Dana Cameron

Archaeologist/professor Emma Fielding hopes that her current field project will secure her tenure at the Maine university where she is the newest member of the Anthropology department. She believes that she has discovered the location of an English fort predating, not just the Plymouth colony, but also Jamestown. As her crew comes closer to discoveries that will confirm the fort's location, strange things begin happening. First Emma discovers a corpse on the beach. Then an armed treasure show more hunter forces his way onto the site and threatens to harm Emma if she gets in his way. Things continue to get worse from there, and as the crimes begin to pile up, Emma is puzzled to find herself a suspect rather than a victim. Like it or not, Emma is involved and can't rest until she finds out how these incidents are connected and who is behind them.

This is a very good start to a mystery series. The story is told with just the right amount of suspense. It has a nice balance between reason and action, so it might appeal to fans of adventure novels as well as traditional mystery fans. It has a bit more violence than most cozy mysteries, but not enough to put off most readers. It always irritates me when supposedly intelligent characters (like university professors) heedlessly put themselves in dangerous situations that a person of average intelligence would avoid, so I like Emma for her ability to curb these impulses, at least most of the time. This is a series I definitely want to continue reading. show less

I was very impressed with this first Emma Fielding mystery, set primarily in Maine. Emma is an archaeologist, leading a dig in south coastal Maine, at what she hopes will turn out to be an abandoned British fort that predates Jamestown. And then bodies start turning up . . . .

Her take on archaeology and academia felt entirely authentic, and lo and behold the "about the author" section at the end revealed that she is an archaeologist, so that accounts for it. Her Maine locations are almost show more entirely fictional, so she avoids inaccuracies that annoy natives like me, for the most part. (Except the very minor quibble that 95 is the interstate in Maine, so nobody calls it "Route 95", it's "I 95".)

The mystery is good, and the characters are realistic, neither too good to be true or so flawed you want to slap them (except maybe the ultimately revealed villain who was a bit over the top evil).

I would happily read more of this series. show less

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb, and who is the knife? – Florence & The Machine, Rabbit Heart

"This belonged to my sister-in-law," Prometheus explained. "Pandora."

A lump formed in my throat. "As in Pandora's box?"

Prometheus shook his head. "I don't know how this boxbusiness got started. It was never a box. It was a pithos, a storage jar. I suppose Pandora's pithos doesn't have the same ring to it.” ― Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

You see what we do to each other show more over the slightest differences in religion or politics? We beat each other up over baseball games. We’ll kill over the wrong-colored bandana. What would we do faced with the Fangborn? – Adam Nichols, Seven Kinds of Hell


One thing you must know about this book before walking into the story is this – you hold in your hand not some simple, See Jane Run, Run Jane Run novel. If you are looking for minimal world building, simplistic answers, and only two or three characters with clear-cut goals, this book isn’t for you. It is so far out of the “let’s just do mindless entertainment” wheelhouse you can’t even see it from the top of the Pharos Lighthouse. Instead, this is a book of complexities. Of unknown alliances, political convolutions, archeological mysteries, and xenophobic hatreds worthy of any Shakespearean play. Families destroy one another, blood is spilled, and there is avarice, sociopathy, vigilantism, viciousness, and political infighting enough to fulfill any Roman Senate chamber. No, if your idea of a good book is simplicity, walk away now.

Ah, but if you are like me – if you long for convolutions, for amazing world-building, a plethora of characters with both known and unknown agendas, a modern storyline with tentacles reaching back to the beginnings of time, a deep understanding of the history, archeology and stories of the cradles of civilization, rejoice, my friend! For Dana Cameron’s words will reach out to you, grab your mind and inject it with adrenaline, force you to pay attention, to learn, and to madly mark up whole paragraphs in order that you might research the lands and stories she portrays. It. Was. AWESOME!!!

Of course, the idea that there are creatures in this world, those who call themselves the Fangborn, calls to my love of all things fantasy. And Ms. Cameron’s concepts of fantastical creatures are not simplistic either. “Vampires” harken back to the snake goddesses of Knossos and Minoa rather than being the more Germanic wall crawlers popular in modern literature. There is no disturbing of the laws of physics as werewolves retain their mass when changed, and, gratefully, their clothes! Rather than burning in the sun, these vampires crave the sunshine, as do their snake cousins, and use their fangs to heal, and their powers of mind control to protect. Very different than what one normally would expect – but then, Ms. Cameron also makes grand use of various animal entities from history, from the Egyptian Anubis to the Greek Medusa.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. - Mahatma Gandhi

History is about to change, worlds are set to collide, and humans are, of course, acting like humans – and not exactly in a good way. No, you will not learn who all the characters are and what their alliances are in this volume of the story. Who exactly are the Fangborn who first approach Zoe? Who, or what, is Download and from where do his powers spring? Is Adam really to be trusted, or merely a mercenary, willing to change sides on a whim? More importantly, exactly who and what was Zoe’s father – and apparently more importantly, her mother? The book ends with the answers in Zoe’s hands, in a thin, coffee stained folder. Is it the truth? Is it a lie? Only time will tell. Well, and the next volume, should help of course! [bc:Pack of Strays|18984507|Pack of Strays (Fangborn, #2)|Dana Cameron|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388717558s/18984507.jpg|27004482] comes out on April 15, 2014 (only a few days away, Hooray!) and my finger was hot on the preorder button. Shh, don’t tell anyone, but no matter what book is next on my spreadsheet, that one gets moved to the top!

I received this book from Justin Golenbock at 47North and Netgalley in return for a realistic review. All comments are my own and reflect my own interests. I want to thank Justin for this marvelous opportunity and look forward to reading the next book in the series! show less

The first two books and two novellas of the Fangborn series have been living on my Kindle for a while now, patiently waiting their turn in the spotlight. It’s those Chris McGrath covers that always catch my eye! When Hellbender, Fangborn Book 3, came up for review on NetGalley, I was torn about requesting it. Nell assured me that starting a series with the third book would not cause my brain to explode; so, though doubtful, I agreed I’d give it a try. I’m not totally convinced it was a show more success, even though my brain is nominally intact.

Main Character: Zoe Miller has had an extraordinary amount of power thrust on her unexpectedly, so it would make sense that she’s struggling a little to come into her own. That shows in Hellbender, as Zoe will one minute be exclaiming that she doesn't know what she’s doing, and the next minute be calmly handling some crisis based on an agenda unknown to the reader. I’m not sure if that was purposeful, though. Either Zoe is a master at “winging it,” or the author wasn't quite clear on her character’s development.

There was a bit with Zoe and Will near the end of the book I really liked that, to me at least, represented the direction Zoe was moving. Zoe is telling her friend, Will, why they cannot be an item. It’s not because she doesn't want him (though I think she wants Adam more); it’s because of everything that’s coming, the danger she’ll put him in, and the suspicion that maybe she has influenced his feelings more than he realizes. She hates that she’s doing it and it tears her up emotionally, but she knows it has to be done. That’s some major stepping up.

Other Characters: Stepping into the middle of a series as I am, I expected there to be characters whose backgrounds I lack. I think I did a pretty good job of keeping track of those folks. But, there are some characters introduced in this book that I wish we’d gotten to know better – the Trips, Fatima, Jason with his crows Jill and Jack, and Max. I really like Max. We don’t get a lot of character knowledge about these people, and they are very interesting. I don’t think we get a lot of background on the villains, either. I know there is some background on the Order I’m missing from the other books; but, when Carolina Perez-Smith is introduced, there isn't much background on her, either. We don’t know why she’s involved in the Order. And then there are the Makers. I’m not sure what to think about them. They seem sophisticated enough to mimic one of Zoe’s favorite college hangouts to make her more comfortable during their talk, but not sophisticated enough to know that screaming in the heads of all the Fangborn will damage and kill some of them and reflect poorly on Zoe? They are supposed to be the Fangborn’s creators and incredibly powerful, but they come off as a bit clumsy and they give up too easily in the end. That makes me suspicious. I LOVE the dragons, though, even when they go crazy for the sparklies.

World: The Fangborn world is really interesting and not quite like anything else I've run across. I like the triumvirate of Fangborn – werewolf, vampire, and oracle. I like the “digs” about the oracles always being forgotten. I like that the vampires aren't your typical vampires, and certainly not sparkly. And I love that the “monsters” are the ones trying to protect humans. I love that Zoe is hunting up all these artifacts that are being drawn into her as a source of power. And I really like that the bad humans are trying to create their own versions of creatures to fight against what they see as a threat. There are some cool ideas here that make me want to learn more.

Story: While there are a lot of neat things happening in this story, they all happen so fast and seemingly without time to process the event and its meaning. I really did feel caught on a runaway train through most of the book, and it was a little confusing. I’m wondering if there couldn't have been three books worth of material here – the fight with the Order, the preparation for I-Day, and the conflict with the Makers. I feel there was a lot of detail sacrificed to move the story along, and I need that detail to understand what is going on in the story and to feel invested. As it was, the story felt very rushed.

There were several things mentioned in the book that didn't seem necessary, either. For example, when the dragons speak, there are many words that are unintelligible to Zoe. When I first encountered that, it made sense but I was expecting it to come back around later. Not only did I assume we’d find out what the words meant, but that they were important. That never really happened, so I wondered why the author bothered. I think it just added to the confused feel.

Overall: In the end, I’d like to go back and read this series from the beginning just to be sure the things that bother me about this book don’t stem from my lack of knowledge. If it’s not, then I have to say the lack of detail and the rushed feeling of the book will keep it from being one of my favorites. I hope it is, though. There are some neat things about this world that I’d love to know more about.

Copy provided by author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. Review courtesy of onebooktwo.com | one book, two reviews. show less