Daughter Of Hounds [Mass Market Paperback]

Caitlin R. Kiernan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2007

They are the Children of the Cuckoo. Stolen from their cribs and concealed in shadows to be raised by ghouls, they are now changelings in service to the creatures who rule the world Below and despise the world Above. Any human contact is strictly forbidden and punishment is swift and severe for those who disobey.

Raised by her widower father, Emmie Silvey has a precocious personality and striking yellow eyes that have left her a solitary child. But that changes when two women enter her life-one who stalks her, one who haunts her dreams- both insisting that her entire life is a lie and warning her of an encroaching darkness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's tales of legendary monsters running amok under the streets of New England, Kiernan's fifth novel (after Low Red Moon) to feature psychic sensitive Deacon Silvey and his supernaturally scarred family and friends is a hell-raising dark fantasy replete with ghouls, changelings and eerie intimations of a macabre otherworld. The story develops along two converging lines sketched in alternating chapters. In one, Deacon's adolescent daughter, Emmie, finds herself increasingly subject to weird presentiments and uncanny encounters that suggest she's more fey than mortal. In the other, a hard-boiled female demon-killer, Soldier, cuts a swath through Rhode Island's ghoul-infested underground on a vaguely defined mission that eventually brings her and Emmie together as partners. The complex plot springs abundant surprises involving forgotten cradle exchanges, mistaken identities and unexpected betrayals on its juggernaut roll to a memorable finale. Though more talky than Kiernan's usual, the story still manages an effective mix of atmosphere and action and resolves most of the major subplots. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

The changeling Children of the Cuckoo have been stolen from their homes and raised by ghouls. Contact with humans is forbidden them, and they even hear a terrifying cautionary tale of a girl who tried to flaunt this interdiction. Yellow-eyed eight-year-old Emmy Silvey is about to cross paths with one of the ghouls' children, the woman named Soldier, a killer for the Bailiff, who works mostly with the Hounds of Cain (i.e., the ghouls). In a yellow house in Providence, Emmy and Soldier are doomed to learn the terrible truths about their lives. For Emmy, discovery begins when, on the train to visit her stepmother in New York, a strange woman tattooed with the seal of Solomon warns her to avoid horses. Soldier's enlightenment commences when she nearly dies in an attempted betrayal by her partner and starts getting really nasty jobs and partners who aren't particularly safe to work with. Kiernan's storytelling is stellar, and the misunderstandings and lies of stories within the main story evoke a satisfying tension in the characters. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Roc Trade (January 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451461258
• ISBN-13: 978-0451461254
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,650,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Caitlin R. Kiernan was born near Dublin, Ireland, but has spent most of her life in the southeastern United States. In college, she studied zoology, geology, and palaeontology, and has been employed as a vertebrate palaeontologist and college-level biology instructor. The results of her scientific research have been published in the JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY, THE JOURNAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY and elsewhere. In 1992, she began writing her first novel, THE FIVE OF CUPS (it remained unpublished until 2003). Her first published novel, SILK (1998), earned her two awards and praise from critics and such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Poppy Z. Brite. Her next novel, THRESHOLD (2001), was also an award-winner, and since then she has written LOW RED MOON (2003), MURDER OF ANGELS (2004), DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS (2007), and, forthcoming, THE RED TREE. She is a prolific short fiction author, and her award-winning short stories have been collected in TALES OF PAIN AND WONDER (2000), WRONG THINGS (with Poppy Z. Brite; 2001), FROM WEIRD AND DISTANT SHORES (2002), and TO CHARLES FORT, WITH LOVE (2005), ALABASTER (2006), FROG TOES AND TENTACLES (2005), TALES FROM THE WOEFUL PLATYPUS (2007), and, most recently, the sf collection, A IS FOR ALIEN (2009). She has also scripted comics for DC/Vertigo, including THE DREAMING ('97-'01), THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE DEATH ('98), and BAST: ETERNITY GAME ('03). Her short sf novel THE DRY SALVAGES was published in 2004, and has published numerous chapbooks since 2000. Caitlin also fronted the goth-rock band Death's Little Sister in 1996-1997, once skinned a lion, and likes sushi. She lives in Providence, RI with her partner, Kathryn, and her two cats, Hubero and Smeagol. Caitlin is represented by Writer's House (NYC) and United Talent Agency (LA).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly Beautiful, January 14, 2007

By 

sleepycyan (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daughter Of Hounds (Mass Market Paperback)

Daughter of Hounds is a finely crafted novel that contains stories within stories, and it's beautifully and skillfully written. Objects and places that would normally be considered mundane become the pillars of an intricate mythology that can instill feelings of both wonder and revulsion. It's the kind of writing that works all of the emotions at once and plants itself deep within the reader so that Kiernan's mythology quickly becomes your own.

I'm reluctant to categorize the novel, because Caitlin R. Kiernan is an author that defies the constraints of genre. The best that I can do is to call this a mesmerizing fairytale that is both dark and light, ugly and beautiful, classical and modern, and all the things in between and beyond. If you're looking for intelligent fantasy, please do yourself a favor and purchase this book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CRK continues her unparalleled reign as my favorite author EVER., January 9, 2007

By 

Ann "Quietly disarming" (DC metro area) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Daughter Of Hounds (Mass Market Paperback)

I first fell in love with Caitlin, her words and her worlds, with Silk (my paperback copy of which is now sadly tattered and much-loved; I first heard of it via Poppy Z. Brite's The Crow: Lazarus Heart). Daughter of Hounds continues her legacy, and hasn't disappointed me yet--nor do I expect it to.

Daughter of Hounds has changelings, hounds, demons, beings that may or may not be ghosts, and magick. Time goes in its circular motion--not backwards and forwards as most believe; different options--different realities--occur at the same instant. As with Threshold, Daughter of Hounds doesn't stay in one time or in one reality. It endeavors, at the least, to expand your understanding of time and reality, and the wormholes therein. CRK's worlds, as in reality, don't always make sense or have answers.

If, at the last page, you're expecting everything to be resolved, neatly labeled and boxed, then you're mistaken and obviously haven't read CRK's works. One thing I love about her is that her stories don't necessarily have endings--or if they do, they're very open-ended and not necessarily good ones.

She makes you think, instead of solving the puzzle for you all at once. And she does it so beautifully. Every book of hers that I read changes me indefinitely, opening my mind up to other worlds.

"Words are magick", indeed, Caitlin. You, above all others, have taught me that. I am forever in your debt.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail", February 7, 2007

By 

lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Daughter Of Hounds (Mass Market Paperback)

The Queen of Darkness is back triumphantly. Caitlin R. Kiernan's dream of a novel, the sequel to her "Low Red Moon," picks up the story of Emmie Silvey, daughter of Deacon and the late Chance, born as the sun set and the full moon rose on Halloween, 2001.

Now, it's eight years on, and the precocious yellow-eyed Emmie is pursued, among others, by a huntress named Soldier (their tales are told in alternating segments) and haunted by dreams.

After a scene-setting prologue, the action picks up in Providence, where Emmie is about to take a train trip to New York (on the way she's warned to stay away from horses) to stay with her stepmother, Sadie, who's married to but separated from Deacon. That's where the story gets kick started, as Emmie indeed does her best to avoid horses.

As always, Ms. Kiernan's beautiful prose style never gets in the way of the action. Her writing is clear, poetic, and often witty; but it's never showoff. Even the occasional typographical tricks--usually the sign of a bad author not know quite what to do--work well here. You'll admire the author's cascading sentences (a woman's tattoo is described as "very bright beneath the afternoon sun, all those shades of ink shining from her skin like a beacon, like a warning"), but you'll probably never think "get on with it!"

The author freely acknowledges her debts to H. P. Lovecraft's work, and, in a New England state of mind (she's from Atlanta by way of Birmingham), she sprinkles in Emily Dickinson's poetry as epigraphs here and there. But this gaspingly terrifying but gaspingly beautiful book is all her own. Make it yours.

Notes and asides: you need not have read "Low Read Moon" to enjoy this book, but of course it's better if you have. As always there's a reference to Lewis Carroll's poem "The Lobster Quadrille," but only one, I think. Violence and strong language make this book unsuitable for preteens.