Discount Armageddon, by Seanan McGuire, 2012, DAW, $7.99, softbound, 352 pages. Category/Genre: fantasy. Cover: sexy. Where we got it: publisher. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million. The first in a new series by the author who gave us the October Daye novels, Discount Armageddon is a new take on the urban fantasy.
Verity Price is part of a family of cryptozoologists -- people who study, and protect humanity from, creatures whose existence has yet to be proven by science: 'monsters' such as yeti and dragons (although dragons are said to be extinct).
Verity has a job waitressing at Dave's Fish and Strips to pay the rent -- but she really wants to be a ballroom dancer. Officially, she's in New York to document and assist the city's cryptid community. And she's doing fine at that -- until another cryptozoologist shows up. His name is Dominic DeLuca, and he's part of The Covenant, a group who believe that all cryptids should be destroyed. Verity's family broke from The Covenant generations ago and have been in hiding from them ever since.
Then someone starts killing cryptids -- and it isn't Dominic. Add to that the fact that there may be a dragon under the city, and you have a recipe for disaster . . . especially as Verity and Dominic start to fall for each other.
Apart from the cool fight scenes in this book, there's a lot of information on the various cryptids Verity meets, as well as a lot of humour. Particularly where the Aeslin mice are concerned. There's a group of them living in Verity's apartment, and they thrive on rituals and shouting 'Hail!' at every opportunity.
Note: strong language and sexual situations.
If you like this one, try: Midnight Blue-Light Special, by Seanan McGuire; and the October Daye series, starting with Rosemary and Rue, also by Seanan McGuire.
