Ghostly THE FADES, Feyish LOST GIRL, and ROYAL STREET E-Galleys

Thanks to those of you who recommended Lost Girl, a Canadian urban fantasy series running on SyFy on Mondays at 10 pm. (SyFy calls it a "SyFy Original," because no one ever gave the people at SyFy a dictionary. Whatever.) As readers commented, the production values are cheezy. But it's quite fun with interesting characters and lots of action.

Lost Girl stars Anna Silk as Bo, a young woman who has no idea why she needs to suck the life-force out of others. She's living on the downlow, leaving a trail of corpses, including those of friends and lovers. A few strange members of the police force track her down and introduce her to the fae world, where she discovers that she's a succubus. No free agents are allowed in the fae kingdom, and she's got to choose between joining the light side or the dark side.

The smexy show has lively snark and hawt chicks wearing black leather boots and kicking ass. I especially liked Bo's self-proclaimed "manager," Kenzi (Ksena Solo), a crafty criminal hottie who recognizes immediately the benefits of befriending someone with Bo's powers. Kris Holden-Reid plays the vampire police detective, whose kisses are "like the Fourth of July" in Bo's mouth. (I don't know what a Canadian Fourth of July is, but I believe it involves poutine and beer.)

I ran across another new to the U.S. urban fantasy series, The Fades, on BBC America.  Here's the summary:

“The Fades” is a coming-of-age fantasy drama showcasing the supernatural skills of a reluctant teenager named Paul (as played by Iain De Caestecker, formerly of “Coronation Street”). His best friend, Mac (Daniel Kaluuya, “Johnny English Reborn,” “Skins”), as well as his therapist, are completely stunned by the apocalyptic dreams that he’s been having. His twin sister Anna (Lily Loveless, “Skins”) is also unsympathetic of his socially awkward behavior.

As if things aren’t difficult enough, Paul is seeing the spirits of the dead (known as Fades) all around him. An embittered Fade finds a way to break the barrier between the dead and the living, aiming its vengeance at Paul, Mac and their loved ones.

Soon the fate of humanity rests in the hands of the two best friends, who already have enough trouble getting through the day in one piece, let alone saving the world.

The Fades is both moody and funny, with some very creepy imagery and spookiness. I struggled a bit to understand some of the accents, but I was delighted to see that Natalie Dormer (who played the pouty beauty Anne Bolyn in The Tutors) has a recurring role. The teens in this show aren't precocious or supermodelly -- they're real people with real issues and they've got to save the world with help from a few battlescarred adults.

Suzanne Johnson, who blogs at Preternatural, will soon have her debut urban fantasy, Royal Street, published by Tor Books. But you don't have to wait until April if you're a member of NetGalley. Egalleys are available there, so race over and request one. I'll be posting more about Suzanne's terrific post-Katrina themed novel as the publication date approaches.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

After the longest winter drought that I remember, it's finally raining. So my theme is rain, water, storms, lightening, any of that stuff. Have a great weekend!





This song will kills a large chunk of your brain cells, but the videos kinda fab anyway. Go figure.



Okay, I'm making it up to you with this beautifully edited vid to Adele's marvelous song.