Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fabulous addition to AB's twisted world, 6 Mar 2008
In "Tangled Webs" Jaenelle and Marian are immersed in the creation of a "spooky house", a project intended to educate the local Landens and amuse those of the Blood. Yet someone else is rather aggravated by this idea, and in fact concocts their own haunted house with the plan to snare and kill the powerful SaDiablo family. When Surreal and Prince Rainier find themselves trapped in this house trying to protect a group of children from demon dead attacks and booby traps they are unable to use their Craft, as each time they call upon the power of their jewels they reduce their avenues of escape.
It's pretty clear from the beginning who the bad guy is in this book, and unfortunately raised away from the Blood, he has no idea who he is dealing with. Disappointed only Rainier and Surreal responded to his invitation, he is in total ignorance of the depths of power and ruthlessness Surreal's family and friends will act with to ensure her safety. Whilst Jaenelle weaves her own spells and Sadi begins his own dance of retribution, Lucivar enters the house close to the killing edge. The nasty beasties inside the house don't stand a chance.
AB's "Tangled Webs" is as flawlessly written as her wonderful "Black Jewels" trilogy, and again contains the exquisite savagery, loving fussiness and subtle humour expected in lead characters Jaenelle, Daemon Sadi, Saetan and Lucivar. There are (as always in AB's books) some intensely poignant moments, yet these are never at odds with the almost breathtaking viciousness the protagonists display at times. It's a wonder AB manages to keep these characters likeable considering some of their more brutal methods of ensuring a debt is fully paid.
I'm so pleased this author has written another full length book to feature the Realms of the Blood; showing that although the final battle was won in "Queen of the Darkness", the main characters still face a variety of challenges. Lastly this book also contains an extremely short story "By the Time the Witchblood Blooms". Set during Surreal's time as an assassin; her victim leaves her unaware that his imminent death is certainly fitting for his crime.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended for Fans of the Black Jewels Series, 11 May 2008
I love the Black Jewels series, I love the world and the mythology. I'm familiar with the trilogy, and the anthology, and I've read the previous standalone novel. I don't think I could recommend this book to anyone unless they had at least read the trilogy. You need the background, I think, to get the most out of the story. (If you haven't read the trilogy and like dark fantasy I heartily recommend it. :)
I think the Dear Reader at the beginning of the book is important, it says what this story is, a tale set after the epic battle has been fought. It's a what happened next. It's a catching up with old friends, who now deal with family problems instead of major catastrophes. This is very much a character driven story rather than plot centred.
Tangled Webs follows the Sa Diablo family in the aftermath of the events of the trilogy and takes place after the short story in the Dreams Made Flesh anthology. The story is told from multiple points of view. We catch up with Lucivar and Marian, Daemon and Jaenelle, Saetan, Surreal and Rainier. Jaenelle has decided she's going to 'build' a spooky house to scare the Landen families as they don't understand what being Blood really means. At the same time an author is looking for a new story to tell, and in Jaenelle's spooky house he sees a way to manipulate events to spark his own creative drive.
The beginning of the story is more a series of vignettes about the various family members. How they're coping (or not coping) with normal family life. For me this took a little getting into and the spooky house doesn't really come into play until you're well into the book.
The second half of the book follows Surreal and Rainier as they and several landen children try to escape from the Spooky house trap that has been set for them. As Surreal says :-
"Someone has cast us as the lead characters in a mystery about a house that's trying to kill us. Does that about sum it up?"
Yep, that's about it.
At the same time we see what Daemon, Lucivar and Jaenelle are doing to rescue them. Anne Bishop doesn't pull her punches. This is still a world where terrible things can and do happen.
I think, if you aren't a fan of the books you're going to come away thinking nothing much happened. But I guess it depends on why you're reading. There's something about the Black Jewels books that always leaves me wanting more. Just something about that world that fascinates and I look forward to the books to come.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A fun read, but something of a letdown to the Black Jewels world, 9 Mar 2009
I stayed up until almost 5am last night finishing this book, but I'm still somewhat undecided quite what I think to it. It's certainly okay, and I did enjoy reading it, but now that it's done with, the impression I'm left with is pretty "meh". Altogether, it's a very forgetable book - enjoyable whilst it lasts, not worth much afterwards, in my opinion.
Tangled Webs felt like a book written simply to indulge the authors idea to play around with the characters once more. The plot itself is very weak and simple, and whilst the characters are as wonderful as ever, there seems to be a frequent usage of sex that I don't recall being so heavy an influence in the other books. The sheer amount of sex bothered me to such a point that at times I found myself thinking "Not again" and hoping the characters would just hurry up and get on with moving the plot forwards.
The nice thing about Tangled Webs is that it's an easy book to read. The pages passed by very quickly, and I was certainly absorbed by the characters, if nothing else. Though the spooky house didn't have the effect on me that I think the author would have liked. What really bothered me was the original premise of this story. Jannelle's idea to create a spooky house was fun for about a chapter at the most, but then I felt the whole story felt a bit immature.
Ah well. Tangled Webs is still a fun read, and it certainly did pass the day pleasantly. I think it's a rather poor contribution to the Black Jewels series though, and I feel a bit letdown by that.
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