Series: DARK STORM (UF)
Ratings: V4, S1, H1
Publisher and Titles: St. Martin's: The Dark Storm (2010), The Demon Hunt (2010), The Reckoning (2011)
Set in New York City, this series has a hard time figuring out who the main character is. The cover art and the back-cover blurbs indicate that the hero is Gabriel Redfeather, a college student who lives with his grandfather. But instead of staying with Gabriel, the author introduces a huge cast of characters and then follows each one of them throughout the story. At one point in The Dark Storm, about 35 pages go by with no sign of Gabriel.
The characters are a mix of humans, witches, sorcerers, mages, demons, goblins, vampires, and more. We get a brief back story and an extremely detailed physical description of EVERY character, no matter how minor, but we don't get much real character development, even for Gabriel (e.g., motivations, inner thoughts, angst).
The plot in The Dark Storm can be compared to a group of piranhas going after a piece of meat, but in this case, the "meat" is a magical trident (called the Nimrod). Everyone—good and bad—wants to take the trident away from Gabriel. The series has some editing and copy proofing problems (many typos). For example, the spelling of one of the lead villains changes from book 1 (Flag) to book 2 (Flagg). (I suspect he is named after Steven King's villain in The Stand.)
The Demon Hunt follows the same group of characters as they continue to search for or protect or claim the Nimrod. The mythology of this world is somewhat confusing, but it appears to stem from a seventeenth-century battle (the Dark Storm) between religious crusaders and demons.
Continuity is somewhat of a problem as characters frequently manifest heretofore unseen powers, which the characters remember only after they are nearly beaten to death by their opponents. (Oh God, I think I'm going to die. Wait, I almost forgot. I have super-strength!)
The characters are a mix of humans, witches, sorcerers, mages, demons, goblins, vampires, and more. We get a brief back story and an extremely detailed physical description of EVERY character, no matter how minor, but we don't get much real character development, even for Gabriel (e.g., motivations, inner thoughts, angst).
The plot in The Dark Storm can be compared to a group of piranhas going after a piece of meat, but in this case, the "meat" is a magical trident (called the Nimrod). Everyone—good and bad—wants to take the trident away from Gabriel. The series has some editing and copy proofing problems (many typos). For example, the spelling of one of the lead villains changes from book 1 (Flag) to book 2 (Flagg). (I suspect he is named after Steven King's villain in The Stand.)
The Demon Hunt follows the same group of characters as they continue to search for or protect or claim the Nimrod. The mythology of this world is somewhat confusing, but it appears to stem from a seventeenth-century battle (the Dark Storm) between religious crusaders and demons.
Continuity is somewhat of a problem as characters frequently manifest heretofore unseen powers, which the characters remember only after they are nearly beaten to death by their opponents. (Oh God, I think I'm going to die. Wait, I almost forgot. I have super-strength!)
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