A Sip of Fear, by Brian Rush, is a sort of contemporary urban fantasy set on the streets of Seattle. The year is deliberately unspecified, but you can easily imagine the events playing out today anywhere in the world. Having briefly lived in Seattle, part of the charm for me was the occasional sense of recognition of the places visited. However, the appeal of the book goes well beyond that. A Sip of Fear explores issues of spirituality and humanity, life and death, good and evil, and how these motivate men and women in rather different ways. Readers of Brian's blog will not be surprised, since these are matters he likes to explore. So there are occasional magical conflicts, but these are brief, and secondary to the main theme - human growth and development, on both the personal and collective fronts. Brian's writing encourages readers to grapple with deep issues for...