15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Exactly why did Japh "Fall" for Danny?, March 20, 2008
This review is from: To Hell and Back (Dante Valentine, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the 5th (and last) book in the Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow. It was okay; not as good as some of the previous ones, but okay.
The book starts with Dante (Danny) being expelled from Hell in an alley; she has taken quite a beating from Lucifer and can't remember much of it. Lucas comes to her rescue and Danny is soon reunited with Japh. Danny finds that in her absence Japh has been tearing apart the world looking for her, and he has declared rebellion against Lucifer. In order to kill the devil Japh is determined to get a special knife that was made for hedaira to wield against demons. He has determined that Danny will use it to kill the Lucifer. Of course Japh, is also out to kill Eve and Danny is hell-bent on protecting Eve. Danny exerts her independence against Japh and makes a "hell" of a mess out of everything...again.
There were a lot of things about this book that bothered me. I don't understand why Danny is so blindly faithful to Eve; Eve jerks her around just as much (if not more than) Japh. Danny is not blindly faithful to anyone; why should she be faithful to Eve? On the flip side Danny is horribly unfaithful to Japh. I don't understand why. Both characters lied to her a ton; yet only one of them was supportive of her.
By the end of this book I really, really disliked Danny as a character. She was a physical and emotional mess the whole book. She rarely took any action on her own. When she did take action, the action she took seemed to be thoughtless and to just be an excuse to use power. Danny basically screwed up through this whole book.
While Japh is not a perfect character; he seemed to act at least consistently throughout the book. It would have been nice to know a bit more about Japh and his past. It would have been nice to know more about why Japh fell for Danny. The only explanation he gave was that "She treated him like a human"; you can't tell me that that has never happened before to him in all of the thousands of years he has existed.
For some reason a lot of this book kind of got under my skin and irritated me. Maybe it was too drawn out or just too inconsistent. It left you with more questions than answers. While it was a decent ending to this series; I think it could have been better. Maybe Saintcrow will write a series about Japh or Lucas; I think they were much more interesting than Danny. I guess we will see.
http://karissabooks.blogspot.com/
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32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Action Packed Plot Within a Plot, December 15, 2007
This review is from: To Hell and Back (Dante Valentine, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
The fifth book in the Valentine series starts out with Dante bleeding and half-dead, a big black hole in her memory. She doesn't know what happened to her or where she's been, but she knows it was awful, so awful that she's holding on to her sanity by the barest of threads. The only thing keeping her going is the growing desire to wreak some well-deserved vengeance, and kill whoever, or whatever, has left her body, mind, and soul broken.
Once back in the arms of her Fallen, Japhrimel, Dante realizes she has a good idea of who's responsibile for her current condition, none other than Lucifer himself. And when Japhrimel promises to help her, she believes that this time, just maybe, with her Fallen's help she will be able to do what she's wanted to for so long...kill the Devil.
Thrown back into the bloody, violent game between demons, Dante is determined to come out the winner this time. After meeting another Fallen demon and ridding herself of one of the Devil's little "gifts" and retrieving the only weapon rumored to be able to kill Lucifer, Dante's quest to kill the devil truly begins. But once again she's forced to question the true loyalty and intentions of her Fallen. Will Japhrimel really help her kill Lucifer as he promised, or is this just another one of his lies meant to distract her while he pursues his own agenda? Plots unravel, and so do the lies, and betrayals on betrayals. Dante comes to realize that she's just a pawn in the war between demons, even Japhrimel has manipulated her for his own gain and for his own reasons, and she gets the idea that Japhrimel's been planning this way before he ever met her. As all this is revealed, Dante begins to think the only person she can trust is herself, and if she wants to still be breathing, with the Devil lying dead at her feet, she's gonna have to make a move of her own in this twisted game.
This book is filled with adventure, action, emotional angst, and everything that makes a great story. There are plots within plots and nobody is what they seem. I admire Ms. Saintcrow's ability to weave this complicated plot full of intrigue, doubt, lies, and betrayal. Japhrimel's ability to reason out complex and far-reaching plots and counterplots, blew me away. That really drove home the point of how inhuman he was, to have waited and plotted and counterplotted with inhuman patience and intelligence for decades, centuries? It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat!
My only complaint is that the story does not quite feel finished to me. I still have a bunch of questions. Is Eve really Dante's daughter? That question was never truly answered. I can only assume Ms. Saintcrow's intention was that the question in the end became irrelevant because whoever her mother was (Dante or Doreen) that it didn't matter because Eve's humanity was burned away and she was fully demon, and that demons did not care much about such things. Also, in the end things still seemed uncertain between Dante and Japhrimel (did Dante ever get over the trauma that happened to her?), but I assume also that was Ms. Saintcrow's intent. To leave it open-ended. Can either one truly ever know the other? Can a human ever really understand a demon, and can a demon ever truly understand a human? The ending did not seem clear cut to me. Not a "happily ever after" ending, just a real one. Not black and white, but gray with all the uncertainty that entails.
Also, the implied rumors of problems in Hell at the end, and how Dante and Japhrimel may be drawn back into the bloody and violent politics of Hell, made it seem like there is more of Dante and Japhrimel's story to be told. I sincerely hope we get to see more of them in the future!
In addition, I wanted to know more about Lucas, the Deathless, who was he and why was he cursed by Death? Maybe Ms. Saintcrow will do a short story answering this.
Each time I read one of Dante's books I am blown away by Ms. Saintcrow's ability to create a believable and realistic world and all its depth. Amazed by the complex emotions,self-doubts, flaws, humanity, and inhumanity in all her characters that makes the reader able to relate to them. I am also amazed each time by the complicated demon politics and plots within plots. Ms. Saintcrow is truly a talented and wonderful author. All in all this is a great book that fans of the series will definitely enjoy!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An Unlikeable Main Character, June 1, 2009
This review is from: To Hell and Back (Dante Valentine, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
I had originally read the first two books of this series years ago and loved them. After years of the remaining 3 books sitting on my bookcase I finally decided to complete the series. I was unfortunately very disappointed and was glad when I finally completed the series.
I really liked Dante's strong and honorable personality in the first two books and how she resolved the issues placed before her. However, Dante became more unlikeable as each book progressed, until I couldn't stand her in To Hell and Back. Dante is a rage filled, idiotic, untrusting, immature, hypocritical b*****. Dante seems to have no qualms about killing anyone and constantly has the desire to stab or kill people if they so much as talked when she was in a 'mood', her lover and teammates included. She has a very strong dislike for anyone who lies or betrays her. This is very understandable but she lies and betrays those close to her without a problem so she has no right to point fingers. She treats Japh horribly and doesn't trust him despite him constantly proving he would do anything to protect her. Granted, Japh doesn't explain everything that is happening but I don't recall an instant when he blatantly lied to Dante despite her insistence that he has. What I cannot comprehend and what horribly frustrated me is that Dante seems to believe whatever Eve says but wont even trust her lover who has proven his loyalty. Dante even goes so far in her trust with Eve that she is willing to fight and kill Japh to protect her.
Another issue I have with this series is all the things that were left unresolved and unexplained. I did like the overall plot of the series and I feel Saintcrow did a wonderful job in portraying a world where magic, demons, and gods are considered normal, but it seems like Saintcrow felt like the readers didn't deserve answers and closure. Why did Anubis ask Dante not to kill Mandy, what exactly is a Fallen and a Heidara(spelling?), who exactly IS Japh, why does Japh have a gray streak and wrinkles once he came back from hell, and what exactly is Vann and Maxwell? There are many other questions I have that were never answered but those are the main questions that come to mind. I really liked Japh as a character but it does not further your plot when the character with all the answers never reveals those answers. It almost seems like Saintcrow didn't know the answers herself so used the easy way out by using Japh.
Unfortunately, I was so utterly disgusted with Dante and the end of the series that I never plan to read a Lilith Saintcrow book again. The reason I have such strong negative feelings for the last few books is because I REALLY liked the first 2 books and feel very let down as a reader. The reason I gave To Hell and Back a 3 star rating instead of something lower is only because of the first two books in the series.
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