and Tybalt but then realized I'd better not since you're not supposed to quote from an ARC without checking against the final copy).

Reviews of other books in this series:

• Rosemary and Rue

The Leaning Pile of Books

I thought I was going to have a week without one of these posts but then yesterday I found one ARC in my mailbox.

Feed by Mira Grant

This is the first book in the Newsflesh series (also known to me as the "RSS Zombie" book, as my husband started calling it). According to Orbit's website, it will be released in May, but I noticed Amazon says it will be available on April 27. In spite of the fact that I normally avoid zombie books like - well, kind of like I would the actual zombie apocalypse - I am considering reading this one. For one thing, Mira Grant is another name for Seanan McGuire and I did really enjoy her novel Rosemary and Rue. Secondly, I read the first paragraph and am actually rather curious about it now.

The Leaning Pile of Books

This week I received one early Christmas present and one ARC. I was excited about both of them, but especially the early Christmas present.

The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

I have wanted to read this book for a long time but have never gotten it since it was out of print. So I was very thrilled when my husband found me a signed hardcover copy and gave it to me as an early Christmas present. It's a science fiction story based on Hans Christian Andersen's "Snow Queen." I love fairy tale retellings, and I'm especially curious about combining one with science fiction (until I read the inside cover, I always assumed it was fantasy because of the fairy tale association). This one may have to be read soon after the holiday craziness is over.

A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire

The second book in the October Daye series will be released on March 2, 2010. Once it got going, I had fun with Rosemary and Rue (review), the first book, and found I'd become attached to the characters enough to really want to know more about them in the next book. I was very happy to see Tybalt was mentioned early in this one since he was my favorite from the previous book.

Review of Rosemary and Rue

	Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire 368pp (Paperback) My Rating: 7/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.7/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.69/5

Rosemary and Rue is the first book in the October Daye urban fantasy series by Seanan McGuire. It is scheduled for release on September 1, although I did see several copies both in the new paperback section and in the SFF section at my local Borders yesterday. According to McGuire's FAQs page, the number of books in the series is uncertain, although she says "several" is a safe answer and currently has plans for at least eight books (two of which are done, one which is being revised, and one which is being written). The second and third books are entitled A Local Habitation and An Artificial Night and will be released on March 2, 2010 and September 2010, respectively. All the titles are taken from Shakespeare plays, which I thought was very cool (being the dork that I am).

October (Toby) Daye is a half-fae PI specializing in cases that tend more toward the Brothers Grimm than Magnum PI, in her own words. Unknown to her human fiance and little girl, Toby is looking for the missing wife and daughter of Duke Sylvester Torquill, her liege lord. While tracking her lead suspect, Toby is discovered by him and turned into a fish. She remains a fish for fourteen years and returns to a world much changed - and a former fiance and daughter who no longer want anything to do with her.

No longer a PI, Toby now works at a Safeway in her home city of San Francisco. It's a quiet existence and she tries to avoid most of the people she knew, including Duke Torquill, who must despise her for failing to find his family all those years ago. One day Toby checks her answering machine messages and has three desperate calls from Countess Evening Winterrose, each more desperate than the last. In the final message, Evening says she wishes to hire Toby to find a murderer and says the words of binding to force her to do so. Afterward, Evening leaves the phone off the hook and Toby hears gunshots and screaming, and knows it is Evening's own killer she has been charged to find.

---

At first, I did find Rosemary and Rue a little difficult to get into, although there were enough interesting parts to keep me reading until it did pick up. It did get very enjoyable once the main mystery became clear, but until that point there had been a lot of setup with not much happening once the prologue, which told what had happened to Toby fourteen years earlier, was over. There was a lot about Toby's new everyday life with a lot of exposition about the world she inhabited that halted the narrative flow. The story was all told from Toby's perspective, so every time she thought about somebody or experienced something normal for fae but strange to the reader, she'd explain it. This technique is often used, especially in the first book in a series when the ways in which the world operates is being conveyed, but I always find it a bit awkward when the main character starts explaining something to themselves that is as natural to them as breathing. Further into the book there was less of this, and I found it a lot easier to read once there was more flow to the story and less halting to explain who people were and their role in court or how Fae magic worked.

Even though it was a fun read, this novel did not strike me as anything that unusual for the urban fantasy genre - it was basically a mystery involving fae with a brave female heroine who could be kind of mouthy. In spite of her outward appearance, there were some moments that showed she was more caring than she acted and was not always good at expressing her softer side. Those parts seemed rather typical, but Toby's position as a changeling gave her some uniqueness. Since she is not clearly compartmentalized as a witch, were, or fae, she has a bit of a dual nature and isn't quite sure where she fits in. Toby is not fully human nor is she fully fae so by being part of both worlds she really seems to feel that she belongs to neither. Since she was not a pureblood fae, Toby was not even close to invincible or even that powerful. She had only minor magical powers and using them tired her out pretty quickly. Our heroine actually got hurt quite a bit instead of always managing to come away unscathed.

This book was plenty dark with murder most foul and kelpies on the streetcorners, but even though many of the fae were not particularly good, many of them did not seem particularly amoral (which is how I tend to think of the fae). Some of them could not be trusted, but some of them seemed to truly care for Toby without having an ulterior motives or expecting anything in return. The fae seemed somewhat human in that regard with some tending more toward good and others more toward evil.

There was one character I absolutely loved by the time I was finished with the book - Tybalt, King of the Court of Cats. I really liked what I read about him and suspect there is a lot to him that has yet to be revealed. Fortunately, when I said I hoped there would be more of him in the next books on Twitter, Seanan McGuire responded and said there would be. (I confess that I am partial to kitties and also loved the cat-like rose goblins and the fae connection to cats in this book.)

Though this is the first book in a series, there was a satisfying conclusion without any major cliffhangers. However, there were definite hints of things to come that made me eager to read the next book (especially after hearing confirmation that there would definitely be more Tybalt).

Rosemary and Rue was a solidly entertaining debut novel, although it did not get me involved in the story immediately. However, I liked the characters and world well enough that I reached the end wishing I had the next book available.

7/10

Read an Excerpt

Other Reviews:

• Lurv a la Mode

Goodreads Giveaway: Rosemary and Rue

Goodreads features book giveaways and right now they have one for 3 ARCs of Seanan McGuire's debut, Rosemary and Rue (just scroll down or search the page for the title). Currently, I'm working on a review of this novel and was going to mention the giveaway in the review, but I just checked the end date of the contest for it and it's August 21. Since that's this Friday and I've still got some work to do on the review, I figured I'd better mention it now.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel. It's an urban fantasy and it didn't strike me as anything that unusual for the genre. It was fun to read, though, and I am eager to read the next book, particularly since it did have one character I LOVED and really want to read more about. For an ARC, it was also fairly free of errors (I noticed some minor ones but nothing too glaring) so if you hesitate to read ARCs for that reason, I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you want to know more about it while I'm still working on my own review, there are plenty of reviews for it on Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Amazon.

What Happens in Vegas: Seanan McGuire

As you may have seen yesterday if you read "The Education of Edward Cullen," I asked a few people to write about the following topic this week since I am getting married in Las Vegas:

What Happens in Vegas...
Pick one of your favorite characters (or a group of your favorite characters). Describe what kind of trouble they would get into if they spent one week in Las Vegas.

I asked Seanan McGuire, author of a new urban fantasy coming out in September, Rosemary and Rue (which I'll be reading and reviewing sometime in the not-to-distant future), if she'd like to write a piece about a favorite character of maybe one of her own creation. She agreed, and I was thrilled when she sent me this story about Velveteen from her superhero universe of short stories (several of which are available online).


Velveteen vs. Vegas

Velveteen—aka “Velma Martinez,” “The Super Patriots, Inc.’s Most Wanted Deserter,” and, when she was feeling particularly snarly, “The Bride of Chucky”—looked dubiously at the animatronic pirates in front of the casino she was supposedly meeting her contact in. The pirates continued in their sanitized piratical ways, which consisted mainly of hoisting empty tankards and plundering the ships of their fellow buccaneers.

“Fucked-up times five thousand,” she finally declared, opened the casino door, and went inside.

Stepping into the Jolly Roger Casino was something like stepping into the hybrid offspring of a Renaissance Faire and a strip club, only with more slot machines and less class. Busty barmaids wearing slutty pirate costumes that were probably purchased at a Halloween store clearance sale worked the crowd, distributing complementary cocktails to the high rollers and snubbing the tourists at the nickel slots. Velma froze in the doorway, realizing that, for once in her life, her formal “work attire” wouldn’t have stood out even in a “mundane world” locale. It was almost as disorienting as the casino’s carefully-controlled twilight.

Then a hand was at her elbow, and a redheaded woman with a sunny smile and an outfit that consisted almost entirely of sequins was tugging her gently out of the flow of traffic. “Vel?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Velma yanked her arm free, eyeing the woman. “You are?”

“Showgirl,” said the woman, in a tone that clearly denoted it as a name, rather than a job position. “They sent me to watch for you. Will you come with me? Fortunate Son would really like to meet you before…well, before things go any further.”

Velma briefly considered asking for the woman’s credentials, but dismissed the idea as unnecessary. Given the number of stuffed pirates and cuddly plush pirate ships scattered around the room, she could re-enact the siege of the Spanish Main if she had to.

“Great,” she said. “Let’s go.”

---

The population of super-powered humans in the United States has been rising steadily since the “Big Three” first made their appearance. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these “superhumans” have often chosen to settle in large metro areas, where their unusual tendencies are more easily overlooked. New York, San Francisco, Detroit, and Toronto sport some of the most dense superhuman communities in North America.

And then there is Las Vegas. A city where the flashier, more exotic superhumans tend to make their homes, from the glitter and flash of Vaudeville to the elegant probability-manipulations of Dame Fortuna. They are often ignored in favor of the mundane glories of the Strip, which is, after all unique. We all have heroes at home, but how many of us can say the same of Cesar’s Palace? In Las Vegas, the superhuman community can relax, knowing that they will never be the headline attraction. They like it that way.

Interestingly enough, the high density of probability-manipulators in Vegas—at least eight at last count, including Dame Fortuna, her daughter, the lovely Lady Luck, and Lady Luck’s husband, Fortunate Son—has resulted in The Super Patriots, Inc. having rather serious trouble establishing a true foothold in the area. Oh, nothing has ever been proven, but after losing eight branch offices to freak accidents (including the historically ridiculous Guinea Pig Stampede), they’ve stopped trying. The heroes of Las Vegas live untroubled by corporate regulations.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t aware of what’s going on elsewhere in the superhuman community…

---

Fortunate Son stood barely over six feet, with desert-sand hair and eyes the blue of ten-dollar poker chips. He leaned against the side of a pool table as Showgirl led Velma into the casino’s back room, his eyes raking Vel up and down and making her wish she’d thought to wear the lead-lined underwear. His power profile didn’t say anything about X-ray vision, but with the Vegas heroes, you never knew.

“I expected something fluffier,” he said, after an uncomfortably long silence.

Vel bristled. “I expected something taller.”

Showgirl looked alarmed. To Fortunate Son’s credit, he just laughed, shaking his head. “Girl, you are a piece of work. You know you’re in the temple of fortunes, don’t you? We could trash your world with a snap of our fingers.”

“Uh, hello, have we met? I’m as close as a hero comes to excommunicated. If The Super Patriots catch me outside Oregon, I’m under arrest, the Governor of Oregon gave me back my heroing license for reasons I still don’t quite understand, and my parents just sold their life story to the Pow Network for six figures, while I’m counting quarters for a trip to Starbucks. How are you going to trash my world? Give me bad hair? I have conditioner.”

“How did you even get here?” asked Showgirl.

“The Princess dropped me off at the edge of town.” Velveteen didn’t have to feign her shudder. “Flying carpet rides from Portland to Las Vegas are so very not fun. But I’ll still call her for my ride home. It’s better than the alternative.” She turned her attention back to Fortunate Son. “So what was so urgent that you had to call me out of my home territory, and why do I care?”

“You must care, or you wouldn’t have come,” he noted reasonably. “As for what’s so important…we’ve got us a leprechaun infestation.”

“Those don’t exist.”

“They do if Lucky Charms is back in town.”

Vel groaned. “I thought he was dead.”

“Guess he had one more four-leafed clover to deploy. Anyway, they’ve infiltrated the casino, and things are going wrong a heck of a lot faster than Mama likes. They’re about the size of our mascots, so we figure they’re playing dolly, and—”

“You want me to call the toys and see what doesn’t respond.” Velveteen crossed her arms, eyeing him skeptically. “Why am I going to do you this favor?”

“Because there weren’t three original heroes,” said a voice behind her. It was one of those impossible old-style movie star voices, the kind that promised sin and salvation at the same time. Vel turned to see an elegant Rita Hayworth-clone blonde woman in a floor-length green satin sheath dress gliding up to the group, a small smile painting her cupid’s-bow lips. “There were four, darling, and I’m the one that got left off the books when they decided to go public.”

Velveteen’s mouth went dry. “You mean you—”

“All the dirt, darling, all the petty little back-room deals and nasty little lies, I’ve got it all on paper. You want to find Jolly Roger? This is where you start looking. All you need to do is one tiny little service for the heroes of Vegas, and our files are yours.”

If she could find Jolly Roger—last of the Big Three, the only one whose death had never been confirmed—she could give Marketing something to worry about beyond the activities of one middle-grade animator who’d decided she wanted out. The Super Patriots, Inc. would leave her alone forever after that.

“Right.” Vel sighed. “What do you want me to do?”

---

There were approximately two thousand, seven hundred, and eight toys of one description or another within the confines of the Jolly Roger Casino. Velveteen stood in the middle of the main casino floor with her eyes closed and her hands raised in front of her chest, concentrating. After a while, she started to shake slightly, and toys all over the building started to get up of their own accord, running to reach her.

There were exactly nine hundred and two leprechauns within the confines of the Jolly Roger Casino. Video tapes of their epic battle against the plush pirates, random Beanie Babies, and “I Love Las Vegas” teddy bears can be purchased at the casino gift shop for twenty-five ninety-five. Attempts to pirate this recording onto YouTube have met with a series of inexplicable failures, some of which resulted in melted computer monitors.

In the end, separating the combatants proved surprisingly easy. Leprechauns bleed. Plush pirates don’t. Which is why leprechauns make for a much more satisfying, if PG-13, version of Whack-A-Mole.

---

The Princess brought her carpet in for a careful landing on the roof of the Jolly Roger Casino, knocking her tiara askew and frightening off a large flock of pigeons. Velveteen waved before hoisting the first of the stack of file boxes and carrying it over to load onto the carpet.

“Do I want to know?”

“They’re pirates.” Vel shrugged, dropping the box and going back for the next. “I plundered.”

“You plundered what, the admin office?”

“Pretty much. Hopefully, it was worth it.”

“Well, what do you think?”

Velveteen paused, remembering the malice that had sparkled in Dame Fortuna’s eyes when she talked about The Super Patriots, Inc., and the way that she’d laughed when the toys tore the casino floor apart. “I think it was,” she said, finally. “Now let’s go home.”

“Mind if we stop for pizza on the way?”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Wanna bet?”

---

Thanks Seanan! Where can I meet up with Velveteen while I'm there? She sounds like fun! I'm going to have to read the rest of the Vel stories now, especially since I saw there is one entitled Velveteen vs. the Coffee Freaks - I'm very curious about that one being a bit of an addict coffee freak myself.