Urban Fantasy discussion

Hey All,

So far what are your overall impressions of the book? I am enjoying it, having worked at a small restaraunt in my past I really like reading about the community around the coffee shop.

Charachter Development: What do you think of Sunshine's development to this point? Focus on her relationship to other charachters. In particular, her relationship with Mel? Charlie? SOF? Constantine? Her mother?

World Development: When dealing with magic, authors have to have a way to control the magic, it appears that magic drains the magicians energy. What do you think of this method of controlling magic? What about people with minor "Other/Magical" powers like Mary's coffee warming power, is their energy drained, should it be?

Plot: What do you think of the SOF offer? What would it be like if she took them up on it?

Now that Constantine is back do you think they go after Bo? How does her relationship to the SOF play out with her alliance to a vampire?

Have fun discussing!

I am very much enjoying this book. It's quite different from anyhting else I've read in the UF genre.

I like Sunshine's struggles to balance who she is now with who she was before her excursion to the lake. She is developing nicely as a well rounded, three dimensional character. She has a very strange relationship with her mother. Her relationship with Mel is odd as well. It's like an anti-dating thing. I also get the feeling there is more to Mel than meets the eye.

I really like Constantine. It's always intriguing when a character sort of goes against who/what they are, as he has done. I would like to learn more of his backstory. I think Sunshine and Constantine will definitely go after Bo and his crew. They don't really have a choice in the matter. It's either go on the offensive, or sit back and wait for Bo to find them. They have a better chance for survival working together to find Bo. I think her relationship with the SOF will complicate matters with Constantine. How could it not? (Am I the only one who wants them to hook up?)

I find the way that magic handlers are supposed to "clean up after themselves" by changing things back to their original form, and making some sort of offering/prayer to be very unique. I haven't seen this done in other books before.

I read this book over Christmas so it has been a little time and I may be a bit fuzzy.

I really liked the characters in this story, I think this was one of the reasons I loved it. At any rate I loved Con, in the beginning there is not a lot about him but yet I was really into him. Con is not human and does not act like one, this is not a vamp that is beautiful nor does he want to be reminded that he was human, it seems like he is not even interested in Sunshine. Before I get to that part I think it was so interesting at how different the vamps are, it is clear they look different, act different, I think they even hate people (rather humans) at least they have zero motivation to act human. Now back to Sunshine I think it was interesting that they have this time together in the beginning and then for a few months she does not see him, but I think she still thinks of him. Before you know it he is back and like we are bonded and he never makes a move on Sunshine despite the obvious tension which I do not know about you but I thought it was frustrating. And then there is Mel and what do you think about him? Is she cheating because while she is attracted to Con it is not a pleasant thought due to the difference between vamps and humans.

Anyway I could ramble on for days about this book and I am not sure how far people are into it. As for the plot I like that is slow and kind of confusing it feels a bit like realty where you are in each moment.

I very much agree with Jennifer and Dawn about liking Con's character, and I like Jennifer's point that Con is intriguing largely because he goes against his own nature as a vampire. And like Dawn, I like that the vampires are real monsters here, working against human society rather than assimilated into it.

Character development: Sunshine does not want to admit that her encounter with the vampires has changed anything, yet she cannot ignore that it has. She helped a vampire escape from being killed, and even though everything she's ever learned says that's wrong, she can't help feeling that she did the right thing (or at least what she had to do). And she reawakened her magic-handling abilities. These two things necessarily change her relationship with others, and I think the wound on her chest is a symbol of the changes she can't undo. (Only Constantine can heal it, but this changes her further.) Sunshine depicts her relationship with her mother as contentious and important, but we seem to hear about that more than we ever see it. I like Mel (and would like to learn more about him), although I think it becomes clear in this section that Sunshine's attraction to Con outweighs her feelings for Mel.

World development: I think McKinley creates a thee-dimensional world with a workable magical system. I don't think she always communicates her understanding of that world to readers as fully as she might. For example, I'd like to know more about "bad spots." We get a sense in Part Two of why they're bad, but surely there'd be some theories about what they *are* or what caused them. I liked that the SOF is staffed largely by mixed-blood agent, which deepens the conflict. Someone like Pat is more than just a by-the-book, straight-laced law enforcer. This makes Sunshine like and trust him more, yet the SOF's antipathy toward vampires (who do pose a real threat) puts her on the other side. Finally, I think there's a difference between the magic handling Sunshine does and an innate, mixed-blood ability like Mary's keeping the coffee hot. The former requires conscious effort, the latter seems unconscious--and people hide such abilities if they can. I was curious in this section to see how Sunshine's fear of having a magic-handling gene on one side and mixed blood on the other might affect her.

Plot: The SOF is definitely complicating things. She's on their side--no way does she want to let vampires take over the world within 100 years--yet she's also working against them. I liked that McKinley didn't make the SOF simply the "good guys" or simply a bureaucratic agency to work against. I also really liked the plot development at the end of Part Two, that Constantine heals her, but the healing comes with a price in that it changes her in ways she can't control.

I think it's pretty clear by the end of Part Two that they'll have to go after Bo--or else he'll come after them. Things are set by this point that the book's climax will be their battle against Bo and his gang.

Nancy Holzner