Touch The Dark [Mass Market Paperback]

Touch the Dark is a fast-paced dark fantasy with a wry sense of humor and great characterization. It opens with Cassandra Palmer, a clairvoyant on the run, finding her own obituary pasted onto her computer screen. The newspaper clipping informs her that she will die in a little over an hour. It's a warning, she assumes, from the vampire who had been chasing her for years. Cassie had been his personal clairvoyant until she found out that he had her parents killed in order to use her abilities for himself. She tried her best to destroy him three years ago, but failed, and now he wants revenge.

Cassie gets away, but to stay safe, she needs to cut a deal with the vampire Senate, a group who rules the other vampires with an iron fist. They are not known for being sympathetic, but they are willing to make an exception in her case in order to control her power. Cassie has to find a way to retain control over both her independance and her head, in the middle of a vampire war that threatens to destroy her world.

Touch the Dark manages to incorporate mystery, action-adventure and romance into the story-line, yet keeps the fantasy foremost. If you like modern fantasy with a bite to it, you'll love Touch the Dark!

What a great debut novel.

The plot revolves around a series of interlinked supernatural power struggles with Cassie, a runnaway clairvoyant, at the centre of it all - and it slowly becomes clear that a rather large destiny is about to come her way. Although there is lots of backstory, it's pretty apparent that there's a lot more going on underneath it all (as I'm sure will become clear in later books in this series.)

I tend to flit around the edges of this genre, not having read anything by some of the big players like Laurell H, but I thought that this book was enjoyable and accessible, while still being quite dark and densely packed with detail.

I liked the humour and humanity of the book and the fleet of different characters, magical creatures and supernatural beings. The dialogue was snappy and readable and had fun with a few stereotypes, like when Mircea commands Cassie to come to him.

Characterisation is a real strength of the author. Cassie is a great heroine - I didn't think she was passive at all, just very aware of the strengths of those around her and slowly coming to realise what her new powers meant.

The vampires were fabulously written. Suitably enticing, but with real ambiguity in their intentions. I liked the idea that many of them were famous historical characters.

Mircea was gorgeous, but managed moments of apparent vulnerability which only added to the attraction. When he finally lost his temper, you were left in no doubt of why he held a senate seat.

One of my favourite characters was Pritkin the barking mad, demon-hunting war mage. He has an awful lot of unattractive features, but there was just something about his single-minded determination.

I loved all the backstory and complications. It reminded me a bit of Simon R Green's Deathstalker and Nightside novels - those books also have a phenomenal number of beautifully realised characters, lots of intricate backstory and some mind-bending time travel. I rather suspect that like Green, Karen Chance will be picking up tiny strands hinted at in this book and weaving them into later installments.

Three years ago Cassandra Palmer betrayed the vampire mafioso who killed her parents, to the human authorities. According to a cryptic computer message her past has finally caught up with her and it's time to run again. However, when escaping is no longer an option, she has to turn to the Vampire Senate for protection, but their help doesn't come for free.

Karen Chance can tell a rollicking good story. Her characters are fantastic, her dialogue is witty. And she is very good at building up sexual tension.

She starts off with a great first line:-

"I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the obituary. The fact that it had my name on it was sort of a clue."

The story powerhouses from there.

Some of it is hysterically funny. Possibly my favourite section of the book is when they're trying to get Jimmy out of the cage. It's like a textbook example of things rapidly going from bad to worse. And when Cassie initially possesses Tomas and is telling Louis-Cesare to shut up, and LC thinks it's Tomas (not understanding it's Cassie in there), is just hilarious. Karen Chance pulls this three-way conversation off brilliantly.

I love how all her characters are individuals with their own little quirks. Pritkin in particular. It's a great name and fits him to a tee. He reminded me of a banty rooster with apoplexy whenever he came on-page.

However, even though I loved the story I did have a few problems.

The author often stops in the middle of the action to infodump - whether it's on magical wards during the first fight scene, why people become ghosts, or magical theory. It's annoying. Yes, I'm interested in this stuff if it's going to be important to the story, but not halfway through some major action.

The number of times that other characters say to Cassie either that she belongs to the Silver Circle, or that she is a sybil. And she just ignores them. The reader has clearly heard the comments but somehow they pass Cassie by. This happens not once, but on several occasions. She doesn't question this 'til page 223. It's as if she has selective deafness.

Things happen and I wasn't always clear about what's going on or who's present. Cassie needs to pay better attention to her surroundings so it's not so confusing for the reader. You wouldn't know people were in the same room as Cassie until they started talking or fighting, then it's like `Who are these people?'.

Finally the ending, which I think in another story might have annoyed me. There isn't really a conclusion as such. Do we assume that the good guys won the day? Cassie left Mircea in the past, we never come back to the future, so we don't know for sure what happened. But somehow this ending fits with the rest of the story. I wasn't disappointed I just wanted to get onto the next book.