Unclean Spirits (The Black Sun's Daughter, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Oct 10, 2009 Steph rated it liked it

Shelves: year-read-2009, series-ongoing, author-유, series-book1

Not really sure how to rate this one, but decided on 3.5 stars. I liked the characters and the way the came together, but not sure how to feel about Jayne at this point. Problem I have though is that I cannot start a series and not continue to follow it. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's not. Hopefully this one will get better as the series (and main character) grows.

There always seems to be a line that the author loves and reuses until it's almost annoying. This one was "...stood si ...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Lisarenee rated it really liked it

"Your uncle was a very rich man," she said."He left all his assets specifically and exclusively to you. And you had no idea that was his intention?"

When Jayné (pronounced Zha-nay) Heller's uncle, Eric, died she thought the reason he'd fallen out with her overly religious family was that he was gay. Her father had called his brother "a pervert and an abominations before God." She'd just assumed he must be gay. In reality, the truth was something entirely different. Her uncle was not who she "Your uncle was a very rich man," she said."He left all his assets specifically and exclusively to you. And you had no idea that was his intention?"

When Jayné (pronounced Zha-nay) Heller's uncle, Eric, died she thought the reason he'd fallen out with her overly religious family was that he was gay. Her father had called his brother "a pervert and an abominations before God." She'd just assumed he must be gay. In reality, the truth was something entirely different. Her uncle was not who she thought he was, and she was just finding out she really didn't know the man she depended on to get her out of jams when she was younger.

"The generic term's riders. They get inside a person, and they change them. Make them do things, make them want to do things. Give them freaky powers. Normal people who've got a feel for it and the right training--call 'em wizards or witches or cunning men or whatever--they can do some pretty weird sh*t, but nothing compared to what riders are capable of."

He'd never told her anything about his life. She hadn't known what he did. Her uncle, she was finding out, had been a self appointed vigilante on a mission to rid the world of unclean spirits (aka riders). Little did she know when she stepped off the plane in Denver, she had just walked into Eric's world, and her life would never be the same...

This was a really fun story. I loved the mystery of who Eric was and that we didn't get the full picture in this book, just a taste. I enjoyed finding things out as Jayné did. I think having Jayné go in clueless was a brilliant way to introduce us to the world Hanover created--a world which is dangerous and intriguing. It reminds me a touch of 'Invasion of the Body Snatcher', only the snatchers aren't aliens but rather spirits, demons if you will, instead. The invasion of these creatures explains how werewolves, vampires, and other such creatures came to be.

Jayné is a strong and smart young woman who is almost as mysterious as her Uncle Eric. Everyone believes that her uncle must have put some sort of ward on her for protection, but I'm not sure about that. An incident which Jayné recounts having happened when she was 16 makes me wonder if there isn't more to the story than you take note of at first glance. When Jayné finds herself in dangerous situations she goes from untrained young woman to a kick@ss heroine. It's almost like a switch has been flipped.

The secondary characters are as interesting a Jayné. They all knew her uncle and help her fill in some of the blanks about him. There's Aubrey, who is a research biologist whose expertise is in parasitology. Ex is an ex-priest who can perform exorcisms. Chogyi Jake, whose background I'm unsure of, reminds me a bit of a young version of Mr. Miyagi from from the Karate kid. He tends to guide Jayné and make her work things out. There is also a character named Midian who introduces Jayné to the world of the riders. He's a vampire who her uncle had formed an alliance with.

Besides inheriting her uncle's assets, it appears she's also inherited his enemies. While checking out one of her newly inherited properties, she comes across Midian. While the two are chatting, they are attacked by the people who Midian believes killed Jayné's uncle and that's when she realizes she herself is in danger.

The story flows at a good pace. It's filled with lots of action and keeps your attention. Definitely a series I'd recommend and I'm already hooked on. I can't believe I hadn't heard of this series before. I gave this one 4 out of 5 roses.
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Dec 27, 2011 Marsha rated it liked it

Jayne - pronounced Zhanay (or something like that) is shunned by her parents and many of her "friend", she's a college drop out and now she learns that the one family member who has always been there and understood her (for the most part) has died leaving her everything. Including a life of magic, fear, and riders.

I enjoyed the world that Hanover created in this novel. It was just enough different to catch my attention and imagination. And, I enjoyed the characters for the most part. Every once Jayne - pronounced Zhanay (or something like that) is shunned by her parents and many of her "friend", she's a college drop out and now she learns that the one family member who has always been there and understood her (for the most part) has died leaving her everything. Including a life of magic, fear, and riders.

I enjoyed the world that Hanover created in this novel. It was just enough different to catch my attention and imagination. And, I enjoyed the characters for the most part. Every once in a while I would feel as though there was some lack in character development because the reasons certain characters behaved x, y, or z didn't really make sense. The action and drama were well paced and the story never really felt like it bogged down or was going too fast. That I enjoyed. But, I did have some problems with some of Hanover's word choices (so much so that I found my reading distracted). For example - she repeatedly used a variation of the following phrase: Plus which, .... or Besides which, ...... What does that even mean? Why didn't the editor take that out or request a word change? And sometimes her metaphors and similes just sounded like she was trying too hard to find something different and it didn't always sound right. The last problem I had with the story was that Hanover would tell rather than show quite a bit. Oh, and repeat herself. Jayne constantly spoon fed us the breakdown of her thoughts and feelings when we just read a passage where the author was showing us rather than telling us. Then she'd tell us. Stop that!

One question that I kept coming back to was - can all humans do magic? It seems that with a little training they all can? The author never explains that. For example - Aubrey and Kim were scientists without any magical ability when Eric contacts them. But then Eric teaches them to do magic. How is that possible? This was just never clear.

Okay, sounds like I didn't like this book. I really liked the story. I really liked the concept of riders. I just had a few problems with the way the story was told. I actually read this book in 2 days. So, I obviously enjoyed it. But, not 4 stars enjoyed it. All said - I will being purchasing the next book in the series. Maybe there won't be anymore 'Plus which....' phrases. ...more

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Sep 02, 2009 Jenny rated it did not like it

I finally gave up on this I see that lots of people really liked it and maybe at a later date I will give it another try but at this point not for me.

I am really struggling with this book. What looked to be a really interesting read has turned into ... I'm not really sure but I honsetly don't know if I'll even finish this one. I can't say I would recommend this one.

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