Tanya Huff: Smoke Trilogy

[jsmyla]

I'm a little bit biased about this series because I absolutely love almost everything Tanya Huff has written. That being said, if you enjoy humor mixed with a capturing, exciting story then this is a must-read. She has a wonderful, slightly around the corner from predictable, sense of humor. This series doesn't disappoint.

This series is an offshoot of her "Blood books" series. In my opinion it's much better too. The story is set it Canada and the main character, Tony, is a non-stereotypically homosexual production assistant working on the set of "the highest rated vampire detective show in syndicated television" (which is to say it's got a pretty small audience and is a little cheesy) who has quite a large unrequited crush on the co-star, Lee. In the first book he starts noticing odd shadows around the soundstage preceding the death of one of the cast members in a locked dressing room. As the story unfolds, Tony's internal monologue constantly has you in turn, thinking about the situation, making fun of the situation, and laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. The constant thought train derailment goes on inside Tony's head (and sometimes out his mouth) will continuously surprise you and allow you to relate more fully to his character.

I can't list any particular downsides to this series except that, even though loose ends were tied up well, it ended too soon. Tanya Huff takes full advantage stereotypes while pointing out that they're stereotypes for a reason in humorous ways, but not often enough to become predictable. The third and final book fell a little bit short for me because I didn't really like the new character introduced. Leah was given to witty come-backs that fell short of the mark of laughter for me.

All in all, I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys unexpected humor.