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A review by b1llz1lla
Accursed by Amber Benson, Christopher Golden
3.0
This book was loaned to me by a dear friend, and I'll admit I was skeptical of it at first. It was co-written by an actress who portrayed the character Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (You Buffy fans out there probably know what this means; I haven't a clue if that's good or bad), which, I suspect, is how my friend found out about it in the first place.
It was quite entertaining. The premise is that there are wizard-ish types out there who are the protectors of the land in which they live, and have some kind of spiritual bond with that place. Someone has a mad-on at the British Empire (1838: could be 75% of the world back then) and has hatched an elaborate scheme to undermine Things, which includes unleashing a horde of semi-possessed reptile men, who run around raping women, causing each of the victims to give violent (and fatal, I'm afraid) birth to a batch of big, ugly frogs. They play this part up for a while, which made me increasingly uncomfortable, then finally they got over themselves after flogging that particular dead horse to death. I mean, as a writer, you don't have to use a metaphor until it bleeds -- or so I've been lead to believe. Once demonstrated, and once or twice hinted at would have sufficed; I got the picture long before they were done showing it to me.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, though they did have a tendency to repeat descriptive themes when talking about the characters -- they repeatedly mentioned that the ghost of Queen Bodicea, a recurring character in the book, and one of the allies of the "good guys," was naked, and ferocious, and carried a spear menacingly. It was quite clear to me they were being paid by the word. :-) Features one or two mildly hot (non-rape) seduction scenes.
Still, the idea was good, even if the execution was a bit lacking in some respects. If this book had been half as long, I might well have thought it brilliant. As it is, (and unpleasantness aside) it is merely a diverting read. Pretty interesting characters, though. I'm leaning towards reading the sequel in the next year. Apparently this first novel is based (or a sequel to) a web comic, or a web serialization - I'm unclear on the specifics - that was a cult hit in the UK.
It was quite entertaining. The premise is that there are wizard-ish types out there who are the protectors of the land in which they live, and have some kind of spiritual bond with that place. Someone has a mad-on at the British Empire (1838: could be 75% of the world back then) and has hatched an elaborate scheme to undermine Things, which includes unleashing a horde of semi-possessed reptile men, who run around raping women, causing each of the victims to give violent (and fatal, I'm afraid) birth to a batch of big, ugly frogs. They play this part up for a while, which made me increasingly uncomfortable, then finally they got over themselves after flogging that particular dead horse to death. I mean, as a writer, you don't have to use a metaphor until it bleeds -- or so I've been lead to believe. Once demonstrated, and once or twice hinted at would have sufficed; I got the picture long before they were done showing it to me.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, though they did have a tendency to repeat descriptive themes when talking about the characters -- they repeatedly mentioned that the ghost of Queen Bodicea, a recurring character in the book, and one of the allies of the "good guys," was naked, and ferocious, and carried a spear menacingly. It was quite clear to me they were being paid by the word. :-) Features one or two mildly hot (non-rape) seduction scenes.
Still, the idea was good, even if the execution was a bit lacking in some respects. If this book had been half as long, I might well have thought it brilliant. As it is, (and unpleasantness aside) it is merely a diverting read. Pretty interesting characters, though. I'm leaning towards reading the sequel in the next year. Apparently this first novel is based (or a sequel to) a web comic, or a web serialization - I'm unclear on the specifics - that was a cult hit in the UK.