Smoke and Mirrors

I read #2 (out of sequence) and liked the hero hugely.Tony is definety the low man on the totem pole, and you cheer him on every time he manages to puzzle out just what he NEEDS to do. I'll read it again (in proper order this time) and the "What?" sections will become clear. But it is great book on its own.

I hadn't watched the Bloodlines shows or read the books, I'm not sure why I bought this book but it took me awhile to finally read it and then I was hooked. I went back to the first book and of course bought the third and am waiting for the rest. I have lent this book to friends and they are now hooked. I first gave it to a good friend who is gay, I told him the main character seemed like someone I would have as a friend, he reminds me of many of my favorite gay friends. He's just a really nice guy, who's a wizard in training. If you like Dresden Files you'll probably love this series. The regular characters win a place in your heart and they get better with each book. This is a haunted house book but not like any other I've ever read. The thought of someone who is a vampire's "friend" working on a CBC production of a Vampire detective show is just funny. I hate people who tell you the story, that's why you read, but if you like the paranormal, are comfortable with gay issues, but this is wonderfully handled, I think you'll love this series. The vampire is a minor character in many ways. I love Tony, the lead character, I bet you will too. As I said, I'm hooked.

Smoke and Mirrors is the middle novel in the Smoke trilogy which tells the continuing story of two characters from Tanya Huff's Blood... series. Henry Fitzroy is a vampire, retired nobility and romance writer who, with lover/friend Tony Foster, has moved to Vancouver. Tony is the real star of these stories - grown up from a trouble making street kid into an adult determined to make his way in the city's vibrant filmmaking business. Tony has landed a job as junior assistant gofor in the production company of a vampire detective TV series. A production company with a knack for falling into supernatural traps. Tony discovered that he has the makings of being a wizard in the previous volume. Despite this potential, Tony really just wants to be your basic production assistant with a cute boyfriend. Unfortunately, life (or rather, unlife) has different plans for him. Sure enough, when the company rents a spooky old house to film in for a week you can bet that it's not just the atmosphere that is spooky. A whole host of ghosts lurk in the corners re-enacting their violent endings. It seems that the house has a particularly unpleasant history. Lurking in the basement is something that wants everyone to die screaming and fuels its effort to ruin the neighborhood. Tony, as a neophyte wizard is the only one who is aware of all that is going on. In short order he is trying to keep everyone alive (fails), keep the cameras running (fails), and get the ghost problem under control (fails). Henry flies to the rescue, but this is a locked house crisis, and the simple fact is that Tony must work through his personal issues and solve the mystery of the strange force in the basement all on his own - or with the aid of a few helpful ghosts and some very paranoid movie people. Tanya Huff is too well established a writer for it to be necessary for me to laud her skills. Smoke and Mirrors, like all the volumes before, continues to present an approach to the vampire/supernatural thriller that combines an intelligent story and good characters into a whole that will always please a reader interested in more than blood oriented bodice rippers. I'm looking forward to reading the next volume, and believe that you will quickly become a fan if you aren't already.

I loved this installment to Huff's Smoke trilogy. Tony and crew head to a real haunted house to an episode for the series Darkest Night. Although, some may view the haunted house as a cliche, I loved the irony of it. The jaded view of the film industry was so funny. I laughed out loud many times throughout the book.

Smoke and Mirrors, by Tanya Huff, is the second book in her new Tony Foster series, highlighting the mystical adventures of a production assistant (and junior wizard) who occasionally pals around with vampire Henry Fitzroy in his off time. The first book was quite good; the second book is fantastic. A traditional "haunted house" story, it simply explodes beyond the confines of the genre, primarily through the strength of Huff's writing and characterization. Fans of shows like Forever Knight or Buffy: the Vampire Slayer or even Blood Ties--based on the Vickie Nelson/Henry Fitzroy series by Huff--may find great pleasure in the affectionate skewering of the type in this book. Smoke and Mirrors has a wry sense of humor. It's laugh-out-loud funny in some places and genuinely horrific in others, manipulating reader's emotions deftly as Tony and his hapless companions set out to save the day. Some readers, I know, have been disturbed by the fact that Huff's hero is gay--unabashedly so--and some reviewers have mentioned discomfort with Tony's active, on-page love life. I personally found nothing distasteful about Tony's interactions with other men, which are no more explicit than I've encountered in many other books of this type and *considerably less so* than some (Laurell K. Hamilton, anyone?). If the idea of men kissing is a buzz-killer for you, you probably ought to look for another series. For me, the protagonist's keen interest in his love life just contributes to his three-dimensional nature. I find him charming. Smoke and Mirrors dazzled me from very nearly the first page, and I read the whole with tremendous pleasure. It goes on my "enthusiastically recommend" list, and I will be looking forward tremendously to my opportunity to read Installment 3.

The house was great for the next episode of Darkest Night and CB Productions had rented it for the whole week. It was the perfect turn of the century, last century, mansion and was a great setting for the ghost story. Only problem Tony Foster had with it was that it really had ghosts. Lots of ghosts. Many who had died in the house. The house, or something in the house, fed off the ghosts. And it wanted more food. Now Tony, without Henry Fitzroy to help him, must find out what is going on, get the rest of the crew to listen to him and get out using his knowledge of how the house works and what magic he knows. Before too many people die. Dark humor, not that scary unless reading it at night, good, dirty, fun. In some ways I enjoyed this more than Smoke And Shadows.