Tuesday, October 22, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw




Grave Importance is the final book in Vivian Shaw's "Dr. Greta Hellsing" trilogy.  I loved this series from book 1 (Strange Practice - reviewed here), and so was kind of disappointed to find out that this would be the end of it, at least for the moment.  But that disappointment was tempered by the joy of having a new installment to read, because what's come before was so good, and so different from the norm, that I couldn't wait to read it.  The difference in the series is clearly set out in the series' name: this is the story of not a monster hunter, or a monster preserver, but a monster doctor (Dr. Greta Hellsing), who really means it when she says "do no harm."  Yeah the books may involve conflicts that threaten entire cities (or worse), but Greta's only concern throughout is healing and helping, not destroying or stopping.  The sheer joy that results, from the (ironically) humanity of the characters to the humor of the dialogues and the situations involved, is tremendous, and wow did I need a fun book just at this time.

And Grave Importance is incredibly damn fun and a hell of a way to cap this series, if it is indeed the end.  Our heroine remains delightful in her commitment to helping monsters - in this case Mummies - and her sheer joy at the new tools she is presented with is so contagious.  And then there is her relationships with the other major characters, and their own relationships to each other, and I just couldn't help loving all of it.  And oh yeah, there's a reality-wide threat to the universe and a major artifact heist involved with it all as well, I guess, but really it's the characters and the reactions to everything that make this such a joy.  Also, you know, the demons, vampires, mummies, witches, and the like.  Those too.

Minor Spoilers for the first two books after the jump:


---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Greta Hellsing, doctor to the supernatural, has just gotten a request that seems like it's out of a dream: being temporarily put in charge of Oasis Natrun, a Spa and special Treatment center for Egyptian Mummies, set in a mountain outside beautiful Marseilles.  She can't help but goggle at all of the impressive equipment the Spa contains for treatment - or even the Mummy on staff who's able to help with renewing the Ancient Egyptian spells needed for her patients to continue "living."  For someone of her profession, it's a joy and a pleasure.

But naturally things only stay so good for so long, because a mysterious wave of vertigo and sickness keeps coming across her Mummy patients, a wave that can't be explained by all of Oasis Natrun's fancy medical equipment.  And then her good friend and vampire Edmund Ruthven falls ill with a strange also unexplainable condition, and Greta is forced to turn to her last possible source for information: the expertise of the Erebus General Hospital in Hell.

But when things turn dire even for the Medical Experts down below, it will take all of Greta's skill, plus assistance from her boyfriend, the vampyre Sir Francis Varney, and her other friends - a demon, a witch, a half-rusalka nurse practitioner, and a human museum curator - to ensure that everyone....or anyone survives it all.
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Like the previous books in this series, Grave Importance tells its story by jumping around between the perspectives of the many different characters.  So at times we're following Greta, at times we're following Varney (her boyfriend/fiance and vampyre), sometimes we're following Grisaille (Ruthven's boyfriend vampire from the last book), and sometimes we're following one or more of the mystery antagonists.  Shaw manages to do this in a way that's never confusing and, just as importantly, never feels like we're leaving one interesting part of the story for a lesser part when we switch perspectives and plots.  All of her characters have story arcs that are interesting and well done, and come together in the end.

Naturally of course, they're led by Greta, who remains fantastic.  Technically, Greta is more on the periphery of the main conflict that envelops the plot by the end: she spends most of the book trying to help first Mummies and then other supernatural patients who come to her (or who she is brought to) as she finds herself trying to help and save as many people as possible who are damaged by the book's main threat - and she never really is asked to or tries to deal with the main threat herself.  And it's great really, because it just highlights how special she is as a character: she's no monster hunter or world-saver, she's a doctor, and her job and her goals are to help as many people as possible.  A few times in the book other people in her profession express openly how great she is, an it's a testament to how well she's written and how special her job makes her that it never feels like pandering to the reader: but rather the truth the reader has already figured out.

Of course, someone has to solve the actual crisis involved here, and for that there's Greta's friends.  First and foremost there is Varney, the vampyre (with a "y") who still is suffering from insecurity about his worthiness - now not just in living, but also in being Greta's significant other.  There's a plot arc early in the novel about Varney trying to figure out what type of engagement ring he should try to get Greta and its both just incredibly lovely and incredibly unique to this book how he goes about it - minor spoiler to say that when Varney says he "went to hell" for her, he means it literally.  And while Varney's relationship with Greta is just lovely and charming, his trying to overcome his own insecurities forms a central part of this book, culminating in the resolution of plot arcs from this book and from the rest of the series, and it's all done so well.  And then besides Varney with the usual gaggle of characters who return and are great, and who I could spend paragraphs on themselves, but I'll kind of decline to do so for space reasons.  I'd add that the three antagonist characters we follow are pretty strong additions as well, which helps keep the reader curious and engaged whenever the plot switches to their perspectives.

As for the plot, well, it takes a hell of couple of turns (pun intended) along the way, keeping the reader guessing quite a bit.  I did not expect things to get resolved the way they did, but it makes perfect sense within the material, even as it could maybe be described as a deus ex machina.  And the personal endings for each of the characters are lovely, befitting a conclusion of this trilogy.  I hope to see more in this world to come honestly, but I could see very easily how more of Greta's adventures would start to feel old hat if they kept coming out year after year, so perhaps a break or even permanent ending is best for all.  But if it is the end, it's one hell of a joyish and fun one for a series that I can't help but recommend to anyone looking for light and fun urban fantasy fare, with some truly great and original characters to boot.
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