(So this is the first review of the site! I'll try to make it like an example of what I'd want to see. :D But really, you guys can do whatever you want, as long as they follow my little rules up there! I'm no expert here, so I'm just going with my gut for this...cause again, these aren't supposed to be book reports. And since this is a series, I shall put the series name in the title, but then list the books here...)
Books: Luck in the Shadows, Stalking Darkness, Traitor's Moon, Shadows Return, the White Road, & Glimpses [not a part of the series per-say, but a bonus book with short stories of the characters]
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure/with a dash of romance
Main Characters: Seregil and Alec, with other important side characters Thero, Micum, and Nysander
Warnings: boys-love, sexual themes (not SCENES), explicit sex scenes (only in Glimpses, both hetero and gay)
First off, yes, that's a lot of books. What's great about that, though, is that it's still ongoing! Yes. So the series starts with Luck in the Shadows and the last one in the series is the White Road. Glimpses, as I said up there, is a bonus book (only 100 pages) filled with short stories regarding the characters' pasts. Now, I want to start this off quoting the author...it's quite a long quote, but it's hilarious. This was some of her remarks in the beginning of the third book (Traitor's Moon), regarding the length of this series:
"Ever since the first Nightrunner book came out back in '96, people have been asking if I'm writing a trilogy...so I thought I'd seize this opportunity here in the third book, to lay that question to rest once and for all. This is not a trilogy. This is not a trilogy. This is not a trilogy. And the first person who asks if it's a pentology gets a sterling silver fountain pen straight through the heart. . . . Okay, I wouldn't really do that. I love that pen."
Lol. <3 She then goes on to reason that she doesn't want to make a commitment as to the length of the series because she loves the characters and just wants to keep writing about them. She'll keep writing stories about them until she can think of no more. I love that. And I really love that about her because this series is just so wonderful that I hope it never ends.
The series starts off with Luck in the Shadows. This book basically sets up the characters. Seregil, a master of disguise and a "nightrunner" from Rhiminee, was on one of his jobs when he was thrown in jail. There he meets Alec, another young man who was caught for supposedly spying. Seregil senses something in him and decides to break them both out of there. Little does either of them know how that small meeting of fate will change their lives! The first book talks about Alec's reluctance to join Seregil in his nightly affairs of nightrunning. What is that exactly? Well, doing less than legal jobs for people...like stealing something and giving it back to its rightful owner, or delivering a love letter to someone who is already well engaged. Alec meets Seregil's longtime friend, Micum Cavish, and then later his former magician mentor, Nysander. Despite being Aurenfaie (a race in the book that is apt to magic and very long lives; Seregil is actually over 60 years old but looks 25), Seregil has no skill for magic. Thero, Nysander's new apprentice, and rival of Seregil's, also is thrown into the mix. He isn't that important in the first book, but he gains as the books go on.
It turns out that Nysander, Seregil, and Micum are a part of something more than just being buddies. They are "Watchers," a group dedicated to saving the world. As cheesy as that sounds, that's what they are. A prophecy states that they will be needed eventually. When Alec proves himself, he joins them. I do believe that was still in the first book, although possibly that occurs in the second.
Alec and Seregil aren't in a "relationship" until the very end of the second book, when Alec FINALLY realizes his feelings! MY GOODNESS. "Brother, father, friend, lover." A prophecy that was told to Seregil regarding Alec. He fulfills all of those roles to him. I'm not saying these are spoilers because it's pretty obvious, even during the first book, that they will get together.
The second book (Stalking Darkness) involves Watcher duties, demons, and an unfortunate death in the end. That death really affects Seregil throughout the third book. In the third book, he and Alec's relationship as Telimenios (the Aurenfaie word for lovers with a deep bond) is tested as they visit Aurenen, where Seregil's family is from. However, it isn't pleasant for him...because he was exiled many years ago for something that happened. Also in the third book is a war between the Plenimarians and the Skalans. Plenimar = enemies, Slaka = good guys like Alec and Seregil. More important characters crop up, like Beka (Micum's daughter) and Klia, the princess.
The last two books, Shadows Return, and the White Road really relate to each other. Those books came much later than the first 3, so they were almost as if they were separate. Shadows Return was my favorite book...in this one, Seregil and Alec are enslaved by a cruel master, an alchemist who needs Alec and his blood in order to create a creature that supposedly can grant eternal life. This book involved a lot of...torturing.*** XD For some reason, I really enjoy that. >> I'm a sadist lol! I'm really interested when main characters, or ones that I like, are in trouble...and are tortured. It's rather sick and twisted of me, but yeah lol. It was such a goooooooooood book. I read it the fastest of any of them! I won't really summarize the fifth book because one would really need to read the 4th to understand anything that's going on in it because it involves the creature that the alchemist wanted to create and a group of Aurenen people that want it captured. ***edit: it's not gruesome torturing or anything graphic, just so you know. Lol.
Sorry. I don't think I wrote this very well. It's a lot of summary. XDD And I didn't even go into detail! Ah, but anyhoo, I love this series. The next book will be out some time next year (2011), and I can't wait. Glimpses was a fun read to wet my appetite, but as I mentioned in the warnings, there was a lot of sex scenes. That's funny because despite Alec and Seregil being lovers in the book, there was never an explicit scene. There were hints to it, or them talking about it, but nothing in detail. Glimpses. Now THAT had detail. It had all the yaoi goodness that I wanted to read about during the regular series but didn't get to lol! So if any of you are interested in this series, but dislike yaoi, you can definitely read the Nightrunner books (as long as 2 guys loving each other doesn't bother you) but stay away from Glimpses.
My favorite book, as I said, was Shadows Return. I felt that the first book was the least exciting...but as the series went on, it definitely got better. There's action, intrigue, love, magic, and everything in between. Oh, and dragons! Haha. At least in the White Road. I would definitely recommend these books! The guilty pleasure of Glimpses is optional. :D So yeah, I hope you enjoyed reading this. I'm sorry if it wasn't perfect, or if it really wasn't that interesting. It probably ended up sounding like a report, and I apologize. D: it's pretty hard to write about 6 books all in one thing! Lol! I didn't think it would be~! But yeah, I hope you got the gist of it. If you have any questions regarding plot, feel free to ask. :) I didn't want to go and spoil anything. <3 Enjoy!!
My Ratings [per book]:
Book 1: B+
Book 2: A-
Book 3: B+
Book 4: A+++
Book 5: A-
Glimpses: B+
