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Dark Legacy

Book Review of Dark Legacy: The End of the Kai (Dark Legacy Cycle 0.5), by Domenico Italo Composto-Hart

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Dark LegacyDomenico Italo Composto-Hart‘s Dark Legacy is free at both Amazon and Lulu. This is the second review in my month-long challenge to read only authors I ‘know.’

Description from Goodreads:
The End of the Kai of the Dark Legacy Cycle details the violent end of the Kai Order – an ancient, spiritual guild of warrior guardians and priestesses who have sworn their lives to protect the Oracle Queen of Atlantis – at the hands of Maniok, the being referred to as the “Great Evil” in the age-old Song of the Oracle King.

It is a chronicle of Arkan, the last Kai guardian, and his desperate attempt to save the life of his priestess who carries his unborn son, and his escape from Atlantis.

Review:
I find myself in an odd position here. I picked this book up in good faith, but found that it isn’t what I thought it was. I would say, ‘what it presents itself to be,’ but I’m not willing to allot the blame. So, I’m going with not what I thought.

You see I’ve just discovered that Dark Legacy: The End of the Kai is in fact a brief prequel and then the first three chapters of the book Dark Legacy: Trinity, which is book one of the series.

I hate this kind of thing. I just want to be able to pick up a book and know it’s the book, not part of it or an addition to it, or a snippet of something else. If I wanted to read Trinity I’d have picked it up, not a separately bound (well, digitally bound) portion of it. Seriously people! When did this become OK?

So, at 30%, when The End of Kai ended and Trinity was to begin, I bailed. I’m not about to knowingly start a book that I don’t have the end to. In fact, I resent that the author set me up to be in just that position. It feels like a manipulation and a way to trick readers into buying something. (Granted, The End of Kai is free, so it wouldn’t be a second purchase.) I’m not saying it is a manipulation, just that it feels like one.

So please take note. This review is for the first 30% (~50 pages) of this ‘book’ only. Anything after that would be a different book, or part of one and I neither read it nor am reviewing it. I’m not calling it a DNF, because I finished the prequel. But I didn’t read the last 70% of the file.

I found the writing here, while technically fine, pretentious. Or rather, if I was willing to stretch grammar close to it’s breaking point, portentous. The word really is an adjective meaning, of/like a portent and a portent is a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen. So, grammatically it doesn’t really mean what I’m about to use it for.

But anyone who reads a lot of sci-fi or fantasy will be familiar with the heavy, atmosphere-building tone frequently used during passages of prophecy or symbolically significant events. This whole book reads like that…like it’s a portent, like it has meaning beyond the words on it’s pages, like it considers itself more than it is.

I think it’s because it’s a prequel and designed to be a lead-in to book one. If I’m honest, I’m always a little uncomfortable with prequels. I’m never entirely sure when I’m supposed to read them, before the first novel or after the series as a bonus. Plus, I’ve found that when written after the main book(s) they tend to skimp on details, assuming the reader is already familiar with the world and/or characters.

I can’t accuse this book of that. I thought the world was well defined (and really intriguing). But that’s about all it is. There are no mentionable characters, really. This isn’t a story of it’s own, so much as a, ‘hey look, this happened. Don’t you want to know what happens next?’ The book starts with some random street urchin that plays no significant role other than providing a POV, then we see the world through the eyes of a crow (yes, a crow), meet some dying religiosos, a Darth Vador-like bad guy who has some past relation to a couple of fleeing lovers (none of which we learn). We meet them. That’s all. We pass them by while moving on to bigger, better things. Nothing more.

Now, the writing is lyrical and pretty. And while it worked for 50 or so pages, much more of it would have started to grind on my nerves. It felt very tense. Where does this leave me? It’s well written, an interesting world and what is probably an interesting story…but also almost none of that is enough to make me happy with The End of Kai. It’s not enough on its own and I’m pretty irked by its mere existence. So, not on my recommended list unless you go in planning to read the series.

Hunting in Hell

Book Review of Hunting in Hell (De La Roca Chronicles, #1 & 2), by Maria Violante

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Hunting in HellQuite some time ago, I picked up Maria Violante‘s Hunting in Hell from the Amazon free list. It’s a compilation of the first two books in the De La Roca Chronicles.  I don’t think it’s available anymore, but I notice that the first book is free.

Description from Goodreads:

PART ONE: HUNTING THE FIVE 

It’s a side of the southwest never glimpsed by mortal man – a heartless, barren outback riddled with ruthless demons. In its ignorance, humanity is powerless to stop these escapees from Hell and the havoc they create with their dark magic. Good thing De la Roca isn’t human. A gunslinger with no memories of her previous life, she has fought for the last three hundred years on the forefront of a supernatural war, relying only on her wits, her reflexes, and her own demonic powers – all to pay for her own release from Hell. The Angels wouldn’t send her in alone and unarmed, though; Alsvior, her gifted – if contrary – steed, and Bluot, a legendary revolver with an unquenchable blood-lust, have been with her every step of the way – alone with a series of terrible nightmares that might hold the keys to her past. Then, an Angel appears with a bargain that seems to good to be true – five final targets, and she is free from her penance. Quickly, she discovers that her old methods are not up to the task, and she’s forced to team up with a mysterious gatekeeper and another mercenary – both of which need her for their own plans. With time running out, she has to figure out who to trust and who to kill, and fast, before she’s demon-food. 

PART TWO: HONOR IN HELL 

Can anyone be trusted? Betrayed by both Laufeyson and the Mademoiselle, and sent on a quest by an angel that might actually be her enemy, the demon mercenary De la Roca bolts into Hell with murder in her heart. Her simple mission for revenge quickly spirals out of control. Between the Consortium of power-hungry angels, the serpentine Oracle, a strangely absent God, and the knowledge that her mount just happens to be a man under a curse, just about everyone around her has a secret – and most of them are trying to get her killed. Unless, of course, she can kill them first.

Hunting the FIveReview of Hunting the Five:
I’ll give this a tentative two stars (on a 5 star scale). I hate to do it, because in some ways I was really enjoying Hunting the Five. I say, ‘was enjoying’ instead of ‘enjoyed’ because it just ends in the middle, with no conclusion or wrap up. I was still enjoying the read and waiting for the whole thing to finally make sense…then nothing. Actually, having just typed that I can feel myself getting more irked and wanting to drop that rating to a one star. I hate books that do this (especially in serial novellas that could just as easily have been a single novel).

I won’t even call it a cliffhanger, it isn’t. A cliffhanger infers some aspect of a story ends even if some threads are open still. That isn’t the case here. It just ends. This is literally the first 18 chapters of one story. Why on Earth would I want just the first 18 chapters of a story and not the rest? Anyone? No? Yea, I’m at a loss too. Pissed off reader right here.

But as I said, despite being confused, I was enjoying the book. I liked De La Roca. I liked her horse. I liked what I think her mission was going to be. I think I was going to like the book once the pieces came together. You’ve read books like that, haven’t you? Books that made little sense, but if you stuck with them suddenly gelled together masterfully, providing the reader a gratifying Ah-Ha moment. That’s what I was expecting here. I was working toward it in eager anticipation. So even though I read some of the fight scenes (such as the one with Munnin) and didn’t really know what the hell happened (it was really brief and hardly sketched out), was a little iffy on the world (I initially thought it was the wild west, then microwaves and cars were thrown in, so guess not) and never figured out what the Mademoiselle and Laufeyson’s betrayals were supposed to be, I was still looking forward to each next chapter in the hopes that it would be the one to pull it all together. But no.

The writing itself is pretty good. Based on just the writing this deserves far more than two stars. But everything is kept shallow. At no point did I feel the author had provided me a solid…well, a solid anything. Everything was just hinted at. In fact, my initial thought was that the chapters felt like separate vignettes instead of a smoothly flowing piece of writing. This left everything and everyone feeling disjointed and jerky. It also left a lot of moments in which I reached the end of a section and only vaguely understood what had just transpired.

Anyhow, I have part two (not book two, mind you, part two). Here’s to hoping it’s A) not another ‘cliffhanger’ B) clears up some of the confusion left from this book. C) continues the pretty prose.

Honor in HellReview of Honor in Hell:
What’s with authors writing serial novellas that don’t end? Drives me nuts. It cheats the reader out of something fundamental to the reading experience. It sure as hell doesn’t leave the reader with anything resembling a warm, happy feeling.

Anyhow, this book was less confusing than the first one. I was much more easily able to follow what was going on. It also pulled a lot of the threads that were left waving in a mysterious wind at the end of part one together, so that the reader can actually follow the plot. The writing was still really good and it’s well edited. Too bad it’s just the middle third of a book.

Sorry, I’m too busy being annoyed at having just dedicated two days to reading two novellas, without reaching any conclusion and no indication that I ever will to bother writing anything more about this book. Why would I want to invest two days to something I’ll never be able to finish? (Because there isn’t a third book and by the time there is I’ll have forgotten about what I read here…and refuse to read it out of spite and fear that even then I might not reach an ending.) It was waste of my time, no matter how engaging or well written it might be.

vampire vacation

Book Review of Vampire Vacation, by C. J. Ellisson

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Vampire VacationI picked up C. J. Ellisson‘s book, Vampire Vacation, from the KDP free list. It’s still free…probably perma-free.

Description from Goodreads:
Meet Vivian. She’s a 580-year-old vampire who exudes sex, has a talent for drama, and is passionate about two things: her human husband, Rafe, and their resort for the undead. Her ability to project physical illusions has created the perfect vacation spot-a dark, isolated Alaskan hideaway where visitors can have their wildest fantasies come true. 

Vivian knows the best performance requires perfect timing, but the powerful vamp is put to the test when she discovers a corpse in a locked guestroom minutes before the next arrivals. Always cool-headed, Rafe hides the body, convinced he and Vivian can find the culprit without disturbing their guests. Juggling the increasingly outrageous demands of their customers while tracking a killer isn’t easy. 

Will their poking and prodding give them the answers they need, or will it uncover secrets Vivian would kill to protect?

Review:
I moved this up my TBR after coming across a one-star Amazon review that was getting slammed with negative votes and derisive comments (198 at last count). I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. (This, BTW, is a perfect example of a bad review gaining a book a reader. Just goes to show, bad reviews aren’t always bad for a book.)

My opinion? I wouldn’t call it one star worthy, but it’s not any great piece of literature either. Granted, it’s paranormal erotica, so who would expect great literature? But even for the genre it’s just fluff. Now, I enjoy a little fluff now and again. I do. So I’m not disparaging the book for this. But I will have to admit that it’s a pretty weak offering.

The problem is that the sex is too thick, even for an erotic book. At one point, the main characters have sex three separate times in a matter of hours. Now, given the time it takes to do the deed, cleanup (hopefully), redress and let the rubbery legs recuperate I have a hard time figuring out how they’re supposed to be getting anything else (like run an inn) done. Yes, I know it’s fantasy and I shouldn’t worry about the particulars, but i do.

That’s generally how the book felt. It was so cluttered with unnecessary and unrealistic sex (apparently no-one needs or expects foreplay, there isn’t any to be found) that the plot is forced to the side. I could almost see the poor thing trying to push itself to the surface on occasion, like a drowning victim in high seas. It would manage to peak out for a moment, only to be overcome by some ridiculous sexual foray, usually between Viv and Rafe but occasionally between a secondary character and Viv’s imagination. It was just a constant barrage on one sex-related activity, fantasy, comment, imagining, etc after another. The VV Inn felt very much like a bordello or a sex-retreat (do these have names?), but all of the guests felt too innocent to be there.

Then there is Viv, herself. I’m putting her in the too stupid to live category. She’s presented as if she’s unusually clever and strong, but she creates one ridiculous situation after another. Each time there is an excuse—I was so distracted by the blood I couldn’t think straight or I was so hopped up on werewolf blood I was distracted, etc—but after a while the excuses start to feel like just that, an excuse to cover her obvious lack of intelligence.

Though it was a bit heavy handed (we’re told about a million times how much they love/desire one another), I did appreciate the obvious affection between Viv and Rafe. It was nice to see a solid, loyal married couple with no desire to give in to the temptation to wander.

The writing itself was simplistic but fine, though names did crop up a bit too often to read smoothly. It’s in first person, present tense (which I HATE, hate, hate) but it’s not too badly edited and there aren’t too many cringe-worthy passages. All in all, it’s a little on the cheesed up side, Vivian being too focused on her own sexual prowess (teaching the guest SMBD, for example) to feel serious about much of anything else. She felt self-centred and conceited. I loved Rafe, Jon and Asa but not Viv, if I’m honest. If I found the rest of the series free, I’d read it. But I’m not racing out to put my money on the table for it.