Ashley Choi Choi itibaren Trudarmeyskiy, Kemerovskaya oblast', रशिया, 653250
Twelve centuries ago the planet Erna was colonized by mankind what was a big mistake as it turned out later. First the colonists didn´t know about the many earth-quakes and the "fae", an energy which materializes human emotions to demons. The starship was destroyed as were all technical ressources and the descendants of survivors are living now in a world similar the middle-ages. Some people learned to manipulate the fae (the socerers) some special people know how to use the fae from birth on (the adepts). And there is the church which rejects any contact with the fae. Nonetheless there is a special order which trains its members to socerers to fight the demons with their own weapons. Damian Vryce is such a warrior-priest and is sent to Jaggonath to train young members of the church in socery. There he meets the adept Ciani and falls in love with her. Near Jaggonath there is an extreme dangerous forest the home of the Hunter a vampire-like demon who feds on human fear and blood. One night Ciani is attacked and robbed of her memories and all abilities to manipulate the fae. A terrible disaster for an adept. The only way to get her powers and memories back is to kill the assailants. So Ciani, Damien and Senzei, Ciani´s business partner are leaving Jaggonath to follow them. On the way they meet a mysterious man who seems to have the same destination and becomes their ally. Soon a strong suspicion arouses in Damien who their newfound ally in fact really is… I admit first I had to struggle through this book and found it hard to read and I wanted to cast it aside more than once. The "love-story" between Damien and Ciani wasn´t very believable to me and I think it was just thrown into the plot to give Damien a reason to go on this quest. What made me going on reading was the evil demon Gerald Tarrant, the Hunter. He is pure evil without any humanity left in him and I would not want to meet him in the dark… But the differences between the demon and the rightous priest and how his evil begins to corrupt Damien it´s worth the read. And Damien is realizing he´s made his own devil´s bargain.. The author had very good ideas for this book a mixture of Sifi and fantasy but sometimes there are boring passages above all when Damien again and again has second thoughts about his morality. And I really don´t know why Ms. Friedman uses the word "whisper" constantly. I thought I´d start to scream if I had to read one more time "Ciani whispered". Homepage of the author: http://www.csfriedman.com/
This edition has by far the best cover art, in my opinion. I chose it because of the use of C's instead of K's for a lot of the names/places, it allows for easier reading.
Stephen King says about the first 2 books in series: "We've been down Hannibal Lecter Avenue many times, and these two books shouldn't work...but they do. Chalk it up to excellent writing and Cain's ferocious sense of humor. The Portland (Ore.) setting is refreshing too." I really enjoyed this series and am looking forward to book 4. Evil and compelling female serial killer and interesting stockhold syndrome explored. Can get pretty gruesome at times, so not for the squeamish. Highly recommended.