Born of Night

Nykyrian has quit the League, a sort of justice-serving group that is above the law, and is on the run. He was the best of the best, however, and knows that he can keep his enemies at bay. His team of outlaw assassins travels the universe delivering their own sort of justice, mercenary but with their own codes of honor. When Kiara, the daughter of a political leader, has contracts taken out on her life, Nykyrian agrees to protect her. But what started out as a job soon becomes personal.

One of my friends started recommending Sherrilyn Kenyon's books when I needed to read something on the lighter side. I started with her young adult series, and this is the first of her adult books I tried. I really liked Nykyrian and his backstory, and show more seeing how his relationship with Kiara developed as she refused to be afraid of him and he started to trust her. I don't generally read books with as much sex as this has, but at the same time it made sense within the story and didn't feel gratuitous. I sometimes found the writing overly conversational to the point of being grammatically incorrect and grating. Overall, though, I enjoyed the story and may read others in the series in the future. show less

The first page of the prologue begins with a line of dialog: "I quit The League tonight". It's a well-chosen, well-constructed first line for a novel, if not particularly original or precisely "great". It is, in fact, exactly the kind of thing you'd write after ten minutes of pondering how to start a novel about an assassin who quits his secret assassin cult to rescue a fair damsel, some time in the days immediately following a three hour writer's workshop held at the local book store by someone who had recently published his or her first novel.

You know . . . a few days later, so you have time to forget some of the advice you might find on the first webpage that comes up in a search for "first line of a novel" when you're stumped for show more ideas on how to write a great first line.

It's a good opening line. It's a short sentence, and while it does not immediately grab you the way some of the greatest first sentences of novels ever written do, it does perhaps intrigue the reader. It hints at something big and, perhaps, shadowy. It serves to introduce the protagonist in a way that says something about his decisiveness, about his past, and about his relationship with that past, but it does not overburden itself with detail. Good job, Ms. Kenyon.

The next couple of pages make up for that. Quite ample detail overburdening follows shortly, mostly by way of ominous narrative pronouncements, flashy visual markers that scream "I AM A LETHAL ASSASSIN FROM A CULT THAT DOESN'T KNOW WHAT 'SECRET' MEANS". Some boring observer character provides a bit of narrative perspective without seeming particularly important, and seems privy to all the ultra-secret super-assassin character's non-secrets. The expository detail revealed through this perspective character's attention is, in fact, nothing like the kind of detail he would likely notice, having already known the shadowy assassin guy -- who is, I shit you not, "literally one with the blackest night" according to the narrative text -- quite long enough for these flashy status markers to fade into his conscious background.

Literally? Are you serious? I do not think that word means what you think it means.

We find out later that, in addition to being apparently made up of nocturnal lack-of-sunlight-stuff and an inseparable condition of identity with the middle of the half of the diurnal cycle without direct illumination by the nearest star -- but only some nights, the "blackest" of them -- he also has fangs. Well, okay, then. Did I mention his "armor" snugly fits his (well-muscled, obviously) figure like a latex glove? Of course it does. For some reason Mr. Blackest Night has white-blonde hair like all the other assassins who are One With The Night, by the way. Yes, we're still on the first page (except for that fang thing).

On that page, about two-thirds of which is actually used (the top third nothing but the word PROLOGUE and some whitespace), in the midst of all that overburdened detail (plus a distinct paucity of details about the perspective character, apart from the fact he's some kind of doctor-professor type), Ms. Kenyon finds time to insert three separate instances in addition to the first line of the novel that are one-line, short (or short-ish) single sentences laden with melodrama and dramarama and maybe some bananaramadrama -- rather more than a dram of drama per sentence. Let us examine our potently purple prosaics:

1. He was used to that. (note: The (melo)drama in this line is entirely dependent on the preceding paragraph.)

2. They only felt the sting of death as he dealt it to them. (note: This would actually be a much better, less ham-handed line if it was just included at the end of the preceding paragraph. Ms. Kenyon evidently believes she must bludgeon her readers with the significance of the line.)

3. No one voluntarily left The League. (note: I'm beginning to feel like The League is the title of a football movie.)

Beautiful stuff. It's like poetry. No, really, I mean it. I have this wonderful book somewhere around here, titled Very Bad Poetry, which has provided me hours of delight. Ms. Kenyon's writing is at least slightly better written than most of that book, though I dare say it is probably rather less enjoyable, on the whole.

Let us not get distracted. I really want to share the first line of the second page, in which I have not altered the emphasis one whit. This is the first case of italics in the novel:

No one.

Once more, with full context:

No one voluntarily left The League.

No one.

In case a separate line was not good enough for highlighting the absurd melodrama of the second single-line statement here, there's a page break. I wonder whether that was an intentional text layout decision.

I admit I read much of the second page as well. It does not get any better.

I also skipped around the novel, and found that every chunk of text I read was in some respect trite, threadbare, overexposed, melodramatic to unreasonable extremes, or otherwise ill-advised. I got input from the missus, who got some 170 pages through this thing before her endurance finally broke down and she gave up on it, thus proving she has far greater strength of will than mine. She told me much about the insipid nonsense strewn throughout, including paper-thin "worldbuilding" that reads like paint-by-numbers in some pretense at providing something original rather than just filing the serial numbers off boring everyday aspects of life in the United States. In fact, hearing the missus describe the way Ms. Kenyon describes the interplanetary world in which our protagonist and his female love interest live, I get the distinct impression Ms. Kenyon changed the names and planets of origin of things in one of the many similarly-plotted assassin-gone-rogue novels out there and called it a day. Only the author's introduction, talking about the main characters of this novel being imaginary friends from her childhood, contradicts that impression.

Obviously, I could not bring myself to read the whole of this book, or even more than a cumulative dozen or so pages' worth while searching (in vain) for some sign of good writing.

This is the first thing I found while skipping around, and I leave it as parting words for you in case you think I am just being overly harsh about the first couple pages and the rest couldn't possibly be that bad because beginnings are hard:

"No, I haven't," she breathed, trying to stay calm. He had a soul, she knew it. She'd seen him do too many things that contradicted such brutality. "I asked you once before if you enjoyed killing. Do you?"

He looked away from her.

For a moment, she didn't think he'd answer, then he shook his head. "I hated it," he whispered, pushing himself away from her.

"I hated it," he said -- no, he whispered. I immediately thought of that "romantic" scene in Star Wars: Attack of the Clowns where Hayden Christiansen's petulant tweenager's delivery did nothing to improve the slimy stalker quality of a terrible come-on, beginning with "I don't like sand."

Good grief. show less

Original review is located at rabidgummibear.wordpress.com

As someone familiar with Kenyon’s other series The Dark Hunters I was not surprised by how much I loved this book. Kenyon managed to create an intriguing space drama and my god did it make me fall in love.

The story revolves around a princess Kiera and an Assassin Nykyrian hired to protect her life. The novel opens with a heroic rescue from the worlds most feared outlaw Nemesis and then revolves around a group called the Sentella helping keep her safe from the bounty put out on her. Her father’s planet is at war and his enemies have placed a giant bounty on Kiera’s death. All that can ensure her protection is Nykyrian and his team.

I loved the world built in this book. After show more one book I’ve become very invested in the Ichidian universe if not just more invested in the characters introduced in this series. This is nothing new I’m already a fan of Kenyon’s writing so I wasn’t surprised to find myself loving the characters. I was surprised at how adept she was at writing a space drama since that seemed more out of her normal writing realm, but it didn’t lack any.

I disliked a few moments in the book were I was wanting to yell at the characters for being so dense! I mean hellooo obviously he likes you but maybe as a reader I sometimes forget that generally speaking humans are pretty oblivious to others liking them. Other than that I never felt like the book had much else wrong.

This book is a total guilty pleasure for me like most Kenyon novels. I can’t express the amount of joy I had reading it and staying up late finishing it. Overall I give this book 5 out of 5 and it’s so worth the cash. I can not wait to continue reading this series. show less

Enjoying the sense of humor and the full feel of the worlds the author created.
The more I listen, the more I hear a romance angle that I didn't originally expect.

Getting a little tired of the whininess of the FMC. For a modern day princess, she reminds me too much of the fairytale women who needed big, strong men to rescue them. And if someone were to say she has PTSD, please show me a better idea of this than previous memories flooding in, as that isn't the only thing that happens.

So I supposed a whole chapter dedicated to the main two characters ... learning about each other's body could be seen as characterization, or possibly advancing the plot, but I'm wondering if it could have been presented a different way, or something. I'm show more not really a prude, but it felt out of place with the way the rest of the book has been.

Definitely stepping into cliche territory now... Big Bad killer can't afford to have sweet little helpless dancer around so fakes his death in front of her. Then she comes up pregnant with his kid. Nope. Not cliche at all. /sarcasm
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Okay, done reading. This is not going to be pretty

The first half of the book is a solid 5 star science fiction story. Lovely, well built universe and awesome characterizations. The second half of the book is at best a two star romance. Cliche ridden, unnecessary scenes, and a complete right turn from the first half of the book.

I can see why this wasn't the first book published, even if it's the first book of the series.

There are parts where the early book plot points, which took up a majority of the plot discussion, are just closed with a few sentences. And wrapped up in an unbelievable way. The whole love at first sight thing I'm not going to hate on, but a few other points are cliche to the point of them being in Mel Brooks movies.

I'll try this writer again, but I pray she doesn't pull this strange right turn crap again. Cause it just sucks. show less

I've read quite a few of Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, and frankly this sounded a lot like a re-do of Acheron's book. True it's a different world (no vampires) but Nyk sounds and feels like Ash to me. That's not bad, necessarily, just not new. Maybe it's just that many Alpha males sound the same in romance novels?One of my pet peeves about romance novels is how the endings (once the hero and heroine have 'hooked up') are rushed. Either the story ends like the author has a bus to catch: "The bad guy got what he deserved and all our other problems just went poof" or a ton of extra conflict, character development and plot is crammed into the last chapters..."I forgot to tell you all this about her/him - here it is all in one or two show more chapters." Born of Night falls into the second category - Nyk is all mystery and angst until the last chapters when everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) about him is detailed.Now, I hate to be left hanging wondering about a character, or what happens, but I also enjoy learning these things a little at a time, rather than having them dumped out all at once. This is why my rating is only three stars and not higher.Do I recommend reading this? Yes. Writing a series of books means that some will be better than others - and many times the first is not necessarily the best. Maybe I'm being to harsh, but having read so many of her other books, I guess my expectations were pretty high. show less

My but the UK cover sucks. That wig is badness personified. But in the grand spirit of not judging a book by the cover I bought it (well it is Sherrilyn Kenyon and I am a fan). Nykrian Quiakides was an assassin working for the League of Assassins but he left and now they hunt him. Now he works for hire and his latest job is to protect Kiara Zamir, a target because her father is a politician.

While they have to spend time together the discover what they have in common and become fast friends but survival is uppermost in their minds. They both have powerful enemies who want them dead. They're also not sure if they can trust each other.

It's very readable but almost not like most of her books, it sits a bit funny on me and the jury is still show more out whether I like it or Like it. I suspect it does suffer from being early stories written by her and while I did like it, I do prefer her darkhunter stuff. I do intend to read the rest though. show less

Ok, so this is not at all what I expected. I listened to this as a book on cd and for some reason I didn't realize that it was more of a sci-fi fantasy type of book. I was actually prepared to suffer through, but once I got about half way through the book, I was hooked. The characters were so flawed and idiotic it was believeable. I am looking forward to reading others by this author.