Fall of Light (Hardcover)

~ Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hoffman (Spirits That Walk in Shadow) infuses this entertaining supernatural thriller with cozy, sexually explicit scenes of reawakening and personal growth. Opal Lazelle's magical gifts and her talent as a makeup artist have earned her a career in the movies, most recently on the set of Forest of the Night. She soon discovers that actor Corvus Weather is being transformed in both appearance and soul by Phrixos, a mysterious being with designs on Opal and the rest of the cast and crew. Although Phrixos seems generally helpful, Opal wonders whether its ultimate goal is benevolent. Opal's struggles to anticipate and stymie Phrixos are undermined by her failure to act decisively and Phrixos's inability to deliver on any of its veiled threats, but Hoffman manages to sustain the tension to the slightly bizarre end. (May)
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Review

Nina Kiriki Hoffman is "one of the most original and important writers of fantasy."
-New York Review of Science Fiction

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441014682
• ISBN-13: 978-0441014682
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #495,357 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Half a story - incomplete and frustrating, August 27, 2009

By	M. Turner "www.phoenixfiredesigns.com" (Sunshine State - FL, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

2.5 stars

This book was highly frustrating to me. I was SO excited about it because I really enjoy Hoffman's books overall and when I saw it featured a character from A Fistful of Sky - my favorite novel of hers - I was all the more anxious to read it.

But I found it was a severe letdown. Opal let things get so far out of hand. She never asked for help and just kept going along with the events even when it looked like people might be in danger. When she finally does ask for help, she turns it down as soon as it's offered. There's some unrealistic and irritating "reason" given about how if she asks for help once, she'll never stand on her own two feet. Fine! But then stand dammit! Stop just letting events happen in, on and around you!

The book also just up and ends. Suddenly, abruptly and with no warning. Nothing is resolved and you don't even understand what it was that happened thus far. None of it is explained. It's like Hoffman had this idea for a book but instead of writing the whole story, she drew out the boring and annoying bits to the right number of pages to call it a novel and then just decided not to finish it. Seriously, it's as if the publisher left off the back 150 pages or so from the print run.

I just don't get it. I wanted to love this book and I couldn't wait to read it. Now I'm left wondering what the point all was and why Hoffman was so mean to readers by giving them an utterly incomplete story. If we're expected to go out and buy some follow-up sequel in a year just to get the rest of the ending we deserved in this novel, well, count me out.

Just a shame any way you look at it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fall of Light, July 3, 2009

By	CuriosityHound (Texas) - See all my reviews

Lives up to Hoffman's usual excellence. I've been curious about Opal since she was introduce in "A Fistful of Sky." This book answers some Lazelle family dynamics questions and gives us a look into the world of make-up artists. Looking forward to the next book.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating urban fantasy, May 7, 2009

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

She is magically gifted as are her siblings and her mother, but Opal LaZelle is the only one to leave the family nest to begin a career that uses her talent. She becomes a make-up artist, but she uses magic to create illusions of changing an actor's face or if the situation calls for it actually changes the feature for real. She is now in Lopez, Oregon working on the film Forest of the Night, but has only one person to work on, converting actor Corvus Weather into the Dark God

The area where much of the movie is being filmed contains an opening in the woods in in which an ancient stone alter sits. When Opal walks on the ground near it she feels energy as if something is trying to wake up from a long sleep. However what frightens the make up artist is Corvus; whenever she changes him into his costume, his personality changes too as if he is possessed. He finally insists she call him by another name Phrixos and that he needs her help to fully awaken what lies in the woods. She wants to refuse as she worries about the day of because she does not know what the sleeping god really wants from humans.

The latest Nina Kiriki Hoffman paranormal thriller (see FISTFUL OF SKIES, PAST THE SIZE OF DREAMING and A RED HEART OF MEMORIES) is sure to bring much acclaim to the author. FALL OF LIGHT is a fascinating urban fantasy with powerful horror elements threading throughout the exciting story line. Opal is a great heroine as she knows she is out of her league yet cannot walk away from the catastrophe she finds herself in the middle of as the immediate danger to the crew is stratospheric. This is another winner from a super writer.

Harriet Klausner