Customer Reviews

Hell's Horizon. D.B. Shan (City Trilogy 2)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're a Darren Shan fan, you won't be disappointed. Just be forewarned that this is an adult series, not like his other YA series (plural).

This book caught me off guard. Usually when some time has passed between my reading book n in a series and then n+1, I go back and flip through the previous one as a refresher. But I started this one on a trip and didn't have a chance to look at the previous one. The events in this book confused me at first. I finally just gave up trying to connect the events in book 1 to the events in this second book.

SHAN PULLS A FAST ONE

It takes a long time, but the reader finally learns that this book is not a sequel to the previous book. This second book actually takes place at the same time as the first story. It wouldn't quite work to read these books out of sequence, because the first book sets up the scene so well. So book one and book two take place in parallel timelines until they finally tie at the end of book two, setting the stage for the third and final book in the series.

So what happens in this book?

I'm not telling. That's the real fun of these books.

The scenario is the same mobbed up underworld as Procession of the Dead: 1 (The City). The characters are similar, but different. But Shan's world tip-toes on the line between realism and fantasy.

If you read book one (The City) and didn't like it, then please don't bother with this one, because it's more of the same. But if you liked Procession of the Dead, then you won't be disappointed--maybe confused like me, but not disappointed. One good indicator is the fact that the reviews were so mixed (or actually pretty critical) for Procession of the Dead, but they're generally positive for this second book. So use your opinion of book one to indicate whether you'll like the second & third books in the series.

This is an adult book, make no mistake.

The summary of this book is going to be very hard to understand if you haven't read the first book. You can read my review of Procession of the Dead for a fuller understanding of the story without any spoilers. This second book starts off with completely different characters within The Cardinal's Troops, his own personal police/security force. The plot runs parallel with the first novel with very few crossover's until the end. The theme centers around a vicious killing of a young woman and Al Jeery, Troop member, is personally assigned, by The Cardinal himself, to solve the case. The case becomes personal to Jeery as he finds loved ones crossing paths with his investigation. This book also delves deeper into the mysterious Incan group of blind men in white robes, has more of a mystical element to it and centers on the mysterious but feared and dreaded hitman/killer/torturer Paucar Wami first met in book one.

A quick-paced read that ultimately reads like a mystery thriller for 3/4s of the book. Second books in trilogies are always compared to the first as we have expectations set up for us and while I certainly do describe this as a dark, violent urban fantasy, I found this not as dark, not as mafioso, not as violent (but don't get me wrong it is plenty violent!). Comparisons aside, this was a fantastic read, the mystery angle really shocked me having read a lot of Shan's books I didn't expect that angle coming from him. It was very well done. The characters are just as eccentric, as expected, from the victim's cross-dressing rich brother to the octogenarian pimp who always knows the word on the street. Those characters make it sound seedy but it's not, I don't remember any s*x scenes at all!

I'm hardly doing the book justice as it is just such an intricate book and since it runs parallel with the first one there are crossovers which are infrequent to start off with but rush to a head at the end. Now that I have read the final words of book one and the final words of book two, I just can't wait for the two to meet up with each other in the final book, City of the Snakes, due Mar. 2010 in UK, which means a month or so later for me here in Canada. Review originally written May 4, 2009.

With the release of the first installment of The City series, adult readers have been inaugurated into Darren Shan's peculiar, dark sense of humor. This bestselling author has a talent for creating the grungiest, vilest, most abominable human beings imaginable and somehow making them interesting and even relatable (in certain cases). His twisted plots and depraved humor give his books a distinctive flavor that is different from other works and ends up being a welcome change.

This second book follows PROCESSION OF THE DEAD, unfolding on a parallel timeline and spotlighting many of the main characters in the first book. The likable Al Jeery is a new protagonist, a servant to the monstrous gangster known simply as "The Cardinal." We return to the disturbing territory of this crime boss, a man who has never left "The City" for long. His territory is a peculiar organism whose dirty streets have become breeding grounds for the worst kind of scum. Hoods, lackeys, crooked cops and street maidens consort and sully every corner, hotel, restaurant and alley, all while worshipping and living in fear of the world's most powerful man.

The Cardinal's dreamlike City is somehow unbreakable, an odd monument to his fantastic and supreme power. It is tied so closely with the man as to make one wonder if he could even exist outside it. Mysterious and merciless, the Cardinal focuses only on his empire and the scope of his power, removing any challengers and leaving his associates without any evidence of their existence. Before long, it's clear that the Cardinal somehow possesses indistinct and unworldly abilities, the power to predict and control the world around him down to the last detail. His gifts somehow relate back to a group called the Ayuamarca and to the Incan priests who wander blindly through the streets. They are the ancient remains of a civilization that has managed to survive within the confines of a seedy and fiendish place.

Whereas the Cardinal and his understudy, Capac Raimi, had been the main characters in the first installment, Al Jeery is the center of this second one and seems a much more human (or at least a less threatening) sort. The Cardinal has berated him before for his human weakness and for lacking the ambition that those in power generally possess. What Jeery does possess is some unexplained ability to heal people when he chooses, and after receiving his recent promotion because of the Cardinal's misgivings about a murder, Jeery begins the long and difficult process of tracking down her killer and discovering the truth. In pursing this, he encounters some disturbing individuals, the scariest being the sadistic serial killer and assassin Paucar Wami. Unbeknowst to Jeery, Wami has ties to him that have been kept secret and land him in danger even while helping him uncover the mystery.

Though Shan's series is a crime thriller at its heart, there are many elements of horror and fantasy in it. Both installments employ elements of the supernatural, and Shan is careful to keep these consistent with the story and in keeping with the dark tone. The mystery is quite well done, and even practiced readers of mysteries will find guesswork about plotlines extremely challenging. This is one of the many reasons why Shan's books are so worth reading. Audiences will be surprised by the end over how much they'll look forward to reading the final installment --- which, by the way, you won't have to wait too long for, as CITY OF SNAKES releases in June.

--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith

I'm so, SO glad that I was able to get my hands on the ARC for this. I really loved the first book in this series, "City of the Dead", and it's refreshing to see Shan's style take a grittier turn than what we've seen with the "Cirque du Freak" and "Demonata" series, respectively.

Folks, this is YA fantasy noir at its best. And while the protagonist in this book wasn't quite as charming as the one in the first (hence, only four out of five stars), but still really good. We're back in the world with the Cardinal and working for him, having breakfast at Shankar's, and living at Party Central. It feels SO good to be back in this mystery world filled with Incan gods, assassins, and the mob.

I love how Shan isn't afraid to explore the darker side of humanity in these books in a stream-of-consciousness style with his characters - we really get into Al Jeery's head and heart and how he feels about everything (from his cop buddy to his job with the Cardinal). This has definitely developed and evolved leaps and bounds compared to the first book's protagonist. I really felt as if I were Al Jeery myself, walking in his shoes, killing his victims. It was really quite awesome.

I think it's fair to say that "The City" series is heaps more fine-tuned in terms of voice and POV than Shan's other books, and this really makes "Hell's Horizon" fly by - to the point where by the end of the book, all you want to do is to keep living in that city, assassins and mafia or not. I kind of felt a jonesing for the third book (and apparently, the final book?) in the series immediately after finishing this one. And you know you've written something good when that happens.

So, if you don't really like Shan's other work, try this one. It's totally different than anything else he's written, and better than anything else he's written so far. I think you'll like what you'll find in the mysterious City, and you'll want to move there to stay.

(posted to librarything, goodreads, shelfari, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)

The Cardinal owns the City and Al is one of his guards. When assigned to investigate the murder of a young woman, Al finds it is his girlfriend Nic. Determined to get the truth, Al finds that some people and things are not what they appear to be. Will this hinder his investigation or make him more determined to find the real answers behind this conspiracy? In this fantasy novel, there were things that through me off for a moment and afterwards I found this too be the second novel in a series, but it was still a captivating story to read during a cold wintery weekend.

The City is ruled by crime boss the Cardinal. Al "Algiers" Jeery works for the head mobster as a personal guard at Party Central. When Al's new girlfriend Nic Hornyak is murdered in a hotel owned by the Cardinal, the fuming mob chief orders his loyal but stunned subordinate to investigate.

Al makes inquiries, which proves he knows nothing about Nic as her friends are weird and not in a nice eccentric way. He soon finds himself the target of blind Incan priests and the mysterious killing machine Paucar Wami, who assassinates without impunity as nobody dares go after him. Al fears he is a walking dead man with no escape as he believes he is next on the ultimate hit man's list.

This reprint (under the name of Darren O'Shaughnessy in 2000) is a terrific parallel thriller to Procession of the Dead urban fantasy. Although there are major similarities between the stars of both tales especially their relationship to their respective "mentors", fans will enjoy this twisting entry particularly the perfect killer Wami as Al learns the City is filled with all types of deadly snakes.

Harriet Klausner