Tuesday, December 05, 2006

My Most Recent Read

Dark Protector by Alexis Morgan


I find it a bit hard to judge this one. I read a few reviews on Amazon before doing this review. A number of them compared this book, the first in a series, to the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan, the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon or even the Brotherhood series by JR Ward. I don’t particularly like comparing series so I’m not going to compare this with any of the others.
As I mentioned this is the first book of a series. First off I liked it. I really did. I fully intend to get the second book very shortly – later today even. But I found it a bit sketchy on details for a new series. Devlin Bane is a Paladin, a slightly different group of people than human. They are a warrior class who defend to the death the fault lines of the planet when there is a fissure. They fight another group called The Others, a vicious bunch who would wreck havoc on Earth should they ever enter en masse. And when I say to the death, I mean to the death. The Paladins you see, also have the power to come back from the dead and live to fight another day. But each time they ’die’ they loose a bit more of their humanity and eventually they become one of The Others themselves. Laurel Young is a special doctor called a Handler who works with the Paladins, patching up their injuries or helping them return from the dead. There is a definite but forbidden attraction between Laurel and Devlin. Handlers and Paladins are discouraged from getting close as it’s the Handler’s job to ‘put down’ the Paladins when they ‘turn’. But of course passion can’t be denied and they end up working together to find out who is trying to permanently get rid of Devlin, who is the traitor and what is really going on with the Others. This one had good suspense, good hero & heroine, good secondary characters, good everything I like in a book.
I think Ms. Morgan who also writes Westerns I’ve yet to try under the name Pat Pritchard, has a good idea going here. For those such as myself who like paranormals but aren’t really into the vampire thing, this really fits the bill. But I just have so many questions that haven’t been answered in this one.
How do they know they are Paladins?
Why do they live longer?
Do they age like regular people if they don’t turn ‘Other’?
Can they *ah* *um* reproduce?

I'm thinking some of the answers to the Immortal questions here since I love The Highlander the Series so much.

See – this is a good thing/bad thing. Bad thing because I don’t know the answers and but good thing because I liked this book enough to want to know the answers. Hopefully, as she goes further on, I will get some of them.
So, I quite liked this one and it’s now the next day and as you can see by my sidebar, I went to the bookstore in a small snow storm last night to get the next one, that’s how much I want to continue reading them. Granted the book store is on the way home and I didn’t have to drive out of my way – but still….

Grade: 4 our of 5

8 comments:

Rosario said...

I'd heard mixed comments about this one, but it sounded interesting, so I'm glad to hear you liked it. That decides it, I'm getting it!

nath said...

i've seen this one many times and I've always hesitated. I'm not sure I want to start another series... sigh. but nice review Kristie!

Kristie (J) said...

Rosario: If you get it, I'll be interested in what you think of it.

Nath: I know what you mean about series! But they are so very hard to avoid these days. And since I don't read Feehan's Dark books, gave up on Kenyon, still waffeling about Ward's series, I haven't quite reached the saturation point yet. And I do love a good paranormal

Mailyn said...

The premise looks good but,with my odd taste I know I wouldn't like it.


BTW Kristie I emailed ya! :-)

CindyS said...

I tried to read this one and like you say, it has a great premise but the minute they ended up in some basement that was really a cavern I was done. It was supposed to be serious but the mental image of a bunch of burley men running around under ground with huge swords was weird.

My problem I think was that the 'evil guys' weren't concrete enough for me to understand them before the action began.

It's funny how certain worlds can absorb you while others can't seem to come alive. I can't remember. Did you read Nalina Singh's book? I loved that one and what was weird is that the PSI network wasn't a concrete object yet the author was able to make it something I understood.

Yep, I'm up and in a rambling mood ;)

CindyS

nath said...

Kristie, you're so much smarter than me. well, I don't read Feehan's Dark series either... but I still haven't given up on the Dark Hunters... as for Ward's series, I'm still in btw - do I love it or not? I do love paranormal, but am I ready for another series... not quite sure.

Stacy~ said...

Sounds interesting, but I'm getting tapped out on these kinds of stories. You never know, though. That can change.

Kristie (J) said...

Mailyn: got it! And this one satisfied that need for a good paranormal without involving vampires so it was all good :)

Cindy: It's funny isn't it the weird things that can turn you off a book. It was a mental image that I kind of struggled with too but I made it past. And I did like the book quite a bit. And unlike you, although I did love Slave to Sensation, I couldn't quite get the picture of the net in my mind so that downgraded it a bit for me.

Nath: I think I read about 5 or 6 of the Dark Hunter books. And that was 1 or 2 past my normal tolerance level for series *g*. The heroes just started sounding so much the same after a while. And I hated Simi!!! I couldn't read another word about her!

Stacy: They do have a lot of them don't they? But if the work - and this one did for me happily - I quite enjoy them.