Thursday, June 2, 2016

Triad Blood

Back when Buffy the Vampire Slayer made it big on TV and Jim Butcher started writing about Harry Dresden, I remember hunting the shelves of bookstores for urban fantasy reflective of my life and my relationships. I wanted the vampires and the werewolves and the magic, the exciting twists and turns – yeah, all of that. But I also wanted a gay man’s perspective. 

I wasn’t looking for erotica or romance masquerading as urban fantasy. I was looking for the real deal. Full-blown creatures of the night (creatures of the fey were always welcome too) duking it out for supremacy, power, and bragging rights, and oh yeah, with gay guys front and center, if you please. And if there happened to be a bit of romance or...more in there, well that wouldn’t suck either. Easiest way to put it: I was looking for the love child of The Originals and Queer as Folk.

Well, after fifteen years of hunting, all I’ve gotta say is:Triad Blood, you’re one big, beautiful bastard. 

Burgoine takes characters he created in a series of short stories and turns them into an exciting, funny, suspenseful, sexy novel. A group of outcasts (a wizard, a vampire, and a demon) form their own coven to stop the rest of the supernatural world from walking all over them. In the process they create something entirely unique which enhances each of their individual abilities in turn. Their newly-combined strength and power threatens Ottawa's magical world, and the Triad finds themselves up against some of the strongest and baddest supernatural beings around. 

The book's narrative is split between the three main characters, and Burgoine does an excellent job of developing each one's unique voice. From the vampire Luc's eloquent and graceful prose, to the young wizard Curtis's hopeful and inquisitive quest, to the demon Anders' base and often hysterical observations, each one finds his own way, and I couldn't stop myself from plowing through the book to not only see if they made it out safely but also to spend more time with each of them.

If you've spent much time with Burgoine's fiction or catching up with him on his blog, you know the importance that 'created families' have for him. It's a theme evident in much of his writing, and perhaps nowhere more prominently explored than with these three guys. In much the same way Whedon did with Buffy or Angel or Firefly, Burgoine brings a group of misfits together – whether they want to or not – and finds a way to make it work despite their differences, and sometimes because of them. He surrounds his characters with biological families and groups brought together by societal norms and contrasts them with the family he's created. And while other characters may want them to define who and what they are to each other, they don't take the bate and neither does Burgoine. He simply allows them to be so we can experience them and in the process care about them like they were our own friends or family.

I've spent a lot of time here going on about the characters, and it would be a mistake on my part to lead someone to think that's all the book has going for it. At its heart, this is an exciting and suspenseful ride. Burgoine has created a fully-realized world, replete with its own laws of magic, various races, and individual societies. He has a lot of fun dabbling in supernatural politics and court intrigue, something I've always got a jones on for in my urban fantasy. He drives straight through the obstacle course he's created for his characters & readers and reaches such an exciting and surprising climactic battle that I couldn't put it down until I'd gotten to the end, and even then I was hankering for more.

On a side note, one of the things I really appreciated about this book is the twists at the end of the chapters. Often when I'm reading an urban fantasy (other genre books too, but it seems to happen to me more in U.F.) I'll find the author has put a jolt at the conclusion of a chapter to drive the reader on to the next one. Sometimes, these can feel more like a plot device than a logical progression or a complication based on the characters' choices. Burgoine does a solid job of avoiding that trap and creating a natural progression for his characters that leads them further and further into trouble and makes us want to keep reading without feeling like we're being tricked into doing so. So points for that, too!

Over the last few years I've begun mumbling a phrase to myself (a sentence, really) when I'm reading something new by 'Nathan Burgoine. I'll shake my head and say it. I'll laugh out loud and say it. I'll feel my heart tug a little (sometimes a lot) and say it. And when I'm really lucky, I get to immerse myself in a new novel of his and say it over and over again.

He's just so good. 

And it's true. He really is.

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