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The story is straight forward -- not a lot of character development -- the book is too short. Usually those are damning traits. Maybe my expectations have settled down a bit for this series, because I actually enjoyed this second installment of Brigg's Mercy Thompson series.

A few months have passed since the conclusion of the first book. Werewolves are just beginning to come out of hiding, but this book hinges around the vampires of the Tri-City area. Again, Mercy lends a hand and is duly rewarded for her troubles.

Briggs doesn't seem to have a larger arc that spans beyond the "problem--solution" plot contained within individual books, which is a pity. If you enjoyed the first installment, then you will have fun with this one (and you probably didn't need this review to tell you that). If you haven't read the first one, don't start in the middle (though I've never known anyone to purposefully pick up book 2 or 3 in a series to get started).

Throughly fun and definitely recommended!

All in all, the characters were a little to thin -- it would have been nice to delve deeper into the world Gaiman created. Our protagonist, Richard Mayhew, starts of as essentially a mirror of Arthur Dent circa Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide series, but unlike Arthur, Richard evolves to accept and even understand the world he is presented with. I enjoyed his development, even if it didn't dive too deeply. The rest of Gaiman's characters are basically there as a backdrop and to advance the story along. It's been awhile since I read a story that was intended as a single work (lately it has been series of various length). I actually wished there was more -- it was a fascinating world.

There is apparently a BBC mini-series based on this and just added it to my Netflix queue. Hopefully the production and acting isn't too bad.

This is a tough book to review. If you look at the plethora of reviews out there, there is very little middle ground -- people either hate it or love it. I understand both points, so I came down in the middle. This may be a book you have to judge as part of the entire series, rather than an isolated work.

They mythos is well constructed. Demons (and half-demons) exist throughout the world (some good, some bad, and some neutral). There is a group called the Shadowhunters who are like peace keepers and enforcers all rolled into one. Most of the rest of the world goes about their day, not noticing. Clary, with her friend Simon, are dragged into the world and the adventure takes off.

Let's tick off the negatives: Clare has borrowed way too much from a certain epic space opera... Enough to the point that it feels like it taints a lot of the good in the book (even the dialog once it's revealed is painfully similar). Clary and Simon too readily accept this new world. A huge chunk of the back story is told in one rambling monologue chapter, where I felt cheated -- it was too easy and sloppy of a reveal.

I enjoyed it enough to want to read the second. Not very much reaches a conclusion in this first installment, which is understandable considering the trilogy.

Really, if it weren't for the borrowing from said space opera, I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more.

In a post-Twilight world, most books of this genre will be compared to that body of work. I think a better comparison with Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy is P.C. Cast's House of Night series. I can safely say, VA is much better than House of Night, but there are unfortunately still too many similarities for my taste.

The mythos for this world has a very similar "feel" with House of Night -- There are "live" vampires, "dead" vampires, and then a group of "protectors" dedicated to protect the "live" ones. Rose Hathaway is the protector for her "live" vampire friend Lissa, who both attend "high school" for their "special needs". In any case, the mythos is interesting and well constructed, but nothing we haven't seen before. Though it's definitely nice to have a strong female heroine for a change (Cough Bella Cough).

Mead uses an interesting device in that the book starts two years after "things start happening" and slowly reveals what transpired through a sequence of ever revealing flashbacks. This was a good decision (and actually made me think I had come into the middle of a series, rather than the first book), but it makes me wonder what the style of successive books will be. While the characters are more "serious" than their House of Night counterparts, there was still too much "high school drama" to be going on with -- it's one of the things I appreciated from Meyer's Twilight series: a conscious effort to keep the needless high school drama to a minimum.

(And I apologize for the excessive use of quotes in the previous paragraphs. Better not to take these things too seriously.)

I enjoyed the book enough to add the sequel to my to-read list. It's a fast read, so think of it as quick-escape entertainment.

My word of warning: I'm probably far from Tamora Pierce's intended audience for these books set in the Tortall universe. I read the Alanna quartet a long time ago and rather enjoyed them. Pierce has obviously spend a long time researching medieval combat and society and it shows in her writing. I liked the characters from the Alanna quartet, so when I saw Immortals and Protector of the Small series on the shelves focusing on different characters, it didn't entice me enough to pick them up.

First Test starts off 10 years after the Alanna quartet and right after the Immortals quartet. I skipped over Immortals, and was startled to see how much Pierce had evolved her world. I'm going to wait on finishing this series until I get through the four Immortals books.

First Test stars Kel, the first female to wish to train as a knight since it was available. Where Alanna disguised as a boy to complete the training, avoiding the hazing and prejudices that come with it, Kel deals with it head on. The retelling of this journey from pre-page to knight with this twist evokes more sympathy and respect for Kel as a character. She is a little too one-dimensional in this first installment, but I think there is enough room to grow.

The first in this series is terribly short (I was able to easily cruise through it in a few hours) and I feel it short changes a lot of character development. However, the last three in the series are much longer and I have higher hopes for these.

Bottom line, if you read the Alanna quartet and enjoyed it, it's probably worth settling down with Immortals and Protector of the Small.

This is definitely one of those "Your mileage may vary" books. If you can completely suspend disbelief and just go along for an entertaining ride, then you'll probably enjoy this one.

There is no doubt that Brown excels at slowly unraveling a plot thread -- giving the reader only little bits of what is going on and artfully keeping the reader in complete suspense. Unfortunately, knowing Brown's style and character usage tendencies, you can actually guess how the plot unfolds fairly accurately. The Lost Symbol deals with the beliefs and legends surrounding the Freemasons, all centered around Washington, DC., and managing to get the entire plot done in essentially one night. (I would have given this book two stars, but since I lived in DC for a couple of years, it was more fun because I had a real life frame of reference). The "rabbit out of the hat" moment was a bit anticlimactic, and I was left thinking, "Really? All that work for that?"

However, we now come to the main problem: I could not suspend my disbelief enough to really enjoy this book. I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code much more because I was able to accept for the sake of the story the premise Brown was weaving his story around. In the Lost Symbol, he attempts to weave ancient mysticism with cutting edge science which fell extremely flat with me. It's not completely central to the story either, but he dedicates enough pages to it that it hard to just simply glance over.

My only other overall complaint was how formulaic everything seemed. OK we get it, words have multiple meanings, many people assume the worst, and symbols can be looked upside down to reveal something new. I hope Brown steps out of this track next time, because despite the flaws, he is still a very good pulling the thread.

Heads up -- I don't like writing spoiler reviews so I apologize if this review is uncomprehendingly vague. If you are so inclined, checking out other "spoiler" reviews here should give added context.

This book is a 4-star/2-star split, and quite frustrating. 90% of the book is really good. Briggs continues consequences from previous books to setup the plot arc of this installment. This time the fae are explored in more detail and their world appears more terrifying than had been let on in the previous books. I continue to enjoy the characters and the mythos Briggs has built up in this series (there could be numerous interesting tangents spin offs could take if she were so inclined).

However, the last 10% almost, but not quite ruins it for me, and it all comes to play at the end. While she initially deals with the issue in question as well as can be expected, the repercussions of it are downplayed to the point of insensitivity. Unlike treatment other writers might have given it, Briggs obviously intended it to be traumatic, but very unsuccessfully hurried the resolution and wrapped up the book in a way many might find incredibly offensive (which is an odd statement, given the genre of the series).

I'll still read her next book (after reading some much lighter fair in between).