Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire)

Long Live the Queen is a genuinely strange urban fantasy with steampunk overtones. In theory, this concluding episode in a trilogy is a great book. Our heroine has discovered she’s the Queen of the Goblins in an alternate London in which her boyfriend is the alpha male in the werewolf community, and Queen Victoria is an old vampire. Yes, there are three different supernatural groups all vying for power while outnumbered by the humans around them.

Had there been slightly better control over the material, this could have been a really impressive dark fantasy in which genetic manipulation produces a crossbreed to change the balance of power. But the author makes the strategic decision that she doesn’t want anything too scary, so the tone is faintly humorous (with emphasis on the faint). There’s also an interesting decision to make some of the dialogue quite rich in the use of Anglo-Saxon expletives. Whereas “fang it!” might be a useful term to use when upset, many of the characters prefer the original f*** and other interesting words. Of course, this does match the way people speak on the streets so it should not give offense. But when you have a thin plot which fails to take itself seriously, it makes for a poor urban fantasy.