Nightlife (Cal and Niko) [マスマーケット]

With the many books about the supernatural to choose from, how to decide which to read first? That depends on why you read the genre. So rather than just saying that this is a good book, well-written and fast-moving, in the exciting setting of New York, let me give you a few contrasts and comparisons to other fantasy novels, so you can pinpoint whether this is the type you like.

First, it's urban fantasy. If you're looking for elves with bows and arrows, woodland fantasies with castles and towers, this isn't it. But if you like the urban settings of, say, the Harry Dresden novels of Jim Butcher (which are probably what this one is closest in character to, even though it's entirely different) or Andrew Swann's gritty Cleveland, then this is the same type of urban action.

Then, although there are supernatural characters, the types of them are not quite exactly the same as they are in most genre novels. The elves in here are not nice people, they're neither people nor nice. Referred to formally as the Auphe, they are nasty and no one can stand them, not even other Auphe. Our protagonist is half-Auphe, and this is the basis for most of his problems. There is a troll, but just one, and yes, he lives under the Brooklyn Bridge. And there's a vampire - not a whole bunch of them, though; while this is the same general sort of novel as many contemporary vampire novels are, there's not much vampire action. Our protagonists find out about the vampire in a funny/odd manner, which is different from most of the genre conventions. Vampire novel readers will probably enjoy the book despite the relative scarcity of the vampires.

One of the characters I liked best was used car salesman Rob Fellows - who is really Robin Goodfellow, a "puck." This is another case where Thurman's supernatural species are not the same old same old; Goodfellow (and his fellow pucks, although we're never quite sure whether there still are any others) are sort of a conflation of what we would normally think of as fairies, and of satyrs/Pan. It's an unusual version of Faerie, and has its funny moments. There are also a few people who are human, but with special talents/powers, and some who are only human but capable of great things. We have a good balance of supernatural and natural characters and events. (And I haven't even told you about Catcher, who is yet another matter...)

The characters in this book, at least those who are human or can pass for human, do other things besides their fantasy gigs; they hold day jobs (or night jobs, as the case may be); some go to school every day. There are enough details about life in the city to know it's New York we're in, although it's not quite as detailed as, say, Tanya Huff's Toronto.

All in all, an excellent first novel and a worthy member of the urban fantasy genre, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

THREE QUICK POINTS:
* Point 1: If you were to remove all the adjectives and adverbs from the book, it would probably shrink by about 60 pages. Being a lover of adjectives and adverbs, it pains me to say this, but there's a limit to their use. They should be treated like a fine and potent spice--use only as much as necessary or the entire dish could be spoiled.

* Point 2: This Cal character is wonderful in a sardonic way. The novel got heavy at times and it felt like trudging through mud, but the twisted humor injected through Cal's voice certainly helped to balance it out.

* Point 3: What happened to the climax? The buildup is good, the tension is there, and you're poised, ready to see what dark and ominous creatures spring forth to tear the main characters into shreds, and then...whaaa...that's it?!?

SHORT SYNOPSIS:
Two brothers, Cal (short for Caliban) and Niko Leandros, are on the run from things they call Grendels, which they later find out are called the Auphe, a completely depraved race of creatures who enjoy slaughter for simple entertainment value. And these things want Cal. Together Cal and Niko try to stay one step ahead until they're forced to deal with the problem once and for all. Along the way, they meet Robin Goodfellow, aka Puck, a michevious, egotistical and lecherous elf and the trio find themselves on an adventure to discover the reason for the Auphe's indefatigable pursuit of Cal.

MY THOUGHTS:
Frankly, I'm still debating whether or not I liked it. Actually, I *did* enjoy it...up until the climax that never came. As a result, I'm leery of reading the second book in the series, Moonshine, which I already have sitting on my bookshelf. Let me try to explain as best I can without giving up spoilers...

In Nightlife, Cal's character was well developed. He grows on you. Once you open yourself to his personality and his view of the world, you begin to sympathize with him. Of course, his telling you that he's a monster every few pages does wear a bit thin, but you learn to gloss over it.

On the flip side of the coin is his older half-brother Niko. Now, it's not difficult to like Niko except that Niko isn't nearly as well-developed a character. Throughout, Niko felt like a slightly modified version of Cal's alter ego. As readers, we're told that Niko is a super intelligent jedi ninja master, but the only thing shown to us is that he's a health food nut who speaks like he stepped out of the 17th century. He seems no more skilled, talented, or intelligent than Cal and overall, he seems very Cal-esque.

The novel does a good job, however, introducing (albeit fleetingly) other characters who would do well in future installments of the series. Off the top of my head, I'd like to see more development with Georgina, the young psychic who Cal has a romantic interest in, Promise Nottinger, a beautiful vampire who Niko has a romantic interest in, and even Robin Goodfellow, who has a romantic interest in anything with legs.

Moving away from the characters, the novel fluctuates between being crisply written and trying too hard. Since it's written from Cal's point of view, sometimes it seems as though he has a touch of multiple personality disorder. Now, that's not entirely a bad thing. It makes Cal seem much more human. It only becomes a problem when he goes overboard on the descriptions or self-deprecation. It's one thing to paint a scene for the reader, but it's quite another to leave no room for the reader's own imagination to take over. At these junctures in the novel, it felt very much like trudging through a mud-trap. Luckily, it didn't happen enough to destroy the entire novel.

What shot the novel straight to hell was the anticlimactic climax. Just before the climax, the voice shifts from that of Cal to the Darkling who possessed him and that's where it all went plummeting downhill. The sudden change of voice threw me off-kilter, plus it slowed down the pacing. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if the Darkling's narration was more believable. Sure he wanted to do ReallyBadThings™, as demon creatures are wont to do, but it never quite pushed the envelope and became stunningly predictable.

The whole novel prepares the reader for a battle to end all battles; it prepares the reader for the end of the world as she knows it and then it falls completely flat. That final battle (I feel silly even calling it a "battle") read like something out of a D- horror/action movie. The climax seemed like a rushed and incomplete afterthought. I felt cheated.

Despite this minor dent in my trust, I'm still reminded that the prose was clean, Cal's character was witty, the storyline was interesting and I actually enjoyed reading the novel (for the most part). Since this was a debut novel, I'm willing to give this author another shot because it can only get better, right?

Having grown up with the hippy and new age set, I've always had this dream that I was really something a bit otherworldly - a pookah, or a mage, or even (if I could only become tall and thin) and elf. Something very cool and Tolkien. Imagine if you discovered that you really were an elf, but that far from being the fair folk, elves were down right mean and nasty. I don't mean archly evil, I mean ugly, smelly, critters that like to torture their meals before eating them. That's what happened to Caliban Leandros, and no, being a half-Auphe (or grendel) was decidedly not fun.

Cal is the result of a breeding program, his father an Auphe and his mother a hired receptacle. At an early age Cal was yanked into the Auphe dimension. When he suddenly reappeared he was without his memory and the target of monsters everywhere. In company with his brother Niko, Cal has been running and hiding ever since. Whatever the Auphe wanted him for, it was bad news, and being around Cal for a length of time was frequently fatal. Whatever was going on, it was becoming more intense, and Niko and Cal go on a desperate search for answers that has them team up with a beautiful vampire and a faun named Robin Goodfellow.

Cal isn't even safe inside himself. If being a creature with dark, malevolent urges isn't enough, Cal's mind is seized by a banshee, a darkling and the reader has the unnerving experience of having the narrator stay the same but his personality shift right into the dumps. Now Niko and Robin's problem is how to save the world and save Cal. A tough act in any case made harder by the fact that the new Cal is all for killing everyone, once and for all.

The story is told in that first person, tough and wisecracking style that has become popular lately. The problem with this approach is that it is very hard to do without sounding like a 50's mystery story. Cal and Niko's dialog sounds heavily teenage - more so than you would expect from folks who lived on the edge to total destruction. The story is original though, and my real complaint is the lengths Thurman is willing to go to rewrite the world of the Fae. Bad enough that his elves are all psychotic killers, Darkling is the one and only male banshee (a term that actually means female elf), in written literature. Thurman's problem, you will discover, is not poor writing or plotting, but an irritating lack of familiarity with the Western legends from which he draws his story.

I'll still credit this with being a decent read with a lot of original twists, just be prepared for a few winces at the humor and the twisted fairyology.