Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre at best, May 17, 2005
This is another book that I got because I really love faeries and other fantasy creatures. It was definitely not what I expected. The plot focused a lot on the humans rather than the Undines, and as a result, I really wasn't sure whose side I should be on. Part of me wanted to root for the Undines, as they were being ripped from their homes and rather unfairly persecuted, but mostly I was given the human's point of view, and I could see how they wouldn't want the Undines around. The Undines were really giving back as good as they got.
There was also an over-abundance of characters and conspiracies. It made it difficult to follow at times, and I never really got attached to any one character or group of characters. I felt as though I didn't really know any of them, which made it difficult to tell.
One thing that surprised me was the lack of eroticism. There was some, but not as much as I expected given the back, and a lot of it was very vague. Given that I wasn't really impressed with anything else, however, that might have been for the best.
|
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fantastic, Frightful, Fanciful Ride Of A Horror Novel, January 2, 2007
"The Undine" has got to be one of horror literature's best-kept secrets. A vivid and captivating tale full of jarringly cool concepts and ideas and one of the better casts you're going to find in a novel; I'm mystified as to why this seems to be so unknown.
"The Undine" centers around faeries and similar creatures of folkore. However, these creatures aren't the innocent little darters-around-flowers or scampering mischief-makers that are probably more familiar to most readers. These creatures of legend can be very dangerous, and some are pretty vicious. A corporation has come into possession of four female faeries who've been changed into human form and plans to tap their magical abilities to generate power and profit. It might sound like a kind of corny idea, but it's pulled off here. The very nature of the idea is the corporation's best defence against discovery, and as the novel gets going it taps into this whole mythology of a dark fairie world, indepth enough to give the book credibility, and to make it almost as much of an entry in the fantasy field as in horror. In the very early going of the novel, the four fairies - vastly powerful magical beings of a royal lineage - escapt from their physical, mental and sexual enslavement and set out on a path of bloody reprisal against both their oppressors and the human race in general.
An unlikely trio of protagonists - a reporter, an actress who's fascinated by fairy lore and all things New Age, and a likably nerdy police photographer - become the main characters on the trail of the truth as to what happened at the site of a major disaster (related to the supernatural creatures, unbeknownst to the human characters at first) and wind up deeply immersed in a deadly situation. The book scores considerable points on how likable and interesting its players are, and it's got a wide range of them.
The writing is deceptively excellent - it doesn't bowl you over with style but instead it very unobtrusively and very deeply transports one right into the thick of the story. (If you're ever leafing through this book somewhere, don't be tricked by the brief 'excerpt' right inside the cover - it's a condensed version of a passage that's written better where it actually takes place in the novel) With the simple but skillful use of the right adjectives in the right place, brief but potent descriptions of sound and atmosphere, you almost forget you're reading words as the story springs to life cinematically, putting the reader right in the moment, whether it's battling one's way up a narrow mountain pass in the middle of a blizzard, the pre-dawn hours in a sparsely peopled diner where notes are being prepared, otherwordly battle on the streets of a city, or the cacophonous crashing of ocean waves at the foot of mystical cliffs. It also does a very good job at slipping one into the mindframes of various characters very quickly and fully.
Imaginative, horrifying, sometimes romantic and sexy, detailed, action-packed, occasionally humorous (and when it is it's not just amusing but one of those rare novels that reaches laugh out-loud hilarity), full of surpsises and turns, and always captivating, "The Undine" deserves a far larger audience than it seems to have found to date. Extremely recommended.
|
|
|
|
