Kitty Goes to War [Mass Market Paperback]

Carrie Vaughn's "Kitty" series started off a bit slowly but she's definitely hit her stride with her last few novels in the series. "Kitty Goes to War" is an enjoyable, fast-paced Urban Fantasy read with interesting characters and unusual situations. Particularly interesting was Vaughn's exploration of the impact war has on werewolves. Her situations are plausible and the conclusions that she draws make sense.

It doesn't hurt that Kitty is a likable protagonist - something that is not always a "given" in an UF series. She's got integrity and is concerned about being a good leader to her pack. She is also committed to helping her fellow supernaturals when possible. This desire to get involved is one of the reasons that she's getting into a majority of the scrapes she does, and this novel is no different, but it's also one of the reasons that the reader cheers her on and stays engaged.

One thing that I wish Vaughn had handled better was the Cormac sub-plot. A lot of questions were raised (perhaps too many? Kitty seemed a overreacting to Cormac's actions a bit here) and then the answer was just suddenly given to the reader in a tidy little package. And the answer was...strange. I think that if something so unusual had happened to Cormac, it needed to have a bit more groundwork laid so that his situation didn't seem so sudden and from-thin-air.

I also found the action a bit less than I had expected. But I think that is mostly because I found Vaughn's last novel, "Kitty's House of Horrors" to be so electrifying. After such a truly horrifying novel, "Kitty Goes to War" seemed a bit more tame.

That said, there was still plenty of action and you really found yourself rooting for Kitty and the crew to come out on top. It was a good read and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, interesting UF novel.

I am a HUGE fan of the `Kitty Norville' series. This is one Urban Fantasy in which the heroine has a very discernable character transformation - going from meek werewolf and runt of her pack, to Alpha of her very own werewolf family. Over the course of eight books it has been fascinating and uplifting to read Kitty as she comes into herself. For me, that's been the most fulfilling aspect of the books - Kitty's emotional journey. Especially her finding love with Ben, and entering into a complicated truce with his bounty-hunter cousin, Cormac.

But in this, the eighth Kitty book it feels like Vaughn has sacrificed emotional characterization for an action-packed plot.
In `Kitty Goes to War' there are two major conflicts that Kitty is dealing with. One is a lawsuit brought against her by the owner of a chain-store called `Speedy Mart', whom Kitty has accused on her show of being involved in cultish rituals.
The second is a werewolf-related favour she gets called in for by Dr. Schumacher. Turns out a unit of Green Beret US soldiers who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan were turned lycanthrope by their commanding officer. This soldier thought to start-up his own, unofficial and unsanctioned, werewolf unit. All was fine until said commanding officer got blown up, leaving his pack Alpha-less and in a power vacuum. Dominance fights ensued and now only three remaining members need Kitty's help if they have any chance to rehabilitation into civilian life.

Let me just say, the werewolf soldier plot is fantastic! It makes for really intense drama and a lot of werewolf `what if's' and questions are answered and explored in-depth. Such as - would werewolf soldiers be a breakthrough for the army? How much would pack hierarchy affect their combat training?
I was less in love with the `Speedy Mart' storyline. My disgruntlement was mostly because it was an underdeveloped and second-fiddle storyline to the werewolf soldier's - but also because it felt like `Speedy Mart' took the place of emotional and relationship development in `Kitty Goes to War'.

At the end of `Kitty's House of Horrors' Cormac was released from prison and came home. This was such a huge event - because Cormac and Kitty almost had a romantic entanglement, until Cormac's prejudice and Ben's affections put that on hold. Then Cormac got thrown into jail and it seemed like behind the plexiglas, Cormac had made some profound realizations about his feelings towards Kitty. Then he comes home - home to Ben and Kitty in wedded alpha mate bliss - and lots of fans were wondering how this little love triangle would play out.
But in this eighth book that tension is barely even mentioned. Twice Ben and Cormac make allusions to a possible past romance between Kitty and Cormac... but for the rest of the book it feels as though everyone (Carrie Vaughn, essentially) are walking on eggshells around this triangle.

I don't know if Ms. Vaughn has something big planned regarding this trio, but I went into `Kitty Goes to War' with my fingers crossed for some confrontations and realizations and I got neither.

We don't even get to read much affection (i.e.: smut) between Kitty and Ben. It took me a while to warm up to Ben, I thought he was just a minor secondary character and Cormac would be Kitty's HEA... so when she mated Ben, I was thrown for a loop. But in subsequent books Vaughn really illustrated their affection and dependence on one another, and I really came to like Ben. But in recent books there hasn't been the same warmth between him and Kitty, and I am again wondering if Ben is Kitty's true HEA?

So ultimately this book was a disappointment for me. I may have been less upset by the lack of emotional progress for the characters if I'd had a big pay-out in the seventh book, `Kitty's House of Horrors'. But in that seventh instalment Kitty was by herself in the wilderness, with no Ben and no pack for comfort. So it feels like we've been given 2 books now in which Kitty's relationships and emotional development have been put on hold.
At the end of `Kitty Goes to War', Kitty does ask a rather profound question of Ben, which may have repercussions for future books... but it is literally on the last page and a case of too little too late.

One thing that's always bugged me about urban fantasy is the authors rarely think out how the military would use vampires and werewolves.

Well, Carrie Vaughn is not one of those authors: "Kitty Goes To War" tackles just that subject, throwing the radio werewolf up against some lycanthropic soldiers that are spinning out of control. It's also Vaughn's eighth werewolf book, but she keeps things fresh with brisk, clever writing and suspenseful subplots.

Kitty is summoned by the Army to help them deal with an unusual problem: a secret squad of werewolf Green Berets has gone wild because their alpha/commander has been killed. Now Kitty not only has to help recapture them (including the murderous new alpha), but help them learn to deal with the real world as werewolves. Easier said than done.

Also, Kitty is being sued by Speedy Mart's president because of a caller accusing him of magic weather terrorism -- and she soon realizes that the accusations may be true. But she has bigger problems to deal with when one of the werewolf soldiers goes AWOL to free his crazed alpha -- even as Denver is hammered by an ancient magic that might wreck the whole city.

"Kitty Goes To War" isn't a very accurate title, since Kitty isn't actually involved in a war at present -- she's just dealing with some of the nasty aftermath of war. But it's still a rollicking good read -- lots of blood, fur, madness and armed mayhem, as well as a magical conspiracy involving a chain of 7-11-esque convenience stores. The biggest downside: Cormac's subplot is wrapped up rather hastily and oddly -- you're left thinking, "Huh? What? Huh?"

Vaughn does a good job juggling the various subplots and filling them with the right amount of action, romance and fantasy. But she also handles the supernatural world with tongue planted in cheek -- Kitty describes Colorado Springs as a "Love­craftian behe­moth of ur­ban sprawl" and remarks that "every vam­pire I'd ev­er met loved blithe­ly throw­ing out these por­ten­tous procla­ma­tions of supe­ri­ority and doom."

Kitty is also dealing with some personal problems here, such as flashbacks to the traumas of the last book and her determination to thwart an obsessive scientist who wants werewolf test subjects (although said scientist sort of fades out late in the book). Additionally, Cormac is back -- and he's, er, not quite the man he used to be.

"Kitty Goes To War" isn't really about Kitty going to war, but it's a solid and enjoyable urban fantasy that tackles a subject few authors are smart enough to think of -- werewolf soldiers.

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