Review by Jax14 -- Nightlord: Sunset by Garon Whited

[Jax14]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Nightlord: Sunset" by Garon Whited.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Nightlord: Sunset is the first in a fantasy series by Garon Whited and is of epic proportions in length, storyline, characters and world travel.

Eric has every right to be miffed seeing as he was dumped, and has woken up with a hangover of immense proportions in a bed that isn't even his. His demeanour quickly changes when he meets the gorgeous owner of the bed and realises that they spent the night together. All good things come with a price however, and Eric soon grasps that the bite marks on his neck are fang marks, and that the gorgeous bed mate has changed him into a nightlord. One who has a beating heart by day and by night becomes a reanimated corpse. Of course this is just the beginning, as Eric learns that becoming a nightlord gains him the everlasting hatred of a group known as the Church of Light who wish to eradicate nightlords. As Eric slowly adjusts to his new life he is once again thrown into turmoil when he crosses a portal and lands in another dimension. Thus begins the start of adventure, learning, battles, healing and a quest for revenge.

There were many aspects I did enjoy about the story. The main character was written in a slightly snarky tone which had me laughing at his thoughts or comments on supposedly serious situations. I liked the idea of how a nightlord absorbs a person's essence and helps them from the world of the living to the world of the dead. Many of the characters are given great personalities and the different worlds are described in wonderful detail. The introduction of a golem and a sword that just wishes to kill added to the depths of the adventure.

There were a few negatives to the book, however. While the general editing of grammar and punctuation was good, with a few minor misspelled and misplaced words, the editing that should have taken place was to trim a large part of repetition in the story or to perhaps advise on where to divide the book into parts. The length of the script became tedious to read at times. My other gripe is the amount of tangents that the storyline went. It's as though the author had a lot of different ideas for a book or series and decided to combine them all into one. What started out as a book about a vampire, turned into portals and dimensions and warriors and kings and magicians and warlords and teaching mathematics and rescuing kidnapped women and meeting mer people. The list seemed to stretch on and on. The amount of different directions distends a reader's disbelief a little too far.

The themes of loyalty, friendship, fealty, revenge, love and honour are dealt with in some clever ways, but the overall cumbersome feeling of the book only allows me to rate Nightlord: Sunset 3 out of 4 stars.

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Nightlord: Sunset
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[kandscreeley]

I also reviewed Nightlord. I found it quite tedious and had trouble finishing it. I agree that it seems the author wanted to throw absolutely every fantasy idea he's ever had into one book. I did enjoy some of the characters, but you are right in that it should have been edited down!

[Celticlady]

I tried reading this book but was unable to finish it. It seemed like it was taking me forever to read it. I am a book reviewer/blogger and I have a certain timeline in which to finish a book. I so wanted to keep reading it but maybe at another time when my TBR stack is not ready to fall over!