…a review of Mur Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City

Like some (many) other aspiring writers I follow Mur Lafferty’s I Should Be Writing entries on her blog. I’ve also followed the podcasting she’s done for Escape Artists. She’s had a few stories published so she’s past the aspiring part, and with last month’s release of SG-NYC being the first in a new series she begins the long slog through the next few milestones of her writing career.

I picked up SG-NYC at Powells last week and finished it yesterday. For a new series of urban fantasy it’s marvelously planned out. SG-NYC is the first of a series that will mirror an apocryphal series of travel books written for the underground of the world’s monsters “coterie”. Like the True Blood franchise, it’s a new premise for urban fantasy, but it goes much further than just the regular variations of beasties and emotional turmoil. Unlike the True Blood franchise the heroine is allowed to stretch her intellectual legs and be more than just a meal. Also, there are giant robots golems. And where there’s giant robots, there’s always room in future installments for giant-robot-on-giant-robot romance. Here’s hoping.