Monday, December 18, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Half-Off Ragnarok (inCryptid) by Seanan McGuire





Half-Off Ragnarok is the third in Seanan McGuire's inCryptid series, her second urban fantasy series, which focuses on a family, the Price-Healy family, devoted to the protection and preservation of species - sentient or not - that science doesn't acknowledge exist, Cryptids.  Or as human like to call them: Monsters.  This is actually the first book in a new arc, being the first book to be narrated by and focus on Alexander Price, the oldest son of the current generation of the Price Family.  So you can start the series with this book if you want and be totally fine; no prior knowledge of the series or even just the first two books is needed to enjoy this book.

That said, like the first two inCryptid books, Half-Off Ragnarok is a pretty fast paced and fun story that's really easy to read.  Is it groundbreaking work or something truly special?  Not really, but it's still a really fun book to read - with a fun bunch of characters - and sometimes that's all that matters.

More after the Jump:

-------------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
Alexander Price is one of the latest members of the Price-Healy family, which has spent the past five generations protecting Cryptids, creatures/monsters that science doesn't recognize as being real, from threats from humanity.  Alex specializes in dealing with lizards and reptiles, and works under an assumed name (Alex Preston) at the Columbus Ohio Zoo as a Lizard/Reptile researcher.  His main projects are breeding basilisks and making sure the local cryptid wildlife doesn't grow too fast to become noticed by science.  He even has a girlfriend in an Australian tiger/lion zookeeper named Shelby Tanner - though it's getting to the point where his constant excuses for not having dates might be a problem.  Still, everything seems good, even if he lives with his non-human grandparents and helps take care of his injured non-human cousin Sarah.

That is, until one of the zoo staff is found turned to stone, a clearly cryptid-caused death.  Columbus has a local gorgon community (one is on Alex's staff) and cockatrices and basilisks are not unheard of in the area, but Alex can't let ordinary humans know this or else: it could cause the monster-hunting Covenant of Saint George might take notice of Columbus and devastate the local Cryptid community.  Oh and there's the matter of the fact that the killer might actually be targeting Alex himself....

And Shelby it turns out, might not actually just an ordinary zookeeper after all.....
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This book starts a new arc in the inCryptid series, as I stated above, and has a new narrator in Alex.  Alex is definitely a different character than the prior protagonist/narrator Verity - whereas Verity was snarky/sarcastic and incredibly headstrong, Alex is more plain spoken....though still a bit headstrong.  He's still an excellent character even if he's clearly different than his sister (and that's not a bad thing of course).

And this is a fun world still with a fun plot.  The minor characters are still excellent - we've got Alex's assistant who's a Pliny's Gorgon, a little girl who sneaks into the zoo to spend time with a giant cobra (yeah, she's not human either), Alex's family and a bunch of others.  The plot is relatively quick paced (the action starts about 4-5 chapters in, and once it does the plot doesn't ever stall) and it's not only fun, but fun in a different world than we saw in the first two books, having moved from Manhattan to a more suburban area.

Note: While Alex isn't as witty a protagonist as his sister, the book continues the series tradition of starting each chapter with a funny relevant quote from a family member (in this case, the guy family members, wheras the first two books were the girls) and a funny place description for the chapter (Example: Chapter 13: "The Reptile House of Ohio's West Columbus Zoo, about an hour and a half before the zoo is supposed to open, waiting for a gorgon to come to work.")

I'm not as sure that the new love interest, Shelby Tanner, works for Alex.....she very much feels like a derivative of Dominic from the first two books although she's far looser than he was, which helps lighten up Alex a little.

This review isn't as in depth as some of my other book reviews, because there's not much to say.   If you enjoy Urban Fantasy books, you'll enjoy Half-Off Ragnarok, as a very solid example of the genre.
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