BookMusings: (Re)Discovering Pagan Literature

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Spotlight On: The Medusa Files

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Title: The Medusa Files

Publisher: Gryphon's Gate Publishing

Author: C.I. Black

Pages: Varied

Price: $0.00 to $2.99 (ebook)

Morgan Jacobs is a US Marshal, and a damn good one -- that is, until a criminal she is running down corners her in an alley and drives a knife into her chest. So she turns him to stone. Just by looking at him. He falls to pieces and crumbles away to dust right in front of her. Traumatized, terrified that she is either going crazy or that she is truly a threat to her loved ones, she cuts off all ties and isolates herself in her apartment. And then, very early one morning, when she is in the lobby collecting her mail, FBI Special Agent Alexander Gage appears at her side claiming that he needs her help with an important case. Before she can convince him that she really means no when she says no, an ogre busts through the door ....

Urban fantasy novels are easy to come by. I swear, there are more of this fantasy subgenre than any other. But good urban fantasy -- and one with a premise based on something other than the usual Heavenly agents versus Hellish agents -- is hard to find. So, I was very happy when I discovered that not only does Black's fantasy break the mold, but it is actually good. It's fun!

Morgan is a great character. Her reaction to suddenly displaying powers that she cannot explain is completely realistic: she thinks she is going insane. Fortunately, she is made of fairly sturdy stuff and, once she comes to realize that she is now seeing the world for how it truly is, she buckles down to do the hard work that is required of her: learning to control her powers, and end those who would hurt her loved ones and kill her.

Morgan has a handful of allies in this fight. Not just Gage (who has some awesome and mysterious powers of his own), but also Lachlin (elf), Rika (spikey-headed hacker extraordinaire), and Clayton (a sentient golem); among others. Good for her, because the man who killed her mother is determined to take out Morgan, as well. She is, after all, the last gorgon ....

The Medusa Files is a projected twelve-book series, each running upwards of eighty pages. The first volume, Written in Stone, is available in both paperback and digital format; the ebook edition is free, while the print edition is $7.99. The other volumes are currently only available in digital format, and range in price from 99 cents to $2.99. To date, the first eight books have been released.

I'm on book three now. Personally, I can't wait to see what is going to happen next.

Highly recommended to fans of Lisa Shearin, Seanan McGuire, Zoe Archer, SM Reine, Annie Bellet, Deborah Blake, Meghan Ciana Doidge, RL Naquin, and Rhys Ford. 

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Rebecca Buchanan is the editor of the Pagan literary ezine Eternal Haunted Summer. She is also the editor-in-chief of Bibliotheca Alexandrina. She thinks it is incredibly unfair that she must work for a living rather than being able to read all day. In her next life, she would like to be a library cat.

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