 | Title: To Walk the Night
Sexual Content: Attempted rape, mention of sexual abuse. Rating:
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
Even a vampire has to face her inner demons…
Kat Redding is the very thing she hunts: a vampire, thirsting for blood, capable of killing any creature unlucky enough to get in her path. The difference is, Kat kills her own kind in order to protect human Purebloods. She’s good at what she does. Good enough to earn the nickname Lady Death—and the enmity of every bloodthirsty being around. But now a vampire Count is intent on merging his House with a werewolf cult to create a force of terrifying power.
Kat can’t allow that to happen. Even if it means taking on a den of weres and a vampire more ruthless than any she’s encountered before. She has the weapons, the skill, and a few allies. But that may not be enough to eliminate the Count before her own dark nature rises to the surface—and costs her whatever is left of her humanity…
Review
This book more than lives up to it’s kick butt cover art in terms of menace; fans of a darker, grittier brand of urban fantasy will love E. S. Moore’s TO WALK THE NIGHT. Kat Redding stalks through the underbelly of a changed but recognizable version of our world, striking fear in the hearts of the predators that prey upon ordinary humans. It was almost impossible not to imagine Kate Beckinsale’s leather-clad form as Kat, but unfortunately, no scruffy and handsome leading man appeared to fight by her side.
That lack of romance was one mark against TO WALK THE NIGHT, but my largest issue overall was the ambiguity of all the characters introduced. Everyone in this book, including Kat herself, has dark secrets and feet of clay. With so many conflicting good/evil signals bouncing around I had a hard time getting invested in any side of the conflict. There were a number of cinematic fight scenes and some interesting mythology details (I particularly liked vampire fangs cutting their gums when they emerge, a la Wolverine’s claws), but pure mythology and action was not enough to keep me focused when I was unsure who I should really be rooting for.
Though things lagged for me in the middle, the book manages to end on a high note that has piqued my interest for book two. TAINTED NIGHT, TAINTED BLOOD will be available this summer, and since many of my favorite series started with a slow burning book one, I’m hoping that book two will delve a little deeper into the characters introduced in TO WALK THE NIGHT.
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This one sounds like fun. It's too bad that the middle dragged, but it sounds like I would still enjoy it :)
ReplyDeleteSarah
That Bookish Girl
And yet another author who is marketed with just his initials to cover up he's a guy writing about a female lead character. I wish they realised it's a pretty obvious trick by now and would just use his first name.
ReplyDelete@Sarah - I'd be interested to know what you think. I particularly liked the setting, I lived in Columbus for a few years and liked how Moore described the landscape.
ReplyDelete@Sullivan - Moore tours under his full name, I don't think his gender is meant to be a deep dark secret. I agree with you, though, I think if nothing else publishers are encouraging male authors new to the genre to go with initials. Anyone have any examples otherwise? All the male UF authors under their full names that I can think of have male protagonists...
@Julia: Well there's the ambiguous names like Jes Battis - a male author with female protagonist.
ReplyDeleteAnd Rob Thurman - female author with male protagonist.
There are more but can't think of them at the moment.
J.N Duncan (DEADWORLD) is another male author w/ female protag. Also from Kensington.
ReplyDeleteThis book has already been released? I bought it at Chapters yesterday..
ReplyDeleteKind of amuses me that the "trick" is going in reverse now, instead of female authors writing under male or androgynous names to be taken seriously. Love the new blog look!
ReplyDelete@Sullivan - That's two examples I totally didn't know about (and here I had "Rob Thurman" in the guy and proud category).
ReplyDeleteI've never had an issue with a male or female author writing across genders (after all, everyone does that to some extent, if only in the supporting cast), but I definitely don't like it when the books are too bleak, dark, or devoid of satisfying relationships (and that can be friend, family or romance), even if they have a killer mythology. That was actually my issue with the first Kate Daniels. That was back when Curran got barely any page time (and they had as much fight time as chemistry), and Kate kept quoting her step-father's sociopath bootcamp rules. I thought she was doomed to be alone and angry, both romantically and with friends, imagine how much Julie, Curran, Andrea, Grendel, and Derek delighted me...
@Jeffe - I made the same observation to my husband this week! I think it's genre dependent. This year was aflame with the gender dynamics of general fiction, and the shoe is definitely on the other foot when it comes to UF.
I enjoy anything with some mythology, maybe that will help me enjoy it more? Nice review, it has me thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI've been curious about this one so thanks for the review. I think I'm going to wait a little while longer before tackling this one. Happy (almost) 2012!
ReplyDelete@Lexi - Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for commenting. I liked the physicality of this particular brand of vampire/werewolf, Moore focuses on the little details of their condition. I'll be interested to see if that works for you, too.
ReplyDelete@Carmel - Happy (post) 2012, I hope you had a nice holiday. Anyone else scrambling to catch up this week, how can I be this far behind when the year just started?!