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"Well, then what were you doing, Marvin?" Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
The center stage of the novel is occupied by two of the 'Silk' veterans. One is Niki Ky, a Vietnamese woman whose emotional ties with Spyder Baxter (Silk's dark central character) have left her a functional, but borderline schizophrenic. The other is Daria Parker, a struggling musician in the first novel and a successful one now. The two are lovers - Daria caught in the web of trying to help someone who never gets any better. Daria loses herself in her music, and Niki clings to her nightmares as an escape of her own. Both were marred by the horror of Spyder's death and wend their tortuous way in a relationship that has begun to leak at the cracks.
But just because Spyder died in this world, does not mean that what she has become has ended in all the worlds that reality borders on. Still tortured by the memory of her abusive father, Spyder lives on as the Weaver. In the place that the final events in 'Silk' catapulted her into Spyder has become a rebellious figure, distorting a new reality to meet her own purposes. There her enemy is the Dragon, who is a presence in the story, but never makes a direct appearance. Here struggle has turned the Dragon into a spiritual synonym for her father. This is threatening to ruin one world, and even to spill over into ours.
Niki becomes central to Spyder's plans. She is the Hierophant in her ex-lover's plans to expel the Dragon. She is pursues by red witches and dark minions as Spyder leads her to the bridge between the worlds and brings her face to face with something that will test her every strength. Daria, ridden with guilt over placing career before love, rides to the rescue, herself crowded by portents, dreams, and messengers. She is on a quest to retrieve the philter, something needed for the Hierophant to complete the ritual that Spyder is trying to fulfill.
Using very clear and solid strokes, Kiernan takes us back and forth between realities without ever leaving the reader lost in the shuffle. She is not the kind of horror writer that sprays blood over her pages, which makes this kind of mythological story especially difficult to write and keep up interest. 'Murder of Angels' is a genuine accomplishment, proof that a complicated story where things are not all black and white can maintain interest to the point of real involvement by the beholder. The only fault is one that is common in this kind of story. The ending comes too swiftly - as if Kiernan so cared for her characters that she was reluctant to let them go until the last moment.
This novel can be read in standalone mode, but it will require a vivid imagination to fill in the blanks. To really 'get' everything that happens in 'Murder of Angels' I think reading 'Silk' is a required first course. Since both books are good, this shouldn't be a drawback.
The characters and settings in Murder are breath-takingly, heart-breakingly drawn, both universes vivid and touchable. The story is deft and intricate, and ends with a punch in the gut (if you'll forgive such an unoriginal simile).
And for fans of H.P. Lovecraft, Ms. Kiernan's work continues to be far and away the best modern interpretation of his ideas, capturing all the horror, madness, and beauty without falling back on a pastiche of gibbering tentacles.
The beautiful and quick prose of this dark tale reminds me of both Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker, and the artistic layout of text in some sections evokes shades of Mark Z. Danielewski's masterpiece House of Leaves.
Fans of dark fantasy and lucid dream worlds take heed; Caitlin R. Kiernan is a shining beacon of hope in the literary world, a writer who communicates raw passion and desperate emotion with exquisite accuracy.
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