It has taken me a while to read Kresley Cole’s newest book, Dreams of a Dark Warrior, thanks to the Great Paranormal Detox of 2011.
As you may or may not know, I have spent a lot time over the life of this blog contemplating my love affair with the Immortals After Dark Series, and whether or not I was going to continue said affair after a certain point.
Dark Warrior, Regin’s entry into the saga, was surprising to me in that it left me wanting more, more, more.
Since the Immortals’ inception, we’ve heard about Regin the Radiant, her glowing skin, her drugging kiss, and the fact that she has been pursued through time by Aidan the Fierce, a Berserker she kissed so far back that there’s not even a year attached to the date. Aidan died almost immediately upon the consummation of their relationship (back in the day), but has been reincarnated three times since.
When he comes back, he knows only that being with other women does not feel right (to the point that one of the incarnations belonged to a monastic order), and he is always a renowned warrior. Regin recognizes him by general feeling and then by looking in his eyes (as he is always drawn to her). He always remembers their history when she kisses him, and he always dies within hours of consummating their romance.
Smash cut to: present day Hell Island, where The Initiative (I mean, The Order) is holding the Immortals prisoner for experimentation, interrogation, and eventual execution. Declan Chase, drugged-up head of the facility, is drawn particularly to Regin the Radiant, the first Valkyrie ever brought in to the facility. Of course, Regin takes one look at the Immortal-hating asshole of a warden and recognizes the newest version of her long-lost love.
To pretend that this is even close to the summary of this 515 page book is laughable. Because it is the ninth book in the series and the last several have been taking place practically simultaneously, there are a lot of loose ends and overlaps and callbacks and criss-crossings. I had forgotten that Lucia ditched Regin to go kill Cruach with Garreth in Pleasure of a Dark Prince, and that Carrow had watched in horror as Regin was brought back from her vivisection (yes, it’s as nasty as it sounds) in Demon From the Dark. And that Lothaire, Enemy of Old and nemesis of our girl Nucking Futs Nix, has been running around in the background of all of three books.
(Note to self: time for an IAD re-read marathon. Will probably hold off though, until we’re ready for Lothaire’s book next year)
I was intrigued by Declan and the fact that he kept his natural (but unknown to him) Berserker tendencies at bay with heavy doses of opiates and sedatives. He hasn’t had sex in years, not just because of the serious drugs he’s on, but because every time he does, he feels so ill he cannot bring himself to finish. It feels wrong. For a while, I really thought it would be better if this incarnation of Aidan died, and Regin waited to get a fresh start to find a way to break the curse with the next guy. Declan is seriously damaged, and even the Immortals can’t blame him for his treatment of them when they find out what some Neoptras did to him and his family in the past. However, in the end it was very clear that Declan was the best version of Aidan for our girl Regin. They were bound by the whole (slightly unclear) Berserker matehood thing, but they also came to a real understanding of one another, and I definitely bought them together, despite all of the truly awful things that had happened to them along the way.
I didn’t think I would like Regin As Heroine, but reading her story was rather like going out for drinks with a friend of a friend that you never really thought you’d be friends with yourself. Running around threatening the heroes in other stories, acting nutso during Talisman’s Hies, being a party-hardy NOLA girl is not all there is to this picture. I knew she had spent a lot of time trying to flee Aidan’s newest incarnation (even before she knew exactly who it was), and I thought it was because she wasn’t really in to him. Not so. Rather it was because she had lost him so many times she didn’t know if she could take it again. And I never would have known that had I skipped out on drinks. Or rather, her story.
Next up in the series is a book about Lothaire (How intrigued are we to read a book about The Bad Guy? SO INTRIGUED!), and apparently Nix is up after that. I would say I’m skeptical, but who am I kidding? I’m ready for more, however Kresley Cole wants to deliver it.
No comments:
Post a Comment