Please welcome today, Caitlin Kittredge. Caitlin is the author of two popular urban fantasy series: BLACK LONDON and NOCTURNE CITY and the co-author with Jackie Kessler of the ICARUS PROJECT. She will be stopping by throughout the day to respond to fan questions and comments and to give away a copy of Street Magic and Demon Bound. So, please make sure to thank her for stopping by and let her know which novel you prefer to receive.
SB Frank: Caitlin, you are a self-confessed rocker, but I note on your website at your website that you also play the violin. When did you start playing? How often you play now? And with whom? And what type of music, groups, concerts, you enj... Read More
Caitlin Kittredge is no stranger to dark fantasy and magic. She’s probably best known for her BLACK LONDON series, gritty urban fantasy that follows the adventures of a woman police detective in that magical city. She also has a series called NOCTURNE CITY, some YA (The Iron Thorn is Lovecraft-tinged steampunk fantasy) and Coffin Hill, a comic book for Vertigo. The HELLHOUND CHRONICLES series is her latest, set in the American Midwest, and following the adventures of Ava, a hellhound, and Leo, who is a Reaper.
Kittredge manages to keep busy, but she took some time to answer a few questions for us. Marion interviewed her about her latest projects, regional magic, hellhounds, and the difference between pros... Read More
Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge
Inspector Pete Caldecott is baffled. A rash of child abductions has swept London and all of her leads are turning up bad. The good news is that the lost kids are turning up alive; the bad news is they’re… changed — blinded and usually raving mad by the time the police turn them up.
Pete is almost ready to throw in the towel when a blast from the past suddenly crosses her path. Jack Winter, her sister’s boyfriend from almost a decade ago, shows up and tells her where to find one of her missing children. Even though the child is damaged when she does find her, Jack’s tip turned out to be spot on and Pete wants to know more. Jack however, is not cooperative. Not only does he hold the past history between Pete and himself against her, but he dabbles in black magic, and soon Pete finds herself immersed in evil and a world she didn’t even know existed right in the heart of London.
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Demon Bound by Caitlin Kittredge
Demon Bound is the second book in Caitlin Kittredge’s Black London series. Kittredge fans will be happy to know that she has once again spun a fascinating yarn that is loaded with creative nuances and twists. Her dark imagination is a breath of dank, moldering, fetid air exhaled by something creeping out of the haunted crypt she calls a brain. She has a knack for unfolding compelling stories without too much backfill (backfill is something I personally find annoying). And I especially love the magic system and the world of London’s “Black.” But as much as I want to give Demon Bound a glowing recommendation, my enjoyment was limited by the fact that I personally found it very hard to sympathize with the male co-protagonist, Jack Winter.
Jack is the co-protagon... Read More
The Curse of Four by Caitlin Kittredge
The Curse of Four was my first introduction to Caitlin Kittredge’s Black London series. Most of the work in this series is novel-length but the Curse of Four, offered by Subterranean Press, is a novella. Based on this story, I definitely want to read the longer books.
The Curse of Four features a strange and attractive cover. I am a slow study, so I stared at the misty, gray-and-golden images of crows on headstones for a minute before I realized it was a T-shirt design on the torso of a standing man, his face in shadow, his hair Billy-Idol bright. This is Jack Winter, cleaned-up junkie, front man for a legendary punk rock band, psychic, and wizard.
Kittredge employs an interesting point of view in The Curse of Four. Most of it is Jack’s, ... Read More
Coffin Hill (Vol. 1): Forest of the Night by Caitlin Kittredge and Inaki Misanda
Coffin Hill is a great new horror comic that is worth checking out in this first trade collection. It is part of the new wave of titles being put out by Vertigo, DC's line of mature comics for adult readers. I tried reading Caitlin Kittredge's Coffin Hill when it came out on a monthly basis, but it didn't hold my interest, so, after two issues, I decided to wait until it was published as a trade. Many good modern comics read better as trades than they do as monthlies. Even Brubaker's brilliant Lovecraftian-noir comic Fatale, except for a few i... Read More
Black Dog by Caitlin Kittredge
Wow. Please fasten your seat belts and do not attempt to stand up until the book has come to a full and complete stop, because you are about to embark on the fast-paced, twisty-curvy, snarky-poignant thrill ride of Caitlin Kittredge’s Black Dog, Book One in THE HELLHOUND CHRONICLES.
Ava is a hellhound, indentured to a reaper, a demon who makes deals for people’s souls. When the time is right, Gary (yes, her reaper’s name is Gary) sends Ava to collect. While she can do this in human form, Ava can change to a hellish canine if necessary — and often does.
Ava is little more than a slave, and in the rigid hierarchy of hell, hellhounds are near the bottom. When a human necromancer persuades her to steal Gary’s Scythe, Ava reluctantly seizes a cha... Read More
Grim Tidings by Caitlin Kittredge
This series is intended to be read in sequence, so this review may contain some spoilers of the first book, Black Dog.
Grim Tidings is the second book in Caitlin Kittredge’s HELLHOUND CHRONICLES. Ava, the human hellhound and her lover, the necromancer Leo, can barely catch their breath before they are hurled into a new set of adventures.
Leo is now, officially, the Grim Reaper, but to fully assume his title he needs the Reaper’s Scythe. He and Ava assume it’s in Reaper Headquarters in Minneapolis, so they head there. Ava has not had a chance to tell Leo that when she was in Tartarus she made a deal with yet another entity, and before she can fix that oversight they are fighting a rebellious reaper named Owen, with a ... Read More
Strange Brew by P.N. Elrod (ed)
The theme of Strange Brew is witchcraft. This anthology features nine well-known urban fantasy authors, each with their own spin on the theme. Some of these stories feature well-known characters. Others focus on characters who are secondary in the author's series, or characters who are entirely new. Glancing at the table of contents and doing a little mental math, most of the stories are around 40 pages, give or take a few. (The longest is Karen Chance's at just under 60.) As is always the case with anthologies, I had my favorites and my less-favorites, but if you like urban fantasy, there will probably be something here for you.
"Seeing Eye" by Patricia Briggs: A werewolf enlists the help of a blind witch to help him find his brother who has been kidnapped by a sinister coven. The witch has some his... Read More
Urban Allies edited by Joseph Nassise
I’m always impressed when authors work together, and in Urban Allies, editor Joseph Nassise has managed to pair up twenty authors who not only collaborate, but merge their own characters into ten brand-new and original adventures. Each story shares a similar theme: popular characters from existing series or novels meet up and must join forces in order to defeat a common threat. Since these are urban fantasy authors, every story has a supernatural or paranormal aspect, though the situations and resolutions are completely unique to each tale, ranging the gamut from a haunted house, ghosts, magic of all stripes, plenty of demons, and much more.
As a genre, urban fantasy tends to feature protagonists who embody a certain type of wish-fulfillment, depending on the author and intend... Read More
July 28th, 2016.
Jana Nyman´s rating:
4 |
C.E. Murphy,
Caitlin Kittredge,
Carrie Vaughn,
Charlaine Harris,
Christopher Golden,
David Wellington,
Diana Rowland,
Jaye Wells,
Jonathan Maberry,
Joseph Nassise,
Kat Richardson,
Kelley Armstrong,
Larry Correia,
Seanan McGuire |
Short Fiction |
SFF Reviews |
2 comments
More books by Caitlin Kittredge
Nocturne City — (2008-2010) This series is finished. Publisher: Welcome to Nocturne City, where werewolves, black magicians, and witches prowl the streets at night… Among them is Luna Wilder, a tough-as-nails police officer whose job is to keep the peace. As an Insoli werewolf, Luna travels without a pack and must rely on instinct alone. And she’s just been assigned to find the ruthless killer behind a string of ritualistic murders — a killer with ties to an escaped demon found only in legend… until now. But when she investigates prime suspect Dmitri Sandovsky, she can’t resist his wolfish charms. Pack leader of a dangerous clan of Redbacks, Dimitri sends her animal instincts into overdrive and threatens her fiercely-guarded independence. But Luna and Dimitri will need to rely on each other as they’re plunged into an ancient demon underworld and pitted against an expert black magician with the power to enslave them for eternity…
The Icarus Project — (2009-2010) With Jackie Kessler. Publisher: It’s the ultimate battle of good versus good. They were best friends at an elite academy for superheroes in training, but now Callie Bradford, code name Iridium, and Joannie Greene, code name Jet, are mortal enemies. Jet is a by-the-book hero, using her Shadow power to protect the citizens of New Chicago. Iridium, with her mastery of light, runs the city’s underworld. For the past five years the two have played an elaborate, and frustrating, game of cat and mouse. But now playtime’s over. Separately Jet and Iridium uncover clues that point to a looming evil, one that is entwined within the Academy. As Jet works with Bruce Hunter — a normal man with an extraordinary ability to make her weak in the knees — she becomes convinced that Iridium is involved in a scheme that will level the power structure of America itself. And Iridium, teaming with the mysterious vigilante called Taser, uncovers an insidious plot that’s been a decade in the making … a plot in which Jet is key. They’re both right. And they’re both wrong. Because nothing is as simple as Black and White.
The Iron Codex — (2011-2013) YA. Steampunk. Publisher: In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rule and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft’s epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city leaders deem Heretical — born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day. Aoife Grayson’s family is unique, in the worst way — every one of them, including her mother and her elder brother Conrad, has gone mad on their 16th birthday. And now, a ward of the state, and one of the only female students at the School of Engines, she is trying to pretend that her fate can be different.
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