*This title will be released on December 28, 2010*
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| Title: Hellforged Paperback: 352 pages
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Book Description
A demon is stalking Vicky's dreams-just as several of Deadtown's zombies are viciously attacked and become really dead. And when Vicky realizes she is the only connection between the victims, she suspects that the demon is somehow working through her dreams to become Deadtown's living nightmare.
Review
I was a big fan of DEADTOWN, both the book and the fantastic city that serves as the setting for Nancy Holzner’s urban fantasy series of the same name. It’s so important when dealing with any kind of fantasy fiction that there is an emotional connection that we make with the characters to bridge that gap that separates us. With the Deadtown series, it’s Deadtown itself.
Deadtown is the ‘reservation’ where the human part of Boston has quarantined it’s supernatural community, most notably zombies, or as they prefer to be called the Previously Dead. They may have gray/green flesh with blood red eyes and go a little cliché when faced with fresh blood, but in HELLFORGED, Nancy once again humanizes them so completely that it’s easy to sympathize with their treatment and become indignant at how unjust it is.
In HELLFORGED, we delve deeper in to the Welsh mythology that serves as the basis for Victory’s unique supernatural status: a Cerddorion (limited shapeshifter). While I did enjoy learning more about the Cerddorion race and the battle they have waged for millennia against demons, I really missed the connection to Deadtown. A good half of the story takes place in Wales as Vicky had to face some personal demons there while learning/training/preparing for another big showdown with The Destroyer demon that she fought in DEADTOWN.
The romance was also disappointing for me this time. Both Vicky’s werewolf sort of boyfriend Kane, and Homicide Detective Daniel that she’s kind of dating too were both pretty vanilla. Vicky has trouble choosing between them, but I couldn’t understand why: Apart from the occasional fur, they were exactly the same. Not that the romance is a big part of the story, it’s a very small part, but I still found it lacking.
HELLFORGED does expand on it’s mythology, which is always good, but it comes at the expense of the zombie social commentary that made the first book so good. The setting of Deadtown is still the big draw in this series, and the half of the book that we spend there is full of demon exorcising fun (including a Ghostbusters reminiscent opening), but I’m hoping Vicky sticks a little closer to home in her next book.
Sexual Content: Kissing, references to rape
My Rating:
3/5
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.
Previous books in the series:
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I still need to read the first one. I am looking forward to both.
ReplyDeleteVickie - Give them a try, a solid UF series with a fun perspective on zombies.
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