Hell of a Town

Fanfiction
Title:	Hell of a Town
Author(s):	Mab Browne
Date(s):
Length:	Word Count: 42,718
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
Relationship(s):
External Links:	full series online here
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Hell of a Town is a Jim/Blair story by Mab Browne.

It has been podficced by Laurie K and is available at the audiofic archive.

Series

• Hell of a Town
• Hell of a Situation
• Tear Asunder

Reactions and Reviews

Blair as an incubus. Seriously, isn't that, like, the best premise ever for an AU?

And boy, does Mab deliver incubus!Blair and this terrific AU in which a very familiar-seeming world has unwisely managed to unleash supernatural beings and powers upon itself and Jim is a demon hunter (which is a pretty darn fine premise in itself). Because this is Mab fic, it's very well-written. Because it's Mab fic, it's intelligent and strongly atmospheric and real — the fantastic made as tangible, as part of the fabric of life for the reader as it is for the characters in the fic. Because it's Mab, there's twistiness and (lots of killer) angst, and Jim's wry and frequently pissed-off jadedness as one of Cascade Paranormal Defense's finest is perfect.

The first fic, Hell of a Town, is a hell of a read; witty, sardonic, vivid, dangerous, with scenes between Jim and Blair sharp enough to cut to the bone. The second, Hell of a Situation was written for Spook Me, and it's deliciously horrific, framing a further glimpse into the lives of Jim and Blair a few months after Hell of a Town with the creepiest of creepy...things.

Also? Blair as incubus is everything you could've imagined and more. It's not all hoodoo and heat and perfect, supernatural sex, for one thing. (Except when it is. :-))

I really dragged my feet on reading this story. Why, you ask? Because Mab scares me. She fearlessly kills off major and minor characters in her stories. She writes about vampires and strange malevalent beings who reside between this world and the next. She obsesses about the Johnstown Flood. Mostly, she scares me because she writes so damn well that even if I don't like the subject matter, she's going to suck me in if I click on that link!

Mab is quickly becoming the queen of AUs and this is good example of why. In this weird world, Jim is a major player in the Cascade P.D. (Paranormal Defence) and he uses amulets to fight his foes as easily as he uses a gun and Kevlar. When his senses come online, his only hope is an anthropologist who just lost his job at Rainier when they found out he was an incubus (those bigots!) The self-proclaimed "sex vampire" has his own agenda, but is willing and able to help in what becomes a partnership as easily in this universe as it did in canon.

You'll recognize the town, you'll recognize the players. But the universe and its jargon -- not so much. What I like about Mab is she doesn't go around explaining all that to you. She assumes you're intelligent enough to know or to find out, so there's no annoying over-explaining to drag down the action.

So, don't be a wuss like I am. Courageously click on the link and prepare to be sucked into a good read.

Why You Should Read This: It nearly Halloween. This is a Paranormal story of the highest caliber and Mab creates an imaginative universe with wonderful world building.