Seanan McGuire

Verity Price, trained from birth as a cryptozoologist--a monster hunter--attempts to pursue a career in professional ballroom dance, but dangerous cryptids and the Covenant's newest operative keep getting in the way of her passion. Original. 33,500 first printing.

Discount Armageddon

The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity – and humanity from them. Meet Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she’d rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan to pursue her dream career in professional ballroom dance. That is, until talking mice, telepathic mathematicians, and a tangle with the Price family’s old enemies, the Covenant of St. George, get in her way...

An Incryptid Novel

Sarah Sammis

** spoiler alert **
           Once the novel settles on the world building and basic concepts, it settles into a paranormal mystery akin to the Dresden Files but with a much more engaging main character. Take away the paranormal and the mystery itself is one of missing people, primarily young women. Someone is kidnapping them.

The kidnapping is happening against the backdrop of there being credible information that there's a dragon under Manhattan. Here, though, is where I started giggle snorting. Of course there's a dragon! He was covered in The Dragon That Lived Under Manhattan by E.W. Hildick (1970).

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2022/comm...

Jasmine

It took me a while to get into this one, probably because it's been a little bit since I read a more playful urban fantasy book. This definitely not an urban fantasy series that doesn't take it's self too seriously and really that is what works so well for it!! Once I eventually got into the story I really started having a good time and I really started loving the characters and the way the dialog is written. At this point, I definitely want to continue on, so yeah, I wouldn't say I'm hooked yet but I am eager for more!!

Jeff James

Discount Armageddon is the story of Verity Price, a blonde twenty-something cryptozoologist and recent transplant to New York City. She pays the bills by working as a waitress in a strip club, supports the family business by working to help the local populations of cryptids – monsters to the unenlightened – and secretly dreams of making it big on the ballroom dancing competition circuit. She hates public transportation, instead getting around by running parkour-style across the city rooftops, all while armed to the teeth with every kind of weapon she can hide under her skimpy waitress uniform. Oh, and her roommates are a colony of talking mice that venerate her every act with religious celebrations and feasts.

Things in the city are going swimmingly for Verity until the day she finds herself accidentally hanging from a snare set by a member of a monster-hunting sect called the Covenant. The Price family’s ancestors were part of the Covenant, but broke with the party line and decided to start helping cryptids instead of hunting them into extinction. Naturally, this didn’t endear them to the Covenant, and the Prices have been in hiding ever since. Complicating the situation is the fact that this Covenant member, Dominic, is strikingly handsome when he isn’t indiscriminately hunting and killing cryptids. Verity isn’t too happy about Dominic’s presence in the city, but when cryptid girls start disappearing and she hears credible rumors of a dragon – long though to be extinct – living under the city, they form an uneasy truce to stop the beast and sparks start flying.

In broad outlines Verity’s story feels familiar. It has the standard trappings of the urban fantasy genre: a secret world, hidden in plain sight, a main character with a special connection to that world, and a romance storyline involving a bad boy love interest who just needs a little redemption to make him boyfriend material. What makes it stand out are the unique details that McGuire works into the mix.

The mice in particular add a good bit of humor to the proceedings. They have dozens (if not hundreds) of religious ceremonies, all named for mundane events in Verity’s life, and all celebrated with a fervor that makes it difficult for Verity to have visitors. I also liked that there isn’t a single vampire or werewolf in the book. There are creatures who can switch between human and animal forms, but they all feel like off-the-beaten path choices, like the Japanese tanuki and an Indian creature called a madhura. Additionally, Verity’s background as a cryptozoologist isn’t just window-dressing; an important plot point revolves around actual biological processes becoming evident in one of the creatures she runs across.

The only real criticism I can come up with is that although title is catchy, I’m not really sure what it has to do with the actual story. In any case, Discount Armageddon is the first book in a new ongoing series for McGuire, and I look forward to picking up the future volumes. I’m also excited about reading her other books. She’s Hugo-nominated for her work as Mira Grant, and I’ve heard great things about her other urban fantasy series, the October Daye books. I get the impression that McGuire likes working with familiar tropes and genres while subverting them just enough to make them feel fresh and entertaining.

Cindy

My Review Of 
  

   Discount Armageddon (InCryptid #1) by Seanan McGuire 
  


This wonderful story takes place in an alternate reality where creatures rule and monsters are among us. 
  The Covenant of St. George 
works hard to destroy these creatures and the Price family broke away from this secretive group generations ago. Verity Price is a cryptozooligist, the Price family are a family of cryptozoologists, who are tasked  with the study and protection of these creatures. Verity Price is a tough as nails heroine and Dominic De Luca is part of the covenant that the Prices are hiding from because if the covenant finds the Prices they will kill them. The unlikely duo of Verity and Dominic pair up to find out why women cryptids  are disappearing. After some blood , gore and dancing  we find out that there may be a dragon in the underground sewers of NYC. The dragon princesses want their extinct boyfriend back, yes I said dragon princesses! Verity also lives with Aslin Mice who are very religious and live in a converted Barbie Dream-house in Verity's closet. I just loved these mice, they were hysterical and very enthusiastic. Verity lives in a semi-legal sublet and is cocktail waitress/ballroom dancer, can wear high heels  and kick-ass all at the same time. Together Dominic and Verity find out who or what is behind the disappearances/slayings of the local female cryptids and the romance begins..... almost like Romeo and Juliet, after all he is a Covenant guy and she is a Price! I happily listened along while this duo slayed the bad monsters, danced and romanced. What a fun book this was for me. I am officially hooked on this series and author. I will be binge listening to this authors books for months to come.

This review was originally posted on My Fiction Obsession

Sarah Escorsa

BR with 
  my MacHalo Freaks
 Shelly starting Sept 18, 2015.

∞ Quick maths ∞
✔ Wackiness + humour = +3
✔ Cool female lead = +2
✔ Ever-cheering, religious mouse colony = +1
✔ Gorgons and bogeymen and cuckoos and dragons, oh my! = +1
✘ Few but very Chick-Lit-like romantic bits = -1.5
✘ Bland male lead = -2

= 3.5 stars

►► Not bad! It looks like this was pretty good! It looks like I want to continue with the series! It looks like I don't DNF all the books I read! It looks like there is hope for me yet!



►► Full review to come.

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▧ Pre-review nonsense:

►► A ballroom dancing cryptozoologist/strip bar waitress? Ghouls? Dragons? Asbestos supermodels? Talking mice? 

Ooooh yes, I'm in.

→ Blah blah blah thread for this BR (this is a private group, let me know if you need an invite!)

First book in New York Times-bestselling Seanan McGuire's witty urban fantasy InCryptid series about a family of cryptozoologists who act as a buffer between humans and the magical creatures living in secret around us. "The only thing more fun than an October Daye book is an InCryptid book." —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Sookie Stackhouse series Cryptid, noun: Any creature whose existence has not yet been proven by science. See also "Monster." Crytozoologist, noun: Any person who thinks hunting for cryptids is a good idea. See also "idiot." Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night... The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity—and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...

Caletha Jackson 

Pretty good story and think I will continue the series 

danielle bush

Really. Really enjoyed reading this story, and look forward to reading more.

Nickie Mohler

Verity Price loves to dance. Her dream is to become a professional dancer. Her family has other ideas. The Price family have been cryptozoologists for generations. They find cryptids (monsters), and if they aren't a threat to humans, they protect them. If they are a danger, they gotta go. Verity's family finds a way to compromise. She can pursue her dream in Manhattan as long as she takes care of the cryptid community too. Things are going fine until cryptids start disappearing, a guy from the Covenent shows up, and there is talk of a dragon. Verity has to find a way to deal with everything, or she can kiss her dance career goodbye. I really enjoyed this book. Fast paced, funny, great characters, and I love reading about all the different kinds of cryptids. I love the Aeslin mice! Hail!

Ben Nathan

Highly enjoyable, fun characters, cool premise. I think I'm going to look forward to reading the rest of this series over time. Seanan McGuire has a pretty wide array of writing skills and this highlights the goofy yet provocative side.

Paige Morgan

Lots of fun! Much lighter than the Toby Daye books, and a little less engrossing -- but I suspect that this is partly because McGuire makes the story look effortless and easy when in reality, the opposite is true. I have a strong sense that like the Toby books, this series will become more intricate as it progresses. The first volume is a light and entertaining introduction to the world; I only wish that we got a little further into the Price-Healey family history than we have so far.

Discount Armageddon

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