At the conclusion of Greg van Eekhout's California Bones, Southern California's magical kingpin, the Hierarch, has been unseated, and Daniel Blackland, major thief and osteomancer, is more powerful than ever. Pacific Fire picks up right where that story stopped with Daniel and the Hierarch's golem son, Sam, on the run from the trio of evil osteomancers now vying for the head position of power in Los Angeles. The threesome intend to re-create a Pacific Firedrake dragon from bits and pieces of bone and tissue along with items formulated in a lab, but they'll need Sam's powers to make the manufactured beast a viable creature of mass destruction.
To help keep Sam safe, Daniel reconnects with the many Emmas--multiple versions of the same woman who helped Daniel fight the Hierarch in the previous novel--and some of his former crew. But when Sam and one of the younger Emmas decide to destroy the dragon on their own, Daniel must race to find them before the powerful osteomancers do. In this surrealistic and magical vision of a futuristic California, Van Eekhout adds new well-rounded characters to the established cast--people who may not always do the right thing but have the best intentions at heart.
Pacific Fire is a fast-moving continuation of the battle between good and evil, filled with vivid descriptions that place readers firmly in the netherworld of magical con men, potion masters, do-gooders and those who want to save the world they know before disaster strikes. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer