Review by Ginya -- Nightlord: Sunset by Garon Whited
Posted: 27 Feb 2017, 09:21
[Following is a volunteer review of "Nightlord: Sunset" by Garon Whited.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Nightlord by Garon Whited is not your typical vampire story. Written as a series of Diary entries we are introduced to our protagonist, Eric, (though as the story continues you will know him by many names besides) a middle aged and if I dare say slightly frumpy College Professor of Physics. Though I can’t help but feel I’ve seen the whole Diary of a Vampire thing before, the author skillfully reinvents what a vampire should be. Not to mention that the protagonist of this book will become many and many more things before you read the last page.
Eric, our lead, leads a pretty good if normal life. He is a professor of Physics and genuinely enjoys his work, taking pride in finding creative and unorthodox ways of teaching his students instead of standing at the lectern and reading from a text in a monotone. Of course his students love him for his effort and he has close relationships with many of them It’s no surprise then that he finds himself at a bar with a number of them when the love of his life decides she doesn’t want him anymore. As typical when in a bar, trying to drink your sorrows away; he blacks out and wakes up in a bed that is not his own and with a body that is not quite the same as it was the night before.
In my opinion, the things the author did to make this stand apart as Not Another Vampire Novel is quite impressive. In this novel, vampires are not just some ghastly undead monsters or porcelain skinned tragic romantic characters. Heck, they aren’t even necessarily constrained by sunlight in the same way. I think it is perfectly safe to say that Galen Whited has rewritten the vampire mythos to not only give them a purpose in the world but to grant them a much more carefully thought out set of strengths and weaknesses. This makes certain parts of this novel so fun to read, especially as our brave Eric is attempting to differentiate fact from fiction of vampire lore and tries his hand at turning into a bat. Ah, it’s a fun visual to recall...
But Whited takes this restructuring to a whole new level with his inclusion of magic and his work in world building. Eric may start out on our home turf Earth but where does he end up? Hmm...I’ll let you read for yourself to see where his adventures end. The journey is a long one however and on his way he finds himself thrust into a society where the Church has the say, Medieval society rules the day and magical people and animals make appearances regularly through night and day. There are some parts of this novel that were so vividly detailed that if I could draw would make me want to create some fan art.
Admittedly, while full of adventure, swooning and the dealing with emerging vampiric and magical talents this story does lag in certain places that I had to push myself to get through. Because hey, when you write in your diary...you write everything. This writing style is really what makes this book though, so I really can’t criticize it. It does on some occasion take away some excitement from some fight scenes as you are reading them not with immediacy in the moment but as something the character endured and chose to write about and since the man doing the writing is of the intellectual persuasion there is much analysis and explanation mixed in with the action which unfortunately serves to slow the action down even further.
Did I greatly enjoy this novel? Yes. Did I also have a few qualms about? Also, yes. Though the lead engages in moral conversations with himself quite often throughout this work (and some of them quite lengthy) I can’t help but feel at times as I read this novel that this character was just too good to be true.
Though he portrays himself as average in appearance the women he interacts with fall in love with him, the gods aid and choose him and men swear their undying devotion to him. The funny thing is that he doesn’t seem to have to do much to achieve any of this except be a “good guy” and use astounding powers that were bestowed upon him with little effort on his part to earn them. He was chosen from the very start and his choosing was completely out of his control and was based on who he happened to be rather than any action on his own part. Having been thrust this way into a grand adventure I feel he earns love more by being a nice guy than anything else. Is this really a bad thing? Probably not, but for some reason it slightly grated on my nerves.
Having said all this, I think it makes sense that I would rate this book 3 out of 4 Stars and highly urge people to give it a shot. I’m typically a fan of more fast paced work but the set up in the way of a Diary makes this intriguing enough to risk trying something new. The narration by a scholarly type only adds to this appeal as you feel like you learn so much about magic and vampirism and they ways in which they are entwined.
******
Nightlord: Sunset
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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3 out of 4 stars
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Nightlord by Garon Whited is not your typical vampire story. Written as a series of Diary entries we are introduced to our protagonist, Eric, (though as the story continues you will know him by many names besides) a middle aged and if I dare say slightly frumpy College Professor of Physics. Though I can’t help but feel I’ve seen the whole Diary of a Vampire thing before, the author skillfully reinvents what a vampire should be. Not to mention that the protagonist of this book will become many and many more things before you read the last page.
Eric, our lead, leads a pretty good if normal life. He is a professor of Physics and genuinely enjoys his work, taking pride in finding creative and unorthodox ways of teaching his students instead of standing at the lectern and reading from a text in a monotone. Of course his students love him for his effort and he has close relationships with many of them It’s no surprise then that he finds himself at a bar with a number of them when the love of his life decides she doesn’t want him anymore. As typical when in a bar, trying to drink your sorrows away; he blacks out and wakes up in a bed that is not his own and with a body that is not quite the same as it was the night before.
In my opinion, the things the author did to make this stand apart as Not Another Vampire Novel is quite impressive. In this novel, vampires are not just some ghastly undead monsters or porcelain skinned tragic romantic characters. Heck, they aren’t even necessarily constrained by sunlight in the same way. I think it is perfectly safe to say that Galen Whited has rewritten the vampire mythos to not only give them a purpose in the world but to grant them a much more carefully thought out set of strengths and weaknesses. This makes certain parts of this novel so fun to read, especially as our brave Eric is attempting to differentiate fact from fiction of vampire lore and tries his hand at turning into a bat. Ah, it’s a fun visual to recall...
But Whited takes this restructuring to a whole new level with his inclusion of magic and his work in world building. Eric may start out on our home turf Earth but where does he end up? Hmm...I’ll let you read for yourself to see where his adventures end. The journey is a long one however and on his way he finds himself thrust into a society where the Church has the say, Medieval society rules the day and magical people and animals make appearances regularly through night and day. There are some parts of this novel that were so vividly detailed that if I could draw would make me want to create some fan art.
Admittedly, while full of adventure, swooning and the dealing with emerging vampiric and magical talents this story does lag in certain places that I had to push myself to get through. Because hey, when you write in your diary...you write everything. This writing style is really what makes this book though, so I really can’t criticize it. It does on some occasion take away some excitement from some fight scenes as you are reading them not with immediacy in the moment but as something the character endured and chose to write about and since the man doing the writing is of the intellectual persuasion there is much analysis and explanation mixed in with the action which unfortunately serves to slow the action down even further.
Did I greatly enjoy this novel? Yes. Did I also have a few qualms about? Also, yes. Though the lead engages in moral conversations with himself quite often throughout this work (and some of them quite lengthy) I can’t help but feel at times as I read this novel that this character was just too good to be true.
Though he portrays himself as average in appearance the women he interacts with fall in love with him, the gods aid and choose him and men swear their undying devotion to him. The funny thing is that he doesn’t seem to have to do much to achieve any of this except be a “good guy” and use astounding powers that were bestowed upon him with little effort on his part to earn them. He was chosen from the very start and his choosing was completely out of his control and was based on who he happened to be rather than any action on his own part. Having been thrust this way into a grand adventure I feel he earns love more by being a nice guy than anything else. Is this really a bad thing? Probably not, but for some reason it slightly grated on my nerves.
Having said all this, I think it makes sense that I would rate this book 3 out of 4 Stars and highly urge people to give it a shot. I’m typically a fan of more fast paced work but the set up in the way of a Diary makes this intriguing enough to risk trying something new. The narration by a scholarly type only adds to this appeal as you feel like you learn so much about magic and vampirism and they ways in which they are entwined.
******
Nightlord: Sunset
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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