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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This is a good start to an interesting world, June 4, 2008
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
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid First Outing, June 10, 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.
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
CSI meets Buffy, July 24, 2008
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.
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