Review: Slayers of Old

Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jim Hines is a better and more original writer than some who have won more honours, in my opinion, and this book is an example of that. It's an urban fantasy that's pitched as "Buffy meets Golden Girls," and with some justification. Of the three viewpoint characters (I approve of urban fantasy with multiple first-person viewpoints and an ensemble cast), all of them are, to different degrees, old, ranging from sixties-but-looks-younger-because-supernatural-ancestry to almost a hundred. One was a very Buffy-like child soldier for a group called the Guardians Council, who raise young girls as slayers; she got out because they finally went too far in what they called upon her to do, but not before she'd got her friend group, the Slay Team, in way too deep and messed up all of their lives. One is a half-succubus; she's the Blanche of the group, if you like. The third character is male, a wizard from a long line of wizards, who has a symbiotic relationship with their house, his ancestral home.

They're trying just to run a shop selling books and tourist tat in Salem, Massachusetts, in addition to which the ex-slayer is, presumably as atonement, dedicated to helping and healing members of the local supernatural community. But, of course, they get pulled back in. With the help of a young man from a long line of monster-hunters who takes himself far too seriously, and whose late mother haunts his van, they have to take on a supernatural threat that is recruiting young people to your standard Great Old One cult and causing them to break out in eyes.

Everyone's backstory and every relationship ends up mattering. Everyone gets an arc of development and realization. Everyone, including the villain, believes they're doing what is right, but how you can tell that the protagonists are actually the ones doing what's right is that they don't hurt anyone if they can avoid it (and also they're not seeking power over others at the risk of causing a world-ending disaster).

It's a strong recommendation from me, and I hope it becomes a series.

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