# Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen (Delilah S. Dawson)
I won't pretend that Westerns are my jam. Generally, I get a lot more joy out of dragons and quests than six-shooters and High Noon. And before I started (and eventually abandoned) Dresden and the Iron Druid, I would have said that I wasn't especially keen to read urban fantasy. Something about the combination, though, pulled at my attention.
Nettie Lonesome (and was there ever a name so evocative of a mixed-race orphan girl?) is the main character who, it shouldn't be a surprise, given this is categorized as a fantasy, rises to defy her humble roots and embarks on an admittedly reluctant hero's quest to end a terrifying threat to her patch of the world.
I like how quickly the action moves along. There isn't a lot of waiting for things to happen, and while some of the motion and actions have to be dragged out of Nettie, it does happen.
There are some strong supporting characters in this story, some who overcome obvious stereotypes to provide depth in unexpected places. Those stereotypes are there, though, and it feels like they're there because the author had more important things on her mind.
Like Nettie herself. Despite the strength of the supporting characters, Nettie is never outshone. It is always very clear that this is her story, her journey, and the rest of the cast is just there to help her on her way. I'm not saying that as a complaint. I think that having the main character solve her own problems and be the star of her own show definitely benefited the book.
There were some things I didn't enjoy as much as I would hav epreferred in Wake of Vultures - the cavalcade of monsters between Nettie and her goal felt very much like the pattern established early on in the Dresden series:
- Introduce monster
- Express incredulity
- Dispatch beastie
I liked that these encounters, for the most part, had stakes, both positive and negative, and not just for Nettie, but I would like to see an attempt notto throw every supernatural creature into a book.
Then there's the representation in the book. I can't speak to the rest of the series, but every indigenous character in the story is either a transformed monster or somehow connected to mysticism. Which, to me, is pretty unfortunate. I'll have to see if this continues in the rest of the series. I definitely enjoyed this one enough to continue.
I'd recommend it to fans of westerns, fans of urban fantasy, and fans of people who say, "What in Sam Hill?" unironically.