PhoenixFalls - , reviewed on 9/12/2009 + 185 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This is the first novel I've read by Mercedes Lackey, and it took me quite some time to get into it.

I was initially put off by the style -- very purple, adjectives attached to every noun (sometimes multiple adjectives), half of each page written as Diana's stream-of-consciousness thoughts, which were equally frenetic when she was standing alone in a shop as when she was having a panic attack. And while it isn't Lackey's fault (her magical butt-kicking heroine predates most others) the whole set-up seemed too familiar by far. It should indeed appeal to Buffy fans, but don't expect it to take the now-familiar subgenre anywhere new.

Then I was put off by a number of items that cropped up that read like anachronisms, whether they are or not. For no reason I could discover, the novel is set in the early 70s, after the Watergate scandal broke but before Nixon resigned in '74. Yet there is a mention of Diana wanting a personal computer -- and I'm pretty sure personal computers weren't available until '75. There's a mention of feeling like being in a Stephen King novel -- but he didn't get published until '73, and I find it unlikely that his was a household name THAT immediately. I grant, the times are close enough that there may have been a week or two in '74 when a person might have thought all those things, but they just READ like anachronisms, whether they actually are or not.

But around 2/3 of the way through, after Diana joined forces with Andre, the plot picked up enough pace that I sped through the rest. Andre was my favorite character, though doesn't break the ethical vampire mold in any way either, and though I cringed at the way the romance was handled, it was at least blessedly short.

So overall, I have to say I liked the book, but I am very borderline about whether or not to read another.

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