L. J. Smith (1) (1965–2025)

The seventh book in L.J. Smith's Night World series, in which a hidden society of vampires, witches and shape-shifters exists alongside the human one, Huntress is the story of Jez Redfern, who goes from being the leader of a dangerous vampire-gang, to a vampire-slayer fiercely bent on protecting humanity. When Jez learns that she is half human, that her mother was one of "them" - a vermin - she is forced to rethink everything she believes, about herself, and about the Night World. Now a show more member of Circle Daybreak, a renegade Night World organization dedicated to building bonds of trust and respect between the species, Jez finds herself dispatched on a deadly mission with far-reaching consequences.

As the millenium draws near, so too does the apocalypse, and Circle Daybreak and the Night World Council race to find the Wild Powers - four beings whose astonishing abilities can either turn back the darkness, or bring it down upon the world. Can Jez locate the Wild Power believed to be in the San Francisco area? Or will her old gang, led by the handsome and scheming Morgead Blackthorn - Jez's erstwhile second-in-command, sometime friend, and eternal soulmate - kill her first...?

Smith's series takes a new direction in Huntress, adding a high-fantasy element that transforms it from a collection of stories about supernatural teenage love, to an ongoing epic narrative about battling evil and saving the world. Jez is an engaging heroine - strong and determined - and like all of Smith's female leads, infinitely preferable to the more recent Bella Swan, of Twilight fame.

Romantic love definitely takes a back seat in this installment, although it is still quite important. Smith, who has a knack for putting her finger right on the contradictory emotions of adolescence, records Jez's thoughts regarding Morgead: "He's impossible and dangerous and hotheaded and stubborn... he's crazy... he's angry and hostile... he's frustrating and infuriating and he loves to make me miserable..." Sounds like true love, no...? show less

The ninth, and - to date - final installment of L.J. Smith's Night World series, in which a hidden society of vampires, witches and shape-shifters exists alongside the human one, Witchlight tells the story of Keller, a tough-as-nails black panther shape-shifter in the employ of Circle Daybreak. As she struggles to fulfill her mission to protect Iliana Harman, the legendary Witch Child, and the third of the four Wild Powers - beings whose extraordinary abilities will either bring about the show more end of the world or hold it off - Keller must also contend with her growing feelings for Galen Drache, a son of the First House of the shape-shifters. He may be her destined Soulmate, but Keller knows their love is hopeless, for Galen is promised to Iliana - an alliance between the witches and the shape-shifters that could turn the tide in the coming Night World war...

The third Night World title - after Huntress and Black Dawn - to focus on the Wild Powers, and the coming millennial apocalypse (this was published in 1998), Witchlight is also the first to really explore the shape-shifter aspect of Night World society. The history that Smith sets out was interesting, and I found myself wishing that she hadn't waited until so late in the series to include it.

As mentioned in some of my other reviews of the books in this series, Smith's Night World was my first exposure to vampire-fiction, and it remains something of a guilty pleasure. There is certainly quite a bit of "teen cheese" here, but there is also a collection of engaging stories, featuring strong female characters. Keller and Galen's star-crossed love story may be resolved too easily, but it's a lot of fun getting to the conclusion.

My only real complaint is that Strange Fate, the tenth and final installment of the series, which is described as "coming soon" at the back of Witchlight, never materialized. It's been more than ten years, the millennium has passed, and we still don't know how the story ends. For many years I was convinced that this was it, but I recently read that Smith has taken up writing again, after a long hiatus, and that the Night World story will soon be completed! Now that's a book I'm looking forward to reading... show less

This is the second installment of L.J. Smith's Night World series, which debuted in the mid 1990s, and featured a hidden world of vampires, witches and shape-shifters. When Rowan, Kestrel and Jade Redfern - three beautiful but unearthly sisters - come to live in Briar Creek, Oregon, Mary-Lynette Carter and her brother Mark find themselves drawn into their dangerous secret. Vampires on the run from the restrictive Night World, the three girls and their new friends must confront a possible show more vampire-hunter, as well as the sinister Ash Redfern, come to recapture the runaways...

Smith continues her world-building in Daughters of Darkness, revealing more about the "Night World," with its male chauvinism, and "species bigotry." She builds upon the "Soulmate Principle," which also appeared in Secret Vampire, and in a trend that would continue throughout the series, featured the previous installment's "villain" as the romantic lead.

The teen melodrama is a little thick at times, but Smith's narrative has much to recommend it, and I find that I prefer it to the more current (and much more well-known) Twilight saga. At heart, Night World is about the redemptive power of forbidden love, and features fairly complex characters, some of whom start out bad, but end up good. The girls are usually smart and strong-willed, and the romantic resolutions are not always smooth.

Daughters of Darkness stands out in this respect, and has always been one of my favorites. Mary-Lynette is a strong, caring, and very intelligent young woman, and despite her overwhelming "pre-destined" attraction to Ash, she does not surrender any of her principles. Prejudice, whether between different human groups, or between vampire and werewolf, is an "ugly thing," and she has no hesitation in condemning it, even in her soulmate. A brilliant amateur astronomer, she quotes Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew), and responds to Ash's declaration of love with references to Pride and Prejudice.

Perhaps most impressive of all, Mary-Lynnete decides to stay exactly who she is: "She was Mary-Lynette, and someday she'd discover a supernova or a comet or a black hole, but she'd do it as a human. And Ash would come back next year. And she would always love the night." In short, L.J. Smith offers everything that is missing in Stephanie Meyer's work, and I highly recommend this series to any reader who was dissatisfied with the latter. show less

I've written before about my adolescent love for L. J. Smith's writing, particularly the Night World series. But, even at thirteen, I was never much for vampires. I was always a more fervent fan of her Dark Visions universe, described in a trilogy of novels about beautiful--and psychic--Kaitlyn Fairchild, who, in her senior year of high school, is shipped off to a mysterious research institute for truly gifted teenagers.Revisiting The Strange Power as an adult, I can see why these appealed show more to me more than Smith's more-traditional horror/supernatural fare. As a kid, I devoured non-fiction (and I use that term loosely, of course) about ESP and psychic powers; the Dark Visions trilogy is like a fictional realization of all those volumes I found under Dewey Decimal heading number 130. Smith somehow manages to make things like psychokinesis, precognition, and energy crystals fairly believable, without resorting to the infodumping that she relies on in her horror books. Kaitlyn's universe felt impressively real to me, even as a skeptical adult reader.This is thanks, in part, to the strong third-person narration here. Smith's Night World books use first-person point of view, which sometimes results in cringe-worthy sentimentality. The prose here, though sometimes slightly edging on purple, is much, much stronger, thanks in part to the distance from the adolescent characters. The writing is clear, functional, but appropriately dark in tone, a nice complement to the quick pace of the plot.As Kaitlyn settles in to her new life in California, she learns that the institution dedicated to exploring her psychic powers is not all that it seems. She also becomes involved with two of her dreamy adolescent housemates, the golden-boy healer Rob, and Gabriel, a pale-as-Johnny-Depp psychic "vampire" and former criminal. The love triangle here is much stronger, and more interesting, than those we've seen in certain other recent books. Smith doesn't give us an obvious victor here: both Gabriel and Rob are appealing, though in completely different ways, and they're well-developed, too.Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Lewis and Anna, the other two psychics at the Zetes Institute. Here, in what is probably the most problematic feature of these books, Smith relies on dated racial stereotyping to create her characters. Lewis Chao, Chinese, controls technology, likes gadgets, and is essentially neuter; while white boys Gabriel and Rob are immediately cast in Kaitlyn's mind as romantic interests, Lewis becomes a sexless younger brother archetype. Anna Whiteraven, meanwhile, is Native American, has a "totem animal" and can communicate with wildlife. She is described as "serene" and "peaceful" and doesn't have much of a personality beyond this--though these are positive stereotypes, they're no less, well, stereotypical. Of course, Smith wrote these books in the early nineties; her gestures towards inclusion of non-white characters may have seemed like a positive effort then, but I do think that it's a shame this book is still a story of a white girl, torn between two white boys, with characters of color as no more than window dressing.Still, this is a quickly paced and enjoyable read. It's a slender volume, reflecting the YA market of its time, but nevertheless both well-realized and consistently exciting. While much newer YA often suffers from saggy-baggyness, The Strange Power feels tight and tightly edited. I look forward to revisiting the rest of the series. show less