M.L. Brennan

**A copy of this novel was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.**

I always get excited when I read the first book in a new series. There’s always the promise of something new, original and immersive. M.L. Brennan’s GENERATION V fulfilled that promise and then some. If I could distill what I loved about this book into two words, those words would be Fortitude Scott.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, fortitude is the “strength of mind that enables a person to show more encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage.” This defines Fortitude Scott, the hero of GENERATION V, perfectly. Fortitude is the anti-alpha, a welcome hero in a genre that is glutted with alphas. Don’t get me wrong. I like a good alpha male character in my urban fantasy but I just fell in love with how real Fort felt. He is twenty something, has a useful degree in Film Theory, a dead end job at a coffee shop, and a manipulative roommate and girlfriend who sleep with each other. How can things get worse, right? They do. But I’ll get to that. Fort is smart, with a sharp, self-deprecating voice that had me laughing out loud and wanting to find him a nice girlfriend. Because he deserves it. He’s such a nice guy! Fort is so lovingly ordinary that he feels like an everyman, but underneath the humor lies a strength of character that makes him remarkable. It is precisely this well-defined, original, new voice that hooked me into the story from page one.

But Fort is also a vampire facing full transition, desperately trying to hold onto his humanity. This is where the humor of Fort’s voice really counterbalances the darkness of his world. He has a vampire family – the deceptively strong Madeline, his mother, and his siblings, the downright scary Prudence, and the aptly named Chivalry. How he was born and the complex relationship he has with his mother and siblings is the dark heart of the story. The relationships he has with them are built on fear, though there could be a true fondness between him and Chivalry, and I found the layers in these relationships fascinating. Given his history with them, I can’t understand why he doesn’t detest them all but then again, he doesn’t have much choice but to be part of this family if he’s to understand and survive his transition.

Brennan’s vampire world is dark and she gives us an unredeemable, disgusting villain to pit Fort against. Given Fort’s, shall we say, lack of physical strength and obvious youth, the stakes are high. You worry he won’t make it. But there’s no courage without fear and Brennan firmly places this seemingly ordinary young man in the middle of extraordinary circumstances and the resulting conflict kept me turning the pages well past my bedtime.

Finally, Suzume. She is Kitsune, the mythical Japanese fox shifter. And she is a badass. Suzume is everything Fort is not – confident, aggressive, physical, and very plugged into the supernatural world around them. There’s definitely chemistry and, as his bodyguard, she and Fort spend a lot of time together. I loved their banter, I loved Suzume’s badassery, and the kitsune myth is an not oft used world in urban fantasy. I hope we see more of her.

If I had to get picky I would say some of the world-building got a little foggy for me. Specifically, in Brennan’s creation, a vampire’s birth is an original concept but I had to re-read some sections in order to understand the process. Fort’s birth is a bit of a mystery so I fully expect those concepts to be further explained over the course of the series.

Regardless, GENERATION V is a wonderful start to an interesting new series. Funny and dark with a hero you can’t help but love, Brennan’s American Vampire series is now on my auto-buy list.

**A copy of this novel was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.**

This review is courtesy of the blog She-Wolf Reads - www.shewolfreads.com show less

Several years ago, the Paranormal Fantasy genre experienced a huge boost in popularity, with literally dozens of new titles being released every week. At that rate, it did not take long for the genre to become formulaic, and by now one would expect it to be quite dead, its life drained out of it by the countless imitators feeding from the same template, using the same conventions over and over again. But then, just as one believes the genre to be finally deceased for good, there is a show more twitching in the presumed corpse when someone comes up with a new and surprising twist and released a novel that breathes fresh life into tired tropes. M. L. Brennan’s debut novel Generation V was such a work, taking what is at heart a fairly simple concept but which enabled her to approach the genre from a new and original angle, opening up a whole new lot of possibilities.

What opens up those new perspectives in M. L. Brennan’s series of novels (of which Dark Ascension is the fourth of a planned six) is their protagonist who is most concisely described (in the author’s own words) as “slacker vampire.” Fortitude Scott, said protagonist and first-person narrator is the youngest member of the most powerful vampire clan in the United States, but he also is a very reluctant vampire, doing his best to distance himself from his family by keeping a vegetarian diet and working menial day jobs. Vampires in Brennan’s world are emphatically un-sparkly but usually ruthless, power-obsessed creatures, while Fortitude is basically a nice, average guy who just wants to live his life in peace and as far away as possible from his predatory family.

Which of course is not working out too well, and the way Fortitude (Fort, for short) is gradually drawn into its family’s power structure and forced to come t terms with his vampiric nature is the main focus of this series. The Scott family bears more than a passing resemblance to a supernatural Mafia clan, and the similarity to The Godfather is not lost on Fort (who used to study film theory) who in Dark Ascension compares himself to Michael Corleone at one point. A large part of the appeal of the series is that Fort is such an immensely likeable character, and M.L. Brennan manages very well to make the reader feel his dilemma, his reluctance to become even vaguely like his openly psychopathic sister and his despair at the inevitability of becoming a full vampire as well as his courage to still remain as human as he can in the face of his gradual transformation.

The world building is also very imaginative and Brennan manages to pull several unexpected twists on familiar supernatural races out of her hat. For her vampires, she apparently researched the behaviour of actual vampiric creatures like vampire bats with some surprising (and, as shown in this volume when Fort finally feeds on his first human, surprisingly hilarious) results. There are elves, fairies, ghouls and witches, none of them quite what one would expect from genre traditions but all with an original (and usually rather nasty twist, and there are kitsunes, most notably Fort’s partner and girlfriend Suzume who is a fascinating character in her own right.

The series manages to move from gritty and gruesome (occasionally even gross) to funny and frolicsome and back again, and to not only keep the reader pulled along with the plot but also emotionally involved; and it has managed to keep its quality and reading enjoyment at a consistently high level from the first installment to this fourth one. It seems to be one of those series which everyone who has read them loves – unfortunately, however, not that many people seem to have read it, and it seems likely that the publisher is going to drop the series and not release any more volumes after this one. Which is a pity; while Dark Ascension does offer some closure, with a lot of things happening that change the world Fort lives in fundamentally, there also are a lot of open questions which one would like to see answered. Not to mention that there aren’t all that many Paranormal Fantasy series of this calibre and it would be sad to see another end prematurely. show less

All right, important things first: Urban Fantasy fans, you NEED to drop everything and check out Generation V by M.L. Brennan. Like, right now. I'll wait. After you read it, you'll be all caught up for Iron Night and then you will understand why I love this book so much, because if there's one word I can use to describe this sequel, it is "Perfection". I really enjoyed Generation V, but Iron Night takes things to the next level, and even goes further to address everything I had ever wondered show more or was skeptical about in the first book.

The best part is, you still get all the elements that made Generation V so great. Fortitude Scott is back, and though he may be one step closer to becoming a full-fledged vampire, he is still the underdog with a heart of gold that we know and love. Things seem to be finally looking up for Fort, too. His friendship with the kitsune Suzume Hollis is deepening, his brother is showing him the ropes to running the family territory, and though waiting tables isn't exactly bringing in the big bucks, at least he's got a job. And for once, he's even got a pretty cool roommate.

It was all too good to last for Fort, though. That cool roommate of his ends up dead one night, killed by something unnatural. The powerful Scott family matriarch immediately throws her weight around and covers up the details, pinning the crime on a patsy. Fort is left as the only one trying to figure out the truth behind his friend's murder, resolved to make the real killer pay. What he finds, however, is something more dangerous and terrifying than he could have possibly imagined.

First, what a great story, bolstered by incredible character development. If you've read Generation V you'll already know that the protagonist Fortitude Scott was funny, sweet, cute, but -- let's face it -- also kind of a doormat. Used and manipulated by everyone in his life, it almost got too painful to read! Like any underdog though, he comes into his own. I started to see that happening by the end of the first book, and I'd looked forward to seeing M.L. Brennan take that further in Iron Night and boy, does she ever! Fort's kind heart and goodness still shines through and gets him into trouble, but he's not letting just anyone walk all over him now (okay, Suzume still gets to but that's because, well, she's the Suze). A transitioning process like that has to be gradual and handled carefully, without making Fort go from "the little guy" to "top dog" overnight, and the author pulls that off flawlessly.

We also get to know more about the Scott family, along with those fascinating dynamics. Some of the best scenes in the book feature Fort's interactions with his family members, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually beginning to really like his sister Prudence. I was very glad to see her greater involvement in this novel, even though she's still insane and scary as hell. And finally, we get some answers and explanations into why Fortitude is "different" than his siblings. That was something I'd been itching to find out since the end of the last book!

Also, recall how I was completely blown away by the wildly original and unique ideas in Generation V. I bet you've never encountered vampires like M.L. Brennan's vampires! She does it again in Iron Night, offering a fresh take on supernatural creatures...though this time, it's with elves! Let's just say after reading this book, I'll never look at Legolas the same way again. And how can I review this book without talking about the humor? A lot of UF series these days feature humor, but this is one of the few that has actually made me burst out laughing. Incidentally, this was how I almost choked to death on the granola bar I was munching on while reading Iron Night, and that was only on page 2. Curse you, M.L. Brennan, your sharp wit will be my undoing!

There are just some amazing moments in this book. Having followed Fort's story over these two installments, I am so invested in these characters, both main and supporting, and it's nice to see the author has all kinds of surprises up her sleeve. I desperately wish I could go into one of my favorite scenes without revealing any spoilers, but for now I can only describe my reaction to it: the feeling I got at the end of the movie Se7en. All I can say is that the baddie in this book is one evil, ruthless monster. And it only made this story all the more awesome.

I can't recommend these books enough. This sequel was simply amazing, and it was everything I'd hoped for and more. Earlier this year when I read Generation V, I knew this had the potential to become one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series. Well, Iron Night pretty much made that official! show less

I make it no secret that Generation V is one of my favorite urban fantasy series right now. I just love these books so much! Even if this latest installment did make me bawl my eyes out.

Normally, I’d be pretty resentful if anyone made me cry, but it’s entirely different when it comes to a book. In that case, it’s liable to earn itself at least an extra half star and a gushy review. What can I say, I just love it when my reading material appeals to my emotions. It’s a sign of good show more storytelling and character development, and I’m always excited to see what author M.L. Brennan will bring next for our underdog vampire protagonist Fortitude Scott and his partner Suzume Hollis the spunky kitsune.

Every Generation V book is a new surprise, and Dark Ascension might be the biggest and most important one yet. The winds of change are sweeping through Madeline Scott’s territory, and all the supernatural denizens within are bracing themselves for the inevitable outcome of the vampire matriarch’s failing health. Everyone is worried (and rightfully so) what would happen when her daughter, the psychotic and murderous Prudence takes over, but Fort is not about to let his Machiavellian older sister seize all that power without a fight. In the end though, the aging but still terrifyingly shrewd Madeline may be the one to surprise them all.

Dark Ascension follows a path that is very dissimilar to what we saw in the first three installments, and to be honest, to most urban fantasy arcs in general. It’s a very bold move by the author, but for what she’s attempting to do here, it works rather well. Instead of presenting us with a main problem that unifies the entire plot – like a paranormal crime to be solved by the characters over the course of the book, for example – the story is actually made of many different and smaller conflicts. And subsequently, all these conflicts come to together to form the big question: What will be become of Madeline Scott’s territory once she’s gone? The answers will have repercussions for the entire supernatural community, not to mention Madeline’s own children.

Once again, the Scott family dynamics are at the forefront, an element I find fascinating and that I look forward to seeing developed each time a new book comes out. I’m not sure what it says about me that I simply adore the fearsome and bloodthirsty Prudence, but it’s always nice to see her get a bigger role (though not as much as I thought she would). Needless to say, Fort’s more liberal way of thinking combined with his kind heart makes him the antithesis of his cruel, hard-edged sister. But that doesn’t mean they don’t love each other; it’s merely a love that few can understand. To paraphrase Fort, it’s not that Prudence is incapable of showing affection, just that she’s at her most terrifying when she actually tries. Between them in birth order and in ideology is also of course their brother Chivalry, whose moderate stance only leads to more gridlock whenever the siblings try to work together as a team. If anything though, I think this book only raised my regard for Chivalry, who of the three of them seems to be the most invested in honoring their mother’s wishes. I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for the good son.

So where does this leave Fort? Well, on the one hand, I’m really impressed at the amount of growth he’s shown throughout the series, but in some ways he hasn’t changed at all. Despite being on his way to become a full-fledged vampire, Fort still underestimates his own value and puts himself in situations where people take advantage of his kindness. He’s also struggling with a serious case of denial when it comes to what he is, but probably not for much longer. Dark Ascension is a turning point where all sorts of changes are happening, and most of them are in our protagonist. Despite the relative lack of action and intrigue in this novel compared to the previous ones, here is where I saw Fort face his most difficult challenges yet.

Furthermore, there’s just so much delicious foreshadowing. Fort makes some great strides in Dark Ascension, and yet there’s still a piece of me bracing for the other shoe to drop. We’ve been told that he is “different” from his siblings, but what that truly means remains to be seen, and I’m very curious to find out what greater purpose Madeline had in mind for her youngest son when she decided to alter his upbringing. Fort has also spent most of his life trying to avoid the family business, but now it’s given him a new purpose. To what cost, though? Keeping in mind Suze’s analogy of the Peep in a microwave, will Fort’s good intentions end up biting him in the ass? Chivalry’s warning in the end is especially ominous. Fort’s heart may be in the right place, but he’s still going against the grand plan and breaking many promises by acting on his own. Isn’t this how corruption begins? By going against Madeline’s wishes, who’s actually bringing the greatest threat to her vision for the future?

I’m practically bursting with questions and anticipation for the next book. I know I’ve said it before but I’ll happily say it again and again: M.L. Brennan’s Generation V series is simply wonderful, featuring a unique world filled the most incredible and unique paranormal beings you’ll ever meet. Without a doubt, this is one of the most fun, refreshing and addictive urban fantasy series you can find on the shelves right now, with each book bringing a new adventure and plenty of surprises. If you haven’t started yet, run—don’t walk—to your nearest bookstore and pick up the first book. I really can’t wait to see what Fort and Suze will be up to next. show less