Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: DAW
Publication Date: March 6, 2012
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Other books in the series:
Midnight Blue-Light Special (book #2) TBR March 2013
How I Got It: My own purchased copy
Goodreads Summary:
Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night... The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity-and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...
I had recently been complaining a little bit about how all Urban Fantasy heroines had the same job and wanted something different. I picked up Discount Armageddon and it was just what I wanted!
The Price family were once members of the Covenant of St. George, protecting humanity from "evil"creatures or those they believed not to have ben on the Ark. Her great-great-grandfather discovered that the Covenant in fact was disrupting the balance of nature, causing outbreaks of disease and many times slaughtering harmless creatures. They broke away and subsequent generations trained as rigorously as Covenant members but with the aim to study and protect beings that needed it and dispatch those that were too great a danger. Think of them like Jane Goodall, but with rocket launchers.
Verity loves being a cryptozoologist and believes in her family's mission. She also loves being a dancer and she can't decide which career she wants to pursue. Her family has allowed her to go to New York to study and protect the local cryptid population while she pursues her professional dancer goals. To make ends meet she is a waitress at a cryptid run strip club. (I hate to admit it, but it took me awhile to figure out that her workplace, Fish and Strips, was a strip club and not a funny restaurant that specialized in fish and steak.)
The Price family has sacrificed much to hide from the Covenant, so it is no small thing when she falls into a trap set by one of their members. Dominic is a very capable fighter with no real world experience and comes across as overly formal and nerdy. It's obvious his life has been difficult and his adherence to the Covenant's rules seems to be his way of proving his loyalty and worth. While they are attracted to each other they have some major philosophical differences. Despite wanting to smack him, Dominic is a very sympathetic and likable character. He works through what he's been taught to start finding his own truths.
McGuire has created a fast paced, imaginative, and super fun series! There are great characters, the fight scenes rock, and the dialog is great. I loved the Price family version of hide-and-seek, it involves traps and explosives. Verity's family is a hoot and I definitely hope we see more of them in following books. And she stole my little geek heart when she referenced Sleestaks. While I loved the book's humor, the one liners could be a bit much. It seemed that McGuire was trying to pack all of her funny lines into the first book in case the series wasn't picked up. But that's my only complaint.
Parts I liked:
It was so hard to just pick a few.
"There's no such thing as a normal life. Some lives are just more interesting than others, and we shouldn't judge people for being boring."
"Oh?" I asked, interested despite myself.. "What did they say?"
"That you were all insane."
"Ah," I sat up again, grinning at him. "That's pretty much true. We're all crazy. But crazy has its benefits."
"What benefits are those?" he asked warily.
"Crazy gets all the knives."
The Price family were once members of the Covenant of St. George, protecting humanity from "evil"creatures or those they believed not to have ben on the Ark. Her great-great-grandfather discovered that the Covenant in fact was disrupting the balance of nature, causing outbreaks of disease and many times slaughtering harmless creatures. They broke away and subsequent generations trained as rigorously as Covenant members but with the aim to study and protect beings that needed it and dispatch those that were too great a danger. Think of them like Jane Goodall, but with rocket launchers.
"Anyone who thinks cryptozoolovy is the study of the impossible has never really taken a very good look at the so-called natural world". Once you get past the megamouth sharks, naked mole rats, and spotted hyenas, then the basilisks, dragons, and cuckoos just don't seem that unreasonable. Unpleasant, yes, but unreasonable? Not really."
Verity loves being a cryptozoologist and believes in her family's mission. She also loves being a dancer and she can't decide which career she wants to pursue. Her family has allowed her to go to New York to study and protect the local cryptid population while she pursues her professional dancer goals. To make ends meet she is a waitress at a cryptid run strip club. (I hate to admit it, but it took me awhile to figure out that her workplace, Fish and Strips, was a strip club and not a funny restaurant that specialized in fish and steak.)
The Price family has sacrificed much to hide from the Covenant, so it is no small thing when she falls into a trap set by one of their members. Dominic is a very capable fighter with no real world experience and comes across as overly formal and nerdy. It's obvious his life has been difficult and his adherence to the Covenant's rules seems to be his way of proving his loyalty and worth. While they are attracted to each other they have some major philosophical differences. Despite wanting to smack him, Dominic is a very sympathetic and likable character. He works through what he's been taught to start finding his own truths.
McGuire has created a fast paced, imaginative, and super fun series! There are great characters, the fight scenes rock, and the dialog is great. I loved the Price family version of hide-and-seek, it involves traps and explosives. Verity's family is a hoot and I definitely hope we see more of them in following books. And she stole my little geek heart when she referenced Sleestaks. While I loved the book's humor, the one liners could be a bit much. It seemed that McGuire was trying to pack all of her funny lines into the first book in case the series wasn't picked up. But that's my only complaint.
Parts I liked:
It was so hard to just pick a few.
"There's no such thing as a normal life. Some lives are just more interesting than others, and we shouldn't judge people for being boring."
********
"I'm five-two, with blue eyes, white-blonde hair, and a cheerleader smile - just your basic girl next door, assuming your girl next door comes spring-loaded with seventeen ways to kill a man. Which implies a pretty interesting neighborhood that most people probably don't want to visit."
********
"Cryptids like to live to live where hans don't, but they also like to be close enough to steal cable."
********
"The jury's still out on what happened to Grandpa Thomas, although Grandma Alive insists he's alive, and my mother raised me never to contradict anyone who regularly carries grenades."
********
"Dominic shook his head. "I never believed the stories about your family. I thought they were exaggerated. Now I'm starting to think that they may have been understating things.""Oh?" I asked, interested despite myself.. "What did they say?"
"That you were all insane."
"Ah," I sat up again, grinning at him. "That's pretty much true. We're all crazy. But crazy has its benefits."
"What benefits are those?" he asked warily.
"Crazy gets all the knives."
Verdict:
Discount Armageddon is much lighter in tone than McGuire's grimmer October Daye series. The world that she has created, filled with fantastic creatures and instantly likable characters made this a delight to read. Discount Armageddon is a fast and fun Urban Fantasy that's little different from normal UF offerings. I cannot wait for the next book!
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