From the Bookshelf of SOS: Serious Overload of Series…

After reading any urban fantasy book, I often feel compelled to compare it to similar books. Just take a look at all the titles out there. I’ve already read some of Rachel Morgan, Mercy Thompson, Lily Carlyle, Alex Craft and Jayne Heller and haven’t even gotten to Cassie Palmer, Anita Blake or Kate Daniels. When reading an urban fantasy, it’s easy to highlight the similarities between several series. Dark Time has everything needed to fulfill an urban fantasy lover’s, well, fantasy: A kick-ass

After reading any urban fantasy book, I often feel compelled to compare it to similar books. Just take a look at all the titles out there. I’ve already read some of Rachel Morgan, Mercy Thompson, Lily Carlyle, Alex Craft and Jayne Heller and haven’t even gotten to Cassie Palmer, Anita Blake or Kate Daniels. When reading an urban fantasy, it’s easy to highlight the similarities between several series. Dark Time has everything needed to fulfill an urban fantasy lover’s, well, fantasy: A kick-ass heroine, demons, martial arts fight scenes, ancient manuscripts and plenty of sex to go around. Yeah, we’ve seen it all before. Then again, I picked up the book because it was on sale in Borders, not because I was expecting a literary masterpiece. I just wanted to be entertained for 306 pages and, quite frankly, the book did just that.

Comparisons aside, Dark Time isn’t wholly original, but no worries. I’ll probably end up giving the other books the same treatment as well. For a debut novel, it’s not half bad. Banks’ story is hardly ever boring and keeps the plot fast-paced. Unlike some other urban fantasy writers, Banks doesn’t over-saturate her story with numerous action scenes to keep the reader entertained. Yes, there are some, but our main character isn’t running into an enemy after each chapter. The plot flows rather smoothly, but it does seem a bit confusing because there seem to be several subplots of varying relevance. Just take a look at the end of Chapter 28. Seriously, what does that have to do with any of the story? The biggest WTF moment was chapter 25, which still confuses me. The plot seems to meander between Maliha’s various ways to save lives until the main villain is introduced.

Speaking of meandering, there are a lot of flashbacks to how she met Amaro and Yanmeng. (Yanmeng’s backstory is pretty boring.) The flashback scenes are decent, but there’s still little explanation of her previous assassinations or, more importantly, how the hell she got so filthy rich. She has her own two connected condos with a high-tech security system and “pieces that would widen the eyes and quicken the pulses of museum curators and private collectors.” I suppose they are from her various missions, but the author leaves us in the dark about it.

Like I said earlier, there is a lot of sex or sexual stuff in this book. It seems like most urban fantasies need to throw in a mandatory sex scene, but some of the stuff in here seems a bit unnecessary. For example, take chapter 13 where someone observes our main character while she sleeps and pretty much gets off to it. I suppose it shows how creepy the villain is, which is somewhat necessary, but damn! There are a few more scenes, such as the one in chapter 9 where some teens throw sand at her, hoping she’d chase them so they can watch her tits bounce, only to be followed up with some creeper in a red speedo who tries hitting on her. Well, I suppose that 200+ years of not aging must make you really attractive or something.

Maliha (or Susanne if you want) is a fairly interesting main character, not much different than any other fantasy heroine. Her sidekicks are pretty one-dimensional and there really isn’t much worth explaining about them. The villains are somewhat interesting, if a bit cliché. One is a power-hungry and money obsessed while the other, a powerful warrior. Sadly, the fight scene between the two is a bit disappointing, but the conclusion to the book is an exciting and fulfilling one. The last few chapters seem to redeem the rest of the book from its meandering.

Like any debut novel, there are some weaknesses in the book, but for lovers of urban fantasy, Dark Time may just be your cup of tea. Like I said, I didn’t go in expecting the second coming of Shakespeare (or whichever author you wish to insert here), and neither should you. But it’s never a bad idea to give the up-and-coming authors a much needed hand and Banks certainly has potential here.