Smoke and Shadows

Smoke and Shadows (2004) is a novel by Tanya Huff. It is the first book in a series that spins off her previous Blood books, which also featured the character of the vampire Henry Fitzroy, but here the protagonist is a minor character from those books who takes center stage, a young gay man named Tony Foster.

After moving to Vancouver with Henry (as established in the last of the Blood Books), and then tentatively separating from him (in the interval between series), Tony is hired as a production assistant for a television show about a vampire detective.

Plot

The television studio where Tony works is the site of a magical gateway to another world, from which shadows are coming through. Tony first notices these shadows, and he is a witness when they kill an actress in her dressing room. He then links their presence with the mysterious special effects wizard who works in the basement, Arra Pelindrake. She turns out to be an actual wizard from that other world: the very wizard, in fact, who first created the gate. But, this time, the gate is under the control of the Shadowlord, who ravaged and conquered Arra's world, and whom she was fleeing when she came to ours. And he's sending more of his shadow-minions through. And these shadows start possessing people, including Lee Nicholas, the gorgeous, but straight, co-star of the television show, on whom Tony has a crush.

Although she erases his memory when he first comes to her for answers, and he only regains them through the fortuitous intervention of Chester Bane, the head of the studio, Tony then tries to convince a thoroughly reluctant Arra to fight the shadows along with himself and Henry, who can only help during the night.

Through Tony's insistance and because of his and Henry's willingness to fight even without her, which inspires her to bravery, and because Tony makes her realise that she has come to care about this world too much to leave it behind without a second thought if she chose to flee the coming of the Shadowlord again (she has her cats to think of!), Arra slowly overcomes her burden of guilt, terror and despair enough to take up the fight again. At the same time, because he must rely on himself against the shadows when Arra initially chooses to ignore the problem or to deny her responsabilities, and because Henry cannot help him during the day, Tony is forced to take up the battle and to lead the others, and grow into his own heroism; and his encounters with the shadows and collaboration with Arra start to alter his perception of and relationship to magic.

When the Shadowlord himself comes through the gate, with the intent of killing Arra and taking over the world via television, and begins by taking over the studio, Tony, Arra, Henry and CB rally against him. Arra is able to recreate the spell required to defeat the Shadowlord for good, with Tony's intervention providing the crucial modification to make it work.

Once the Shadowlord is defeated, Arra returns to her own world (taking her cats with her), but Tony refuses her offer to come along and become a wizard alongside her, so she leaves behind her computer containing information to allow Tony to study magic by himself, while he continues to work at CB Productions. (After all, he'd not only been fighting to save the world, but also to keep his job.)

Tony's story continues in Smoke and Mirrors.

Characters

• Tony Foster, the protagonist, is a 24-year-old, white gay man and ex-street kid, employed as a production assistant on the fictional television show Darkest Night

• Henry Fitzroy, the Bastard Son of Henry VIII who became a vampire, works as a romance novelist, and is bisexual.

• Arra Pelindrake, who is like Dumbledore or Gandalf, only less hairy ;-). Fled the Shadowlord in the final battle for her world, abandoning the last two members of her order to their deaths. Employed as the entire special effects department for CB Productions, which work she accomplishes with a mix of practical effects, computers, and actual magic.

• Chester Bane, aka CB, the head of CB Productions and creator of Darkest Night. A successful and formidable, several-times divorced straight black businessman and showrunner, and former football player. He is the only person to initially know about Arra's identity as a wizard, because he was the one who found her when she came to this world, and who gave her a job.

• the Shadowlord, who also gave himself the alias Michael Swan. A gay, white, Evil Overlord type, from the same world as Arra, which he already conquered in a terrible war. He controls shadows, and takes an interest in Tony.

• Lee Nicholas, the handsome, straight, white Darkest Night co-star, and a better actor than the lead. Tony has a crush on him, which the Shadowlord tries to exploit.

• Amy, a punky young white woman working as CB Productions office staff, and friend of Tony.

• Zev Sero, CB productions music composer, who is very nice, gay and Jewish and a potential new boyfriend for Tony.

• Several ethnically and sexually diverse supporting characters, including two RCMP constables, Arra's building manager, actors, CB Productions crew and staff, set builders, etc.

Intertextuality

The novel is rife with metatextual references to TV shows, movies, genre clichés and Canadian culture. There are so many that it would be exhausting to find and list them all, although we can state a few of the more obvious.

Starting with the irony of it being about a vampire's former lover working on a television show about a vampire detective. Which show is itself reminescent of others, notably Forever Knight.

Toward the end of the novel, on page 295 of the hardcover edition, Tony says (baffling Henry, who doesn't get the reference):

"Even if we save the world, I'm going to lose my job, lose my apartment, and end up turning tricks in Gastown. All of a sudden, I'm feeling a lot more sympathy toward season six Buffy."