Bedlam Boyz

by Ellen Guon

Paperback, 1993

Status

Available

Call number

Fic SF Guon

Publication

baen (1993), Paperback, 304 pages

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. HTML: Prequel to Bedlam's Bard When one of her friends is gunned down, Kayla uses her latent healing powers to heal her friend�??and the gang member who shot him�??and soon the city's gangs are eager to use her powers for evil. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management)

User reviews

LibraryThing member zjakkelien

I am vacillating between two stars and three, so I'm going for 2.5. On the one hand, this was a nice and light read, with nice magic and ok characters. On the other hand, the main character has a serious case of Stockholm syndrome when she gets kidnapped by a drugs gang (they know she can heal

people and want to use this to their advantage). I found that seriously annoying, to fall in love with someone who is going along with you being held against your will and being forced to heal people even though it is clearly detrimental to your health. Also, I wasn't too fond of the fairies. Oh, and there were really quite a few shootouts, I could have done with a few less. Other than that, it was fine, though. Entertaining, and it had a cool grandma-ghost.

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LibraryThing member amkj

A fascinating prequel to the series Ellen Guon co-authored with Mercedes Lacke; this book gives the story of a minor, but powerful, character in the Bedlam’s Bard series: the human mage Kayla. Kayla is unaware of the existence of magic and is completely unprepared for her magical response to an

attack injuring her foster brother. A response that makes Kayla a very desired commodity to a variety of dangerous factions.

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LibraryThing member Shimmin

Started reading this, realised it was about violent drug gangs and therefore bound to be filled with people being miserable, murders etc. Kidnapping plotline flagged up a few pages in was the last straw for me. I have zero interest in books about gangs.
See other reviewers saying the kidnapping

turns into a romance. I am so glad I gave up.

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LibraryThing member phyllis2779

I enjoyed this book but clearly there is more to come. At the end I was left hanging as to what would become of the main character with mo assurance as to whether any of the sequels would include her. I may feel better about this book if I find any of the sequels.

LibraryThing member zeborah

I need to stop trying to read urban fantasy, it's clearly not my thing. This one wasn't helped by being (as blazoned on the cover) a prequel, and therefore trying to set up All The Things. Both the LA street gangs and the fae courts felt stereotyped to me, and much of the plot seemed repetitive:

Our Heroine is kidnapped by one of the groups vying to use her; refuses to believe in magic even as she's using it to heal elves; is left alone to recuperate and decides to have a quick rest before escaping; is woken hours later by more drama; takes advantage of chaos to escape; is immediately captured again by either the same or a different group; rinse and repeat until she's met all the players and we can have the big showdown.

Also along the way she falls in love with one of her kidnappers and by the way she's fifteen and apparently this is very romantic.

But as I say, it may be enjoyed more by people who enjoy urban fantasy.

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