A review by nearfutures
Children of the Night, by Dan Simmons
3.0
Mixed feelings about this one. Super interesting scientific and historical vampire mythology, if a little heavy on the science jargon. If you're looking for plausible vampires, this is your book.
Beyond that: wow, pacing issues. It took over a hundred pages for the book to pick up and then there was a lot of travelling from place to place that could have been condensed. The book also goes full on absurd action sequence at the end, which was kind of campy and fun but not what I expected based on the jump and most of the contents of the book. There were also some frankly weird moments extoling the glories of capitalism and totally unnecessary attempted sexual violence. The characters were enjoyably characterized at the start and then descended into action/romance trope-iness by the end, which I don't know how Simmons managed.
I don't recommend it but I also don't not recommend it?
Beyond that: wow, pacing issues. It took over a hundred pages for the book to pick up and then there was a lot of travelling from place to place that could have been condensed. The book also goes full on absurd action sequence at the end, which was kind of campy and fun but not what I expected based on the jump and most of the contents of the book. There were also some frankly weird moments extoling the glories of capitalism and totally unnecessary attempted sexual violence. The characters were enjoyably characterized at the start and then descended into action/romance trope-iness by the end, which I don't know how Simmons managed.
I don't recommend it but I also don't not recommend it?