matthewb's review
3.0
If, like me, you find the idea of a vampire drinking the blood of the Blessed Virgin Mary a little unsettling, then this book presents a rather odd experience. For that is the culmination of the opening scene. I knew the author was Catholic and this was a work influenced strongly by his faith, but I was not expecting the torrent of expletives directed at Mary in the opening pages.
Vampire fiction is not usually my cup of tea, and I usually balk at an abundance of blood-and-guts violence, but given the unique Catholic slant I decided to persevere. I am also aware that grotesqueness in art is not in and of itself a bad thing – it can often be used to great effect to illustrate beauty and grace, à la Flannery O' Connor. As a side note, there is a great episode of the Risking Enchantment podcast that discusses the topic of violence and Christian art in movies.
For me, I find it challenging to immerse myself in a world of darkness in order to create that world for fictional characters. But some authors seem to find the experience cathartic in some way.
The writing itself was a mixed bag.
The prose is really good, sometimes masterful in its use of language. I had read some of Toner’s work on his blog before and really enjoyed his use of language. In fact that was a primary reason for my wanting to read this book. The action scenes (of which there are quite a lot) are well handled, which is not easy to do. Toner seems to have some familiarity with military weaponry and doesn't shy away from the grittiness of shootouts.
But the dialogue is a bit disappointing. This may be a personal taste – I had the same issue with the dialogue in [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564._SY75_.jpg|21825181]. I think dialogue is hard to do well. On the one hand you can try, as in this book, to make it realistic, with all the contractions and interjections of a real conversation. But that rarely translates well to paper, partly because the pace of natural conversation differs from that of reading and writing, so it is often jarring, and partly because general “realistic” conversations are quite sparse in quality content compared with rich, florid monologues of the kind you might find in Dostoevsky and other classics. On the other hand, these latter are of course less realistic, and perhaps more challenging to read, but I find them more palatable because they are a great vehicle for character and plot development, and ideas in general, and I don’t really expect them to resemble real conversation.
The writing is very plot-driven and fast-paced, with frequent big changes of circumstance taking place within the space of a short paragraph, like the cast being whisked from Boston to the streets of Rome in what seems like the blink of an eye. The character development was minimal – just enough to satisfy the plot. The main character arc is that of the vampire Danyaela breaking free from the control of Satan and being able to choose her own path, but several of the key motivating events are rather flimsy, such as her unaccountable compassion for a police officer merely because he offered her a coat (before trying to shoot her in the head during an action sequence).
The descriptions of real places like Washington DC and St Peter’s Basilica were practically non-existent, which is a shame, as Toner’s aptitude for scene-setting could have really brought some of these locations to life. Much of the descriptive passages took place in the ethereal plane, where there was much swirling whirling fire and light and few delineated images.
A final critical note is that in parts the editing is imperfect, with occasional misplaced/trailing punctuation marks and odd spacing straddling page breaks.
Overall, however, I think there is great potential here. As I mentioned, Toner’s command of language is excellent. I look forward to following the development of his work.
Vampire fiction is not usually my cup of tea, and I usually balk at an abundance of blood-and-guts violence, but given the unique Catholic slant I decided to persevere. I am also aware that grotesqueness in art is not in and of itself a bad thing – it can often be used to great effect to illustrate beauty and grace, à la Flannery O' Connor. As a side note, there is a great episode of the Risking Enchantment podcast that discusses the topic of violence and Christian art in movies.
For me, I find it challenging to immerse myself in a world of darkness in order to create that world for fictional characters. But some authors seem to find the experience cathartic in some way.
The writing itself was a mixed bag.
The prose is really good, sometimes masterful in its use of language. I had read some of Toner’s work on his blog before and really enjoyed his use of language. In fact that was a primary reason for my wanting to read this book. The action scenes (of which there are quite a lot) are well handled, which is not easy to do. Toner seems to have some familiarity with military weaponry and doesn't shy away from the grittiness of shootouts.
But the dialogue is a bit disappointing. This may be a personal taste – I had the same issue with the dialogue in [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564._SY75_.jpg|21825181]. I think dialogue is hard to do well. On the one hand you can try, as in this book, to make it realistic, with all the contractions and interjections of a real conversation. But that rarely translates well to paper, partly because the pace of natural conversation differs from that of reading and writing, so it is often jarring, and partly because general “realistic” conversations are quite sparse in quality content compared with rich, florid monologues of the kind you might find in Dostoevsky and other classics. On the other hand, these latter are of course less realistic, and perhaps more challenging to read, but I find them more palatable because they are a great vehicle for character and plot development, and ideas in general, and I don’t really expect them to resemble real conversation.
The writing is very plot-driven and fast-paced, with frequent big changes of circumstance taking place within the space of a short paragraph, like the cast being whisked from Boston to the streets of Rome in what seems like the blink of an eye. The character development was minimal – just enough to satisfy the plot. The main character arc is that of the vampire Danyaela breaking free from the control of Satan and being able to choose her own path, but several of the key motivating events are rather flimsy, such as her unaccountable compassion for a police officer merely because he offered her a coat (before trying to shoot her in the head during an action sequence).
The descriptions of real places like Washington DC and St Peter’s Basilica were practically non-existent, which is a shame, as Toner’s aptitude for scene-setting could have really brought some of these locations to life. Much of the descriptive passages took place in the ethereal plane, where there was much swirling whirling fire and light and few delineated images.
A final critical note is that in parts the editing is imperfect, with occasional misplaced/trailing punctuation marks and odd spacing straddling page breaks.
Overall, however, I think there is great potential here. As I mentioned, Toner’s command of language is excellent. I look forward to following the development of his work.
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