Customer Reviews

Dawn Song

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

You're going to hear a lot about Michael Marano's debut novel, Dawn Song. You're going to read all about how literary it is, how intelligent, how beautifully written, how subtle and scholarly. Okay, all that's true, but I'm here to tell you how hard it kicks butt.

This book rocks. It's gripping, fascinating, bizarre, and most of all, scary. Set in Boston in the bitter winter of 1990, Dawn Song is the story of a desperate battle between two major princes of Hell. Both want supremacy over the Earth; Belial, the Unbowed One, seeks to obtain souls through eloquent entrapments and sensual conquests of human weakness, while Leviathan, the Enfolded One, just wants to infect the world with brainless violence. The Unbowed One sends a beautiful succubus to the Earth to carry out his will and spread his influence, which she does with innocently evil gusto. Many humans become entangled in her web of sex and soul-devouring death, including Lawrence, a naïve young gay man, and Ed, a brilliant, troubled professor of theology. When the nightmarish Enfolded One (who has basically caused the Gulf War by rolling over in his sleep) gets wind of the succubus's many horrific accomplishments, he reaches out into the human world, possesses a hapless teacher, and the brimstone really hits the fan.

Dawn Song has all the good stuff. Sex, violence, beauty, madness, terror, paranoia, love, hate, hope and despair. Rest assured, you'll be taken on an emotional roller coaster as soon as you crack the cover. And you'll be scared. Will you ever. One of the most horrifying aspects of the whole story is the fact that (although you find yourself rooting for the sensual Unbowed One) no matter which one of the demonic lords may win in the end, we, the human race, are hosed. It's like the difference between being eaten by Hannibal Lecter or Leatherface. One may serve you up on a silver platter with a glass of Chianti, the other on a TV tray with a bottle of Yoo Hoo, but either way, you still end up et. It's not a ple! asant thought, and it gives the book a creeping aura of menace that sets the reader on constant edge.

So check it out. Dawn Song will stretch your brain in directions you've never dreamed about. Just don't plan to sleep well for awhile.

Dawn Song is a brilliant debut, superbly written, intelligently plotted, and skillfullly peopled with a most intriguing array of characters. It's chilling, and inspires such abject awe.... A magnificent tale of dark magick and human interrelations.

It is frightening how good this book is. For a first book this has got to be one of the strongest releases ever. Michael Marano does a wonderful job of capturing the snobbish and desperate attitude of the typical Bostonian. His approach to demonology and the landscape of Hell is fresh and believable. There are a lot of characters to keep track of but they each have a unique personality which makes them all quite memorable. A fine book. I can't wait to see what he does next.

It took me a while to get really "into" this one. However, I was really hooked from page one because I just couldn't put it down. The writing is lyrical, nearly poetic, the images created are haunting. The novel introduces a series of characters on a variety of levels; nothing is truly as it first appears in this novel. The Succubus is such an incredible character; she is erotic and dangerous without any other motive than to fulfill her purpose for coming to earth. Her image will stick with you throughout this read. The dialogue is intelligent and realistic, the images are sharp, and the plot keeps building throughout the novel. This is a must-read for the intelligent horror reader.

Beautifully and thoughtfully written, Michael Marano obviously knows both theology and horror, a combination which has alternately fascinated and terrified readers throughout the ages. Not only will DAWN SONG thoroughly capture the reader, it will educate and enlighten. This book is meant for strong-hearted, intelligent readers who want to think about what's going into their minds and prefer to challenge their ideals. A stunning first novel, and I'm eagerly looking forward to Marano's next novel.

I have read people comparing this to the "Vampire" series and I disagree. Ms. Rice will take entire chapters to make you feel like you know a person in her books. Mr. Morano, by using characters based on ordinary people with ordinary emotions and real life reactions to those problems, has been able to make each person in the book seem "real" in a few short pages. Not to mention that the main charecter of the book, a succubus, a _demon_, becomes something you root for. She is what she is and does not try to find "meaning" in her being "evil" like Ms. Rice needed to do for Lestat. I liked the Lestat books, but I would not put these two together.

This novel is a succubus in itself. Its intense brooding darkness contained a subtle style and atmosphere that produces in the reader a new strain of melancholy. It reminded me of the best of Ellison and Ligotti and moves the genre to someplace that demands to be called "Literature", yet doesn't forget its roots.

What is realy surprising about this book is that this is a first for Michael Mirano. The characters were very believe-able and well developed. The plot was well thought out, original, and took unexpected turns at times. You have to read this book to really appreciate it! It is a real page turner! Gripping and suspensful.

Michael Marano is quite a talented writer. The greatest strengh he reveals in his first novel is character development. Whether the character in question is one of the novel's major figures or one of the victims in the supernatural war being waged in the streets of Boston, Marano spends time to fully flesh each character out, so that the reader really gets to know the character well. This is particularly effective when Marano makes the reader begin to like a character, just to have him killed by a demon three pages later. In addition, because there are so many well-thought-out characters, it's difficult to tell who the hero of the novel is, or whether there even *is* a "hero" in the standard sense.

The plot is thought-provoking as well. When two demons battle for world dominion, who is the "good guy"? Marano deftly avoids the plot pitfall of bringing in God to quash the demons and restore everything to normal, which was refreshing. Instead, the tensions keep mounting until the novel's end, which makes for compelling reading. I had to finish the book in one night because I couldn't go to sleep without knowing what was going to happen next.

I must state my prejudices up front: I've known Michael for twenty years, but in a way, that makes me even a harsher critic, because I know what he's trying to do, and I know if he's pulled it off. I'm not surprised to learn that he has. Most of the other reviews have told you the plot, so I won't bother. What I will get into are the pieces no one has picked out, the overriding metaphors of banality in sex, in life, in the need for a place. The succubus is nothing without her soul, a being trapped between bad and bad, yet the cruise to find her soul is nearly worse. She loves her victims in a way that nearly no one else could, made more poignant by the fact that her victims themselves are unloved. She *is* the madonna-whore, the prostitute who needs love. Yet every tender touch, every bit of physical empathy leads to death. The AIDS metaphor, the love = death. This novel is a world of hurt, knifing you in the chest, but only killing you with a thousand little cuts, subtle and in-your-face at the same time. I'm proud of you, my friend.