2009 Reading #100: The Iron Hunt

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. The Non-Adventures of Wonderella: Everybody Ever Forever by Justin Pierce.
92. Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin.
93. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.
94. Strip Jack by Ian Rankin.
95. Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.
96. Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn.
97. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton by Bobby Seale.
98. The Black Book by Ian Rankin.
99. Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson.

100. The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu. I picked up this book for three reasons: one, I'm still trying to understand the urban fantasy phenomenon, two, Gwenda recommended the author, and three, the first line: "When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw." How great is that? Turns out they're not exactly zombies, at least not in the usual sense, which is one reason I ended up liking the book; rather than recycling the same tired supernatural clichés, Liu is doing something original--there's a bit of reshaping of old myth, and there's the one-woman-to-save-the-world trope, but there's more than that at work here, enough that rather than being impatient for Maxine to figure things out I was nearly as off-balance as she was. There are points when the noir gets a little thick, perhaps, but overall this is solid stuff, good enough for me to want to read the sequel.