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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic first installment, April 29, 2009
So, I have always been one of those people who buys books at random. If I see it and it looks even remotely appealing, I generally end up with a copy. That is what happened with my newest acquisition, "Eve of Darkness." It just stared me down from the shelf, its sweet cover-art refusing to allow me to look away. And when I read the back cover and discovered that it was the first book in a new series, and that the next two books would be released by July, I was sold.
The premise of the book was pretty compelling. I mean, there are a lot of `supernatural' books out there today. It seems like everyone and their dog is jumping on the bandwagon, writing books about demons and werewolves and vampires and faeries. Now don't get me wrong, I love the majority of those books. But this series is about Angels and other main players in the bible. How original is that?
The books center around a woman named Evangeline (Eve) and a stairwell tryst that results in her being punished with the mark of Cain. Cain also happens to be the last name of Eve's first love, who took her virginity and left without a trace a decade earlier. Of course, the story wouldn't be complete without Cain's brother. And Abel is alive and well in this book. In fact, he was the one trysting with Eve in the stairwell. And the one who did the marking. Nefarious.
Being marked initiates a change that gives Eve super-human senses, makes her impervious to the effects of mind-altering substances, and (for some reason) makes her hornier than a person has a right to be. Lucky for her Cain swoops in to facilitate her life-change. Once the change is complete, it is he who advises Eve that the marked are pretty much the assassins of the angels. (That is the short description.) And that she must now spend her life hunting down and killing Infernals (the various and assorted demons and other such damned that roam the earth.)
The book actually started off weird for me, because it felt like you were walking into the middle of something. But, the pacing quickly reasons itself out, and the story flows really well. It was a very well written first installment for the series, answering the questions that needed immediate answering as well as leaving enough unfinished to leave you wishing you could start on the next book. Fortunately, the next book comes out in June, so the wait won't be too excruciating. (Come on, I know for a fact that I am not the only one who has been waiting impatiently for the next Laurell K. Hamilton book for a freaking year!!)
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by both the quality of the plot and the dimension of the character dev elopement. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a breath of fresh air in a played-out genre. I easily give this book 4 stars.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Promising start to a new series! (not trilogy, as I previously thought), April 28, 2009
Welcome to S.J. Day's California, where demons walk among us, unbeknownst to all but a few chosen souls. These chosen souls are the "Marks," so named because they bear the Mark of Cain. Personally recruited by God to serve as demon-hunting enforcers, they gain superhuman powers and a chance to expiate their sins. The oldest, baddest mark is Cain himself. He's still a rebel with a distaste for rules, and he still doesn't get along with that brother of his.
Our heroine, Evangeline "Eve" Hollis, finds herself thrust unexpectedly into the life of a Mark after a hot elevator interlude with a man who reminds her eerily of her first love, Alec Cain. (Guess who.) Eve of Darkness follows Eve as she adjusts to her new powers, learns to navigate the world of celestial and infernal politics, and wrestles with feelings for both Cain and Abel.
Eve is an interesting character in a subgenre where heroines often seem cookie-cutter. She's not a complete loner, for starters -- she has a complicated relationship with her parents and a warm, sweet friendship with an elderly widow in her building. She also seems very realistic in her initial reactions to the changes in her life. Rather than suddenly transforming into a hard-edged warrior, she is reluctant to embrace this new existence, and would rather just get on with her interior design career until she realizes there's no going back. She also is able to think outside the box at times and come up with unconventional solutions to problems.
S.J. Day has obviously done her research into the lore she is using. The moment where her hard work really became evident to me was in the scene with the lilin. I've seen variations on lilin in several urban fantasies, but how many authors incorporate the legend that a hundred lilin die every day, and work that into the characterization?
Pacing is a little odd. The early chapters of the book are very steamy, and most of the non-sex action deals with a serial-killing water demon who is stalking Eve. Another plot is also building during this time, involving demons who've found a way to hide their nature from Marks, but this plot doesn't really pick up until later in the book. When it does become a major plot, it explodes into something very big and very complex, and suddenly there are werewolf families and mages and animal mutilations and byzantine double-crossings, and seemingly-important characters introduced pretty late in the story. I was sometimes confused. It felt, if this makes any sense, like the sex plot was a little too "front-loaded" and the action plot a little too "back-loaded." It felt like two separate episodes of Eve's story rather than two threads braided together. Also, and I admit this is a very silly peeve, but I don't like the convention of using the word "wolf" to refer to a werewolf when the creature is in human form. It always makes me picture the four-footed variety and throws me out of the story.
Then again, maybe it's premature to make a judgment about the pacing. Eve of Darkness and its sequels, Eve of Destruction (Marked, Book 2) and Eve of Chaos (Marked, Book 3), are scheduled to come out within a few short months, and it's clear that they're meant to be read in rapid succession. (Evidence: The first chapter of Eve of Darkness is actually a cliffhanger for Eve of Destruction.) Perhaps after reading all three, the overall "flow" of the series will be more clear.
S.J. Day has created a unique world, and it has many secrets that have yet to be revealed. I'm especially interested in finding out what sets Eve apart; there are hints that there is something unusual about her that caused her to be chosen in the first place. I'm also interested in the intricacies of angelic politics and what the various angels' agendas and plots are. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
If I didn't make it clear above, readers should be advised that there is a great deal of sex in Eve of Darkness! Depending on whether you're a member of the "Yay, Fantasy with Sex!" club or the "Get This Stinkin' Sex Out of My Fantasy" club, your mileage may vary.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Backstory, April 28, 2009
Religion is real in S. J. Day's EVE OF DARKNESS.
Cain and Abel are pseudonymously known nowadays as Alec Cain and Reed Abel. Lifelong brothers and enemies, they have lots to fight over, including Evangeline Hollis. Agnostic Eve has been Marked as a sinner, and has gone from interior designer to demon-killer-in-training. Alec and Reed want her to accept her fate, but Eve wants the mark removed and her life back. God, however, has other plans.
The first chapter is a stunner, combining the normalcy of a football game with...what lurks in the men's toilets. The rest of the novel is six weeks of backstory, with flashbacks to ten years ago when Alec deflowered Eve. Though the publisher has labelled this urban fantasy, more likely it'll appeal to paranormal romance fans because of the relationship stuff going on. Brothers fighting over a woman: Alec and Reed seriously need to get over themselves, and play nice for the sake of humanity. Okay, for Heaven's sake. (I really didn't want to make a pun in this review, but look what you made me do.) Mind you, if they haven't grown up properly during the however many thousand years they've been alive, they're hardly going to start now.
I'm not entirely sure why Eve was Marked. Since sinners are drafted to kill demons, her sin must be...rooting Reed in the stairwell after they just met, and maybe didn't know each other's names. I'm not quite clear on that, or maybe because she "tempted" both brothers. I must have forgotten this detail, or it wasn't explained well enough, which is a problem when your protag is a "chosen one" - readers want to know why.
The series concept seems so obvious in hindsight, it's actually a surprise that no one thought to do it before. The author's angels and demons are well-crafted and original, as is the worldbuilding. But then when witches and werewolves come into the picture...it seems a bit kitchen sink. The dogs and Eve communicating via thought seemed a little too easy, but I'd just come off reading Jeanne C. Stein's first two novels, where vampires communicate that way. Seems too much like telling than showing.
I like Eve's relationship with neighbour Mrs Basso. It's nice for Eve to have a friend, and Eve's mum Miyoko is really intriguing. Born in Japan, she later became a naturalised American, but I'd love to read about American life through Japanese eyes. It gives me hope that S. J. Day will move on to feature other religions, such as Shogun and Shinto (if I remember eighth grade social studies correctly, which I probably don't). Eve is a breath of fresh air in that she's biracial. Usually in paranormal fiction characters are half-vampire or half-werewolf, so it's just splendid to have someone who's human on both sides with parents from different countries. This may make it easier for readers to connect with Eve, and urban fantasy protags can definitely do with more ethnicity. (It goes without saying that Eve is hot: particularly on the cover of the upcoming second book in this series, EVE OF DESTRUCTION. Just so you know.)
Overall the concept seems better than the execution thus far, but now that the backstory is out of the way we can get to the good stuff. We haven't met God yet, or Lucifer. And since there are other firms in the world, hopefully we'll have some international action. There are a lot of possibilities, so this series could end up longer than just the three (so far) contracted novels. I hope so.
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