Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Action Packed Plot Within a Plot, December 15, 2007
The fifth book in the Valentine series starts out with Dante bleeding and half-dead, a big black hole in her memory. She doesn't know what happened to her or where she's been, but she knows it was awful, so awful that she's holding on to her sanity by the barest of threads. The only thing keeping her going is the growing desire to wreak some well-deserved vengeance, and kill whoever, or whatever, has left her body, mind, and soul broken.
Once back in the arms of her Fallen, Japhrimel, Dante realizes she has a good idea of who's responsibile for her current condition, none other than Lucifer himself. And when Japhrimel promises to help her, she believes that this time, just maybe, with her Fallen's help she will be able to do what she's wanted to for so long...kill the Devil.
Thrown back into the bloody, violent game between demons, Dante is determined to come out the winner this time. After meeting another Fallen demon and ridding herself of one of the Devil's little "gifts" and retrieving the only weapon rumored to be able to kill Lucifer, Dante's quest to kill the devil truly begins. But once again she's forced to question the true loyalty and intentions of her Fallen. Will Japhrimel really help her kill Lucifer as he promised, or is this just another one of his lies meant to distract her while he pursues his own agenda? Plots unravel, and so do the lies, and betrayals on betrayals. Dante comes to realize that she's just a pawn in the war between demons, even Japhrimel has manipulated her for his own gain and for his own reasons, and she gets the idea that Japhrimel's been planning this way before he ever met her. As all this is revealed, Dante begins to think the only person she can trust is herself, and if she wants to still be breathing, with the Devil lying dead at her feet, she's gonna have to make a move of her own in this twisted game.
This book is filled with adventure, action, emotional angst, and everything that makes a great story. There are plots within plots and nobody is what they seem. I admire Ms. Saintcrow's ability to weave this complicated plot full of intrigue, doubt, lies, and betrayal. Japhrimel's ability to reason out complex and far-reaching plots and counterplots, blew me away. That really drove home the point of how inhuman he was, to have waited and plotted and counterplotted with inhuman patience and intelligence for decades, centuries? It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat!
My only complaint is that the story does not quite feel finished to me. I still have a bunch of questions. Is Eve really Dante's daughter? That question was never truly answered. I can only assume Ms. Saintcrow's intention was that the question in the end became irrelevant because whoever her mother was (Dante or Doreen) that it didn't matter because Eve's humanity was burned away and she was fully demon, and that demons did not care much about such things. Also, in the end things still seemed uncertain between Dante and Japhrimel (did Dante ever get over the trauma that happened to her?), but I assume also that was Ms. Saintcrow's intent. To leave it open-ended. Can either one truly ever know the other? Can a human ever really understand a demon, and can a demon ever truly understand a human? The ending did not seem clear cut to me. Not a "happily ever after" ending, just a real one. Not black and white, but gray with all the uncertainty that entails.
Also, the implied rumors of problems in Hell at the end, and how Dante and Japhrimel may be drawn back into the bloody and violent politics of Hell, made it seem like there is more of Dante and Japhrimel's story to be told. I sincerely hope we get to see more of them in the future!
In addition, I wanted to know more about Lucas, the Deathless, who was he and why was he cursed by Death? Maybe Ms. Saintcrow will do a short story answering this.
Each time I read one of Dante's books I am blown away by Ms. Saintcrow's ability to create a believable and realistic world and all its depth. Amazed by the complex emotions,self-doubts, flaws, humanity, and inhumanity in all her characters that makes the reader able to relate to them. I am also amazed each time by the complicated demon politics and plots within plots. Ms. Saintcrow is truly a talented and wonderful author. All in all this is a great book that fans of the series will definitely enjoy!
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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What was *that* all about?, December 27, 2007
This review contains SPOILERS
I gave _The Devil's Right Hand_ two stars because that was the "Dante gets whiny" book, and I gave _Saint City Sinners_ three stars because she started doing things again, even though she was still whiny. I keep this one at three stars because her state of mind was still irritating ('on the brink of complete mental and emotional collapse' is not particularly better than 'whiny'), and because it seemed to me that a) Dante's actions didn't make all that much difference, b) I didn't understand the climatic scene very well and c) too much important stuff seemed unresolved.
Maybe I'm dense, but I just did not get why Dante was only able to kill Lucifer by becoming the avatar of two gods. She had the knife, she had shown the ability to wound Lucifer even without it. Why did she not get her own moment of triumph? Why were the gods even interested in the outcome? Was there any connection with Anubis's request that she spare the villian from the last book? That was the last time he really interacted with her, and it still seems a random request as far as I could tell.
It seemed to me that all of Dante's running and scheming was ultimately pointless, even her working of a "Greater Magick". Things started to look promising when Eve's allies came onstage in the war conference, but then all that was thrown away because of some (unexplained) new bargain of Japh's with Lucifer. In the end, if Dante had just gone along with Japh, he would have handed Eve over to Lucifer (possibly as a ruse, possibly in earnest) and Dante would have gotten a chance to kill Lucifer. In the end, her actions lead her only to that same chance to kill Lucifer, and losing Eve anyway (even assuming 'Eve' ever really was "Eve" and actually had any residual humanity in the first place).
I still really liked the first two books, about Dante Valentine, kick-butt Necromance bounty hunter, but the last three books about Dante Valentine, emotionally battered demon-pawn, really didn't connect in the same way for me.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sad to see them go, December 21, 2007
I've been anticipating this book for months, and was not disappointed by the action and the ending. The only reason there are four stars instead of five is because like other people have mentioned, I was left with unanswered questions. I didn't want every single one answered (altho it would have been nice!) and I didn't need an in-depth explanation of every plot from day one from Japh. What I wanted were answers to questions raised in the books...such as what Danny had wanted to ask Lucas (I assume it was about why Death had refused him, since she'd been staring at his cheek) and why Japh looked so much older, with gray hair and wrinkles, upon his return from Hell. There was mention of a new bargain with Lucifer, but what was the bargain, what were the terms? It's never explained, and that drives me crazy. Since he's aged, does that mean he's mostly human now? So many questions, but still a great book, and an even better series.
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