(no subject)

[skygiants]

There's hurt/comfort that leans hard into the 'hurt' and hurt/comfort that leans hard into the 'comfort' and Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice is VERY MUCH the latter -- it's definitely a very warm bubble bath of an urban fantasy.

The plot: Dr. Greta Helsing (great-granddaughter of Dracula's Van Helsing, of course) is a specialist underground doctor for maligned supernatural creatures, and also, because this is an urban fantasy novel and we have rules about the plots for this sort of thing, there is a cult on the loose murdering maligned supernatural creatures!

As a result, Greta and some pals end up hanging out in a house together while they sort out the cult problem; aforementioned pals read like the cast of the absolute softest version of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, including:

Lord Ruthven from Polidori's The Vampyre, here portrayed as a sweet, distinguished vampire dandy
Varney from Varney the Vampyre, here portrayed as a sweet but desperately emo pile of sad vampire angst
Fastitocalon, a sweet, fatherly supernatural creature of mysterious provenance, who does not appear to have a literary antecedent as far as I can tell except in a JRR Tolkien poem about a turtle?
August Cranswell, a sweet museum curator who is not at all supernatural but is also being targeted by the cult for ... honestly, I have no idea why he's being targeted by the cult, I think Shaw just needed a way to get him into the house to hang out with everyone else

Anyway, everyone is constantly getting into just enough peril that they can get back to the house and be fussed over and told they need to eat better and given soup and brandy; Greta and August also call out of work for the duration to hunt the evil serial killing cultists, despite the fact that there is really nothing in either of their job descriptions that qualifies them for hunting evil serial killing cultists at all. I was actually a little bit disappointed by this, because if one is going to read an urban fantasy about a supernatural doctor, I would rather the plot be more focused on her doing actual doctoring. She doesn't have to take off work to investigate the mysteries of evil serial killing cultists! There are approximately two dozen other urban fantasy heroines in London who can and do tackle that as their actual urban fantasy heroine jobs!

(I also wish there had been a few more women in the plot; Greta has some friends who help her out with the clinic, but they're almost entirely offscreen.)

On the other hand, I did appreciate that after fighting off a murderous cultist, Greta promptly brought him back to the house for soup and brandy and fussing as well; I appreciate, in general, the background thesis that life is important and people of all sorts are worth fixing. It's a very kind book, overall - not a book with a lot of sharp edges, but a good book to read on a day when you feel like seeing a lot of nice people be kind to each other. While avoiding getting murdered by a serial killing cult.

Comments

[larryhammer]

here portrayed as a sweet but desperately emo pile of sad vampire angst

From what I remember of Varney, that's appropriate. Can't say it's exactly accurate ...

[skygiants]

He spends a lot of time attempting to leave the party For Their Own Good, only to immediately get sat back down and handed a cup of tea. (The book also takes care to distinguish vampyre-with-a-y as an entirely separate subspecies from vampire-with-an-i, I assume because it entertains the author.)

[davidgillon]

Fastitocalon, a sweet, fatherly supernatural creature of mysterious provenance, who does not appear to have a literary antecedent as far as I can tell except in a JRR Tolkien poem about a turtle?

I'd argue for Crowley from Good Omens (with a side-helping of George Smiley from Le Carre's Circus books).

[rymenhild]

The JRR Tolkien turtle is based on a floating fish-island trope found in medieval travel narratives including the Voyage of St. Brendan. I think the name might come from somewhere medieval but can't recall now.

[skygiants]

Honestly, as much as I liked the character in Strange Practice, I would have liked them ten times as much if they'd been secretly a sentient fish island.

[skygiants]

He's so much less edgy than Crowley though! Crowley would be horrified to find himself giving off such concentrated Dad Vibes.

[davidgillon]

This is true, but in terms of his religious position...

[musesfool]

Yeah, I would have liked more doctoring too.

[skygiants]

It's such a cool niche, and relatively unexplored! (I'll say this for the Crossroads books, they're bonkers, but we do get to see the protagonists doing a whole lot of actual fantasy veterinary work.)

[slashmarks]

Yeah, this was one of the less offensive intrusive murder plots I've come across in fantasy in recent years, but I still would have prepared Greta's actual job as a plot. I've nearly given up on recent urban fantasy being about its premise, though.

[skygiants]

I mean it is certainly pleasant to see someone have an urban fantasy career that's not 'private eye' or 'band member' (actually, do urban fantasy people have indie music careers anymore, or am I dating myself back to urban fantasy in the eighties?). Steps! We're getting there! Next step: actually making narrative time for us to see them in their careers ...

[cyphomandra]

These are v sweet books (have read the first two) but I totally agree over wanting a bit more doctoring. I also find the apparent lack of the NHS the reverse of comforting! But I do like the characters.

[skygiants]

I totally understand why people default to MURDER as the simplest way to give their books a shape and a plot, but surely there are doctor-focused plots one could have as well? Maybe supernatural London has to deal with a magical plague! Or it's an insurance fraud heist to get everybody's surgeries paid for! I'm sure these characters would have a perfectly lovely time planning an insurance heist.

[rachelmanija]

I also would have been 100% happy with a plot entirely about doctoring. But I loved the characters and the coziness and kindness.

[skygiants]

It was extremely cozy! It was definitely playing to an id that's not quite mine, but it makes a pleasant contrast to the standard run of urban fantasy tropes where all the creatures of the night are Very Edgy All The time.

[rachelmanija]

...you have GOT to read the sequel.

[sovay]

Fastitocalon, a sweet, fatherly supernatural creature of mysterious provenance, who does not appear to have a literary antecedent as far as I can tell except in a JRR Tolkien poem about a turtle?

I don't know how I missed this post, but I'm really fond of Fastitocalon. I also could not recognize an antecedent except Tolkien. I am kind of not sure the book needed a plot, but I didn't hate the one there was.