Supernatural/Mystery. Aw, Tony makes a new friend. Who has a GATE TO HELL tattooed on her belly. Whoops. Demons invade. Rocks fall. Some people die. Tony gets kind of badass with his magic. It's a good read. Technical stuff first: Huff has absolutely nailed third person limited. This book is nearly flawless in its POV. The plot arc is clear. We know what needs to be done, and the characters move toward it with a steady ramping up of tension. And the bad guy doesn't get to narrate anything, which preserves the surprise of the final battle. YAY. Now, other stuff: I loved Tony's makeshift magic -- it didn't always work, sometimes it worked in unexpected ways, but he kept trying and fiddling and figuring out what worked for him and if that meant grabbing his zipper to complete a spell, he went for it. There's some really hot Henry/Tony jealousy and possessiveness, from both sides. There's lots of nice hurt/comfort and people taking care of Tony and there continues to be satisfying sexual tension between Tony and Lee. Lots of awesome teamwork as people rallied to fight off the demons, too. My only problem is that I wasn't fond of Leah, the Demongate. I started out liking her, but her utter disregard for mortals turned me off. She got a little better as she spent more time around Tony, but the damage was done. Four stars. This is a great ending to the series. I only wish we'd gotten a bigger emotional climax with Tony and Lee, or, at the very least, more makeouts! That was, literally, anticlimactic.
This is the third (and final?) book in the spin-off series by Huff that takes two of the characters from her Vicky Nelson books and transplants them to Vancouver and the television industry there. It follows on from Smoke and Mirrors.In Smoke and Ashes, Tony Foster is still working on the crew of a syndicated television show about a vampire detective, though he's managed to claw his way a little further up the ladder of success. Alongside this, he's trying to figure out how to build on his magical abilities and lusting after one of the show's leading men.This time around, Tony stumbles across a woman who is doing stunts for the show and who has a very odd shadow, which he discovers is due to the fact that she's actually a couple of thousand years old and technically a portal for a dark power to come through. Tony and Leah, the stuntwoman, have to join forces (with the help of the usual suspects from the previous books in the series, including vampire Henry Fitzroy) to deal with the increasing number of demons who would very much like that dark power to emerge.I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the previous books, but it was still an entertaining read - the epilogue makes it seem likely that Huff isn't going to return to revisit these characters, but I hope she changes her mind about that. There's certainly plenty of odd goings on in the Canadian tv industry that could be written about, if nothing else!
What do You think about Smoke And Ashes (2007)?
I didn't love it as much as I loved Smoke and Mirrors. Leah's whole possessed-by-a-lust-demon shtick got old about halfway through the book, and I think the romance part was sort of a missed opportunity altogether. But I do recommend this book to anyone who has read Smoke and Shadows and Smoke and Mirrors, because it wraps up Tony Foster's story nicely. It was also an entertaining read, and (as expected) Tanya Huff doesn't disappoint with her ability to create engaging characters. If Goodreads let me do half-stars, I would have given this book 3 1/2 stars.
—Janna
The first book in the series was a little slow, but the next two were tons of fun to read...now I just keep thinking, where's the next one??? I need my bisexual vampire/gay wizard/demon crack! My favorite thing about Tanya Huff is that her characters have a lot of depth to them and they're not sterotypes by any stretch of the imagination. Everyone's sexuality is just kind of *there* and it's not a big deal, no matter what you are. My junior year "Queer Fictions" seminar prof would have had a blast with the sexuality/monstrosity themes...but in a good way.
—Mo
A solid and entertaining end to the series (although I'd be perfectly happy to read more, and it's certainly open enough for many more adventures to follow.) We're back to the more traditional urban fantasy format, and I was fairly pleased with it. The immortal and kind of obnoxious Leah was fun, the snippets of the main characters bluffing, sneaking, and lying their way into all sorts of random places was entertaining, and while I was never quite sold on the villain, I did appreciate the finale. ("He's a demon, what did you expect?")I still don't really care about Tony and Lee as a couple, but they're far less annoying than just about every other urban fantasy romance ever.
—Jeremy Preacher
