Children of the Night

The second Diana Tregarde adventure has her at home in New York City. She's supposed to be writing a category romance for her agent but having trouble because she finds the heroine a wimp. She's also shop sitting for a friend who is about to have a baby.

When a young Romany boy comes to the shop looking for the owner, Diana offers to help him escape the trouble that is following him. However, the trouble manages to catch up to him and kill him before Diana can do anything. This brings her to the attention of Andre Le Brel who is a vampire who has guarded the boy's family for generations.

Meanwhile, Diana's old boyfriend is part of a band that is just beginning to become popular when he attends a party, takes a new drug, and becomes show more someone he had no desire to be. He and his fellow bandmates come under the influence of Master Jeffries who is a psychic vampire feeding on the emotions of others. Worst of all, Master Jeffries has teamed up with a Japanese demon known as the soul eater.

Dave knows he's in over his head and calls on Diana for help. Their breakup was bad, and Diana doesn't want anything to do with Dave. But she's a Guardian and has to help when asked. Diana is still suffering from anxiety attacks from the last time she was asked for help and even teaming up with Andre and a couple of gifted friends feels like she's in over her head.

What I like most about this urban fantasy series is that Diana isn't all powerful. Sure, she has a Black Belt in karate and is a powerful mage, but she's also small and filled with self-doubts. But knowing the odds are against her isn't going to stop her from doing her duty as a Guardian. show less

Reasonable supernatural mystery/paranormal romance/urban fantasy that checks off all the obligatory attributes for a female protagonist (a teensy-weensy, tough-as-nails yet emotionally-scarred, music-loving martial artist who gets involved with a vampire). However, as this book was written in the early 90s and is therefore probably one of the series responsible for making those things into tropes, I forgive it :-). The early stages feel a bit wallowing, but it picks up the pace towards the end, and certainly it had a very gripping climax.

This installment of Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde series features a young Diana fresh out of college and covering for her friend's occult shop in the early 70's Manhattan. At least I think that's the timeframe - she references Nixon a couple of times, so either it's pre-Watergate or it's an alternate timeline. I'll go with the former.

Diana is becoming a successful romance writer, lives in a lovely brownstone with dancers of several different genres, and helping out at her friend's store during her friend's final stages of pregnancy. Several visitors enter the store who are not among the normal customers, and one is a young Gypsy boy with the Sight.

The concurrent story involves an ex of Diana's who's in a burgeoning rock and roll show more band. While at a party he takes one of the proffered pills and wakes up a couple of days later with very little memory of the rest of the party evening and a deep and gnawing hunger that just won't go away.

Add in Diana's good friend Lenny from the apartment, Lenny's new boyfriend Keith, and a rather sexy vampire whom Di has no idea if he's the killer of the Gypsy boy or just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you've got a pretty good cast of characters.

What made this book lose half a star was the constant inner dialogue, in italics, that gets in the way of the storyline or action or events. Just tell the story already, and let the character's actions determine their intent! Diana's right-turn into her panic attack and how Andre is able to talk her through it seemed more like the author's need to self-reveal than a vital plot point. Plus, and I realize I'm talking about a story that involves vampires and other elements of the strange and weird side of things, being 18 months out of college and already an accomplished brown belt in martial arts and already a signed, successful author does not lend itself to the "realistic" side of Diana's story.

So, it still shows, in the early 90's when it was written, a gutsy heroine who has fears and doubts and still faces them and helps those in need. And has friends among the human as well as the not-quite-human race. show less

Diana Tregarde is a powerful person, which is a good thing, because she's being targeted by some extremely indomitable forces. Fortunately, she also has allies to assist in the fight.
I really don't want to give too much away about this book because it's so impressive how Lackey brings us in to her supernatural tale, revealing and explaining the particular mythology around Diana's powers and those of her friends and enemies. She turns popular mythology around vampires and witches on their sides and introduces additional strange and fascinating supernatural entities. I also really liked Di as a heroine, particularly considering the time period in which this was published. Diana is tough, no-nonsense, and flawed but also kind, protective show more and a little bit broken. I look forward to reading more about her. show less

After being kind of disappointed with the first Diana Tregarde novel, I only read “Children of the Night” by Mercedes Lackey because I’d already purchased it. However, I’m glad I did, I enjoyed it quite a lot more.

“Children of the Night” opens with Diana living in New York City and helping her friend out by taking over her small magic shop just off 42nd Street. So this already interested me more because I live in New York City, not far from 42nd Street.

Before long Diana teams up with a real, genuine, blood sucking vampire, Andre, who has taken it upon himself to protect some people.

They have some enemies, psi-vampires who drain energy, but not blood, from people, and a mysterious creature that eats souls. The enemies have show more teamed up because they found it advantageous to work together.

Diana and Andre also include a couple of Diana’s friends from New York in their team, and have an unexpected ally, an old boyfriend of Diana’s in the psi-vamp team who never wanted to become and doesn’t enjoy being a psi-vampire, and just wants out of it.

This novel also covers how she helped the Romany people in New York so they are in debt to her, which was a plot point in the first Diana Tregarde novel, “Burning Water” that now obviously takes place later than this one.

I can’t figure out when it takes place. When I read the first Diana Tregarde novel, “Burning Water” I assumed it took place around the time it was written, the late 80’s. This one was written in 1990, and at first I assumed it took place around that time. But then Lackey makes passing reference to the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon being president, which would be the first half of the 1970s.

While doing some in-story research, Diana refers to Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” saga and the sword Stormbringer in a way that would indicate time has passed since Moorcock wrote about it, fitting with the story taking place around when it was written, the late 80’s or 1990…. But then there’s mention of a B-grade actor in the governor’s mansion, which would seem more like the late 60’s or early 70’s, whereas if it took place in the 80’s, I’d expect mention of this B-grade actor having ascended further, to the White House.

Overall, though, I quite enjoyed the story, and I’d recommend it. show less

This book is filled with magic and Guardians and psychic vampires and yet it has a real feel to it. Di the heroine has a job, bills, friends and a broken heart. She has panic attacks that can impede her in her job. She has unruly hair and does not dress to impress.
People are ending up dead, their souls ripped out of their bodies. this triggers memories causing her to have black outs. Her ex is somehow involved in this drudging up too many bad moments. She ha to use all her skills to fight and out think some of the most dangerous and devious evil she has ever encountered.
Super French vampire hunk Andre' steps into the picture. He has to preserve his Rom friends he guards. He always works alone, has for 200 hundred years. I liked this show more version of a vampire, no he does not sparkle.
This is a mystery, and great one with all the right twists and turns. I enjoyed it, it was very well planned out and I was on the edge of my seat the whole story. My only complaint, a few dated words like "foxy" to describe attractive. show less

I find the characters in this series to be dangerously close to being Mary Sue's, but not so much that I can't stand reading about them. For me this is a fun bit of fluff when i want to read something fantasy related that isn't to challenging or so dumbed down it's insulting.

I also have a weakness for the urban fantasy genre as a whole and I do like the way she integrates the "real" world with the magical and makes it work for the universe she has created.