So the first question is if she survives her colleagues, will she survive her readership? The second question being, of course, who or what is Granny Good Mae?Īmerican author and RPG writer Mur Lafferty first introduced the concept of The Shambling Guide when she submitted elements of it as a short story for a charity book in aid of those recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Vampires, werewolves, demons, sprites, zombies… the list goes on as all alternative life is there, both in and out of the office. The thing is that New York City is full of monsters or coterie to be polite. However, its projected readership isn't one for which Zoe has written before. Zoe's personal exodus brings her to New York and the possibility of a job that sounds perfect: editing a travel guide to NYC itself.
Of course, things are never that simple, and soon someone’s messing with the zombies’ food supply and sending her animated constructs made of parts of an ex-boyfriend.Zoe is an unemployed book editor who had to leave her last job, and indeed her last city, in rather a hurry. She deals with the dangers and revelations pretty well – quite a feat when one of your co-workers is an incubus and the coterie world has no sexual harassment laws. After wandering into one of the city’s stranger bookstores she soon finds herself with a vampire for a boss, preparing a guide to the city for visiting “coterie” – which covers zombies, spirits, gods, incubi, succubi and more.
The plot might sound a little more low-key: a travel book editor, Zoë, has returned to New York and is desperate for a new job.
It’s also one displayed admirably here by Mur Lafferty, who includes pitched battles without once losing our attention, describing every blow and carrying us all along in the excitement. They work great on screen, or even on a comic page, but to describe punches and falls and gunfire in words alone is a rare skill.
Whether it’s a car chase, a fist fight or (as here) an aeroplane attacking a group of public sector workers, action scenes are something that the written word can struggle with.
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