Tuesday, March 31, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty




Ghost Trains to New Orleans is the second book in Mur Lafferty's "Shambling Guides" comedic urban fantasy series, featuring a human main character writing travel guides for monsters - or "coterie", as they like to be called - in various cities.  I skipped the first book since my library didn't have it in audiobook, and you can certainly do that without much detriment: the book contains plenty of information to catch new readers like me up to speed.  So you can begin the series (which is stuck at 2 books for want of a publisher) here without much problems.

And I really enjoyed Ghost Train to New Orleans.  It's a frequently funny - even if not a full on comedy - story with a charming protagonist, a plot that's solid and takes some surprising turns, and a setting of a New Orleans filled with monsters, demons, and gods that is really really enjoyable.  It's not a deep story in any way, which is fine, it's not trying to be, but for what it is, it's really fun and often surprising from beginning to end.  And even if this series is clearly incomplete, the book ends in a satisfying fashion and is well worth your time.

Note:  I read this book as an audiobook, which is narrated by the book's author herself.  As a result, I have mixed feelings on it - Lafferty accentuates the humor of the book well in her voice, but she doesn't really differentiate each characters' voices very well, resulting sometimes in some confusion over who is talking.  I'd probably advise reading this in print instead, honestly.  
------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------
Zoe somehow survived the crazed zoetist's attempt to devastate New York City by merging the city's life force with a gigantic golem last December.  More importantly, as the head editor for underground publishing, she successfully put together The Shambling Guide to New York City, a guide to the city for "Coterie", the non-human creatures (undead, demons, elementals, deities, etc.) that also live in this world.  In the process Zoe discovered that Zoe is in fact a "City Talker", a type of human coterie able to hear the voice of and talk to cities....except she still has no idea how this power works and her only mentor is now stuck with the city in its reservoir.

Of course, Zoe has things on her plate just as or more important than figuring out her own powers, namely taking a group of Coterie writers to New Orleans in order to write a second travel book for that city.  Coming along with her is her human boyfriend Arthur, who is in desperate need of herbs from a master Zoetist rumored to live in the swamps in order to stop from becoming a zombie.  Zoe will have to figure out how to survive all the threats that come from being a human in a team full of vampires, dragons, and goddesses, along with the various threats posed by New Orleans itself - such as vengeance dogs, corporate ghosts, and a god whose name no one is supposed to say.

And of course, Zoe will have to managed to put together a second good book.  So you know, she's got a tough job ahead of her.
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Ghost Train to New Orleans is a fun story told mainly in third person from the perspective of Zoe.  That said, every chapter is preceded by a quick segment from the book Zoe is working on, telling a little bit about the Coterie experience in New Orleans (usually from a part of the book relevant to the most recent chapter).  This sets a nice light tone throughout the story, even despite the fact our heroine is facing the threat of being exsanguinated by a grumpy vampire among many other threats.

Helping that tone is Zoe, who is a charming heroine with a great sense of humor through it all.  She's snarky and willing to stand her ground even against those with the ability to kill her, often recklessly, willing to try and help others, and is even self aware of her own ignorance and quite charming about it (a rarity with story characters).  Even the one moment in the book she has a breakdown, losing it with her friends and the whole situation as a human among so many whose hungers and behaviors seem horrible to her, she remains understandable in her actions and kind of charming.  The rest of the characters don't get too much exploration - they each have enough character traits to be distinct and work quite well, but they generally revolve around Zoe - but Zoe is great enough it doesn't really matter.

The plot of this book bounces Zoe from encounter to encounter within New Orleans (and the Ghost Train getting there) in ways that often surprise in how they show the Coterie acting and their environments in New Orleans, and in how they take Zoe to new places.  It's all done really well, presenting a number of dangerous situations for Zoe that always remain humorous even at their worst, leading into a finale that puts it all together.  Even the subplot involving Zoe and her boyfriend Arthur, who keeps pushing her away as he attempts to search for the herbs needed to save himself from zombification is actually done well, with the book not expecting you to sympathize with Arthur as a member of the relationship being a bit of a jerk (as opposed to other books who try and make you still like a potential romantic partner who is overprotective and an ass).

Again, very little in this book deals with serious issues or themes, although you can find some such themes of race and power in there if you wanted to try.  But overall it's a lot of fun, even more so from the fact that it doesn't try to portray the coterie - aka monsters - as simply misunderstood: they actually are monsters who eat and do bad things to humans mainly, so people are really right to fear them - which puts a sense of danger into the story (which as mentioned above, Zoe often turns into humor). The only downside is that the book's satisfying ending also includes some clear sequel hooks which will likely never be followed up upon, as the author's deal with the publisher for more books has expired.  Ah well.
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