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The Shambling Guides #1
The Shambling Guide to New York City
A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city -- for the undead!Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can't take off her resume -- human.Not to be put off by anything -- especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker -- Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble -- with Zoe right in the middle.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 28, 2013
118 people are currently reading
3857 people want to read
About the author
Mur Lafferty
114 books1,781 followersNOTE- Goodreads mail is NOT a good way to get in touch with me. I don't get notifications of questions and I'm rarely here. Please contact me via my website, murverse.com.
Mur Lafferty is the author of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Hugo and Nebula nominated novel Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides series, and several self pubbed novels and novellas, including the award winning Afterlife series. She is the host of the Hugo-winning podcast Ditch Diggers, and the long-running I Should Be Writing. She is the recipient of the John Campbell Award for best new writer, the Manly Wade Wellman Award, the Best Fancast Hugo Award, and joined the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015, its inaugural year.
Mur Lafferty is the author of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Hugo and Nebula nominated novel Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides series, and several self pubbed novels and novellas, including the award winning Afterlife series. She is the host of the Hugo-winning podcast Ditch Diggers, and the long-running I Should Be Writing. She is the recipient of the John Campbell Award for best new writer, the Manly Wade Wellman Award, the Best Fancast Hugo Award, and joined the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015, its inaugural year.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 691 reviews
January 1, 2015
From my blog: https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2015/...
Lafferty states The Hitchhikers’ Guide is one of her inspirations for The Shambling Guide, and the influence is recognizable. But instead of Arthur coping with space (which is “really, really big“), Zoe is exploring the darker side of New York City. No, not Wall Street–I’m referring to the monster hangouts. I picked this one up looking for an entertaining read, and it definitely satisfied. Set in one of my favorite cities (naturally), an open-minded, spunky woman takes on urban fantasy staples.
Zoe has returned to her hometown after an editorial job at a travel book publisher –and her affair with her boss–ended disastrously. She’s browsing an unusual bookstore when she notice a man posting a flyer seeking a guidebook editor. The advertiser and others attempt to dissuade her, but she perseveres, finally taking the job after an enlightening dinner with the new boss. She adapts to her new inhuman co-workers, makes friends with a mischievous water sprite and an ex-deity and begins protective training with Granny Mae. When the company gets a new director of Coterie Resources (the polite word for the non-human), the situation starts getting really strange.
There’s no doubt this is an engaging story with likeable elements. Like many UF series, part of the fun is learning how the author interprets the folklore and mythology surrounding the non-human and then integrating it into the human world. Short excerpts from the Guidebook introduce each section (or was it finish? It’s rather hard to tell on a Kindle) and summing up the coterie interpretation of Zoe’s recent location. Zoe is an enjoyable main character; she’s made mistakes, but instead of indulging in self-pity, she’s deciding to move forward and avoid repeating them. Her generally upbeat and open attitude is refreshing. Supporting characters get reasonable development, particularly the enigmatic Granny Mae, Zoe’s boss and various people at the company. Action is appropriately paced, more thoughtful, context driven at the beginning, and then progressing into all-out mayhem.
The most significant downside is an unevenness of tone that left me unsure if this was a romp or horror, because there are rules to be followed for each. The appearance of the C.R. director is a perfect example of this indecision. Then there’s the set-up itself: many of the coterie are human-eaters, some abiding by rules and living peaceably, some engaging in more aggressive hunting. The Public Works is a human institution designed to police the coterie but tends to kill first and ask questions later. I’m certainly open to a UF book that is willing to explore the various shades of gray of acceptable lifestyles, but this seemed unevenly conceived. Protecting her coworkers from getting killed by Public Works seems noble, but her intentions seem to be forgotten as she engages in flirting with and saving of Public Works employees. Hitchhikers’ was brilliant in uniformly absurd but non-deathly consequences–did you ever really doubt Ford and Arthur would escape the poetry-reading Vogons? Or the emptiness of space? (Skirmishes were had, but no one died, except perhaps a bowl of petunias and a sperm whale)–but this has a number of implied murders.
On a personal level, there’s a scene at an incubus club that makes little sense: in Zoe’s willingness to go, her friend’s willingness to protect her–and then promptly disappear–and the general lack of consequences. Zoe almost articulated in the book its similarity to rape, but I don’t feel she or Lafferty gave it the consequences it deserved. Again, a very serious note in a relatively madcap adventure that jarred me out of reading flow. Quite honestly, it felt like the token nod to the female UF genre with token voyeuristic sexuality which was out of tone with the rest of the story. Other eye-rolling moments include a tentative romantic interest and a moment of TSTL (check link for a nice blog post on the phenomenon) where Zoe disconnects from her electronics (why hello, October Day plot line).
Still, with a lot of fun elements and an intriguing base concept, I’m willing to check out the next in the series, just not at full price.
Three and a half hidden stars.
Recommended for fans of McGuire’s InCryptid series (review) , or Bornikova’s This Case is Gonna Kill Me (review).
Lafferty states The Hitchhikers’ Guide is one of her inspirations for The Shambling Guide, and the influence is recognizable. But instead of Arthur coping with space (which is “really, really big“), Zoe is exploring the darker side of New York City. No, not Wall Street–I’m referring to the monster hangouts. I picked this one up looking for an entertaining read, and it definitely satisfied. Set in one of my favorite cities (naturally), an open-minded, spunky woman takes on urban fantasy staples.
Zoe has returned to her hometown after an editorial job at a travel book publisher –and her affair with her boss–ended disastrously. She’s browsing an unusual bookstore when she notice a man posting a flyer seeking a guidebook editor. The advertiser and others attempt to dissuade her, but she perseveres, finally taking the job after an enlightening dinner with the new boss. She adapts to her new inhuman co-workers, makes friends with a mischievous water sprite and an ex-deity and begins protective training with Granny Mae. When the company gets a new director of Coterie Resources (the polite word for the non-human), the situation starts getting really strange.
There’s no doubt this is an engaging story with likeable elements. Like many UF series, part of the fun is learning how the author interprets the folklore and mythology surrounding the non-human and then integrating it into the human world. Short excerpts from the Guidebook introduce each section (or was it finish? It’s rather hard to tell on a Kindle) and summing up the coterie interpretation of Zoe’s recent location. Zoe is an enjoyable main character; she’s made mistakes, but instead of indulging in self-pity, she’s deciding to move forward and avoid repeating them. Her generally upbeat and open attitude is refreshing. Supporting characters get reasonable development, particularly the enigmatic Granny Mae, Zoe’s boss and various people at the company. Action is appropriately paced, more thoughtful, context driven at the beginning, and then progressing into all-out mayhem.
The most significant downside is an unevenness of tone that left me unsure if this was a romp or horror, because there are rules to be followed for each. The appearance of the C.R. director is a perfect example of this indecision. Then there’s the set-up itself: many of the coterie are human-eaters, some abiding by rules and living peaceably, some engaging in more aggressive hunting. The Public Works is a human institution designed to police the coterie but tends to kill first and ask questions later. I’m certainly open to a UF book that is willing to explore the various shades of gray of acceptable lifestyles, but this seemed unevenly conceived. Protecting her coworkers from getting killed by Public Works seems noble, but her intentions seem to be forgotten as she engages in flirting with and saving of Public Works employees. Hitchhikers’ was brilliant in uniformly absurd but non-deathly consequences–did you ever really doubt Ford and Arthur would escape the poetry-reading Vogons? Or the emptiness of space? (Skirmishes were had, but no one died, except perhaps a bowl of petunias and a sperm whale)–but this has a number of implied murders.
On a personal level, there’s a scene at an incubus club that makes little sense: in Zoe’s willingness to go, her friend’s willingness to protect her–and then promptly disappear–and the general lack of consequences. Zoe almost articulated in the book its similarity to rape, but I don’t feel she or Lafferty gave it the consequences it deserved. Again, a very serious note in a relatively madcap adventure that jarred me out of reading flow. Quite honestly, it felt like the token nod to the female UF genre with token voyeuristic sexuality which was out of tone with the rest of the story. Other eye-rolling moments include a tentative romantic interest and a moment of TSTL (check link for a nice blog post on the phenomenon) where Zoe disconnects from her electronics (why hello, October Day plot line).
Still, with a lot of fun elements and an intriguing base concept, I’m willing to check out the next in the series, just not at full price.
Three and a half hidden stars.
Recommended for fans of McGuire’s InCryptid series (review) , or Bornikova’s This Case is Gonna Kill Me (review).
October 29, 2015
How had humans not noticed these beings around them? Now that she knew they existed, she saw the city in a completely different light.
Zoe comes to NYC and applies for a job at a publishing company. She's sure the position is right for her, as she has experience editing travel books. Her would-be boss, a vampire, is a little uncertain of her qualifications. You see, he's planning to publish a travel guide, all right. A travel guide for . . . zombies, sprites, incubi and other creatures humans seldom encounter. As you might have guessed - Zoe gets the job, but it's not long before she realizes someone is messing with her. And it may just cost Zoe her life.
I have to admit, this was pretty enjoyable. The book contains the best parts of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (the monsters) without the annoying which-man-will-Sookie-choose melodrama. Lafferty's details provide most of the fun. For instance, did you know that when a vampire wants to get drunk, he/she drinks hobo blood because "It's soaked in alcohol."
Hic!
Okay, the ending is WAY over the top, but on the whole, a delightfully page-turning, little ball of fluff.
Zoe comes to NYC and applies for a job at a publishing company. She's sure the position is right for her, as she has experience editing travel books. Her would-be boss, a vampire, is a little uncertain of her qualifications. You see, he's planning to publish a travel guide, all right. A travel guide for . . . zombies, sprites, incubi and other creatures humans seldom encounter. As you might have guessed - Zoe gets the job, but it's not long before she realizes someone is messing with her. And it may just cost Zoe her life.
I have to admit, this was pretty enjoyable. The book contains the best parts of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (the monsters) without the annoying which-man-will-Sookie-choose melodrama. Lafferty's details provide most of the fun. For instance, did you know that when a vampire wants to get drunk, he/she drinks hobo blood because "It's soaked in alcohol."
Hic!
Okay, the ending is WAY over the top, but on the whole, a delightfully page-turning, little ball of fluff.
June 17, 2013
Originally posted on The Book Smugglers
Zoe is searching for a fresh start and a new job as travel book editor now that she moved back to New York City after her last job ended badly (i.e. in tears, after she had an affair with her boss, who turned out to be married). She comes across a position as a managing editor for a new series of travel guides in a new publishing house. But every time she attempts to apply for the job she stumbles on several people telling her not to, including the owner Phil. As it just so happens, the publishing house is owned by a vampire, most of its employees are other assorted creatures and human Zoe simply doesn’t belong.
Finding out that NY City has a subculture of monsters – the coterie – doesn’t really faze a desperate-for-a-job Zoe that much and desperate-for-a-managing-editor Phil hires her. Now she needs to learn everything she can about this new world and about the coterie so she can do her job properly. But everything turns south when she finds herself in the middle of a deadly fight for the soul of the city itself.
There is so much silliness to Mur Lafferty’s debut novel The Shambling Guide to New York City that I ask myself: do I review this with any degree of seriousness?
Yes, of course I review this seriously. Because even a light romp about a travel writer taking on a job at a shady publishing company in NY ran by a vampire and which caters to a (not so much) underground world needs to have internal logic, make sense and be competently written.
I know that there might a fun book here somewhere. There is after all, humour t be had with zombies turned travel writers, right? But the execution of this story leaves a lot to be desired. It follows an extremely familiar story pattern following a Special Heroine that finds herself in a situation where she Must Learn and who is then Guided by a Wise Personage and everybody seems to “just know” that she is Special. It’s boring.
And then we have the premise itself. I was expecting silly and camp (I mean, come on: travel guides…FOR THE UNDEAD! How awesome could this have been?) but I can’t get over how downright stupid the set-up is. Phil the Vampire decides to create a publishing house that caters for the coterie and sets up said company, rents an awesome office building, hires a bunch of employees (several writers, marketing guy, accountant, etc) but he still doesn’t have a managing editor or An editorial vision for his travel guides. So basically all these other employees are sitting around waiting for a managing editor. And because in the entire world of the coterie ( which, according to the world-building as put forth in the novel, seems to be extensive, densely populated and widespread) there is not a single person who could do this job. ONLY Zoe can be the managing editor, even though she is a human who knows absolutely nothing – zero, nada – about the world she is hired to write about.
This is, quite frankly, the WORST business decision in the history of business decisions ever (and please don’t tell me this is how the publishing world works. My illusions will collapse like a house of cards at my feet).
What this premise does do is to force the story to move a certain way: even after this decision is made Phil still refuses to tell Zoe the things about the coterie she needs to know to do her job because “vampires are secretive”. So Zoe takes upon herself to learn. Cue endless sections of info-dump, ridiculous enigmatic conversations, convenient connections between characters and set-ups in which Zoe comes across fae, goddesses, incubi, etc and does her “research”, thereby also informing the reader about the coterie and justifying the book. All building up to an ending that was extremely rushed, with a lot of hazy action sequences and an end-of-the-world event that felt incredibly small and localised.
At the end of the day everything in here felt extremely contrived and forced to me. The story and characters were not interesting or vivid enough to allow me to get pass any of these problems in order to have fun reading The Shambling Guide to New York City.
Zoe is searching for a fresh start and a new job as travel book editor now that she moved back to New York City after her last job ended badly (i.e. in tears, after she had an affair with her boss, who turned out to be married). She comes across a position as a managing editor for a new series of travel guides in a new publishing house. But every time she attempts to apply for the job she stumbles on several people telling her not to, including the owner Phil. As it just so happens, the publishing house is owned by a vampire, most of its employees are other assorted creatures and human Zoe simply doesn’t belong.
Finding out that NY City has a subculture of monsters – the coterie – doesn’t really faze a desperate-for-a-job Zoe that much and desperate-for-a-managing-editor Phil hires her. Now she needs to learn everything she can about this new world and about the coterie so she can do her job properly. But everything turns south when she finds herself in the middle of a deadly fight for the soul of the city itself.
There is so much silliness to Mur Lafferty’s debut novel The Shambling Guide to New York City that I ask myself: do I review this with any degree of seriousness?
Yes, of course I review this seriously. Because even a light romp about a travel writer taking on a job at a shady publishing company in NY ran by a vampire and which caters to a (not so much) underground world needs to have internal logic, make sense and be competently written.
I know that there might a fun book here somewhere. There is after all, humour t be had with zombies turned travel writers, right? But the execution of this story leaves a lot to be desired. It follows an extremely familiar story pattern following a Special Heroine that finds herself in a situation where she Must Learn and who is then Guided by a Wise Personage and everybody seems to “just know” that she is Special. It’s boring.
And then we have the premise itself. I was expecting silly and camp (I mean, come on: travel guides…FOR THE UNDEAD! How awesome could this have been?) but I can’t get over how downright stupid the set-up is. Phil the Vampire decides to create a publishing house that caters for the coterie and sets up said company, rents an awesome office building, hires a bunch of employees (several writers, marketing guy, accountant, etc) but he still doesn’t have a managing editor or An editorial vision for his travel guides. So basically all these other employees are sitting around waiting for a managing editor. And because in the entire world of the coterie ( which, according to the world-building as put forth in the novel, seems to be extensive, densely populated and widespread) there is not a single person who could do this job. ONLY Zoe can be the managing editor, even though she is a human who knows absolutely nothing – zero, nada – about the world she is hired to write about.
This is, quite frankly, the WORST business decision in the history of business decisions ever (and please don’t tell me this is how the publishing world works. My illusions will collapse like a house of cards at my feet).
What this premise does do is to force the story to move a certain way: even after this decision is made Phil still refuses to tell Zoe the things about the coterie she needs to know to do her job because “vampires are secretive”. So Zoe takes upon herself to learn. Cue endless sections of info-dump, ridiculous enigmatic conversations, convenient connections between characters and set-ups in which Zoe comes across fae, goddesses, incubi, etc and does her “research”, thereby also informing the reader about the coterie and justifying the book. All building up to an ending that was extremely rushed, with a lot of hazy action sequences and an end-of-the-world event that felt incredibly small and localised.
At the end of the day everything in here felt extremely contrived and forced to me. The story and characters were not interesting or vivid enough to allow me to get pass any of these problems in order to have fun reading The Shambling Guide to New York City.
August 3, 2022
This novel was written some years back when the urban fantasy-paranormal/supernatural romance genres were at their peak of popularity. There are several imaginatively creative bits that make it stand out from the pack a bit, and a refreshing air of dark humor throughout. It's the story of a young woman who takes a job as an editor of travel books for the supernatural set, but she gets pulled into a battle to save the city from an old enemy. She has something of a history of making poor decisions, and that aspect of her character doesn't change. Some of her allies are less likeable than the ostensible bad guys, and some of the parts just don't come together at all. (Public Works Department?) There are excerpts from the book she's been hired to produce between each chapter, which seems to be modeled on Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. The final battle is a bit over the top (literally and figuratively), but it was an enjoyable read, and I'll see how she views New Orleans in the next book.
March 24, 2017
Mildly disappointing because I expected to love this, especially based on the first few pages. The following are my immediate thoughts, which may or may not, get expanded into a coherent review.
Basic premise: Zoe Norris, having lost her previous editing job because she dated the boss, who, unbeknownst to her, was married (to a psycho), secures new employment with a New York City publishing company that produces travel guides. Zoe is totally qualified for the job except in one respect. She's human and the publishing company and the guide's intended audience are monsters (coterie).
Stuff I liked
The cover. Okay, so that's not even remotely a valid criticism. But my comic book geek self loves cartoon covers. Cutesy cartoon covers, when they were in fashion a few years ago, got me to read many humorous/light romances. Which means I should probably run like hell from toonish covers, since most of those romances sucked like a lamprey. But the cover is why I read a review of The Shambling Guide to New York, and decide to request a copy from the library. So cover. Yay!
The approach to urban fantasy, which is kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, War for the Oaks, and Neverwhere-ish. Like Buffy, the tone is a bit campy, with a motley crew of adventurers working to save New York from a big bad. Like War for the Oaks and Neverwhere, the protagonist is an ordinary human who learns there's a whole other world, filled with magical/mythical beings, just under the surface of the mundane.
The protagonist, Zoe, isn't an embittered, grim slayer of vampires/demons/zombies with a chip on her shoulder.
The men of A Shambling Guide aren't the usual seven-foot-tall, sexy vampire/shifters with a physique by steroids, and whose pheromones are strong enough to make a city's environmental department issue an air quality alert.
The zombies are kind of adorable, in as much as people with rotting flesh can be adorable.
The idea of a travel guide to New York, written specifically for monsters, I mean coterie, is too fun. The excerpts of the guide, posted after every chapter, are some of the funniest parts of the novel.
Morgen, the water sprite and Gwen the death goddess, Zoe's coterie friends.
Stuff I did not like
The world building. I noticed a lot of readers liked this aspect, but I found it riddled with inconsistencies and sloppy. Public Works baffled me. On one hand, they are positioned as supernatural enforcers, and yet they aren't terribly competent. This seems to be in part because they don't always know that much about the coterie. Except when it's convenient for the story line for them to know. I.e., more often than not, Public Works' employees seem to function as exposition fairies. All the while being rather bumbling when it comes to actually dealing with coterie. (We are told they kill zombies and other beasties, but that happens largely off-screen).
The funny. In short, not. Zoe gets some funny zingers going in her early internal dialogues, but overall the story is short on humor. It's not grim; but it lacks the wry voice of War for the Oaks or Neverwhere. The tone turns rather flat and lifeless in the action scenes and reads more like reporting than storytelling.
The men of The Shambling Guide to New York. While I love that Phil, John, and Arthur didn't walk straight off the set of True Blood (not that I don't love me some Erik Northman), they lack sex appeal, period. Or personality. Arthur, the human love interest, is totally charmless. John, being a succubus, is at times sexy, but in a creeper, borderline rapist way, so...not appealing. Phil, the vampire, is wonderfully inhuman, but...the problem with making him so detached from human concerns is that he isn't particularly accessible to me, as a reader.
Which leads to...the dialogue. It was clear and functional, but honestly, lacked any flavor. With the exception of Morgen and Granny Good Mae, if you stripped away the dialogue tags it would be very difficult to even guess who was talking. Let me clarify. The dialogue wasn't bad, but for this kind of camp to work, the characters really need to come alive and sparkle through their dialogue. Instead, everyone sounds the same.
Consequently, the characterization was weak. I didn't connect with any of the secondary characters and didn't care about their fates. By the time I reached the final chapters, when the villain is preparing to destroy the city (because it's New York and always on the verge of annihilation), I started skimming.
In general, it felt like the story was trying to date two tones, all-out camp and more serious urban fantasy, and in refusing to commit to either, broke both relationships.
Basic premise: Zoe Norris, having lost her previous editing job because she dated the boss, who, unbeknownst to her, was married (to a psycho), secures new employment with a New York City publishing company that produces travel guides. Zoe is totally qualified for the job except in one respect. She's human and the publishing company and the guide's intended audience are monsters (coterie).
Stuff I liked
The cover. Okay, so that's not even remotely a valid criticism. But my comic book geek self loves cartoon covers. Cutesy cartoon covers, when they were in fashion a few years ago, got me to read many humorous/light romances. Which means I should probably run like hell from toonish covers, since most of those romances sucked like a lamprey. But the cover is why I read a review of The Shambling Guide to New York, and decide to request a copy from the library. So cover. Yay!
The approach to urban fantasy, which is kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, War for the Oaks, and Neverwhere-ish. Like Buffy, the tone is a bit campy, with a motley crew of adventurers working to save New York from a big bad. Like War for the Oaks and Neverwhere, the protagonist is an ordinary human who learns there's a whole other world, filled with magical/mythical beings, just under the surface of the mundane.
The protagonist, Zoe, isn't an embittered, grim slayer of vampires/demons/zombies with a chip on her shoulder.
The men of A Shambling Guide aren't the usual seven-foot-tall, sexy vampire/shifters with a physique by steroids, and whose pheromones are strong enough to make a city's environmental department issue an air quality alert.
The zombies are kind of adorable, in as much as people with rotting flesh can be adorable.
The idea of a travel guide to New York, written specifically for monsters, I mean coterie, is too fun. The excerpts of the guide, posted after every chapter, are some of the funniest parts of the novel.
Morgen, the water sprite and Gwen the death goddess, Zoe's coterie friends.
Stuff I did not like
The world building. I noticed a lot of readers liked this aspect, but I found it riddled with inconsistencies and sloppy. Public Works baffled me. On one hand, they are positioned as supernatural enforcers, and yet they aren't terribly competent. This seems to be in part because they don't always know that much about the coterie. Except when it's convenient for the story line for them to know. I.e., more often than not, Public Works' employees seem to function as exposition fairies. All the while being rather bumbling when it comes to actually dealing with coterie. (We are told they kill zombies and other beasties, but that happens largely off-screen).
The funny. In short, not. Zoe gets some funny zingers going in her early internal dialogues, but overall the story is short on humor. It's not grim; but it lacks the wry voice of War for the Oaks or Neverwhere. The tone turns rather flat and lifeless in the action scenes and reads more like reporting than storytelling.
The men of The Shambling Guide to New York. While I love that Phil, John, and Arthur didn't walk straight off the set of True Blood (not that I don't love me some Erik Northman), they lack sex appeal, period. Or personality. Arthur, the human love interest, is totally charmless. John, being a succubus, is at times sexy, but in a creeper, borderline rapist way, so...not appealing. Phil, the vampire, is wonderfully inhuman, but...the problem with making him so detached from human concerns is that he isn't particularly accessible to me, as a reader.
Which leads to...the dialogue. It was clear and functional, but honestly, lacked any flavor. With the exception of Morgen and Granny Good Mae, if you stripped away the dialogue tags it would be very difficult to even guess who was talking. Let me clarify. The dialogue wasn't bad, but for this kind of camp to work, the characters really need to come alive and sparkle through their dialogue. Instead, everyone sounds the same.
Consequently, the characterization was weak. I didn't connect with any of the secondary characters and didn't care about their fates. By the time I reached the final chapters, when the villain is preparing to destroy the city (because it's New York and always on the verge of annihilation), I started skimming.
In general, it felt like the story was trying to date two tones, all-out camp and more serious urban fantasy, and in refusing to commit to either, broke both relationships.
May 5, 2024
This was a just for fun book. It is horror and fantasy with a rom-com thrown in for fun. My rating was for the laughs that I got from this.
December 18, 2016
This is a very creative take on the interaction between "reality" and otherwordly creatures (so-called monsters).
Mur has lots of imagination, and reads her work well.
Still, something is missing. It never really feels like Zoe, the main character (who might be Mur's alter ego) is in danger. The characters are all somewhat cartoonish. And the dialogue is lacking.
Mur has lots of imagination, and reads her work well.
Still, something is missing. It never really feels like Zoe, the main character (who might be Mur's alter ego) is in danger. The characters are all somewhat cartoonish. And the dialogue is lacking.
October 22, 2023
Zoe Norris is in New York City searching for a job as a travel book editor after her last job ended badly. She learns of a new publishing company which needs a travel editor and feels she would be perfect for the job. The owner is hesitant to hire her. He informs her that these travel books are meant for the undead. Zoe doesn't care and takes the job anyway. Her boss is a vampire. He orders the other creatures (Coterie) who work for him not to harm her or eat her. Zoe works with zombies, water sprites, an incubus, and other undead while she learns about the undead hot spots scattered around New York City.
Well, this was different. I decided to read this book to fulfill a reading challenge. I found it had a unique plot and was amusing in places. As Zoe learns etiquette when dealing with various creatures, she is called to meet the newly hired Coterie Resources Manager. The manager was sewn together using various body parts (think Frankenstein's monster). Zoe is shocked when she realizes he is wearing her ex-boyfriend's head. She didn't even know her ex-boyfriend had died. The CR Manager makes it clear he doesn't like Zoe. She realizes someone is messing with her and wants to know why.
I listened to this audiobook which was narrated by the author. It was a straight reading, so she didn't change her voice at all for the various characters. There were many characters in this story, all with an explanation about what kind of creature they were and how to approach them. It got kind of confusing after a while. Overall, it was an OK book. I'll give the second book in the series a try. My rating: 3 Stars.
Well, this was different. I decided to read this book to fulfill a reading challenge. I found it had a unique plot and was amusing in places. As Zoe learns etiquette when dealing with various creatures, she is called to meet the newly hired Coterie Resources Manager. The manager was sewn together using various body parts (think Frankenstein's monster). Zoe is shocked when she realizes he is wearing her ex-boyfriend's head. She didn't even know her ex-boyfriend had died. The CR Manager makes it clear he doesn't like Zoe. She realizes someone is messing with her and wants to know why.
I listened to this audiobook which was narrated by the author. It was a straight reading, so she didn't change her voice at all for the various characters. There were many characters in this story, all with an explanation about what kind of creature they were and how to approach them. It got kind of confusing after a while. Overall, it was an OK book. I'll give the second book in the series a try. My rating: 3 Stars.
June 30, 2014
After finding herself the other woman in a relationship with a married man, Zoe flees Raleigh, NC and returns to her home in New York. Fortune is seemingly shining on her when she sees a pamphlet pinned to a notice board advertising the job of editor for a newly established publisher.
Unfortunately she soon discovers the company is run by a vampire, his assistant is a zombie and her coworkers are a wide array of other worldly creatures. But she needs the job so she sucks it up and does her best not to wretch when she sees her zombie coworkers chowing down on brains. Then just when she finally starts to settle in she discovers someone has it in for her and has sent Frankenstein to do her in. Worse still, the mysterious puppet master has decided to rain down chaos on New York and it's up to Zoe to save the city.
The Shambling Guide to New York is great fun. It's more than just a great idea, it's a well executed and written great idea. I can't think of a bad thing to say about the book.
Unfortunately she soon discovers the company is run by a vampire, his assistant is a zombie and her coworkers are a wide array of other worldly creatures. But she needs the job so she sucks it up and does her best not to wretch when she sees her zombie coworkers chowing down on brains. Then just when she finally starts to settle in she discovers someone has it in for her and has sent Frankenstein to do her in. Worse still, the mysterious puppet master has decided to rain down chaos on New York and it's up to Zoe to save the city.
The Shambling Guide to New York is great fun. It's more than just a great idea, it's a well executed and written great idea. I can't think of a bad thing to say about the book.
January 17, 2015
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was good, don't get me wrong, but it was definitely one of those books that just by changing one or two things it could have been FANTASTIC. The fresh look at zombies and vampires and fantasy creatures in a modern urban setting was nice. This is no True Blood, or Twilight, or even Charles DeLint, it is definitely its own thing, and I loved that unique view. I loved the concept, a human woman writing a travel guide for unnatural creatures visiting New York, awesome. It had a good sense of humor, definitely some silly moments, some witty lines. I understand that its supposed to be a fluff book, and I wasn't looking for anything too serious.
BUT
But... I got so sick of plot twists that entirely revolved around the romantic history and sex life of the main character. Really? I mean REALLY?! She's supposed to be a strong intelligent driven woman, so why is it always about the MEN in her life???
But enough about that. One of the other things I really liked about this book is that the author is local (to me :-D). She lives in Durham, and regularly mentions Raleigh, NC. Not in a super flattering light, but its still mentioned. And that makes me smile, because I love where I live, and I love that interesting people who are succeeding at their dreams are living here too.
While this book definitely had things I didn't like about it, it had enough things I did like about it that I will continue to read works by this author. I want to support local authors, but also because I think the flaws that so bothered me are somewhat from her being such a new author. This is apparently her first largely published book, I'm excited to see where she goes. Hopefully she'll find her strengths in her humor, and her fun new look at urban fantasy, and NOT in her sense of "romance" or dependence on male characters as plot points.
BUT
But... I got so sick of plot twists that entirely revolved around the romantic history and sex life of the main character. Really? I mean REALLY?! She's supposed to be a strong intelligent driven woman, so why is it always about the MEN in her life???
But enough about that. One of the other things I really liked about this book is that the author is local (to me :-D). She lives in Durham, and regularly mentions Raleigh, NC. Not in a super flattering light, but its still mentioned. And that makes me smile, because I love where I live, and I love that interesting people who are succeeding at their dreams are living here too.
While this book definitely had things I didn't like about it, it had enough things I did like about it that I will continue to read works by this author. I want to support local authors, but also because I think the flaws that so bothered me are somewhat from her being such a new author. This is apparently her first largely published book, I'm excited to see where she goes. Hopefully she'll find her strengths in her humor, and her fun new look at urban fantasy, and NOT in her sense of "romance" or dependence on male characters as plot points.
June 5, 2013
Zoe moves to New York City to find work, after being forced to leave her old job, after being seduced by her very married boss into having an affair. Like many job hunters, Zoe is getting the run around in that she is constantly either being told that she is either too experienced or does not have enough experience. Having worked in publishing writing tour guides, Zoe decides to answer an advertisement for a new editor that she sees hanging in a coffee shop. What she does not know is that interview is the first step to her involvement with the coterie.
Zoe goes from being an ordinary and mundane, to working with death goddesses, water sprites, zombies, constructs, inccubi, succubi and vampires. Learning the rules of the supernatural community is a hard thing but Zoe is forced to speed her learning curve along when it becomes clear that someone is out to get her. It begins with a construct with her ex boyfriends head and zombies running amok and killing people.
At first blanch I really thought that The Shambling Guide to New York City was a book that held a lot of potential. It has a really unique premise and has a menagerie of supernatural characters; however, these factors alone do not a good book make. Mur included a lot of unnecessary problematic language in the book; in many ways it felt like Mur was trying to include social justice issues but just couldn't.
Zoe was told repeatedly that she might not fit in with her job because she was human. She defends her ability to fit in saying, "I don't care if Underground Publishing is catering to eastern Europeans, or transsexuals, or Eskimos or even Republicans. Just because I don't fit in doesn't mean I can't be accepting as long as they accept me." Gee how progressive of her. Also, who uses the word "Eskimos" anymore? Then there is the use of the word "transsexuals". It's just a throw away offensive term because she sees them as weird. Mur doesn't even have a trans character in the novel.
The Shambling Guide to New York City is yet another in a long line of books which has the supernaturals filling in for marginalized people. When Zoe uses the term monsters to refer to the supernaturals that she is working with, she is told, "'Monsters' is pejorative. Nonhumans go by the term 'coterie.'" There are real marginalized people in this story but somehow they are never stigmatized based in their marginalizations. Homeless people for instance must face classism on a daily basis but Mur has turned homeless people into undercover agents.
Right. So the homeless aren't really homeless and suffering. The predatory nature of the capitalist system which keeps so many impoverished, is all sham, so that humans can keep an eye on monsters, uh excuse me coterie (wouldn't want to be accused of being insensitive).
Read More
Zoe goes from being an ordinary and mundane, to working with death goddesses, water sprites, zombies, constructs, inccubi, succubi and vampires. Learning the rules of the supernatural community is a hard thing but Zoe is forced to speed her learning curve along when it becomes clear that someone is out to get her. It begins with a construct with her ex boyfriends head and zombies running amok and killing people.
At first blanch I really thought that The Shambling Guide to New York City was a book that held a lot of potential. It has a really unique premise and has a menagerie of supernatural characters; however, these factors alone do not a good book make. Mur included a lot of unnecessary problematic language in the book; in many ways it felt like Mur was trying to include social justice issues but just couldn't.
Zoe was told repeatedly that she might not fit in with her job because she was human. She defends her ability to fit in saying, "I don't care if Underground Publishing is catering to eastern Europeans, or transsexuals, or Eskimos or even Republicans. Just because I don't fit in doesn't mean I can't be accepting as long as they accept me." Gee how progressive of her. Also, who uses the word "Eskimos" anymore? Then there is the use of the word "transsexuals". It's just a throw away offensive term because she sees them as weird. Mur doesn't even have a trans character in the novel.
The Shambling Guide to New York City is yet another in a long line of books which has the supernaturals filling in for marginalized people. When Zoe uses the term monsters to refer to the supernaturals that she is working with, she is told, "'Monsters' is pejorative. Nonhumans go by the term 'coterie.'" There are real marginalized people in this story but somehow they are never stigmatized based in their marginalizations. Homeless people for instance must face classism on a daily basis but Mur has turned homeless people into undercover agents.
"Public Works agent" Josh said. "most homeless, and some gangs, work as spies.|"
"Yeah," Morgen said."They're ubiquitous and ignored, and if they talk about zombies eating a guy, people think they're insane so if there's ever a security breach, no one believes them anyway."
Right. So the homeless aren't really homeless and suffering. The predatory nature of the capitalist system which keeps so many impoverished, is all sham, so that humans can keep an eye on monsters, uh excuse me coterie (wouldn't want to be accused of being insensitive).
Read More
July 31, 2013
This book has a lot of potential, and it was a quick, fun read. The author cited Douglas Adams as a huge influence and the “Shambling Guide” excerpts in the book are sort of her homage to the Hitchhiker’s Guide segments in Adams’ books from that series. However, the whole thing is somewhat lacking in execution.
The premise, which is rather clever, is used to shoehorn Zoe, the main character, into the world of the coterie (the “PC” label the nonhumans have adopted in this world) but then it’s mostly abandoned. I was thinking that the story would be similar to the situation of Arthur Dent, where you have the clueless everyman/woman being introduced and then deriving the story from watching them cope. Zoe’s period of lost confusion is barely noticeable and mostly used as an excuse for a sex scene. It’s not long before she’s acting totally comfortable with almost all of the non-human characters and the human agency that acts to police them, and is kicking ass and taking names on top of that.
The result is that it turns into a rather generic action-y urban fantasy story, written almost from a checklist:
- female lead who can handle almost everything because she’s different from everyone else around her,
- lead has a mysterious secret,
- lead has explicit sex at some point
- lead ends up being able to cope with almost anything with minimal coping time, but still gets hurt so she appears vulnerable
- big bad threat is also convolutedly connected to her.
Unfortunately, the Shambling Guide excerpts placed at the beginning of each chapter almost seemed pointless; there were callouts to events and people from the main story, but they never really connected to one another like the Guide quotes always did, they weren’t laugh-out-loud funning on their own, and some of them even contained spoilers for the book itself.
The book would have been better and more unique in my opinion if it had been written focused primarily on the office environment and the difficulties surrounding Zoe integrating, getting the guide researched, and publishing it, sort of with a similar feel to large segments of the early Laundry novels by Charles Stross. As it is, it seems like someone took a generic urban fantasy plot and stuck the guide in as a plot hook for the main character which was promptly abandoned.
The premise, which is rather clever, is used to shoehorn Zoe, the main character, into the world of the coterie (the “PC” label the nonhumans have adopted in this world) but then it’s mostly abandoned. I was thinking that the story would be similar to the situation of Arthur Dent, where you have the clueless everyman/woman being introduced and then deriving the story from watching them cope. Zoe’s period of lost confusion is barely noticeable and mostly used as an excuse for a sex scene. It’s not long before she’s acting totally comfortable with almost all of the non-human characters and the human agency that acts to police them, and is kicking ass and taking names on top of that.
The result is that it turns into a rather generic action-y urban fantasy story, written almost from a checklist:
- female lead who can handle almost everything because she’s different from everyone else around her,
- lead has a mysterious secret,
- lead has explicit sex at some point
- lead ends up being able to cope with almost anything with minimal coping time, but still gets hurt so she appears vulnerable
- big bad threat is also convolutedly connected to her.
Unfortunately, the Shambling Guide excerpts placed at the beginning of each chapter almost seemed pointless; there were callouts to events and people from the main story, but they never really connected to one another like the Guide quotes always did, they weren’t laugh-out-loud funning on their own, and some of them even contained spoilers for the book itself.
The book would have been better and more unique in my opinion if it had been written focused primarily on the office environment and the difficulties surrounding Zoe integrating, getting the guide researched, and publishing it, sort of with a similar feel to large segments of the early Laundry novels by Charles Stross. As it is, it seems like someone took a generic urban fantasy plot and stuck the guide in as a plot hook for the main character which was promptly abandoned.
October 19, 2015
I have made it a mission to check out all accessible UF novels as I am attracted to novels featuring kickass female protagonists. Who are flawed but have qualities that make me root for them and their happiness despite their flaws. Protagonists such as Rachel Morgan and Cassandra Palmer. Though Lafferty has quite an impressive backlist, I haven’t read anything by her so I went into The Shambling Guide intrigued but not expecting anything. I was very pleasantly surprised. The writing is smart, crisp and to the point.
Urban Fantasy is a genre in which lyrical prose really doesn’t work. It is fueled more by the plot unfurling than by character development. Lafferty delivers perfectly on that count. We meet Zoe as she searches around a seemingly decrepit bookstore. There she sees a job ad for an editor in chief. A position she has just lost due to her affair with her boss without realizing he was married. I am a bit skeptical about that. How does a man hide his wife? Especially when she’s the chief of the police in the area? Wouldn’t she drop by the office? Wouldn’t other people know? Do men really hide their wives like that?
Anyway, I’m getting distracted. As I said, flawed protagonist. And while I don’t condone adultery and cheating at all, I will take Zoe’s flimsy excuse that she didn’t know he was married. The novel is jam packed with action. Things are happening at full speed and there is just the right amount of tension and danger. There’s even a slightly yoda-ish lady and a crazy surprise at the end that I liked. There is a little romance and Lafferty does awesomely well in making the romance a side plot. I hate books that promise to be UF and end up as romance novels disguised as UF.
What I especially liked about this novel is that while the setting and characters are fantastic, they’re realistically fantastic. There are overweight vampires, zombies who bring brains for lunch, incubi who are creeps and change appearances according to their targets and hunger level (that was quite fascinating). All the supernatural creatures mentioned are fascinating and unique and have something to themselves other than the stereotype popular culture has foisted on them.. Zoe is a very likable protagonist and she completely won me over. I look forward to following her on more adventures as she writes/edits traveling guides to other cities. Strongly recommended.
Urban Fantasy is a genre in which lyrical prose really doesn’t work. It is fueled more by the plot unfurling than by character development. Lafferty delivers perfectly on that count. We meet Zoe as she searches around a seemingly decrepit bookstore. There she sees a job ad for an editor in chief. A position she has just lost due to her affair with her boss without realizing he was married. I am a bit skeptical about that. How does a man hide his wife? Especially when she’s the chief of the police in the area? Wouldn’t she drop by the office? Wouldn’t other people know? Do men really hide their wives like that?
Anyway, I’m getting distracted. As I said, flawed protagonist. And while I don’t condone adultery and cheating at all, I will take Zoe’s flimsy excuse that she didn’t know he was married. The novel is jam packed with action. Things are happening at full speed and there is just the right amount of tension and danger. There’s even a slightly yoda-ish lady and a crazy surprise at the end that I liked. There is a little romance and Lafferty does awesomely well in making the romance a side plot. I hate books that promise to be UF and end up as romance novels disguised as UF.
What I especially liked about this novel is that while the setting and characters are fantastic, they’re realistically fantastic. There are overweight vampires, zombies who bring brains for lunch, incubi who are creeps and change appearances according to their targets and hunger level (that was quite fascinating). All the supernatural creatures mentioned are fascinating and unique and have something to themselves other than the stereotype popular culture has foisted on them.. Zoe is a very likable protagonist and she completely won me over. I look forward to following her on more adventures as she writes/edits traveling guides to other cities. Strongly recommended.
July 30, 2017
I was kind of avoiding these because… I don’t know why, really. I thought it might be more like World War Z; a gimmicky set-up with comparatively little story. Wrong! There’s a solid story and direction behind The Shambling Guide to New York City, and though it does contain excerpts from the actual guide, the book itself is not written as a guide to New York City from the point of view of monsters — called, in this book, coterie. Instead, we follow our intrepid, sometimes somewhat slow heroine, Zoe, as she accidentally gets herself employed by a coterie company, learns that monsters are real and do want to eat her, and gets dragged into epic showdowns of opposing coterie.
Okay, in a way it’s wish fulfilment, because Zoe is adaptable, quick on her feet, able to train to learn to cope with all this. Most real people wouldn’t be a quarter as adaptable. But it worked for me all the same: I loved the rather mild Phil the vampire, who turned out to have a vicious side after all. (I don’t know what it is with me lately, but I’d fancast Clark Gregg for this role too.) It reminded me a bit of Cherie Priest’s Bloodshot and Hellbent. There wasn’t too much romance, and the creepily persistent (or persistently creepy) incubus who wants to seduce Zoe gets nowhere fast.
I love most of the characters — Gwen, the Welsh death goddess; Morgen, the water sprite; Granny Good Mae, the… slightly eccentric Yoda to Zoe’s Luke Skywalker. And those I don’t like still make sense, rather than being caricatures designed to be hated, except maybe one particular character.
Overall, I found this thoroughly enjoyable, and I immediately went on and devoured (heh) the second book, The Ghost Train to New Orleans. Recommended!
Also, the covers! Jamie McKelvie, I believe?
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
Okay, in a way it’s wish fulfilment, because Zoe is adaptable, quick on her feet, able to train to learn to cope with all this. Most real people wouldn’t be a quarter as adaptable. But it worked for me all the same: I loved the rather mild Phil the vampire, who turned out to have a vicious side after all. (I don’t know what it is with me lately, but I’d fancast Clark Gregg for this role too.) It reminded me a bit of Cherie Priest’s Bloodshot and Hellbent. There wasn’t too much romance, and the creepily persistent (or persistently creepy) incubus who wants to seduce Zoe gets nowhere fast.
I love most of the characters — Gwen, the Welsh death goddess; Morgen, the water sprite; Granny Good Mae, the… slightly eccentric Yoda to Zoe’s Luke Skywalker. And those I don’t like still make sense, rather than being caricatures designed to be hated, except maybe one particular character.
Overall, I found this thoroughly enjoyable, and I immediately went on and devoured (heh) the second book, The Ghost Train to New Orleans. Recommended!
Also, the covers! Jamie McKelvie, I believe?
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
July 26, 2013
We're on chapter 4 as the audiobook comes out week by week on iTunes as a podcast. If you want to hear this audiobook don't wait to download it. Mur Lafferty's agreement with the publisher is that she can only leave the audiofiles up for a week after she finishes all the chapters on the podcast. So get it while the getting is good.
So far I am enjoying this a lot. It is not another of those "the world is covered with zombies and we're all just trying to survive" books. The supernatural world is existing camouflaged alongside ours, as we can anticipate from watching our heroine try to get a job writing travel guides.
I enjoyed Lafferty's Playing for Keeps which was a light take on superhero adventures, which were all the craze at the time. Shambling Guide seems like a similar take on the current zombie craze in literature so I look forward to seeing what sort of adventure tale is spun.
So far, this seems like a light, fun read that I would give to my mother or sister (who do not delve as deeply as I do into urban fantasy). And, depending on where the story goes, I might even pick it up for my own shelves.
FINAL
I tired of getting a short chapter every week and was pleased to see that the library actually had just gotten the book in. I read it in one night, confirming my initial feeling that this was a light, easy take on the urban monster story. (Is that a genre now? Urban monster story? ha!)
Overall, I'd have wished for more plot and less introduction via exploring the city with co-workers, however that isn't really a flaw.
What I definitely DID wish is that the X-rated exploration of the succubus/incubus night club had been less graphic or skipped altogether. I already got the point about being stalked by an incubus. I was intensely grateful that I was reading a print version at that point so I could simply skim back to where the sex stopped and the story picked up. Listening to the podcast of that chapter would have been intensely embarrassing and disgusting ... so I was spared that at least. (So much for giving this book to my mother or sister ...)
I assume the internal justification was to show Zoe being attacked by a monster. However, that is scant reason for handling the issue in that particular way. Luckily there are no further descents into that gutter and one can move on with the story.
I did enjoy the book and look forward to the sequel, mostly because I love anything about New Orleans and that is where the next Shambling Guide will focus.
So far I am enjoying this a lot. It is not another of those "the world is covered with zombies and we're all just trying to survive" books. The supernatural world is existing camouflaged alongside ours, as we can anticipate from watching our heroine try to get a job writing travel guides.
I enjoyed Lafferty's Playing for Keeps which was a light take on superhero adventures, which were all the craze at the time. Shambling Guide seems like a similar take on the current zombie craze in literature so I look forward to seeing what sort of adventure tale is spun.
So far, this seems like a light, fun read that I would give to my mother or sister (who do not delve as deeply as I do into urban fantasy). And, depending on where the story goes, I might even pick it up for my own shelves.
FINAL
I tired of getting a short chapter every week and was pleased to see that the library actually had just gotten the book in. I read it in one night, confirming my initial feeling that this was a light, easy take on the urban monster story. (Is that a genre now? Urban monster story? ha!)
Overall, I'd have wished for more plot and less introduction via exploring the city with co-workers, however that isn't really a flaw.
What I definitely DID wish is that the X-rated exploration of the succubus/incubus night club had been less graphic or skipped altogether. I already got the point about being stalked by an incubus. I was intensely grateful that I was reading a print version at that point so I could simply skim back to where the sex stopped and the story picked up. Listening to the podcast of that chapter would have been intensely embarrassing and disgusting ... so I was spared that at least. (So much for giving this book to my mother or sister ...)
I assume the internal justification was to show Zoe being attacked by a monster. However, that is scant reason for handling the issue in that particular way. Luckily there are no further descents into that gutter and one can move on with the story.
I did enjoy the book and look forward to the sequel, mostly because I love anything about New Orleans and that is where the next Shambling Guide will focus.
February 20, 2019
Lots of interesting bits and pieces thrown into this story, but none worked that well for me.
Maybe it's just a it's me, not you case, but I didn't enjoy this book and I can't be bothered to write anything else about it.
Maybe it's just a it's me, not you case, but I didn't enjoy this book and I can't be bothered to write anything else about it.
September 18, 2013
Read This Review & More Like It At Ageless Pages Reviews
Spunky girl writer accidentally gets hired to write a humorous book for a subculture she never knew existed, while solving a mystery before the end of the world. Plus obligatory romance.
I just described one of my lowest rated books of 2012 and one of my favorite of 2013.
What makes The Shambling Guide to New York City so great is it never loses that humorous part. It doesn’t take an underground publishing company run by a vampire, a zombie, and an incubus too seriously. Or seriously at all. It’s definitely a book that requires suspension of disbelief.
Zoe, a human, stumbles into a coterie, (that would be the politically correct term for monsters and magical beings,) bookstore. That probably shouldn’t happen, but we’re not going to worry about it. She finds a flyer for editor of a new publishing company. Convenient, considering she JUST left an editing job and is looking for work in the field! The head of the company is there and none too impressed by her “breathing” and “having a heartbeat”. Still, she manages to land the gig and dives right into learning about a world that’s been hiding in plain sight.
TSGtNYC doesn’t dwell on the absurdity of its plot, and neither should you. It’s fun. It takes a new, interesting look at some well known mythologies, (I liked the idea of zombies being functioning when they’re full and feral when they’re hungry,) and introduces some not-so well known ones. Sure the vampires are pretty standard, along with the fae, but seeing them all interact in a business setting remains delightful.
The world building is pretty spectacular, with most of NYC’s famous landmarks being reimagined as mystical symbols. For example, the Statue of Liberty? Sarcophagus for an ancient demon. The book focuses mostly on hiding in plain sight, though there are a few magically-hidden portals to the rats’ nest of tunnels used by coterie cabbies. Fair folk can take advantage of the boom of veg*an restaurants, while those that feed on human emotions can just sit near the hipsters. Incubus and succubus enjoy a wide variety of strip and sex clubs, including the setting of the only hard-R scene, (keeping the book firmly out of the YA section.)
I will say, using the homeless as a network of spies for the government felt odd and a little tacky. Same with the mystical but “crazy” homeless mentor. I think it’s supposed to be a commentary about how homeless people are everywhere and no one notices them, just like the coterie, but when it’s a real issue that affects 50,000 people in NYC alone? Kind of makes my fun fantasy about water sprites and death goddesses less fun.
The end fell down a bit with eleventh-hour powers and confusing action sequences. There are passages that needed to be read multiple times, and even then I’m not sure they really made sense. Still, I thought it was a very strong, entertaining book.
Obviously the coterie are the most interesting characters and I LOVED Morgen, Fanny, and Gwen. Granny Good Mae has an amazing backstory that I’d love to learn more about. Likewise, can Orsen, the retired vampire hunter, and Benjamin, his doctor/semi-retired Zoetist, (Life-creators. Raisers of zombies and golems,) husband get their own wacky spin off? Because I will pay good money for that. The romance didn’t set my soul on fire, but with a sweet, spunky main character and a lot of...diverse side characters, I highly recommend you don’t overthink it and just give it a try.
Spunky girl writer accidentally gets hired to write a humorous book for a subculture she never knew existed, while solving a mystery before the end of the world. Plus obligatory romance.
I just described one of my lowest rated books of 2012 and one of my favorite of 2013.
What makes The Shambling Guide to New York City so great is it never loses that humorous part. It doesn’t take an underground publishing company run by a vampire, a zombie, and an incubus too seriously. Or seriously at all. It’s definitely a book that requires suspension of disbelief.
Zoe, a human, stumbles into a coterie, (that would be the politically correct term for monsters and magical beings,) bookstore. That probably shouldn’t happen, but we’re not going to worry about it. She finds a flyer for editor of a new publishing company. Convenient, considering she JUST left an editing job and is looking for work in the field! The head of the company is there and none too impressed by her “breathing” and “having a heartbeat”. Still, she manages to land the gig and dives right into learning about a world that’s been hiding in plain sight.
TSGtNYC doesn’t dwell on the absurdity of its plot, and neither should you. It’s fun. It takes a new, interesting look at some well known mythologies, (I liked the idea of zombies being functioning when they’re full and feral when they’re hungry,) and introduces some not-so well known ones. Sure the vampires are pretty standard, along with the fae, but seeing them all interact in a business setting remains delightful.
The world building is pretty spectacular, with most of NYC’s famous landmarks being reimagined as mystical symbols. For example, the Statue of Liberty? Sarcophagus for an ancient demon. The book focuses mostly on hiding in plain sight, though there are a few magically-hidden portals to the rats’ nest of tunnels used by coterie cabbies. Fair folk can take advantage of the boom of veg*an restaurants, while those that feed on human emotions can just sit near the hipsters. Incubus and succubus enjoy a wide variety of strip and sex clubs, including the setting of the only hard-R scene, (keeping the book firmly out of the YA section.)
I will say, using the homeless as a network of spies for the government felt odd and a little tacky. Same with the mystical but “crazy” homeless mentor. I think it’s supposed to be a commentary about how homeless people are everywhere and no one notices them, just like the coterie, but when it’s a real issue that affects 50,000 people in NYC alone? Kind of makes my fun fantasy about water sprites and death goddesses less fun.
The end fell down a bit with eleventh-hour powers and confusing action sequences. There are passages that needed to be read multiple times, and even then I’m not sure they really made sense. Still, I thought it was a very strong, entertaining book.
Obviously the coterie are the most interesting characters and I LOVED Morgen, Fanny, and Gwen. Granny Good Mae has an amazing backstory that I’d love to learn more about. Likewise, can Orsen, the retired vampire hunter, and Benjamin, his doctor/semi-retired Zoetist, (Life-creators. Raisers of zombies and golems,) husband get their own wacky spin off? Because I will pay good money for that. The romance didn’t set my soul on fire, but with a sweet, spunky main character and a lot of...diverse side characters, I highly recommend you don’t overthink it and just give it a try.
July 9, 2013
One of the best things about this urban fantasy is that Zoe, the main character, isn’t paranormal herself. She doesn’t even know that “monsters” really exist until she’s hired by a vampire to edit a series of city guides aimed at the zombies, death goddesses, water sprites, and other supernaturals who are able to hide in plain sight among us on crowded streets and subway platforms.
Sharing a workspace with creatures who would enjoy drinking your blood or eating your brains has complications, of course, but times are tough and Zoe is paid really well. And though Zoe doesn’t have any cool special powers herself, she is hardworking, competent, cautiously open-minded about alternative lifestyles (or in some cases, death-styles), and resigned to acts of bravery when human decency requires jumping into the fray.
Though the pace is fast and the tension is kept high with one inventive surprise or crazy crisis after another, the style is breezy and funny. And the characters, human and not, are wonderful. I hope to meet most of them again in the sequel which looks like it will be set in New Orleans, a city with a lot of paranormal possibilities.
Sharing a workspace with creatures who would enjoy drinking your blood or eating your brains has complications, of course, but times are tough and Zoe is paid really well. And though Zoe doesn’t have any cool special powers herself, she is hardworking, competent, cautiously open-minded about alternative lifestyles (or in some cases, death-styles), and resigned to acts of bravery when human decency requires jumping into the fray.
Though the pace is fast and the tension is kept high with one inventive surprise or crazy crisis after another, the style is breezy and funny. And the characters, human and not, are wonderful. I hope to meet most of them again in the sequel which looks like it will be set in New Orleans, a city with a lot of paranormal possibilities.
July 21, 2021
Zoe, a New York native, returns home to the city after an embarrassing incident with her boss leaves her fleeing. Looking for a new job, Zoe comes across a new publishing company that is looking for an editor. Despite being told by the Head of the company that the role is not for her, Zoe soon finds herself in a whole new world of demons, fairies, and other ‘coterie’ opens up to her.
The city of New York as Lafferty writes it, with humans unknowingly living amongst the supernatural, is a fun premise and the author clearly relished in setting up how the coterie would live and adapt to this world. The big problem is that Lafferty puts no such effort into her main characters, and the disparity becomes clear quite quickly. Zoe is hired as the only human in a supernatural publishing company because apparently, she’s the only person in the entire city of New York who can put together a book, not even the vampire who started the company can do it (one would question why he would start the company if that were the case, but Lafferty seems to think no excuse is better than trying to come up with any). From the off, the premise is flawed for this reason. Zoe is told by Phil, her new boss, that she should not apply and then hires her an hour later. Any semblance of sense ends there and we never get it back, especially later on when Zoe is sent on various missions in this new magical world with little to no preparation and everyone seems surprised when things go wrong.
The truth is, Zoe is just bland and uninteresting. When she finds out about the coterie, there’s not a lot of reaction from her and this continues throughout the book. Zoe is a character who takes quite a lot in her stride, too much at some points. The story is filled with other characters giving accolades to the main character that she doesn’t deserve and in these instances, it’s very much Lafferty telling us about Zoe being amazing as opposed to showing it. She’s always seen as hilarious but never really makes a joke. She’s apparently quick-witted and smart but more often than not, her dialogue is stilted and cheesy, unless she’s cursing to show how she’s edgy.
Nearly halfway through the book, I realised my problem with Zoe - she’s not so much a character but an ideal, a bunch of flattering descriptions thrown together with abilities that constantly fluctuate depending on what Lafferty needs her to do. Fight off supernatural compulsion? She can do it easily when she’s in one situation yet hopeless at it a few pages later, when it will benefit the story to have her fail (although is it even failing when Zoe doesn’t even try, she just does?). When it comes to her backstory, Lafferty goes to extreme lengths to paint Zoe as the victim for sleeping with a married man because she never figured out he was married, despite working with him for months or years and his wife being a high-up figure in the town (and Zoe conveniently never met another soul who might have known he was married, including all the people she and he both worked with). Zoe is completely unperceptive? Fair enough, until a few chapters later, she can practically sniff out suspicious beings and coterie. Again, Zoe is whatever Lafferty needs her to be for the plot to move forward with no thought to consistency. Lafferty wants Zoe to be messy but never wants to actually damage the perception we’re supposed to have of her. She never wants to make Zoe at fault for having made bad choices, so constantly phrases Zoe as being ‘seduced’ instead of indulging in an affair with a married man, making sure we never forget that Zoe did not have any agency in her mistakes and bad decisions - they were all the work of people tricking or being mean to her. This isn’t the only problem Lafferty faces when mapping out Zoe’s ‘romantic’ life - at one point in the book, Zoe is subject to a ‘coterie’ version of having her drink spiked by a co-worker at a club when left alone but instead of this being a giant issue within the company or even the narrative of the book, it’s brushed under the carpet as an embarrassing incident on Zoe’s behalf. The whole situation is written as if we’re supposed to find this hot or even funny, but it’s neither.
The actual world of the coterie that Lafferty builds is an interesting one and one I think would be fun to spend time in, if we were spending time with another character. The little bits of the travel book we get peppered with between the chapters seem like the coterie world is full and vibrant in Lafferty’s mind but we’re dragged through it with a bland character who just goes with the flow, thereby not taking the full experience in. It feels like Zoe is an afterthought for Lafferty, who finds it much more fun to map out how she thinks different creatures and beings would operate in modern New York. Maybe the book would be more fun if the coterie were out in the open and it was one of them we could have followed, as opposed to a human on the outside looking in for the first time, especially since Lafferty never really explains how creatures with blue skin or zombies walk about in the open with no one noticing beyond ‘they just don’t.’
Will I read the next book? Sure, if it's in my local library or I can borrow it. It's a fun idea but I just wish we had someone more interesting than Zoe to bring us through it.
The city of New York as Lafferty writes it, with humans unknowingly living amongst the supernatural, is a fun premise and the author clearly relished in setting up how the coterie would live and adapt to this world. The big problem is that Lafferty puts no such effort into her main characters, and the disparity becomes clear quite quickly. Zoe is hired as the only human in a supernatural publishing company because apparently, she’s the only person in the entire city of New York who can put together a book, not even the vampire who started the company can do it (one would question why he would start the company if that were the case, but Lafferty seems to think no excuse is better than trying to come up with any). From the off, the premise is flawed for this reason. Zoe is told by Phil, her new boss, that she should not apply and then hires her an hour later. Any semblance of sense ends there and we never get it back, especially later on when Zoe is sent on various missions in this new magical world with little to no preparation and everyone seems surprised when things go wrong.
The truth is, Zoe is just bland and uninteresting. When she finds out about the coterie, there’s not a lot of reaction from her and this continues throughout the book. Zoe is a character who takes quite a lot in her stride, too much at some points. The story is filled with other characters giving accolades to the main character that she doesn’t deserve and in these instances, it’s very much Lafferty telling us about Zoe being amazing as opposed to showing it. She’s always seen as hilarious but never really makes a joke. She’s apparently quick-witted and smart but more often than not, her dialogue is stilted and cheesy, unless she’s cursing to show how she’s edgy.
Nearly halfway through the book, I realised my problem with Zoe - she’s not so much a character but an ideal, a bunch of flattering descriptions thrown together with abilities that constantly fluctuate depending on what Lafferty needs her to do. Fight off supernatural compulsion? She can do it easily when she’s in one situation yet hopeless at it a few pages later, when it will benefit the story to have her fail (although is it even failing when Zoe doesn’t even try, she just does?). When it comes to her backstory, Lafferty goes to extreme lengths to paint Zoe as the victim for sleeping with a married man because she never figured out he was married, despite working with him for months or years and his wife being a high-up figure in the town (and Zoe conveniently never met another soul who might have known he was married, including all the people she and he both worked with). Zoe is completely unperceptive? Fair enough, until a few chapters later, she can practically sniff out suspicious beings and coterie. Again, Zoe is whatever Lafferty needs her to be for the plot to move forward with no thought to consistency. Lafferty wants Zoe to be messy but never wants to actually damage the perception we’re supposed to have of her. She never wants to make Zoe at fault for having made bad choices, so constantly phrases Zoe as being ‘seduced’ instead of indulging in an affair with a married man, making sure we never forget that Zoe did not have any agency in her mistakes and bad decisions - they were all the work of people tricking or being mean to her. This isn’t the only problem Lafferty faces when mapping out Zoe’s ‘romantic’ life - at one point in the book, Zoe is subject to a ‘coterie’ version of having her drink spiked by a co-worker at a club when left alone but instead of this being a giant issue within the company or even the narrative of the book, it’s brushed under the carpet as an embarrassing incident on Zoe’s behalf. The whole situation is written as if we’re supposed to find this hot or even funny, but it’s neither.
The actual world of the coterie that Lafferty builds is an interesting one and one I think would be fun to spend time in, if we were spending time with another character. The little bits of the travel book we get peppered with between the chapters seem like the coterie world is full and vibrant in Lafferty’s mind but we’re dragged through it with a bland character who just goes with the flow, thereby not taking the full experience in. It feels like Zoe is an afterthought for Lafferty, who finds it much more fun to map out how she thinks different creatures and beings would operate in modern New York. Maybe the book would be more fun if the coterie were out in the open and it was one of them we could have followed, as opposed to a human on the outside looking in for the first time, especially since Lafferty never really explains how creatures with blue skin or zombies walk about in the open with no one noticing beyond ‘they just don’t.’
Will I read the next book? Sure, if it's in my local library or I can borrow it. It's a fun idea but I just wish we had someone more interesting than Zoe to bring us through it.
January 15, 2016
Ehhh...
So it turns out that I'm really critical of urban fantasy. I love it as a premise/setting, it's my jam, but apparently I don't have a lot of patience for sassy mouthy heroes/heroines treading in the footsteps of Buffy. The humour has to really zing if you're going to be dropping sarcastic quips everywhere, but the book was never laugh-out-loud funny for me, so I didn't think it nailed the tone it was going for.
I do really like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-style setup, the excerpts of the guide bridging the chapters -- in fact, I probably would have loved this a lot more if it was only the guides to various cities, without a plot. But I just couldn't get anchored to any of the characters and wasn't invested in what happened to them, which meant I wasn't all that interested in the plot. I found Zoe infuriating more often than not (she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of the hot neighbour, and then drops the most ridiculous sexually explicit jokes? and don't even get me started on the narrative gymnastics required when she bailed on her workplace, interrupted everyone trying to say something to her, disconnected her phone and internet, and went off-grid and ended up ~endangered~). None of her coterie except for Morgen & Gwen particularly struck me, and the one I really liked died after their first scene. The love interest is bland. You barely get to see the villain before they're also whisked off/dispatched. I also wasn't particularly invested in Granny Good Mae -- which you most definitely were supposed to be -- and partially because she fell into the category of cryptic mystical aged Asian martial arts expert.
I wonder if the fact that this series began as a short story not featuring Zoe at all had something to do with the weak characterisations, considering Lafferty says in the interview that she wrote the novel because she liked the world so much. I do like the world she's constructed -- again, it's urban fantasy and secret paranormal societies in the underbellies of cities, of course I'd be into that -- but I reallllly needed a more compelling cast. Not sure if I'll continue the series, because I still don't give a crap about anyone, although the prospect of the worldbuilding in New Orleans might carry me over just by itself.
The book also did one of my pet peeves, exposition repeating itself over and over with characters explaining the situation to each other over and over, partially in an attempt to make it sound ridiculous and hilarious and shock-worthy (which never amused me). The plot felt like a lot of chaotic careening back and forth without Zoe getting enough information, then suddenly exposition dumps. And the ending started off as an aaaaawesome action set piece, but then wrapped itself up super abruptly and the book is suddenly, conveniently, over. Pretty much all of the crises in the entire book were all solved/survived by using deus ex machinas (hi Granny) and a simple phone call to someone in the know (hi dial-a-vampire), so it didn't feel like the characters really earned those resolutions.
Was originally gonna say 3 stars, but I'm dropping it to 2 after writing my review and discovering how many grievances I had. I wanted to like this one so much more. :(
Random note: I didn't count this towards my horror shelves. Looking back, I was a little perplexed by myself -- it has zombies and demons, so why didn't I?? But I just think it fits much, much more into the wheelhouse of urban fantasy & humour, rather than horror. To me, the horror genre is far more about style rather than content... hence why Shirley Jackson's short story about a drunk man having a conversation at a party fits the bill, while this doesn't.
So it turns out that I'm really critical of urban fantasy. I love it as a premise/setting, it's my jam, but apparently I don't have a lot of patience for sassy mouthy heroes/heroines treading in the footsteps of Buffy. The humour has to really zing if you're going to be dropping sarcastic quips everywhere, but the book was never laugh-out-loud funny for me, so I didn't think it nailed the tone it was going for.
I do really like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-style setup, the excerpts of the guide bridging the chapters -- in fact, I probably would have loved this a lot more if it was only the guides to various cities, without a plot. But I just couldn't get anchored to any of the characters and wasn't invested in what happened to them, which meant I wasn't all that interested in the plot. I found Zoe infuriating more often than not (she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of the hot neighbour, and then drops the most ridiculous sexually explicit jokes? and don't even get me started on the narrative gymnastics required when she bailed on her workplace, interrupted everyone trying to say something to her, disconnected her phone and internet, and went off-grid and ended up ~endangered~). None of her coterie except for Morgen & Gwen particularly struck me, and the one I really liked died after their first scene. The love interest is bland. You barely get to see the villain before they're also whisked off/dispatched. I also wasn't particularly invested in Granny Good Mae -- which you most definitely were supposed to be -- and partially because she fell into the category of cryptic mystical aged Asian martial arts expert.
I wonder if the fact that this series began as a short story not featuring Zoe at all had something to do with the weak characterisations, considering Lafferty says in the interview that she wrote the novel because she liked the world so much. I do like the world she's constructed -- again, it's urban fantasy and secret paranormal societies in the underbellies of cities, of course I'd be into that -- but I reallllly needed a more compelling cast. Not sure if I'll continue the series, because I still don't give a crap about anyone, although the prospect of the worldbuilding in New Orleans might carry me over just by itself.
The book also did one of my pet peeves, exposition repeating itself over and over with characters explaining the situation to each other over and over, partially in an attempt to make it sound ridiculous and hilarious and shock-worthy (which never amused me). The plot felt like a lot of chaotic careening back and forth without Zoe getting enough information, then suddenly exposition dumps. And the ending started off as an aaaaawesome action set piece, but then wrapped itself up super abruptly and the book is suddenly, conveniently, over. Pretty much all of the crises in the entire book were all solved/survived by using deus ex machinas (hi Granny) and a simple phone call to someone in the know (hi dial-a-vampire), so it didn't feel like the characters really earned those resolutions.
Was originally gonna say 3 stars, but I'm dropping it to 2 after writing my review and discovering how many grievances I had. I wanted to like this one so much more. :(
Random note: I didn't count this towards my horror shelves. Looking back, I was a little perplexed by myself -- it has zombies and demons, so why didn't I?? But I just think it fits much, much more into the wheelhouse of urban fantasy & humour, rather than horror. To me, the horror genre is far more about style rather than content... hence why Shirley Jackson's short story about a drunk man having a conversation at a party fits the bill, while this doesn't.
July 25, 2013
I like urban fantasy.
Well, that's not exactly true. I like the idea of urban fantasy. I like the idea of a secret hidden world within our world where magic is real, monsters live among us, and only a select few know about it.
What I don't like is much of what is published under the heading of "urban fantasy," most of which is really paranormal romance. Yes, I'm talking about Twilight. Vampires are predators who feed on the living, not sparkly emo stalkers obsessed with high school girls eighty years younger than they are. I read one of the Sookie Stackhouse novels that the TV series "True Blood" is based on and the less said about my opinion of that, the better.
That's why it's such a pleasure to find something in urban fantasy that isn't about whiny, co-dependent relationships with a vampire who is little more than a human with an eating disorder. Mur Lafferty has been a fixture of the podcasting world pretty much since there have been podcasts. She's been doing her writing show, "I Should Be Writing" for several years now, so it's great to see her long overdue major press publication.
The cover art alone tells you that this is something different from most urban fantasies. It eschews the leather-clad heroine with a tramp stamp holding a weapon in the moonlight. Instead, we see a professional woman walking down the street with various creatures in the background.
The protagonist of "The Shambling Guide to New York City" is Zoe, a travel writer. After a disaster of an office romance left her employed and forced to move, Zoe lands a job editing a travel book about New City. The catch: The book isn't aimed a humans, but the various vampires, demons, fey, and zombies that visit the Big Apple. Office politics take on a very different meaning when half her coworkers would just as soon eat her as take writing assignments from her. Managing a writing staff consisting of zombies, vampires, a death goddess and an incubus (there are no sexual harassment laws covering her new job) is challenging enough, but when the new HR director turns out to be golem made from the head of an ex-boyfriend, Zoe starts to think that maybe someone at the publishing company is out to get her.
"The Shambling Guide" is a fun, quirky book. Lafferty balances light humor and dark horror with a skill well above that of most first-time novelist. Zoe avoids many of the stereotypes that plague urban fantasy heroines. She doesn't waste her time mooning over unrequited love or overcompensating for deep insecurities. Zoe is smart, clever, and assertive while clearly aware that she has step in over her head. If you're tired of emo vampires, pick this up.
Well, that's not exactly true. I like the idea of urban fantasy. I like the idea of a secret hidden world within our world where magic is real, monsters live among us, and only a select few know about it.
What I don't like is much of what is published under the heading of "urban fantasy," most of which is really paranormal romance. Yes, I'm talking about Twilight. Vampires are predators who feed on the living, not sparkly emo stalkers obsessed with high school girls eighty years younger than they are. I read one of the Sookie Stackhouse novels that the TV series "True Blood" is based on and the less said about my opinion of that, the better.
That's why it's such a pleasure to find something in urban fantasy that isn't about whiny, co-dependent relationships with a vampire who is little more than a human with an eating disorder. Mur Lafferty has been a fixture of the podcasting world pretty much since there have been podcasts. She's been doing her writing show, "I Should Be Writing" for several years now, so it's great to see her long overdue major press publication.
The cover art alone tells you that this is something different from most urban fantasies. It eschews the leather-clad heroine with a tramp stamp holding a weapon in the moonlight. Instead, we see a professional woman walking down the street with various creatures in the background.
The protagonist of "The Shambling Guide to New York City" is Zoe, a travel writer. After a disaster of an office romance left her employed and forced to move, Zoe lands a job editing a travel book about New City. The catch: The book isn't aimed a humans, but the various vampires, demons, fey, and zombies that visit the Big Apple. Office politics take on a very different meaning when half her coworkers would just as soon eat her as take writing assignments from her. Managing a writing staff consisting of zombies, vampires, a death goddess and an incubus (there are no sexual harassment laws covering her new job) is challenging enough, but when the new HR director turns out to be golem made from the head of an ex-boyfriend, Zoe starts to think that maybe someone at the publishing company is out to get her.
"The Shambling Guide" is a fun, quirky book. Lafferty balances light humor and dark horror with a skill well above that of most first-time novelist. Zoe avoids many of the stereotypes that plague urban fantasy heroines. She doesn't waste her time mooning over unrequited love or overcompensating for deep insecurities. Zoe is smart, clever, and assertive while clearly aware that she has step in over her head. If you're tired of emo vampires, pick this up.
March 13, 2014
I really tried with the "The Shambling Guide to New York City", based on the concept and the positive reviews. Unfortunately, lumpy prose, a dull protagonist, and a lifeless supporting cast (no pun intended) made the first 200 pages such a slog that I finally gave up.
There's certainly the potential for an interesting book in the idea of a human exploring a supernatural underworld through the device of reading/writing travel guides; it's been done before in various forms as least as far back as Douglas Adams and done well it can be a fun way to bring a reader into a new world along with the protagonist. The problem here is there's nothing much new or novel in Lafferty's underworld and the travel guide segments scattered throughout the book are correspondingly flat, reading like the recycled chunks of old role playing supplements from which this book likely sprung. New York even without the supernatural should be enough to energize any book; here it's largely a gray void with occasional dots of detail as if the descriptions were written using Google Streetview with a collection of clipart fae and vampires.
This sort of inelegant datadump structure is equally present in the chapters. Even central characters do little more than tell the protagonist their origins, powers, and general stance on things as if they were bios at the bottom of a character sheet. Zoe, the main character's tragic origin story? She slept with her boss at her old company. Other than that she just seems to float in a blog-like stream of uninspired observations and dated cultural references. There are hints that she's yet another in a long line of literary Chosen Ones but whatever advantages that might give, they seem largely wasted on this particular character.
For a while I was able to let most of this slide as the prose level was sufficiently juvenile that I assumed the book was intended for a younger YA audience. The introduction of an incubus as part of the staff of Zoe's publishing company suddenly veers the book in an adult direction. While we're told repeatedly how he sets Zoe's loins percolating there's nothing about the character's description or dialogue to seduce the reader likewise; I don't think we'll be seeing "Team Incubus" t-shirts any time soon.
Clearly the idea alone was sufficient to merit sequels and I'm hoping that New Orleans will provide a sufficient jolt to jerk the series out of the doldrums. Regardless, based on this predecessor I'm more than willing to wait for "Ghost Train to New Orleans" to hit the library or the one-cent rack at Amazon.
There's certainly the potential for an interesting book in the idea of a human exploring a supernatural underworld through the device of reading/writing travel guides; it's been done before in various forms as least as far back as Douglas Adams and done well it can be a fun way to bring a reader into a new world along with the protagonist. The problem here is there's nothing much new or novel in Lafferty's underworld and the travel guide segments scattered throughout the book are correspondingly flat, reading like the recycled chunks of old role playing supplements from which this book likely sprung. New York even without the supernatural should be enough to energize any book; here it's largely a gray void with occasional dots of detail as if the descriptions were written using Google Streetview with a collection of clipart fae and vampires.
This sort of inelegant datadump structure is equally present in the chapters. Even central characters do little more than tell the protagonist their origins, powers, and general stance on things as if they were bios at the bottom of a character sheet. Zoe, the main character's tragic origin story? She slept with her boss at her old company. Other than that she just seems to float in a blog-like stream of uninspired observations and dated cultural references. There are hints that she's yet another in a long line of literary Chosen Ones but whatever advantages that might give, they seem largely wasted on this particular character.
For a while I was able to let most of this slide as the prose level was sufficiently juvenile that I assumed the book was intended for a younger YA audience. The introduction of an incubus as part of the staff of Zoe's publishing company suddenly veers the book in an adult direction. While we're told repeatedly how he sets Zoe's loins percolating there's nothing about the character's description or dialogue to seduce the reader likewise; I don't think we'll be seeing "Team Incubus" t-shirts any time soon.
Clearly the idea alone was sufficient to merit sequels and I'm hoping that New Orleans will provide a sufficient jolt to jerk the series out of the doldrums. Regardless, based on this predecessor I'm more than willing to wait for "Ghost Train to New Orleans" to hit the library or the one-cent rack at Amazon.
March 11, 2014
I've been a longtime listener of Mur Lafferty's podcast, "I Should Be Writing" and was really excited when she announced that she had this book coming out.
And then I started to burn out epically on urban fantasy. I accepted that there was probably some really great stuff out there, but I was tired of wading through the tropes to try to find it.
I grabbed this, admittedly mostly because of a kind of loyalty to Lafferty. If you're a writer, I heartily recommend her podcast. She is amazingly honest about her own struggles with her career and life.
On the surface, this kind of looks like a fun, silly book - human gets a job editing travel guides for coterie (basically, every kind of urban fantasy monster and creature you've ever seen, including zombies, vampires, gods, you name it).
Reading the book, it remains fun. Yes, there is a heavy reliance on tropes here - Zoe, our protagonist and editor, is very much a special snowflake (it's hard to believe that there are no coterie who can do the job of editing the books), but honestly, a few pages in, I didn't care about the tropes, because I was having so much fun reading this.
If you start thinking too hard about the worldbuilding, there are places where it is very thin, and I can understand why this would make this book frustrating for many readers. For me, there was more than enough awesome to make up for it.
Seriously. The golems at the end. Without spoiling anything, I am just going to say that the golems are awesome.
Really looking forward to picking up the next book and seeing if it delves further into the world, or just plain remains fun.
And then I started to burn out epically on urban fantasy. I accepted that there was probably some really great stuff out there, but I was tired of wading through the tropes to try to find it.
I grabbed this, admittedly mostly because of a kind of loyalty to Lafferty. If you're a writer, I heartily recommend her podcast. She is amazingly honest about her own struggles with her career and life.
On the surface, this kind of looks like a fun, silly book - human gets a job editing travel guides for coterie (basically, every kind of urban fantasy monster and creature you've ever seen, including zombies, vampires, gods, you name it).
Reading the book, it remains fun. Yes, there is a heavy reliance on tropes here - Zoe, our protagonist and editor, is very much a special snowflake (it's hard to believe that there are no coterie who can do the job of editing the books), but honestly, a few pages in, I didn't care about the tropes, because I was having so much fun reading this.
If you start thinking too hard about the worldbuilding, there are places where it is very thin, and I can understand why this would make this book frustrating for many readers. For me, there was more than enough awesome to make up for it.
Seriously. The golems at the end. Without spoiling anything, I am just going to say that the golems are awesome.
Really looking forward to picking up the next book and seeing if it delves further into the world, or just plain remains fun.
June 8, 2013
Although the premise bears some superficial similarities to things like "Ugly Americans", Lafferty's unique sense of humor combines with a real sense of danger to make something that feels fresh.
Zoe makes for a compelling lead character. She's proactive, determined and self-aware enough to occasionally take a step back and think "What the $@&* am I doing here?" The rest of the cast rounds out the narrative with a welcome mix of interesting characters, such as the mischievous water sprite, and the TOO-friendly incubus. Further, most of the characters provide depth beyond their initial first impressions. For example, that well-meaning character may not be very reliable. That bad-ass may prove surprisingly vulnerable. While each of the characters Zoe encounters provides a complex personality that we might recognize in the people around us, the story never forgets that they are ALSO, to use the pejorative, "monsters".
The book is both funny and exciting, and the climax goes to a place I never expected. "The Shambling Guide to New York City" provides a wonderful mix of humor and action, charm and danger, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Zoe makes for a compelling lead character. She's proactive, determined and self-aware enough to occasionally take a step back and think "What the $@&* am I doing here?" The rest of the cast rounds out the narrative with a welcome mix of interesting characters, such as the mischievous water sprite, and the TOO-friendly incubus. Further, most of the characters provide depth beyond their initial first impressions. For example, that well-meaning character may not be very reliable. That bad-ass may prove surprisingly vulnerable. While each of the characters Zoe encounters provides a complex personality that we might recognize in the people around us, the story never forgets that they are ALSO, to use the pejorative, "monsters".
The book is both funny and exciting, and the climax goes to a place I never expected. "The Shambling Guide to New York City" provides a wonderful mix of humor and action, charm and danger, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
December 23, 2019
I like reminiscing over things. I’ll sort of relive a memory of something and have a grandol time reliving the emotion, or feeling of the thing I’m thinking back on. I mean, as long as it’s a good memory, and not that one time when I got picked on in the theater. That was not a fun memory.
As it stands, Mur Lafferty is one of the first podcasters I listened to when I first dipped my toes into the whole listening to podcasts thing. It wasn’t my first, I don’t think, I believe that honor may go to Astronomy Cast…. Or maybe, just maybe, Adventures in Sci Fi publishing, which to this day, is as probably the most loved podcast I ever listened to. I miss it*
But Mur’s podcast, I Should Be Writing was about a struggling author too. Except it was also about her struggles in motivating herself to write, and the daily struggles she faced in putting the work in. It was real, and honest, and sometimes it was just her driving around in her car, self-flagellating about not getting it done and recording an episode as she drove around**. It felt so intimate to me. I quickly became a fan of hers as a result. I listened to her novel about a C-list superhero that had the dumbest super power ever… until it wasn’t. So then I wasn’t only a fan based on her struggles, but then a fan because of her kick-ass novel.
So I’ve always rooted for her, and tried to support her when I could. I’ve so happy she’s had some mainstream (I mean, still genre, so not technically mainstream, but I hope you get what I mean) success. This particular novel, this Shambling Guide to NYC, isn’t my favorite. But it isn’t because she isn’t a good writer, it’s just that this was not exactly my thing. The title might imply a zombie book, and it does have zombies galore, but it’s really an Urban Fantasy, and aside from a few notable exceptions, I’m not a fan, at all, of the whole every-magical-thing-you’ve-ever-heard-of-is-real style of modern fantasy, I’ve not found many of those that capture my attention.
So, meh. Good writing, and, in fact, I can’t pinpoint any ‘flaw’ in her storytelling chops, it just didn’t work for me. That’s okay, even my favorite authors of all time, after spending months, or in some cases, years, carefully crafting a story that they’ve cried and fought over, have not moved me. It happens.
But I know she’s released a space-based novel more recently than this one. Now that’s more up my alley. I’ll check that one out soonish.
Also, the first day of winter arrived this weekend. The island was cold. Like, flat out cold. I checked my weather app on my phone and was stunned to learn it was 60 degrees at the absolute coldest it got to. I am tempted to make a joke about having acclimated to a warmer lifestyle, but instead I’ll mention that water is an unbelievably effective means of cooling a person down. You will lose your body heat in water waaaayyy faster than if air at the same temperature, it sort of works the same way due to the humidity in the air too. Guys. It’s colder than you can imagine given the air temps. Stuff that kept me relatively comfortable even down into the upper 40’s in my old home can’t keep me from shivering in the low 60’s here.
My home doesn’t have heat. It’s going to be a frigid few months. Ugh.
*The Podcast went through many iterations over the years. But I began listening when it was Sean and Sam. He was a struggling-to-break-into-the-industry-writer and she was a massive fan of the genre and employee of one of the nations most famous genre bookstores. He would interview authors that he was a fan of and ask them questions mostly around storytelling, but also a significant portion was about the business side of being an author. It was funny, insightful, and always earnest. Here’s to you, AISFP – I’ll always love you.
**She interviewed people and stuff too. So it’s not like all she did was do a stream of consciousness style commentary on how much of a failure she felt like. That would be tough to listen to.
As it stands, Mur Lafferty is one of the first podcasters I listened to when I first dipped my toes into the whole listening to podcasts thing. It wasn’t my first, I don’t think, I believe that honor may go to Astronomy Cast…. Or maybe, just maybe, Adventures in Sci Fi publishing, which to this day, is as probably the most loved podcast I ever listened to. I miss it*
But Mur’s podcast, I Should Be Writing was about a struggling author too. Except it was also about her struggles in motivating herself to write, and the daily struggles she faced in putting the work in. It was real, and honest, and sometimes it was just her driving around in her car, self-flagellating about not getting it done and recording an episode as she drove around**. It felt so intimate to me. I quickly became a fan of hers as a result. I listened to her novel about a C-list superhero that had the dumbest super power ever… until it wasn’t. So then I wasn’t only a fan based on her struggles, but then a fan because of her kick-ass novel.
So I’ve always rooted for her, and tried to support her when I could. I’ve so happy she’s had some mainstream (I mean, still genre, so not technically mainstream, but I hope you get what I mean) success. This particular novel, this Shambling Guide to NYC, isn’t my favorite. But it isn’t because she isn’t a good writer, it’s just that this was not exactly my thing. The title might imply a zombie book, and it does have zombies galore, but it’s really an Urban Fantasy, and aside from a few notable exceptions, I’m not a fan, at all, of the whole every-magical-thing-you’ve-ever-heard-of-is-real style of modern fantasy, I’ve not found many of those that capture my attention.
So, meh. Good writing, and, in fact, I can’t pinpoint any ‘flaw’ in her storytelling chops, it just didn’t work for me. That’s okay, even my favorite authors of all time, after spending months, or in some cases, years, carefully crafting a story that they’ve cried and fought over, have not moved me. It happens.
But I know she’s released a space-based novel more recently than this one. Now that’s more up my alley. I’ll check that one out soonish.
Also, the first day of winter arrived this weekend. The island was cold. Like, flat out cold. I checked my weather app on my phone and was stunned to learn it was 60 degrees at the absolute coldest it got to. I am tempted to make a joke about having acclimated to a warmer lifestyle, but instead I’ll mention that water is an unbelievably effective means of cooling a person down. You will lose your body heat in water waaaayyy faster than if air at the same temperature, it sort of works the same way due to the humidity in the air too. Guys. It’s colder than you can imagine given the air temps. Stuff that kept me relatively comfortable even down into the upper 40’s in my old home can’t keep me from shivering in the low 60’s here.
My home doesn’t have heat. It’s going to be a frigid few months. Ugh.
*The Podcast went through many iterations over the years. But I began listening when it was Sean and Sam. He was a struggling-to-break-into-the-industry-writer and she was a massive fan of the genre and employee of one of the nations most famous genre bookstores. He would interview authors that he was a fan of and ask them questions mostly around storytelling, but also a significant portion was about the business side of being an author. It was funny, insightful, and always earnest. Here’s to you, AISFP – I’ll always love you.
**She interviewed people and stuff too. So it’s not like all she did was do a stream of consciousness style commentary on how much of a failure she felt like. That would be tough to listen to.
November 1, 2021
All Hallows Read #8
Yes, I celebrated All Hallows Read with the traditional gifting of books, but I'm also borrowing the title for my Halloween reading marathon.
Now, my last book was not nearly as light as expected, but this one absolutely was. And, I'd have to file this one under "Guilty Pleasure." It was so ridiculous, but I had a really good time reading it! In short, it's about an experienced, but unemployed travel book editor seeing a job listing, but when she inquires, everyone is like, "Yeah, that's not for you.". Without going into further detail, I'll simply note that there's been an entire side to life (or unlife) than she has been heretofore aware.
As I suggested, this was just a light, entertaining read. For a novel premised around a guidebook to NYC, there was nothing particularly evocative about it. That leaves me not too optimistic about the setting in the second half of this duology--New Orleans--but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. What will surprise me is if I have the willpower to resist reading the sequel until next Halloween. It's just too much fun to put off!
Yes, I celebrated All Hallows Read with the traditional gifting of books, but I'm also borrowing the title for my Halloween reading marathon.
Now, my last book was not nearly as light as expected, but this one absolutely was. And, I'd have to file this one under "Guilty Pleasure." It was so ridiculous, but I had a really good time reading it! In short, it's about an experienced, but unemployed travel book editor seeing a job listing, but when she inquires, everyone is like, "Yeah, that's not for you.". Without going into further detail, I'll simply note that there's been an entire side to life (or unlife) than she has been heretofore aware.
As I suggested, this was just a light, entertaining read. For a novel premised around a guidebook to NYC, there was nothing particularly evocative about it. That leaves me not too optimistic about the setting in the second half of this duology--New Orleans--but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. What will surprise me is if I have the willpower to resist reading the sequel until next Halloween. It's just too much fun to put off!
April 20, 2018
If you’re looking for urban fantasy, this delivers in spades. This book leans more towards urban fantasy than it does humor (as the title and cover implies). The premise is humorous, and there’s some gentle humor within, but the presentation undercuts this with some serious trauma.
I am always happy when fantasy settings incorporate Public Works (and other municipal services) into the struggle against the supernatural. Additionally, I was overjoyed when I realized this tied into previous fiction from Mur, in particular her Citytalkers work. If you enjoyed this book, then I suggest you check out Episode 137 of Escape Pod: “Citytalkers”
http://escapepod.org/2007/12/21/ep137...
I am always happy when fantasy settings incorporate Public Works (and other municipal services) into the struggle against the supernatural. Additionally, I was overjoyed when I realized this tied into previous fiction from Mur, in particular her Citytalkers work. If you enjoyed this book, then I suggest you check out Episode 137 of Escape Pod: “Citytalkers”
http://escapepod.org/2007/12/21/ep137...
Read
January 31, 2025Clever and unique paranormal story that rather neatly defied my expectations. There's an interesting mixture of mundanity and lowkey horror. There's a scene in a sex club that gets surprisingly graphic for a book that isn't a romance at all, but then again the scene isn't romantic and is actually kinda non-con. The concept really shines, and the author does a nice job narrating her own book. I definitely think the strengths here are world building and the off the wall humor of it (more of a funny kooky than funny haha). The characterization is on the simplistic side, and I didn't feel connected to what was going on, so my interest burned off towards the end, and I don't plan to read the sequel.
December 12, 2013
The Shambling Guide to New York City puts a clever spin on the urban fantasy genre, which involves fantasy in an urban setting. Supernatural creatures in cities. Who would have special needs and interests, different from the humans in cities.
So wouldn't they need a guidebook?
Enter Zoe Norris, skilled guidebook writer looking for a fresh start in New York City after a disastrous affair at her last job in North Carolina. She finds herself working for Underground Publishing and is initiated into the secret world of the coterie, the monsters' less pejorative term for themselves. Vampires, zombies, sprites, and even goddesses fall under this blanket, and Mur Lafferty mashes up the mythologies with ease.
For the majority of the book, Zoe is not trying to solve a Big Mystery or defeat some Ancient Evil. She's simply trying to do her damn job! She needs to do research to write her book! It's just that she has some pretty weird co-workers, okay. Her boss is a vampire and there's an incubus who really turns her on and that death goddess keeps talking about how doomed she is. In case it wasn't clear, Laffery keeps the tone pretty light, and it makes for a very entertaining read. It's light but not zany; Zoe has a healthy sense of humor about the absurdity of her position but she's a well-rounded character with depth.
What I love about Zoe is that she is a perfectly normal woman. She's not half-faerie, she can't do spells, she doesn't have any magic tattoos, she can barely fight. She's a relatable heroine, and I loved seeing the world through her eyes. Although she may not be strong in the physical sense, she's smart and resourceful, strong-willed and loyal, and, perhaps most importantly, incredibly competent and committed to doing her job. I love the way Lafferty juxtaposes the mundane and fantastic; it's a tricky line to walk and she does it effortlessly.
Although the story itself appears to be mundane at first—woman does research for a guidebook—Zoe finds herself in some dangerous situations that are nothing compared to the unbelievable climax Lafferty has in store for her. Shit gets real, but it never gets too dark, though. It's exciting and fun without being horrifically tragic, which isn't to say that everyone gets out of this book alive.
Ghost Train to New Orleans, the sequel, comes out next year. I love the idea of Zoe traveling to different cities, showing us the coterie in each one. It's a great premise for a series that promises something new with each installment.
So wouldn't they need a guidebook?
Enter Zoe Norris, skilled guidebook writer looking for a fresh start in New York City after a disastrous affair at her last job in North Carolina. She finds herself working for Underground Publishing and is initiated into the secret world of the coterie, the monsters' less pejorative term for themselves. Vampires, zombies, sprites, and even goddesses fall under this blanket, and Mur Lafferty mashes up the mythologies with ease.
For the majority of the book, Zoe is not trying to solve a Big Mystery or defeat some Ancient Evil. She's simply trying to do her damn job! She needs to do research to write her book! It's just that she has some pretty weird co-workers, okay. Her boss is a vampire and there's an incubus who really turns her on and that death goddess keeps talking about how doomed she is. In case it wasn't clear, Laffery keeps the tone pretty light, and it makes for a very entertaining read. It's light but not zany; Zoe has a healthy sense of humor about the absurdity of her position but she's a well-rounded character with depth.
What I love about Zoe is that she is a perfectly normal woman. She's not half-faerie, she can't do spells, she doesn't have any magic tattoos, she can barely fight. She's a relatable heroine, and I loved seeing the world through her eyes. Although she may not be strong in the physical sense, she's smart and resourceful, strong-willed and loyal, and, perhaps most importantly, incredibly competent and committed to doing her job. I love the way Lafferty juxtaposes the mundane and fantastic; it's a tricky line to walk and she does it effortlessly.
Although the story itself appears to be mundane at first—woman does research for a guidebook—Zoe finds herself in some dangerous situations that are nothing compared to the unbelievable climax Lafferty has in store for her. Shit gets real, but it never gets too dark, though. It's exciting and fun without being horrifically tragic, which isn't to say that everyone gets out of this book alive.
Ghost Train to New Orleans, the sequel, comes out next year. I love the idea of Zoe traveling to different cities, showing us the coterie in each one. It's a great premise for a series that promises something new with each installment.
July 9, 2013
Mur Lafferty is one of the people who inspired me to begin podcasting, so I am used to consuming her work in the audio format. She is an excellent narrator whose voice transports the listener into whatever slightly odd world she has created. I actually listened to The Shambling Guide to New York City at normal speed, instead of speeding it up like I usually do when listening to fiction.
I have been following Mur Lafferty's writing for several years, but I can honestly say that The Shambling Guide to New York City is her best work yet. It has her trademark humor along with a completely realized world, well-rounded characters, and a compelling story.
What makes Mur Lafferty's writing stand out from the current rash of fantasy novels is her sense of humor. The Shambling Guide to New York City represents her most mature and compelling work. She has a created a complex, believable version of New York City. In addition, her protagonist is fully realized and immensely likable, but she also has inner reserves of strength and courage that make the reader care about her future. I can't wait to see what will happen in the next book.
I have been following Mur Lafferty's writing for several years, but I can honestly say that The Shambling Guide to New York City is her best work yet. It has her trademark humor along with a completely realized world, well-rounded characters, and a compelling story.
What makes Mur Lafferty's writing stand out from the current rash of fantasy novels is her sense of humor. The Shambling Guide to New York City represents her most mature and compelling work. She has a created a complex, believable version of New York City. In addition, her protagonist is fully realized and immensely likable, but she also has inner reserves of strength and courage that make the reader care about her future. I can't wait to see what will happen in the next book.
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