Customer Reviews

Night Child (OSI, Book 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mageborn Tess Corday is an OSI (Occult Special Investigator) for the Mystical Crime Unit of CORE. She's been training for this position since she was 'thirteen in pigtails wearing an Animaniacs shirt'. At twenty four, she's old and still at a level one, which indicates a few career problems.

Tess and her telepathic partner, Derrick Siegel, are called in to an unusual vampire death. According to her boss, this case is a 'career breaker' for Tess, she doesn't make it she's in trouble. There are only two clues on this vamp's body: an address and a photo.

Both of those clues lead to trouble. The address leads her to the home of Cassandra Polanski and her niece, Mia. Mia comes to Tess and Derrick and the two of them are forced to defend the girl from an attack by a Vailoid demon-for-hire. The photo takes them to Lucian Argrado, necromancer and guide into the vampire realm. Lucian's going to pose a lot of problems for Tess personally.

Once Mia is attacked, their boss tells Tess and Derrick to get off the case and stay away. But, can the two of them leave Mia in danger?

Fantasy is a careful balance between worldbuilding, character, and story. "Night Child" is one of the rare cases where there's too much worldbuilding and not enough of the other two elements. Jes Battis cannot be faulted in the amount of research he did to write this novel, he even took an Advanced Forensics class. The problem is, a lot of this research is incorporated into the narrative, which bogs both the storyline and the characters down, particularly in a first-person narrative where Tess would be thinking more of her job than explaining the forensic details--which she already knows.

My hope is the next book in this series will already have the world established and can focus more on character and storyline. This is definitely a worthwhile world to explore and one that will be of interest particularly considering the level of CSI-fandom.

Rebecca Kyle, June 2008

Night Child is a solid first outing from author Jes Battis. The action sequences are particularly compelling, and while there is occasional info-dumping, it tends to work well within the context - think CSI, and how every time a new technique is used we get a brief explanation. The protagonist, Tess Corday, is a believably conflicted twenty-four year old with the usual concerns and fears of a young adult, with the odd admixture of self-doubt and cockiness we've all experienced under the skin. Battis is at his best when he segues into dream and flashback scenes, where Tess's internal monologue picks up steam and approaches stream-of-thought-like intensity and randomness.

Some small quibbles - A couple of minor continuity issues (an ambiguous turn of phrase in one case, another where a secondary character suddenly knows how a murder has been committed without actually being told), but nothing show-stopping. Additionally, a few typos here and there - which is to be expected in a first printing, but still jar a little. That said, again, nothing show-stopping.

The story itself falls into the relatively new and energetic dark urban fantasy/vampire noir set, and Night Child is definitely a good fit. The characters are believable and sympathetic, the action is well-paced, the plotting allows the reader to catch breath on occasion, and the finale is both foreshadowed and yet not obvious. Tess, as an OSI-1 working on mystical crime scenes, is a kind of Scully meets Grissom with a bit of kick-butt Buffy thrown in for good measure. Her requisite sidekick is played by the amiable and surprisingly capable Derrick, and a cast of vamps, necros, mages and demons rounds things out quite nicely. The backstory evolves from the discovery of a dead vampire in an alleyway in downtown Vancouver - but there's no stake, no garlic, no silver to be seen. How this vamp died and why lead Tess and Derrick on a merry chase throughout Vancouver and nearby environs, battling their way through supernatural foes and demonic paperwork, trying not only to solve the case, but perhaps to fight some internal demons of their own. Battis definitely shows us the gun in the first act, and yes, it is fired by the third. I finished the book at a run and was left wanting for more - here's hoping that Battis can get book two in the OSI series out soon.

This story is basically an attempt to write a CSI episode with all the paranormal characters from Buffy thrown in.
This is a very hard read, friends. At no point in the story was I ever able to connect with the characters. Maybe someone else will be better at putting the reason for this into words. I am an avid reader of all things different and unnatural. I love a good paranormal storyline.
But this book just did not flow for me. I think the dialog between the characters is written in such a way that it is not believable. Sometimes its hard to tell which character said what. You think it's coming from the protagonist but after reading the page you then find out one of the other characters made that statement and you have to backtrack and reread to understand what is going on.
It's written in first person and at one emotional point early in the book this sentence appears. "My eyes turned dark." She wasn't looking in a mirror, folks. It just made no sense. I would only know my eyes turned dark if I was looking in a mirror or someone told me so.
The author also chooses to give overly large explanations of items or powers that are not needed.
I feel apologetic giving a bad review on a first time novelist and hope that the author knows that my poorly written review is not meant to be mean, but just a review on a product.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. While it is obviously a freshman effort, I thought the author did some interesting world building and actually managed by the end to salvage some bits I initially thought too stereotypical-- I was going to give an example here but realized it would be a big spoiler.

In this world vampires, mages, demons and necromancers all exist as separate groups-- along with some other magic workers that don't make much of an appearance. Mages are the most connected to humanity, demons the least. The heroine is a mage who works for a special organization dealing with supernatural crime. She is perennially on the edge of being disciplined for her failure to follow routine, haunted by past trauma and in her relationship with her co-worker Derrick, refreshingly human.

I honestly didn't mind the expository information about forensic science because I thought it grounded the story. Without the forensic angle it would have seemed like just another urban fantasy detective story. I hope Battis manages to carve himself out a nice little niche in this part of the Urban Fantasy world.

I read this book on my Kindle.

This was a good read. At times it did get a bit repetitive and the main character did make some silly decisions but nothing that would've stopped me from finishing the book. It will be interesting to see the next chapter in Tess' career and her relationship w/ Lucian. I recommend this book.

The mystical is also believable in Jes Battis's ace début novel.

An Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver's Mystical Crime Lab, Tess Corday arrives at a crime scene where a vampire is dead. A note and photo on the vamp lead Tess to Mia Polanski, a thirteen-year-old in danger but whom also possesses great power, and Lucian Agrado, a necromancer who's liaison to the vampire community. And the action heats up as the investigation deepens...

Vancouver is a welcome diversion from the seemingly endless stream of American cities in urban fantasy. Jes Battis gives a right good dose of Canadian flavour that makes the setting all the more enjoyable. ("Even necromancers have to love the Canucks.") Tess may kick arse with her athame, but she also makes mistakes in life, which make her instantly relatable. Fellow investigator Derrick Spiegel may be gay, but he's not the cliché type who discusses men, shoes and fashion with the straight heroine - in other words, Derrick is refreshingly real. Children in fiction commonly are precocious, and in that circumstance Mia is no different. But unlike others, Mia doesn't grate on the nerves.

Then there's Lucian...he's rare, a character actually worth fancying. Many a time I've come across love interests whom readers are supposed to like, but I just don't get the hype. Lucian, however...yes, he's hot. But he also teaches Tess about the world at large, and herself. And he doesn't overdo that alpha male thing, either.

It's so nice to have an author willing to go the extra mile to make their world more realistic. Most writers will explain things simply as "magic", and leave it at that. But Mr Jes goes further to explain the magic, and investigative procedures, which makes the book worthier. Even demons' skulls aren't ordinary. And how necromancers came about is fascinating. Then there's the subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it social commentary: "We monitored the police lines twenty-four hours a day for any calls that might relate to paranormal activity. Kind of like how the USA's Patriot Act monitors alleged terrorism - only less evil."

I actually did hug this after reading, and not just figuratively. I read a lot of books, both best-sellers and mid-lists, and NIGHT CHILD stands above most of them. Definitely one of my favourite books of the year, and one of only a few in the urban fantasy genre. Get your hands on NIGHT CHILD now, but you'll have to wait until June 2009 for a sequel.

Tess Corday, Mage and Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver's Mystical Crime Lab, is woken up in the middle of the night to visit a crime scene. It's just a dead vampire, nothing unusual about that in her world, but after she takes a closer look she realizes that this isn't going to be an ordinary case of a dead vamp. An address in the vampire's pocket leads Tess and her partner to a teenage girl, Mia Polanski, who has demons after her, as well as the vampire community's attention, but why?

Then there is Lucian Agrado, a necromancer who is liaison to the vampire community. Agrado is supposed to help Tess, but she finds herself charmed by him, and starts to suspect that he may part of the problem rather than a means to a closing the case.

Her boss is breathing down her neck, and expects her to work by the book, but Tess finds that impossible when her own life is on the line.

When I first started Night Child I was bummed. The opening with the dead vampire just didn't have me on the edge of my seat wondering what had happened. I stuck with it though, and as I got deeper into the story it started to have the feel of an Anita Blake novel. Heck, Anita Blake is even brought up in the story. That got a cringe from me, and I almost put the book down then. But I'm not one to just not finish a book. Tess definitely jumps right into things then thinks about what she should have done later. This is pulled off without totally ruining the character. The best part of the story is her partner Derrick. He's funny, snappy, and doesn't take Tess' crap. He trusts her, which made me, as a reader want to trust her instincts as well. The story picked up in the middle and into the end, but it still felt unoriginal in a sense. It was almost like Battis was channeling Laurell K. Hamilton. I especially thought this once Lucian Agrado entered the plot.

The end has a nice unexpected twist, but Tess not thinking before she dives into things definitely puts her and everyone she cares for in danger, again. Overall, Night Child is an OK book. I liked Tess and Derrick, and am looking forward to see if things get better in the second book in the series, A Flash of Hex.

For all the fans of Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, this might be another series for you to look into!

I gave this book 3 stars based on the expectation that as a series it should improve. This one though needs a firm editor. The world he has built may be interesting but there is no exposition to help the reader to understand it. I could have used less of the forensic research and more "this is how our world works". The plot is murky. That's a cheap way to create mystery but I prefer not to stumble around. There is not enough backstory to understand the character's motivations and relationships. How does Tess survive if she doesn't earn enough to even pay her rent? Who are these people and why are they acting this way? The imagery is flawed; "blow away in a flood of black petals" comes to mind. And then there is the romantic interlude. I don't believe that any woman who is scared witless of any man (and that point is made repeatedly), no matter how attractive or courteous, will react as she did in the circumstances as they occurred. That said, I think Lucian is the most interesting character in the book.

I like the premise of the book. The whole CSI style angle is interesting and different. I did find some of the passages distracting - the tangents into the technical details seemed superflous and took me away from the story. My eyes glazed and I skipped over those paragraphs until the real story started again.

I'm withholding judgement on the series until the second book. The book was enjoyable enough that I read it in a day and it has the potential to become one of my preferred series. And I'm definitely looking forward to reading more about Lucian and Derek.

When Occult Special Investigator Tess Corday responds to a vampire's murder, she thinks it's a rinky-dink case to bury her in paperwork. But a hasty note steers her to a strikingly normal suburban teen, and something doesn't add up. As facts gather, suspects turn into corpses, and magic bureaucracy stands in her way, Tess realizes that sometimes doing the right thing means a young wizard has to leave the rules behind.

Jes Battis' debut novel shamelessly mixes a Jim Butcher novel with a CSI episode and waits for the fireworks. Along the way he also name-drops Laurel Hamilton, Anne Rice, and other pop culture icons. But Battis, a scholar, also cribs brazenly cribs from Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, and even Stephen Hawking. Whether this is shrewd cultural appropriation or theft depends on how much you like the story.

Corday's world is one of rules, order, and erudition. Magic lives on urban streets. Wizardry has its ruling class, but where Butcher would hide that class in an Edinburgh castle, Battis plants it in an urban high-rise. Corday has to frog-walk the iron grip of rules. Wizards keep secrets not with arcana, but with red tape. No swashbuckling heroics here: this is a gritty police procedural that features mages and vampires and demons, oh my.

Magic here is highly systematized, explained by the latest breakthroughs in higher physics. Too often, urban fantasy writers throw their hands up and simply take magic as written, but Battis won't take the easy way out. Never have I seen a magic system so thoroughly arranged. I do wonder how secret it is: though Battis' magic leaders seem to operate openly, every non-magic character seems astounded to find that magic is real.

Battis breaks few expectations and does little to surprise fantasy mystery readers. His goal is to establish the characters and situations for big conflagrations which he hints will come later. It's a serviceable, if predictable, introduction to a series, with engaging characters and a meaningful conflict. And it's a fairly unusual take on the subgenre. I look forward to seeing where this series goes in the future.