REVIEW: The Darkness of Shadows by Chris Little

In my search to find new and interesting books to read, I came across The Darkness of Shadows by Chris Little. Talk about unusual and yet familiar. This urban fantasy shows its roots without pandering to or stealing from other similar series.

Chris Little gives nods to the Anita Blake series and to Kim Harrison's day walking demon, Rachel, by choosing to write urban fantasy, but that is where the similarities end. Little sets his first novel in what is obviously a series in New Jersey and writes a completely new history of witchcraft, necromancers, vampires, and supernatural demons and angels. There are also new protocols for the world Little builds and it is a doozy.

There are the usual villains, but not who or what one expects. Child abuse is the focal point of novel and the driving force throughout the story. Natalie as used by her parents as nothing more than a tool and she still has not gotten over it. That abuse and the scars left behind color her view of the world, but they have not hampered her ability to make a life for herself and find strength. What she does not know will hurt her, but Natalie is a survivor and she is more, so much more.

Most urban fantasies follow a formula that has gotten old -- at least to me. The Darkness of Shadows surprised me in so many ways, not the least of which was how quickly it moves. Little's writing seems simple at first glance, but there is more to the writing as well. Little makes it look easy, but there is hard work shown in the intricacies of the plot and the way information is doled out at just the right time and pace.

Though the central focus on the description of the book is on revenge, werewolves, ancient magic, and vampires, there are few vampires or werewolves seen. They are mentioned in passing and will likely fuel the continuing series. Revenge and ancient magic are more prevalent, but Little imbues the more fantastical elements of the story with a strong, beating heart that drives the action. Protectors and Healers bond and are stronger together, but secrets hold them back. Youth, with all of its ambition and passion, are central to The Darkness of Shadows, but so is love: the love of family, of friends, of life.

The Darkness of Shadows stands alone on its own merits, but I definitely want more of this dynamic and exciting new urban fantasy. And so will you.

Wolf Cravings

Since reading The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan, wolves have been slipping out of the corners, so many I had to resort to the only cure known to feed the wolf -- watching movies.

I started with Red Riding Hood, which is a modern interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood in which Red Riding Hood is neither little nor young and she can understand the growls, barks, and yips of the werewolf. Gary Oldman is in the movie, so it's worth watching just for that reason, but the story is, although not unique, fascinating. There's a blood moon, which is when Mars casts its shadow on the moon, hence the blood part of the moon, that occur every thirteen years and the wolf passes on its legacy to the bitten, turning the bitten into a werewolf on the next full moon.

The story is a simple love triangle. Daughter of woodcutter is in love with a young woodcutter, her playmate since early childhood, but has been promised to the blacksmith's son in marriage. The blacksmith's son is wealthy and the young woodcutter is not, and definitely not good enough for the daughter of a woodcutter when her mother is intent on selling, or rather giving, her daughter to the son of the man she once loved as she was given in marriage to the woodcutter. Add a zealous warrior of the church (Gary Oldman) with a silver sword blessed by the pope, a cadre of torture devices and mercenaries, and silver fingernails perfect for killing wolves, a town in which the pact with the wolf has been broken with Red Riding Hood's elder sister is savaged by the wolf, and the fun begins. It takes a while to unmask the real werewolf, by which time a few townspeople have been murdered, the zealous warrior unhanded, and the woodcutter's daughter, Red Riding Hood, ready to save herself from the werewolf after it kills her grandmother. It's a nice retelling of the old Grimm's fairy tale and visually appealing and bloody.

Since that was not enough to feed my wolf cravings, I resorted to my favorite wolf movie, Wolf with Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, and a stellar cast. Now that is what the wolf needed, a good man bitten by what appeared at first to be a dead wolf on the way back from Vermont to sign a well known author to MacLeish House, a turn from vegetarian to carnivore, heightened senses, betrayal by his protege in business and with his wife, a beautiful and screwed up rich man's daughter, and a milque toast turns into a savage man right before your very eyes. I have to say, for all its cinematic beauty and wonderful casting, I never really saw Jack Nicholson as a milque toast for all his acting chops. He is more wolf than mild-mannered man battling a curse, and the way he embraces the wolf at the end is pure Nicholson. Michelle Pfeiffer is, as always, the most beautiful scenery and at her ethereal best.

Now that the cravings have been stilled for now, I can go back to my regular life a little sadder that werewolves don't actually exist and that there is no chance for the bitten to gift me with his wolfiness through his passion. More's the pity, too.

 

A Tiger by the Tail

It is quiet for a change. The sounds of traffic on Colorado Avenue are muffled by the windows shut tightly against the cold breeze and another gray day. The little tree outside my window is finally turning gold and rustling briskly in the rising breeze. Inside, even with the thermostat set at 60 degrees, it is fairly warm, or at least comfortable, and I'm still smiling and chuckling from reading another Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse book. This time it was Definitely Dead and it was a pip, if a bit of a confusing book at first.

I already knew I liked Quinn from the previous book when he was Master of Ceremonies for the choosing of a new pack master for the Shreveport Weres, but I liked him even more as the book progressed. Unlike Sookie, I wouldn't have balked at finding a quiet spot and wrapping my legs around Quinn's substantial and muscular waist. But then, I'm not a twenty-something single woman who lost her virginity about a year ago either. I was married and divorced at twenty-five. I'm also not a telepath like Sookie either.

The big confusion came with one of the main events of the story: settling cousin Hadley's estate.

Hadley had been murdered by another vampire a couple months before and Sookie talked about it as if it had been part of the previous book, Dead as a Doornail. I'm a careful reader and I didn't remember anything at all about Hadley's death, the search for her killer or the subsequent punishment meted out by Sophie-Anne Leclerq, Louisiana's vampire queen, or that she had come to Sookie's house to tell her about it. Uh, no, didn't happen. I wracked my brain and fussed and fumed over the missing scenes and info, and even went so far as to go back and read some of the latter chapters. Not there. How could I have missed it? Did I have defective books? Was I sold short? No.

The whole incident appears, I found after a Google search, in a short story, One Word Answer, in an anthology edited by Laurel K. Hamilton: Bite. Okay, I can deal with that. I now have to get the anthology and read the pertinent story, but at least I'm not losing my mind and I'm still a careful reader with excellent recall, a must for a book reviewer like me.

The usual blend of down home earthy wisdom and humor, Sookie's usual strength, intelligence and creativity in difficult situations and a blend of mystery, romance, sex and colorful characters are packed between the covers of Definitely Dead. I was not at all disappointed -- except for Sookie's very wise and completely inhibited choices, but that is who she is. She is at least true to her character and her nature, and she finally finds out that she is part fairy. Makes her feel that much more insecure, but not nearly as insecure as finding out Bill Compton, her first lover, seduced her at Sophie-Anne's orders. He says he fell in love with her once he met her, but it's too little too late and I'd react the same way Sookie did: disbelief and abjuration. Get out of my face and out of my life, you low life, double dealing, two-timing vampire Lothario!

Sophie-Anne in the books is not nearly as vapid and conceited as she appears on the show, True Blood, but few of the characters actually turn out the way Charlaine Harris envisions them in her novels. They are far different in Alan Ball's version, but that's what you get for artistic license, even when the license is as broad as Alan Ball sees it. I enjoy the HBO series and Charlaine Harris's books, but I do not confuse the two. I have seldom seen a movie or TV series based on a book that comes out the way the author intended. It's all about personal interpretations. I am sure that were I to dramatize some of my favorite books and stories, my take would be different than the author's original vision, but I would stick closer to the original plan than most directors, writers and producers usually do. It is the same in any relationship. People on the outside see a relationship differently than those on the inside, and the people involved in the relationship see it differently than their partner. We bring ourselves and our experiences, prejudices and viewpoints to every relationship and they are never the same as someone else's. Just like me being very willing to take Quinn for the tiger ride of his life while Sookie demurs. She is also reluctant to sleep in the same bed with him while he's still sporting his tiger tail. I think it would be even more fun.

Quinn is a weretiger, a Bengal tiger, 7 feet long and about 3 feet high at the shoulders. I do love cats, especially big cats.

Now I have to dive into a biography about the men who created today's tabloid journalism, and it's a big book. I'd rather dive back into the next Sookie book and see what happens next, but I'm a professional and must put the needs of paychecks before pleasure, and hope there is at least some pleasure in reading the biography. I have been surprised before.

That is all. Disperse.