Tim's Reviews > Silver Under Nightfall
Silver Under Nightfall (Reaper, #1)
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Remy Pendergast, the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne, is a vampire hunter with a bit of an unpleasant reputation. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she ran off with a vampire, giving rise to the many rumors that Remy is himself half-vampire, and at least a few high ups had an old feud with his father and thus decide to take it out on Remy. Opportunities are few and far between for him, but with two diplomats arriving from two separate vampire courts in order to make a peace treaty, and a murder following shortly after, Remy has a bit of work to do... especially as he is the main suspect.
Well, this is Castlevania fan-fic with name changes. No, I don’t mean that as an insult, it’s practically spelled out in the advertising and one can’t help but notice if one is familiar with it... well, I happen to like Castlevania so that didn’t particularly bother me. What I got along with it was a pleasant surprise as there’s a lot of fantasy politics (something I prefer to action scenes) and a very interesting world. I was particularly interested in the vampire court system and how they operated on different levels (I do hope to see more of that in the second book as I believe the author has stated it will be a duology).
The world is interesting. Most of the characters are likeable... and I’m glad in regard to the mystery aspect that we didn’t have that classic “I’ll be stupidly suspicious of the outsiders because I usually hunt them” moment I expected from our vampire hunter, as while he is very flawed, he’s not stupid and thus quickly works with the two court vampires in regards to the situation.
Alright mostly positive but I do have issues with the book. My biggest is aspects of the author’s writing. There are several abrupt transitions. Say they’re in the middle of a conversation and then BAM attack next paragraph, no transition. First time it happened I thought it was an interesting way to jar the reader into feeling like something could happen at any time. It happened multiple times though and after a bit felt less like an interesting creative choice and more like an editor took out a paragraph of description in between to keep things faster paced. It wasn’t even always a fight, sometimes someone would just enter the scene without any notice, or we’d just move onto a new topic without any transition. It was never jarring enough to make me want to quit or anything, but it was frustrating enough that I noticed it repeatedly.
I’m also not an overly big fan of Remy as a character. He improves as it goes on, but dear sweet Dracula, he annoyed the hell out of me at the start. Had it not been for the interesting world and other characters (which is to say, literally everything about the book other than Remy) I would have DNF it.
As said though, Remy does improve, so overall my complaints are minor. It’s a fun read and pretty breezy for 500+ pages. Recommended to fantasy fans who happen to like vampires. 4/5 stars
Well, this is Castlevania fan-fic with name changes. No, I don’t mean that as an insult, it’s practically spelled out in the advertising and one can’t help but notice if one is familiar with it... well, I happen to like Castlevania so that didn’t particularly bother me. What I got along with it was a pleasant surprise as there’s a lot of fantasy politics (something I prefer to action scenes) and a very interesting world. I was particularly interested in the vampire court system and how they operated on different levels (I do hope to see more of that in the second book as I believe the author has stated it will be a duology).
The world is interesting. Most of the characters are likeable... and I’m glad in regard to the mystery aspect that we didn’t have that classic “I’ll be stupidly suspicious of the outsiders because I usually hunt them” moment I expected from our vampire hunter, as while he is very flawed, he’s not stupid and thus quickly works with the two court vampires in regards to the situation.
Alright mostly positive but I do have issues with the book. My biggest is aspects of the author’s writing. There are several abrupt transitions. Say they’re in the middle of a conversation and then BAM attack next paragraph, no transition. First time it happened I thought it was an interesting way to jar the reader into feeling like something could happen at any time. It happened multiple times though and after a bit felt less like an interesting creative choice and more like an editor took out a paragraph of description in between to keep things faster paced. It wasn’t even always a fight, sometimes someone would just enter the scene without any notice, or we’d just move onto a new topic without any transition. It was never jarring enough to make me want to quit or anything, but it was frustrating enough that I noticed it repeatedly.
I’m also not an overly big fan of Remy as a character. He improves as it goes on, but dear sweet Dracula, he annoyed the hell out of me at the start. Had it not been for the interesting world and other characters (which is to say, literally everything about the book other than Remy) I would have DNF it.
As said though, Remy does improve, so overall my complaints are minor. It’s a fun read and pretty breezy for 500+ pages. Recommended to fantasy fans who happen to like vampires. 4/5 stars
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Diane
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Jan 03, 2023 01:37AM
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