Love letter to Blood Curse fans, but new readers are invited, too.
In the sixth volume of Dawn’s Blood Curse series, the Silivasi brothers learn the whereabouts of their father.
The Silivasi brothers—Kagen, Nathaniel, Marquis, and Nachari—are vampires from the house of Jadon. Their lineage is the result of a curse struck against the Romanian Prince Jadon (and his more evil brother, Prince Jaegar) in 800 B.C.E. Today, the Silivasis live in Dark Moon Vale with the women who are their “destinies” (human mates chosen by the gods) while they battle lycans and members of the rival house of Jaegar. When Saber Alexiares—“no longer a Dark One, at least, not technically. In truth, he never really had been”—visits Nathaniel’s brownstone with claims that the Silivasis’ father, Keitaro, is alive and enslaved in Mhier, the home dimension of the werewolves, the brothers are hard-pressed to believe him. But what choice do the Silivasis have? Meanwhile, in Mhier, the tragedy-hardened Arielle Nightsong has been secretly aiding Keitaro, mending the physical and mental anguish inflicted by King Tyrus Thane and his lycan minions. But now, to punish his top general, Cain, for sleeping with Queen Cassandra, Thane will stage an arena battle between Cain and the legendarily brutal Keitaro. Even if Keitaro survives, however, Thane’s sadism is limitless. Will the Silivasis breach this parallel world in time to save the father who’s been presumed dead for centuries? Fans of Dawn’s steamy paranormal series will feel like she’s delivered the main course in this latest installment. Nimble prose and pacing also help new readers learn her detailed world. Once inside, they can enjoy the focus placed on Kagen, the only brother not yet paired with his “destiny”; there’s an irresistible erotic pulse in his scenes with Arielle: “He ran his hand upward along the small of her back...and buried his fingers in her silky, wild hair.” Thane’s monstrous desire for Arielle is a satisfying wrinkle in a plot that sometimes doesn’t challenge the protagonists enough (for instance, they learn how to travel across dimensions too easily). Tantalizing mentions of prior events deepen the series’ narrative and show that Dawn intends for her cast to continuously evolve.
Love letter to Blood Curse fans, but new readers are invited, too.Pub Date: June 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-1937223120
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Ghost Pines Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining, though not in the league of J.K. Rowling—or even Anne Rice. But please, people: no more vamps and wizards, OK?
Harry Potter meets Lestat de Lioncourt. Throw in a time machine, and you’ve got just about everything you need for a full-kit fantasy.
The protagonist is a witch. Her beau is a vampire. If you accept the argument that we’ve seen entirely too many of both kinds of characters in contemporary fiction, then you’re not alone. Yet, though Harkness seems to be arriving very late to a party that one hopes will soon break up, her debut novel has its merits; she writes well, for one thing, and, as a historian at the University of Southern California, she has a scholarly bent that plays out effectively here. Indeed, her tale opens in a library—and not just any library, but the Bodleian at Oxford, pride of England and the world. Diana Bishop is both tenured scholar and witch, and when her book-fetcher hauls up a medieval treatise on alchemy with “a faint, iridescent shimmer that seemed to be escaping from between the pages,” she knows what to do with it. Unfortunately, the library is crammed with other witches, some of malevolent intent, and Diana soon finds that books can be dangerous propositions. She’s a bit of a geek, and not shy of bragging, either, as when she trumpets the fact that she has “a prodigious, photographic memory” and could read and write before any of the other children of the coven could. Yet she blossoms, as befits a bodice-ripper no matter how learned, once neckbiter and renowned geneticist Matthew Clairmont enters the scene. He’s a smoothy, that one, “used to being the only active participant in a conversation,” smart and goal-oriented, and a valuable ally in the great mantomachy that follows—and besides, he’s a pretty good kisser, too. “It’s a vampire thing,” he modestly avers.
Entertaining, though not in the league of J.K. Rowling—or even Anne Rice. But please, people: no more vamps and wizards, OK?Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-02241-0
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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