Books Saga of the Noble Dead: Review

Discussion in 'Written Arts' started by Chane, Oct 17, 2006.

  1. Chane

    Chane Audience of One

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    I'm deciding to bring some life to this place by suggesting a few of my favorite book series starting with this little one. Already four books in this series, two more to come, and then a second series based off of this one.

    Barb and JC Hendee, the authors of this set, aren't really spot-light type authors or very well known, both credited as fantasy authors with only Barb Hendee having a previously published book (that is at least heard of, though I hear tales that JC did some poetry) which, like this series, touches in vampirism.

    In the four books out so far, this couple, I believe, has created a beautifully and tragically dark world, touching on many details of how vampires effect the world as the main villains of the series, but at the same time show a more human side to these characters (like Rashed, a vampire who was content in only taking what he needed of blood and running his trade business with his "family" until he felt that he was being threatened by the presence of Magiere and Leesil as "vampire hunters" or Ratboy, the abused, younger vampire who wants nothing more than to be looked at than more than just trash as he is so oftenly considered by Rashed) and still keep the main characters true to their personalities inspite of very emotional and differentiating circumstances that occur to them. Magiere, the main character and a dhampir (as if I need to explain that, but a half-vampire) remains, for the most part, rather stubborn and moody as Leesil (a half-elf) remains almost irresponsible at first and even as he "grows", still holds a very light-hearted feeling, sort of a yang to Magiere's yin.

    The most interesting thing I find about this series is, perhaps, the take on the Elven race (also called Fay/Fae). Still the ever-surreally beautiful beings they are (and with their own written language in these books as well), they remain as magically-attuned and withdrawn from human society as they usually are portrayed but are given a much darker tone as the Elven race seems to be comprised mostly of killers and assassins (and looks to touch more upon them in the fifth and sixth books).

    Generally categorized under "young adult", I've never really found that to be much of a hinderance from an older individual being able to enjoy the well-written descriptions without being so utterly drone and lengthy as a Tolkien or Robert Jordan novel and the interesting characters and plot (as much was much the same for the Garth Nix "Old Kingdom Trilogy" of Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen).

    It touches quite a bit, mostly, on the ancestry of the two main characters (Magiere's vampire background, and Leesil's Elven ancestry from their father and mother, respectively) as well as being forced into an awkward position of being real vampire hunters after having spent many years as con-artists, perfecting a faux-trade to the hunt to rip poor villages off for their money.

    As it stands, the current novels are:

    Dhampir
    Thief of Lives
    Sister of the Dead
    Traitor to the Blood

    The fifth book, Rebel Fay, is due out January 2007 with the sixth book, Child of a Dead God (working title) due out the year after.

    Admittedly, I don't read as much as I should, although the books that I do read, I treasure dearly. I recall a lot of fantasy/gothic/vampire fans around here so I would at least suggest taking a gander at these titles, it couldn't hurt. You can find excerpts of the books (including a new excerpt from the fifth book) at the site:

    http://www.nobledead.com/

    Most people I talk to don't seem too familiar with it (which is a shame) and the only person I really know that reads the series is my ex-girlfriend, so it'd be nice to see the word get out and about. While your cruising around the site, I would also suggest (as an amatuer artist) taking a gander at some of the cover art, including the foreign ones (I, personally, am extremely jealous of the Czech art as I find it simply beautiful and, contrary to most cover-art in series, seems to hold true from cover to cover instead of making the characters look quite different in every cover).

    (I'm tired now so I think I'll head off to bed. I'll probably comment on more books later).

    Happy reading.
     
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