Urban Fantasy series' discussion
Book Of the Month
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May BOTM: SINS & SHADOWS by Lyn Benedict
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All the comments say that it felt like they missed the first book. Just a warning. I just ordered my copy so I'll see how it goes.
I DNFd this book a couple of years ago. I just couldn't get into the main character - she was just too amoral for me.
Well I think you might have done the right thing in a DNF but I would say she tries to keep the ball on the correct side of the fence of morality though she is being influenced by a voice in her head that we don't know the history of until well into the story.This book is like jumping into the 3rd book of any UF series, say Kate Daniels or Mercy Thompson, yet it is the first book. There is a whole background history of people dying on her watch in her P.I. business. That would be OK if there weren't new character after new character introduced and a new background stories are told. It is like playing catch up the whole way through the book. No kidding, at one new story and character I noted that it was 68% into the book! It destroyed any interest in the characters as we didn't really settle in with any characters including the main character. The main character is left unexplained for the majority of the book and some parts still linger to understand.
The ending was unsatisfying to me completely, though it is not a cliffhanger. I ended with disliking all the characters, even those that I was starting to like, not one did I like in the end. The story was good up to the ending though with the telling of the backgrounds, I wouldn't have given it more than a 3 star review. I give it 2 stars but only because I was pretty entertained until the ending. If it had ended differently 3 stars, and if it had been told differently with maybe two or three prequels to lets us in on the back story instead of just interrupting the story to tell us it, then it could have been a 4 or 5 star read.
I did read some future spoilers for the continuation and some of my issues with the ending seem to be resolved but I still didn't like how it ended here with several of the characters. I could read on to see what happens and it is tempting just to see if it satisfies more, but I doubt I will. I don't think I can take the tell of background stories and the darkness and destruction. Good luck Silvie but not my type of book.
OK so I got this book and I started it and kept going to the back cover and inside to see if I missed the first book. It reads like its catching you up on stuff that happened in another book. I can't seem to get past the first chapter so I may not finish this one. Not liking this book at all -- sorry guys.Cindy
Hate to say that she does that throughout the whole book with every introduction of a new character. She knows them or their "story" and has to tell you it to catch you up. The last time I remember feeling like that was around 70% into the story and that is a lot of catch up. Many of the reviews say the same. Still I did get used to it but I never got connected to the characters much. I wonder if there was an unpublished prequel?I wouldn't blame you for not finishing. I still feel like some day I might go back and see how she resolves some things but I don't know if I can truly handle it if the next book is the same with back story. I feel like it shouldn't be since... maybe most of the back story was in this one? Well who knows. I feel like this might be one of those 2 star starts that turn into a decent series but I'm not convinced. I wish I had an easy time doing a DNF but it is rare, especially after the 30% point.
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Not liking it at all - put it down and maybe at some point I will go back to it, but I think that is doubtful.
Boy I have missed this discussion up until now,I read this one a while back and have read the rest of the series since. I am not sure now if it is this series but I recall something about a short story that led to this book.
I see the book as one of the darker UF books. Most are but some are darker than others. And this one deals with how the general public keeps missing supernatural activities and beings. A lot of UF doesn't.
I wish you could point to a short story as a lead up because this was full of catch up and characters that, although she knew them, we did not even at the 70% mark. I feel like that might clear up in the next books since it was built up here except that it wasn't just the beginning and I was hit with the new info and characters throughout.Dark, maybe a bit but there are a few that have that. I kind of think that Dresden can be a bit dark, or at least this one isn't darker. Sandman Slim, now that was what I would call dark, not really horror. Or as it is labeled Noir UF. This was more a dark in depressing sense in ending.
I might be getting my writers mixed up. I read this book probably five years ago. She doesn't seem to have a web page. And none of the book sites that list her books show any short stories. Yes, Dresden is dark much of the time. So is Alex Verus and others. Laura Resnick's series isn't so much, mine aren't so much, but a lot are. The ones by T. A Pratt are more so and I haven't read Sandman yet so I can't say about that one.
But I think Lyn's later books get darker. But still I enjoyed them, pretty much. This one captured my attention enough to want to read the next one.
Some of my GR friends that went on, liked the books that came next but I seemed to like this a lot less than they did. So I think they improve. I rarely go on after a 2 star but have been surprised.As for Sandman Slim. It really isn't my type of book but if you like dark, a true UF noir, an antihero, it is quite good. I think the good comes from the humor that is throughout the book. Yes, it is dark but there is a very funny dark humor that goes with it. I don't think I've ever read anything that I was appalled at my own laughter before. I would laugh and then think, 'damn, did I just laugh at that?'
I think most writers improve as they continue to write a series. Butcher has and David Weber has, even though as of yet he hasn't done any UF. But I think I would like to see how he would do UF come to think of it. So Lyn probably improved as she learned more about writing. Rats, there's another darker UF series but I can not find it. If I saw the author's name I would know it, especially since she is the only writer I have ever gotten jealous about.
L.E. wrote: "I think most writers improve as they continue to write a series. Butcher has and David Weber has, even though as of yet he hasn't done any UF. But I think I would like to see how he would do UF com..."Simon E. Green's Novels of the Nightside books they are not too long but really good dark UF series.
Also Thomas Sniegoski and Christopher Golden are good dark UF authors.
L.E. wrote: "I think most writers improve as they continue to write a series. Butcher has and David Weber has, even though as of yet he hasn't done any UF. But I think I would like to see how he would do UF com..."Kat Richardson, The Greywalker series, Phaedra Weldon, the Zoe Martinique Investigation series
Cindy wrote: "L.E. wrote: "I think most writers improve as they continue to write a series. Butcher has and David Weber has, even though as of yet he hasn't done any UF. But I think I would like to see how he wo..."I know Green and Sniegoski but not Golden but neither is the one I was trying to remember. An older series about a Hound who can smell out items.
I had to go through my list of books here on GR, found one by her on page eight,Margaret Ronald and it is the Evie Scelan series. Only three books.
The votes are in and our Book of the Month for May is:
SINS & SHADOWS by Lyn Benedict
Please read and discuss below.
Have fun!