Book Review: Awakenings by Edward Lazellari
Awakenings by Edward Lazellari. © 2011 Tor Books. ISBN 9780765327871. Hardback. Urban Fantasy. 348 pages. Source: review copy furnished by the publisher.
“Cal MacDonnell is a happily married New York cop with a loving family. Seth Raincrest is a photographer whose self-involved nature has alienated even his closet friends. They have nothing in common—except that they suffer from retrograde amnesia. It’s as if they just appeared out of thin air thirteen years ago, and nothing has been able to restore their memories. Now that forgotten past has caught up to them with a vengeance. Cal and Seth’s lives are turned upside down as they are stalked by otherworldly beings who know their past identities, intent on killing them and anyone who gets in their way. In the balance hangs the life of a child who might someday restore a broken empire to peace and prosperity.” – except of jacket blurb
My Review -
Cal is a cop who despite not having a memory passed the last thirteen years has managed to create a beautiful life with a great job, loving wife and beautiful daughter. Seth has the same amnesiac problem, but unlike Cal, has never managed to put his life together: Seth works as an amateur pornographer who has no lasting relationships outside of that with his pet cat. Cal and Seth soon find themselves with common enemies—the magic-wielding, “we want to kill you” kind of enemies. Read more
Synopsis: Professor Piers Knight is the Brooklyn Museum’s very own Indiana Jones. His specialties include lost civilizations, arcane cultures, and more than a little bit of the history of magic and mysticism. What his contemporaries don’t know is that in addition to being a scholar of all these topics, he is also proficient in the uses of magical artifacts.
Back Cover Blurb: Kitty Norville is back and in more trouble than ever. Her recent run-in with werewolves traumatized by the horrors of war has made her start wondering how long the United States government might have been covertly using werewolves in combat. Have any famous names in our own history been actually supernatural? She’s got suspicions about William Tecumseh Sherman. Then … an interview with the right vampire puts her on the trail of Wyatt Earp, vampire hunter.
Back Cover Blurb: Kitty Norville, alpha werewolf and host of The Midnight Hour, a radio call-in show, is contacted by a friend at the NIH’s center for the Study of Paranatural Biology. Three army soldiers recently returned from the war in Afghanistan are being held at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. They’re killer werewolves–and post-traumatic stress has left them unable to control their shape-shifting and unable to interact with people. Kitty agrees to see them, hoping to help by bringing them into her pack.
Synopsis: It’s OK no one remembers Etruscan Sun goddess Tessa. But when a demon threatens her life, she must turn to mythology’s darkest warrior for protection…
Synopsis: Meet Lawson. A cynical, wise-cracking vampire charged with protecting the Balance between vampires and humans, he is part cop, part spy, and part commando — James Bond with fangs. Lawson mixes shrewd cunning with unmatched lethality to get his job done. He tries his best to dismantle conspiracies, dispatch bad guys, and live long enough to get home.
Synopsis: Like most Manhattanites, aspiring artist Tate can’t resist a good rental deal–even if it’s in the city’s strangest neighborhood, Golgotham, where for centuries werewolves, centaurs, and countless other creatures have roamed the streets. Her new landlord is a sorcerer name Hexe, who is determined to build his reputation without using dark, left-hand magic. As Tate is drawn into Hexe’s fascinating world, they both find that the right hand does not always know what the left hand is doing-and avoiding darkness is no easy trick.
Synopsis: Escorting souls into the afterlife leaves Maddy little time for socializing—until devilishly handsome Gabriel Angeloscurro agrees to rent the empty apartment in her building. But when demons start appearing on Maddy’s front lawn, she realizes there’s more to her new tenant than meets the eye. 
