Dead Man Rising

For the whole series: By the gods and kittens, that *censored* hurt.

Seriously excellent world building, really strong character development, a fascinating look at ethics without truth, and just... damn. An impressive and in many ways resonating construct, but I'm literally writing myself a note to never pick this particular series back up again because the price is so damn high.

And yeah, it gets five stars. Because it does what it does so very well. And because so many of the underlying structures are absolutely beautiful.

Falling back into this series is as effortless as it comes.

Dante is wallowing in the loss of her old self (having gained demonic powers) and the loss of her demon lover. Not only that, she's lost a lot more and while she's now super hard to kill, she's obsessing over her difficult past, her childhood of abuse, the magical practitioners who fed on the students.

Of course, all of this comes wrapped in a fantastic high-tech bow with plasguns, gene-engineering, a full extra-modern city with necromancers, sex-magic practitioners, and... of course... cops, private investigators, and mercenaries.

Add to that the devil and Dante's unwilling association, having found love with a fallen demon and then losing him... and we've got enough pathos to show more charge a mag-lev train.

The past really comes home to roost in this novel and there was never a point where I wasn't thoroughly entertained. It's just one of those novels. Total flashy UF goodness with everything I like in both SF and Fantasy. :)

So good. :) show less

This time around Dante needs to come face to face with her haunted past at Rigger Hall and the atrocities committed against its students, including Dante. We see how the twisted school helped forge the badass yet damaged Necromance, and just how deep the scars run. Dante would prefer to never be reminded of the Hall, but someone is murdering former students and Gabe turns to her for help.
Saintcrow quickly became a favorite author of mine due to her characters. They are deeply flawed and strive to redeem themselves on a daily basis, shoving aside the perverse past that is never far from their mind. But Dante isn't just battling her own demons, guilt is bogging her down and the confusion over her new abilities as well.
Everywhere she show more turns people are seeing her half demon self as revolting, not that it was much different as a human Necromance, but she's battling to accept herself and her new limitations.
Despite Dante's grief stricken inner monologue, we are still able to see the strong woman inside and recognize that everyone breaks down at some point. And when Dante snaps back, there's hell to pay. Another quick fun read, filled with action, gut wrenching emotions and satisfying redemption and revenge. show less

It's a little exhausting to read a Dante Valentine novel. Not that they're bad. They're across the continent from bad. It's just that the author holds nothing back. The world and the characters are so intense and their problems so insurmountable, their situations so dangerous that you're on the edge the whole time you have that book open. These are not easy, formulaic books. I like that.

This is the second book in the series. Danny is forced to face the horrors of her childhood in a state run boarding school for psychically talented children with a headmaster who violently feeds off of them. Years later, omething's systematically hunting down a group of her former schoolmates and her cop friend Gabe asks for Danny's help. As Danny tracks show more down clues and kicks some ass, she tries to work through the baggage the events of the first book left her with: injuries, pestering letters from Lucifer(yes, THAT, Lucifer), the memory of her dead demon lover, her new half-demon status. And then there's Jace. He left her years ago. Danny found him again in the last book, and now he hangs around, helping her with bounties, seemingly content to just be with her. She feels guilty she can't give him more.

And that's just Dante. All of this angst exists within the framework of a futuristic, gritty, cyberpunkesque world that sucks you in, makes you think about it when you're not reading it.

No, these are not easy books. But they're more than worth your time. show less

I did not like this book nearly as much as the first book. I was sick of hearing about Japhrimel and Jace. To be one hundred percent honest, at one point, I thought to myself "Is this book New Moon?" (I know this book was written before New Moon, but I read New Moon first). I love the world, the different psions and demons. I enjoy the detective part of the story. I still like the series enough to try the third book, I just hope it is better. I have faith!

This is quite an uncomfortable book - deliberately so and really quite nicely done. We find out rather too much about Rigger Hall and its history, and as a consequence quite a lot more about why Dante is the way she is.

Something is killing psions who were at Rigger Hall, and the police are baffled. They call in Dante and Jace who eventually, and with some surprising bits along the way, Dante beats the bad guy down and gets some closure.

Also lingering through here is Dante's mourning for the death of Japh, which is very nicely handled.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like Dante to come for a weekend visit, but I find her a good, interesting hero for this series. She is flawed, but the flaws make sense and you see her work on them and her show more change over the course of the book and the series to date. show less

Not quite as good as the first Dante Valentine, but still good. She spends an awful lot of the book hurting - both in pain and doing damage to herself and others. Not so much physical as mental and emotional. I _hope_ the events here help her clean out some of her clogged-up emotions - the question of Jace and Jaf is pretty much finished by the end of the book, anyway, and Rigger Hall should be more or less handled. She's also making interesting and influential friends. There are major changes in her life and in the people around her, mentioning any of which would be major spoilers, so I'll try not to. But she's seriously oblivious to some major hints - from the Devil, and from Jaf before. OK, I saw them - I'm not hurting and dealing show more with being in a new body and trying to deal with it by being to busy to think. But still - it got annoying after a while. And then she did the right thing entirely by accident - meaning to do something else. Anyway. Interesting world - oh, and thanks to the glossary in the back it is clearer that this is a possible future - the old 'Merican Republic' existed until the middle (end?) of the 21st century, then things changed. Huh - and the sedayeen sound awfully like the Lightbringers...now I have a different question about what universe this is. Fun. I _like_ Saintcrow's books. show less