Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it (and Pritkin) , 6 April 2008
Cassie's back and I've been waiting impatiently. There is just something about this series that really works for me. I love the characters, I enjoy the dialogue, the descriptions are great and the historical detail is interesting, but I think the main thing for me is that the books are fun in genre that can take itself far too seriously.
Anyway on with the review, which is quite tough to write without giving important stuff away - a lot happens in this book!
'Embrace the Night' opens with Cassie in Paris with John Pritkin, the renegade war mage and on the trail of the Codex Merlini. She needs Merlin's spellbook to lift the geas which binds her (twice over) to Mircea the vampire and which is becoming more destructive. She also needs to fulfil her promise to the Fey King to recover the book.
As always this turns out to be a far from straightforward task. Cassie finds herself zipping backwards and forwards in the timeline, meeting earlier versions of Mircea and Pritkin, and causing chaos. There are some major revelations and betrayals along the way.
Cassie has definitely grown during the books. She is much more in control in this one. Deciding what needs to be done and doing it, but she's still really likeable. She won't leave Pritkin to die at the start of the book when they get trapped in the catacombs and rescues a group of children with mixed magical gifts.
I loved the idea of Cassie being forced to endure Pritkin as her personal trainer and him forcing her to go jogging and to learn to sword fight.
It'll be interesting to see where Cassie goes next - trusting people remains a big issue for her.
Then there's Pritkin. I love, love, love this character (and not just because he can speak Welsh!) At one point Cassie describes Pritkin as "smart and brave and sometimes strangely funny" and that's how I see him too.
He's such an intense character, always taking direct action - there's a wonderful straightforwardness to him, even though it's obvious that he has a number of very big secrets. Some of these secrets come out in this book. One of them - about who he really is - I thought was rather fitting, the other - about what he really is - I'm still not quite sure about.
His relationship with Cassie goes through some big up and downs, but he's the character that I like seeing at her side - there's an equality in their relationship which is absent when she's with Mircea. As much as Cassie likes Mircea (and vice versa) I can't shake the fact that, at its heart, their relationship is based on a little girl's crush. Whereas with Pritkin it's a constant tussle for control - their sword training session really epitomised this and was one of my favourite scenes - but deep down both of them seem to care about each other - whether it's trying to cure his caffine addiction or searching desperately for a spell to break the geas.
That said I do like Mircea and wasn't too unhappy with where the book took him and Cassie. I guess I just find scruffy, intense and direct sexier than tall, dark and suave.
The tone of this book seemed slightly different to the first two. Despite all the time shifting, there was a clear sense of progression towards the end goal - getting rid of the geas.
By the end of the book, it's clear that Cassie has accepted her powers and has a new sense of purpose. The final scene left me feeling that the first act of this story has ended, but there are going to be some much bigger fish to fry in the next installment, which I will be waiting for very impatiently.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A feast of mad, magical action and darkness , 20 April 2008
This latest instalment continues with a similar format to the pervious books; set within a few days span and about a week and a half after the last book. You can therefore expect like the others to be taken straight into the action and to have the pace maintained throughout the book. The opening chapters are particularly good; thrilling and interesting.
It begins with Cassie searching for a counter spell to the evermore troublesome geis - the spell that Mircea placed upon Cassie when she was very young that binds her too him. To finally have control over her life she must be rid of it and the only way to do that is to find a very complicated spell, in a very dangerous spell book, written by Merlin himself - the codex Merlini. Enlisted to help her is the unpredictable John Pritkin.
Cassie has more allies in this book, one of its roles seems to be setting up the sides for the impending interspecies war and through it we learn that she has even more enemies...gods, demons, mages, the fey, Rasputin and her old master Tony, throw in an uneasy alliance with the vampires, fun, fun, fun. Chance really isn't picky about the paranormal and mythical creatures she writes about, these books have pretty much everything magical, mythical and paranormal in, but I in no way see this as a bad thing, it puts me in mind of the convoluted, combustible Roman and Greek myths she draws heavily from; with the love triangles, betrayals and her huge panthenon of characters. In fact much of her research is very true to the original myths she palys with; Apollo leading the war and her touch of using Merlin's original name, nice.
There are some good surprises and developments with the characters as well as there being quite a few references to the first book, that didn't much sense at the time as Cassie jumps all over the place through time, making all sorts of new problems (as is her way) but righting some others as well. Prikin's story is very good, the scenes which are about him or have him in become the more interesting and unexpected ones. His scenes with Cassie are therefore a nice contrast to hers with Mircea as they have become monotonous, you always know how they're going to end. I've never been a fan of Mircea, he just seems vaguely slimey, he's got a lot going against him. But this is I think deliberate; what I love about these books is the characterisation given to the non-humans, particularly the vampire's, its very clear that they are a different race with different motivations, it's handled very well.
This isn't really a love story but I'd like to think there's one developing, in fact I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for Cassie as she only seems to get intimate with anyone when it's necessary or because of some spell or other. But there is a love triangle of sorts, though the three characters emotions, motivations, decisions and reactions are incredibly complex and nothing is really concluded, this gives it a sense of realism, but at the same time there are some really touching and tense scenes between Cassie and Pritkin that are scrumptiously good (I think the way their relationship has developed over the three books is really special). But I've got to say I do like Cassie's narrative when she's alone, this is often when she's at her most fresh and funniest. Especially in her scenes with Mircea I find her reactions are rather repetitive and because of this I much prefer Pritkin, theirs is the partnership and hopefully the relationship (come on Chance give the people what they want!) I want to see.
Cassie is a more enjoyable character in this book, she's less of an airhead, more strong, capable and focused, although there were still points when I didn't understand her thinking but what I've always liked about her character is how she picks her moments, she doesn't fight everything and everyone but is interesting in her actions. One of the books key roles is bringing to a conclusion her journey in accepting her powers as Pythia and the ending really has this sense of starting something new.
Embrace the night is thrilling with a few good quirks and often rather funny. I recommend all three books, and am looking forward to the next one entitled Curse the Dawn (April 2009), which it has been mentioned by the author will form another trilogy, focusing on the war and Cassie as the accepted and reigning Pythia. Also look out for Midnights Daughter, Dory's book (who is Mircea's daughter) which starts a new series set in the same world.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love it (and Pritkin), 7 April 2008
Cassie's back and I've been waiting impatiently. There is just something about this series that really works for me. I love the characters, I enjoy the dialogue, the descriptions are great and the historical detail is interesting, but I think the main thing for me is that the books are fun in genre that can take itself far too seriously.
Anyway on with the review, which is quite tough to write without giving important stuff away - a lot happens in this book!
'Embrace the Night' opens with Cassie in Paris with John Pritkin, the renegade war mage and on the trail of the Codex Merlini. She needs Merlin's spellbook to lift the geas which binds her (twice over) to Mircea the vampire and which is becoming more destructive. She also needs to fulfil her promise to the Fey King to recover the book.
As always this turns out to be a far from straightforward task. Cassie finds herself zipping backwards and forwards in the timeline, meeting earlier versions of Mircea and Pritkin, and causing chaos. There are some major revelations and betrayals along the way.
Cassie has definitely grown during the books. She is much more in control in this one. Deciding what needs to be done and doing it, but she's still really likeable. She won't leave Pritkin to die at the start of the book when they get trapped in the catacombs and rescues a group of children with mixed magical gifts.
I loved the idea of Cassie being forced to endure Pritkin as her personal trainer and him forcing her to go jogging and to learn to sword fight.
It'll be interesting to see where Cassie goes next - trusting people remains a big issue for her.
Then there's Pritkin. I love, love, love this character (and not just because he can speak Welsh!) At one point Cassie describes Pritkin as "smart and brave and sometimes strangely funny" and that's how I see him too.
He's such an intense character, always taking direct action - there's a wonderful straightforwardness to him, even though it's obvious that he has a number of very big secrets. Some of these secrets come out in this book. One of them - about who he really is - I thought was rather fitting, the other - about what he really is - I'm still not quite sure about.
His relationship with Cassie goes through some big up and downs, but he's the character that I like seeing at her side - there's an equality in their relationship which is absent when she's with Mircea. As much as Cassie likes Mircea (and vice versa) I can't shake the fact that, at its heart, their relationship is based on a little girl's crush. Whereas with Pritkin it's a constant tussle for control - their sword training session epitomised this and is one of my favourite scenes - but deep down both of them seem to care about each other - whether it's trying to cure his caffine addiction or searching desperately for a spell to break the geas.
That said I do like Mircea and wasn't too unhappy with where the book took him and Cassie. I guess I just find scruffy, intense and direct sexier than tall, dark and suave.
The tone of this book seemed slightly different to the first two. Despite all the time shifting, there was a clear sense of progression towards the end goal - getting rid of the geas.
By the end of the book, it's clear that Cassie has accepted her powers and has a new sense of purpose. The final scene left me feeling that the first act of this story has ended, but there are going to be some much bigger fish to fry in the next installment, which I will be waiting for very impatiently.
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