It’s a few hours early (at least in my part of the world) but I just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful 2009!
Tomorrow I plan to put up an end of the year recap on books of 2008 and what to look forward to in 2009 (I’ve been waiting just in case I finished a really great book that wowed me by the end of the year but I’ve barely had time to read this month and that’s just not going to happen).
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Shades of Dark is the sequel to Gabriel’s Ghost and the second book in Linnea Sinclair’s Dock 5 Universe series. While Shades of Dark picks up where the first book left off and focuses on the same main characters, the third book Hope’s Folly (to be released in February 2009) is about Philip Guthrie, a secondary character in the series so far. Shades of Dark should not be read before Gabriel’s Ghost and this review will contain spoilers for the former book (reviewed here).
This novel picks up about three months after the end of Gabriel’s Ghost. Sully and Chaz have left Marker after successfully destroying their first jukor lab and are back to life on the ship Boru Karn – and heading for a meeting with an informant who claims to know the location of another one of these labs. When she cannot sleep one night, Chaz happens to see her last name in a news headline. The article turns out to be about the arrest of her brother, Thaddeus Bergren, for his role in the events at Marker. Of course, Chaz is worried about what will happen to Thad but she is also concerned that his mind will be probed since he is one of the only people with knowledge about Sully’s telepathic powers. This disclosure of Sully’s Kyi-Ragkiril abilities, feared by the vast majority of humanity, would be detrimental to their cause since no one would want to help Sully. Furthermore, most of Sully’s crew do not know what he is and may react badly upon hearing the fact that he could easily destroy their minds if he so desired.
In addition to fear over Thad’s predicament and a possible impending mutiny, Chaz and Sully must also contend with the increasing strength of Sully’s powers, which he hides from Chaz for a time. The reason for the rapid change is unknown, but Sully finds the new things he can do simultaneously intriguing and disconcerting. In the end, he still views himself as a “hell-spawned soul stealer” and fears that keeping Chaz close to him is a mistake – and one that he does not have the personal strength to avoid.
Gabriel’s Ghost
was largely about the obstacles Kyi-Ragkirils had to overcome to be accepted and downplayed their evil since Sully was overall a decent man and Ren (who was not actually a Kyi-Ragkiril but was the race often judged to be one) was the kindest and gentlest being imaginable. Sully was often feared for his abilities by Chaz and later hated for them by Philip, who knew a lot about the worst of Kyi-Ragkirils but often did not know the entire truth. Yet as Sully used his powers for good (such as preventing both Ren and Philip from dying), it seemed as though the dangers of Kyi-Ragkirils had been overstated. It appeared to all come down to what type of person wields the power instead of the actual ability contributing to unethical acts. In Shades of Dark, this is refuted to an extent. Sully is conflicted between his beliefs and the need to exercise his powers more, which is further enforced by the encouragement of a mentor.Chaz is still a very strong and likable heroine – analytical to the extreme and very practical. She is a strong woman who makes her own decisions, is very capable, and Sinclair does an excellent job of keeping true to her character in both books. Her own struggle with Sully’s difficulty at reconciling his two sides also makes for some excellent reading and she is a very sympathetic character.
There is one minor complaint I had with this book other than the aforementioned info-dumping contributing to a slow start – the number of times Chaz was referred to as “the pride of the Sixth fleet” or “the one-time pride of the Sixth fleet” or any variation of “the pride of the Sixth fleet.” The references to this were excessive. We get it – she was held in high regard and now she’s an escaped prisoner on the run from the law, oh how the mighty have fallen.
For those who have read and enjoyed Gabriel’s Ghost, Shades of Dark is a followup worth reading with a much darker tone and more complex questions. Unless one has an aversion to books that are not light and happy, this one is highly recommended to fans of its predecessor.
9/10
Read Chapter Two
Other reviews:
Reviews of other books in this series:
I have a Borders gift card I got for Christmas and will probably be going to Borders tomorrow to get some books to go with my other Christmas books (The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind by Fuyumi Ono and a numbered signed copy of Storm Constantine’s The Oracle Lips, which is a very lovely collection of short stories). Since I have not read much urban fantasy, I was thinking about getting a couple of urban fantasies to try. Any suggestions for where to start?
Last year I branched out and read more science fiction and found I really enjoyed it at least as much as fantasy. I had read some science fiction with mixed results since I rarely found one where I liked the characters as much as in the fantasy books I read. I still tried reading books in the genre that were highly praised on occasion, such as Altered Carbon (which wasn’t bad but had way too much testosterone for my taste) and Neuromancer (which was just plain dull with flat characters I didn’t care one bit for). Maybe I just tried reading too much cyberpunk; I couldn’t get into Snow Crash either.
Then I started reading more space opera – Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro, Grimspace by Ann Aguirre, The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks – and discovered I really liked it and needed to read more. Last year I had pretty good results with these books – Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles series, more from Asaro’s Skolian Saga, Archangel Protocol by Lyda Morehouse, Gabriel’s Ghost and Shades of Dark by Linnea Sinclair, and the famous Dune.
So, this coming year I want to continue trying a few different types of books, and I’ve decided to try urban fantasy outside of the realm of what I’ve read in the genre before (books like Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which was good). Vampires and werewolves have never seemed all that appealing to me, but you never know unless you actually try it so that’s what I plan to do. Maybe I base my feelings too much on cheesy vampire movies and am missing some great novels.
Books I am currently considering are:
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (this one has been recommended to me enough times that it’s a must-get if it’s in stock at Borders)
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
Ill Wind by Rachel Caine
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (I’ve heard the first few of these are good anyway; don’t know if I really want to start a series that is going to go downhill that quickly, though)
Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin (Tia of Fantasy Debut is not a vampire fan either but enjoyed this one so it sounds promising)
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Is there anything else that should be on my list? Or any of these that should be at the top of the list? Which books have both good characterization (preferably with gray characters) and an interesting story? And are not so cheesy that I’ll get eye strain from rolling them too much?
Any advice is much appreciated!
For those who don’t already know, Ana and Thea from the excellent The Book Smugglers blog are holding Smugglivus, a celebration of the holidays and their one year blog anniversary, right now. I was a guest blogger there yesterday and have a lengthier than planned post on my favorite books I’ve read this year (regardless of publication date).
The countdown to Smugglivus featured several authors including Linnea Sinclair, Stephen Hunt, John Marco, Melissa Marr, Maria V. Snyder, and Meljean Brook. Now that Smugglivus is here, several bloggers are discussing their favorite books of the year. It’s definitely worth checking out and your list of books you must get will grow… I know mine has!
The Book of Joby contest is now closed and a winner has been randomly selected. The winner is:
The month of giveaways will soon be over, but there is one more change to win the final giveaway for either Gabriel’s Ghost or Shades of Dark – your choice.
This is the last of the four giveaways featuring some of my favorite books read this year. The final book is one of the two Dock 5 Universe novels by Linnea Sinclair – either Gabriel’s Ghost (review) or Shades of Dark. (I was hoping to have a review of the latter book up by today but with all the holiday running around, I haven’t had the time yet. I’ll link to it once I get it up, hopefully sometime this weekend. If you’ve read the first book, though, I’m sure you’ll have a pretty good idea of whether or not you want to read the second one.)
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Gabriel’s Ghost is the first book in this science fiction romance series containing a great balance between space opera adventure and romance. It is the story of how the innocent former fleet captain Chasidah Bergren was rescued from a prison planet by her adversary Gabriel Sullivan, whom she had believed to be dead. Sullivan needs someone who knows the fleet to help him stop the breeding of terrible creatures that had been outlawed for being too dangerous… and who better than the woman he’s had a crush on for years, the one he couldn’t stand to think of living on the terrible planet she had been exiled to. In spite of the typical rescue of a woman by a man storyline, Chaz is a very strong heroine with a mind of her own who tends to follow her head instead of her heart.
I enjoyed this book immensely and found it very difficult to put down for the last half, and the sequel was even better (and darker). The first book left me wanting to know what happened so much that I decided I just couldn’t start any other book and had to have Shades of Dark. So I went to Borders and got that one the day I finished it and was halfway through Shades of Dark by the time that day was over (and had finished it two days later even though I was back to work at that point). The ending was amazing and stuck with me for quite a while, and I loved the characters and the focus on them in this story, which is why it is one of my favorites read this year.
Contest Rules
To enter, send an email to fantasycafe AT novomancy.org. The subject of the email should say “Ghost” if have not read either of these books, but if you have read the first one but not the second, the subject should say “Shades.” Please include your mailing address. Addresses will only be used for sending the book out quickly and all messages will be deleted once the contest is over.
The contest is open to anyone, no matter where you live. One entry per person is allowed.
Entries for the contest will be accepted through 11:59 PM on Saturday January 3.
You can also still enter to win a copy of The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari for a short time (contest closes at midnight)!
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