Customer Reviews

Past Redemption: The Darkwing Chronicles, Book Two

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I liked the first book in this series (Beyond the Pale) and just hoped the author would 'flesh-out' the main character Daphne more in this book. I did like the story line along with the plot but Daphne herself needs some work. All I can say is that for a genius who is over 500 years old, who once was a ninja, she acts more like a teenager. She hasn't learned to control her 'rage/anger' in all that time. Her Mother, it appears, pulls all her strings and then casually keeps putting her in danger. She went 200 years without sex but now just can't control her hormones at all around Darius. She doesn't realize she is 'getting drunk' and then she lets a human female practically stake her. It is no wonder that Darius dosen't believe her when she tells him who her female attacker was. She is acting more like a bimbo who more worried about sex and name-brand clothes than what she needs to survive as a spy. Daphne is given clues about the new drug but she takes forever to figure it out. She just kinda bungles her way out of her dangerous situations. The only member of her team who has any worthwhile qualities to be a spy is involved in a 'drive-by'? Who wants to guess why? Sorry to be so negative but Daphane's character is more of a valley girl than smart vampire spy.

3 1/2 stars. The book was ok, though not as good as Beyond the Pale. The book is a good quick read. Some of the "natural" cheekiness of the characters seems to have disappeared, possibly in favor of the increased sex scenes. The action was somewhat diminished as well, seeming gratuitous instead of the well played action in the first book. The new drug on the market (Susto) and trying to find out what it was all about and what was going on with it just didn't seem to develop. Although touted as the primary plot of the book on the jacket, it is really secondary to what Russe was trying to do with the Daphne/Darius/etc plotline. Added with the whole deal about Bubba Lee, without dropping a spoiler, at least two plotlines were an undeveloped waste. There are still some redeeming points at times. Benny is just a joy and the new puppy is a nice, if convenient touch. I wonder if there will be more about the Susto dealings in the next book, because there seem to be a terrible amount of loose ends regarding it here. Also, the emails from Fitz, esp the first one, kinda creeped me out. They were supposed to be romantic, I'm sure. However, they reminded me on emails I got from a stalker while in college (ugh).

Does anyone else wish Russe would look somewhere new to get her character names?

"Past Redemption" is the second book in Savannah Russe's 'Darkwing Chronicles' series about a small group of vampires working for the American government. It follows on a few weeks after the close of the last book, "Beyond The Pale" when Daphne Urban, our heroine, had transformed her vampire hunter lover into a vampire - to save his life. However this caused rather a rift in their relationship and when "Past Redemption" starts Daphne is staring into her drink in a bar moodily wondering why her love life has gone so wrong.

Daphne and her colleagues Benny, Cormac and Bubba have been sent to a bar by their handler, J, without any further instructions. However it soon becomes apparent that something strange is going on in the bar and it's related to drugs. Daphne then finds herself coming face to face with Darius, her ex-lover, who is with a woman. She retaliates but starting to talk to a handsome man at the bar, who introduces himself as Fitz, and it's whilst she is talking with Fitz that a woman overdoses in a strange way in front of everyone and dies.

The Darkwings are tasked to find the source of the drug, susto, which is extremely dangerous and seems to be being targeted to rich young people. Daphne receives evidence that Fitz is somehow involved and so continues her friendship with him in order to find out more. With the help of her fellow vampires they discover that the drug manufacturing hierarchy goes very close to the top of the US Government - can they shut down the manufacturing process before the deaths become an epidemic?

Daphne is a very interesting character; she's over 500 years old and she reminisces in this book about her relationship with Lord Byron as well as mentioning other famous names from history (including her father, Pope Urban VII). As a vampire she is able to turn into a giant bat which she and her fellow Darkwings use for surveillance and she also has to keep out of sunlight but the other usual vampire abilities (super-human strength, glamour) don't seem to be available to these characters.

However, despite the promising setting and the drug mystery plot this book was disappointing. Firstly the Darkwings seem remarkably amateur at spying and sleuthing, driving around in noticeable cars, flying around as huge bats when they can be seen, fortunately overhearing vital information which one imagines true criminals would actually keep to themselves. I also thought it highly unlikely that the drug gang would have continued their work in the same location with all the clues they had received that they were compromised - but this would have spoilt the plot so they just carried on. The book is also significantly let down on characterisation - the people are wooden and stereotypical, they don't seem to learn much or change and we don't find out much about any of them. Daphne seems rather hopeless and lacking in street smarts for someone who apparently has genius level IQ and has lived for 500 years and the will she/won't she romances with Fitz and Darius don't really engage the reader, neither do the sex scenes with Darius which just seem to be fillers.

The end of the book leaves a few loose ends (will she end up with Darius or Fitz, the mystery Don Manuel, the real way to overcome the susto drug) which I presume lead on to the next book in the series. However unless it's rather better than this book in terms of characters, plot and depth, it's unlikely to be one I'd bother to read.

[...]

I don't know why I bought this book, the first one in the series started off dull, only got a bit interesting towards the end, I must have forgotten I didn't like it all that much. Anyway now that I did buy it I might as well do the review. Darius was a pain ,at one stage I was thinking that the heroine should just kill him and be done with it.
But then I remembered she is such a wimp she wouldn't know how to kill. How on earth did she survive for 500 years. This review is to remind myself to never buy any more of Savannah Russe's books.

Like the first book in the series, I found this to be simply OK, not great, and NOT a keeper. I will, tho go ahead and buy the next book, but again I will buy it used. These will not go on my keeper shelf.

There's a new drug on the street, a dangerous one, susto, and getting it off the streets is the latest assignment for the Darkwings, a group of vampires who help keep the world a little safer. Daphne Urban is among that force, and perhaps the case is what she needs right now. Her heart has just taken a severe blow when her human lover turned on her after she brought him across. There is no loyalty to Darius to stop her from getting romantically involved with Fitz, the weakest link in the powerful family that is helping keep susto in circulation. It's just when she is beginning to heal that Darius returns, making impossible demands upon Daphne. It's also then that the danger becomes so high that there will be loss of lives among those who should not die.

*** Imagine the heroine of Alias or La Femme Nikita as a vampire; she might be a lot like Daphne if she was. This is a fast paced, easy to read book, if you read book I. Interwoven in the action are flashbacks to Daphne's long lost human love, Lord Byron, complete with poetry. Though there is not a lot of romance, there is just enough to make it appealing to fans of that genre, but not weigh it down for those who prefer more action. ***

This new adventure again takes place in New York City and I really liked that the author uses real places that you can actually visit in the plot. There's a new member of Team Darkwing and he's really interesting--and it was great discovering his former identity. Daphne Urban does more fighting in this book and that was a little like Kill Bill. I loved the scene in the cemetery too--another take off on classic horror films (in book one there's a "don't go into the cellar" scene). I can't wait for book three.

Well Daphne is back, still pining for lost loves, dealing with her current man/vampire trouble, and saving the world by dealing with one bad guy at a time. The rest of Team Darkwing flies along for the fun- the always entertaining southern backwoods vamp Bennie, sulky drama king Cormac, & the mysteriouse 'call em as you see em Bubba Lee. Oh, and J their handler is still a big, sex suppressed pain in the patute.

This time Daphne & her fellow spy vampires are asked to infiltrate a drug ring. Not your ordinary street drugs but a new designer addictive which is killing with obscene regularity. And the rings kingpin looks to be no other than the presidents right hand man. Daphne ends up trying to put Darius( For those of you who missed Beyond the Pale, Darius was Daphne's first boyfriend in 2 hundred years. He was also a vamp slayer/ spy. He was dying, she turned him, now you could say they are still obsessed with each other but have seriouse relation issues.)out of her thoughts by seeing a new , sexy guy named St. Fitz. Turns out not only is he involved with the dirty drug somehow but Darius is also on this case and still wants her in his afterlife. On his terms, of course.

Plus a bunch of vamp slayers are showing up in the city. That's not good when your sorta ex boyfreind is an ex-vamp slayer turned vampire whose cover for his spy mission is singing in a band and pretending he's a vampire! Daphne's hippy mom is threatening to have him offed, her new boy toy gets shot, her dog needs to be walked ( yep, Daphne's rat gets a roomy), a mysterious shaman keeps popping up with cryptic clues, and Bennie & Daphne end up sleeping in a mausoleum all day with J waiting outside with her undies in his pocket...All just routine business for a vampire spy!

This book fell short of my expectations for this author. Beyond the Pale was a passionate, action packed, and characters with good dialogue.

In this book, there is little interaction between the Darkwings. Russe creates a distraction using Bubba Lee. Who is he really? Who cares? I love Benny and her southern ways. However, Russe rarely wrote about her and when she did it was so lacking in depth. Benny should have been more flushed out in this book. It would have helped to have better dialogue between the characters.

There is the tension between Darius and Daphne that pique the interest. However, it feels like it is repetitive every time he visits her apartment. They make love, he whines about his sorry life, and he winds up walking out the door. It got to be tedious after a while. I did like the new character Fitz and would love to see more of him. It gives a different avenue for Daphne to take in future novels. Although, the tension between Darius and Daphne is a much more desired relationship at least for me. Fitz sounds sappy. However, he genuinely cares for Daphne. I could learn to like this relationship as well.

I love reading about Daphne's relationship between her and Lord Byron. Russe took facts about Byron and used them with Daphne brilliantly. I felt that she delved to deep with this relationship rather than the current situations. There was less action in this book. Wasn't the whole plot supposed to be about Susto the new dangerous drug that is killing people? It was annoying to have to read about vampire slayers. I felt too much was written about them. Why couldn't the plot be focused on one main storyline. Vampire slayers do add another element but it should not have been a huge part of the story.

I felt the ending of the story came up abruptly and was too neat. While there were some cliffhangers, I felt that they could have been a little more developed. It seems like she rushed the ending for some reason, perhaps, to start writing about the next sequel.

I do like the premise and that is partly why I gave it four stars. I like the writing from the character's point of view. It helped to understand life from a vampire's point of view. I liked the characters and their potential for the next book. While I wish that the relationship between Daphne and Darius could be like Beyond the Pale that would be unrealistic. This is what is also motivating me to read the next one. I do recommend this book. I finished it quickly too. Enjoy!

Daphne and the Darkwings are back together with a new Darkwing - Bubba Lee. The Darkwings figure out they really do need to act like a team to be a team. Not your standard vampire behavior.

Daphne also gets a new man in her life in Fitz. She doesn't have sex with him but makes out like a 'teenager.' There's potential there in the future she realizes.

Daphy and Darius do heat it up again but there's no trust. Darius is still pissed at her for making him a vampire. I just don't see them as a long term 'couple' even though that's not a vampire thing either.

Jade is cool. Hopefully Daphne learns about positive training if any is needed. Jade I doubt needs any training. Poor thing is going to melt in the heat of NYC summers though. Maybe they could have the Darkwings go somewhere more reasonable in the summer months?

It will be interesting to see what happens next with the Darkwings.

Why not 5 stars? I don't really enjoy reading in the first person and felt that more could have been given in the storyline. The book was only 270 some odd pages long - I want more meat for the bucks I'm paying out for paperbacks.