Product Description: Cassandra Palmer may be the world's chief clairvoyant, but she's still magically bound to a master vampire. Only an ancient book called the Codex Merlini possesses the incantation to free Cassie-but harnessing its limitless power could endanger the world...
Read This!! If you haven't started reading this series yet, what the heck is stopping you??!! This has been the one of the best, most original and cohesive series in the last few years. Each of the three installments has delivered excellent story for the money and shows plenty of future promise. It reminds me of the early Anita Blake and Dark Hunter series before they lost the spark of ingenuity that lured in their first and most avid readers.
Chance's series has everything from vampires, the mob, ghosts, fairies, mages, magical tattoos, and famous historical personages all set amidst Vegas's seedy casinos. Trust me, try it and you'll ask for another!
nice addition Cassie is the next Pythia, leading clairvoyant, who has more groups and people out to kill her than you could keep count of. Luckily, she also has some pretty kick-a** friends to back her up. Her primary goal in this novel is to retrieve the Codex, which contains a spell that will hopefully break the geis that connects her to a very powerful master vampire. Not that she doesn't care for said vampire, it's just that she would prefer to not see him go insane by it. Unfortunately, the Codex also contains another very powerful spell that many groups would like to get their hands on and other groups would prefer NO ONE gets their hands on. Cassie's not sure who she can trust anymore and it is a race through time as well as against time to find, retrieve, and battle for the Codex.
Very action packed. Fans will like to know that many mysteries are solved in this one. Especially background information on both John Pritkin as well as Mircea. Mircea--yum! This one is a definite recommended read.
Best in Urban Fantasy Fiction I love this series! In my opinion, it's the best in the genre. This book was action packed and exciting from the first word to the last, with a sparkling wit and a great plotline. I think my favorite thing in Chance's world are the characters. Books to me rise or fall on whether or not I connect with the characters, and hers just seem so real. This book gave a LOT of backstory on some of my faves, which made me very happy, and introduced some fun new ones as well. I especially liked Radella, the warrior Fae with attitude. The series just continues to build momentum, and I'm glad I'm along for the ride!
The series hits stride in this sequel I read all 3 books in this series last weekend. The third novel evolves Cassandra Palmer into a character with humor and an inner dialog of snappy remarks.
John Pritkin, War Mage, has become the reliable side-kick. Who would've thought? And still on the Team, a ghost who was killed over cheating at cards.
In this sequel, Cassandra Palmer, clairvoyant, is the Pythia (based on Greek mythology, the story of Apollo and the Oracle.) Cassie hasn't had the training to know all her powers. One of Cassie's powers is the ability to shift through time and space, within limits, and the ability to bring one or two friends along for the ride.
A geis spell, connects her sexually to a Master Vampire. She searches for the counter-spell, before the geis destroys the Master Vampire and his dependents.
She continues the hunt for Tony, a Vampire mobster, who has captured the soul of Cassandra's Dad.
Cassie's to-do list is complicated by Pixies, Gargoyles, War Mages, Rasputin, Dark Circle Mages, Light Circle Mages, Incubi, Satyrs, Incubi-Satyr hybrids, shrunken heads. Etc.
This book offers a new perspective on the Vampire genre.
There were a couple of reveals in the plot I didn't see coming.
Uncohesive Fast Paced Mess Really, my tolerance for Cassandra stepping in the middle of things, randomly time-jumping, and going off on a zillion tangents is exhausted. Karen Chance doesn't understand the concept of plot flow, and her transitions between chapters are jarring, almost like two different stories with the same main character. The worst in "Embrace the Night" was between chapters 12-13.
In book three, we have the same issues popping up again. Is Pritkin on Cassie's side, and who exactly is he? Is Mircea going to destory Cass by controlling her (or vice versa now that she's got the Pythia power)? Will she learn to use her power before she's killed? And again, the introduction of tens of new characters with bit parts.
The geis resolution was the biggest disappointment of all. I mean, that was it? I have no confidence in this author's ability to pull off multi-book revelations after finishing this volume.
Overall, I believe Ms. Chance can't weld her plot and pacing together, and her novels get away from her. Felt like missing details. It's fast, even riveting, but doesn't make sense. It's like if the characters bothered to trust each other, there wouldn't be a book. The handling of time-travel isn't the problem; it's repeating plot structure without closure. I won't be buying book four.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
