Eternal Vigilance 2: The Death of Illusions by Gabrielle Faust, reviewed by Jess

The Death of Illusions by Gabrielle Faust

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars


Another beautiful piece of cover art should have teenage goths, emos, and creatures of the night itching to get their hands--or claws-- on Book Two of the Eternal Vigilance series.

One year on from the original "Eternal Vigilance" book (also reviewed by GUD), Tynan Llywelyn, an immortal vampire, is battling the Vicinus in an attempt to save his own race, the Phuree, as well as humanity, from the Tyst empire's attempt to gain immortality. Despite being described by the author on her website as "technohorror", this was more of a typical Fantasy battle novel--high on action and thrills but less involved with character than the first book.

Although I didn't find much in the novel that particularly fitted the Horror genre, it works well as Fantasy, particularly for those who don't mind extremely lengthy back story and buildup. Lots of gadgets and deaths certainly make for up for lack of pace--eventually.

I was disappointed by the lack of character development, even though I was expecting a battle novel. If I don't care enough about the characters I won't be invested in whether they live or die, and the story will have difficulty holding my interest.

"The Death of Illusions" is ambitious, dark and very emo. As a teen I might have liked it more; as an adult, I felt it didn't capture my imagination in the way this author is very much capable of doing. Also, I had some minor niggles, like the over use of 'undulating'; a lot of typos; and far too much italic use in strange places. These niggles detracted from my ability to read the novel fluidly, as I found them off-putting. However, kudos to Faust for getting tentacles into the story. I did laugh at:

"Blinding pain exploded through the my [sic:] torso and I looked down to see a tentacle of blue impaling my body"--page 108

I will still look forward to more from Gabrielle S. Faust in the future--I don't think the Eternal Vigilance novels have seen her reach the best of her potential. One for hardcore vampire fans (and tentacle lovers) only, I think.

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Neon Literary Journal #14, edited by Krishan Coupland, reviewed by Debbie

Neon Literary Journal

Edited by Krishan Coupland

FourVolts Productions, 2007

Booklet, 50 pages

ISSN: 1753-4240

Neon #14 is available in print or to download at http://www.neonmagazine.co.uk.

British literary magazine Neon describes itself as "a journal of brilliant things", and issue #14 belies its small size with an enigmatic and striking picture of a shingle beach on the cover. Throughout this fifty-page literary journal are monochrome images that set off, illustrate, or provide backgrounds to the poetry and prose. This is a serious work of art created by people who take art seriously.

Since the journal is short, the contents tend to be short, too, which means Neon can easily be consumed in a series of quick reads. This makes it ideal for the West's rush-rush-rush societies. But what about those contents? Are they worth the effort?

If you're not going to read GUD (although why wouldn't you?) give Neon a try instead. Or even better--try both.

From the beginning of Rupert Merkin's Second Coming--"Hyde Park is mined"--to the end of Jarod Rosello's This is What the Robots Do--"...robots are sleeping in people's beds"--Neon offers variety, intrigue, and solid writing.

Brits might be disappointed that so much of the content of this British journal is by writers from or connected with the US, but I have to say, from my experiences with NFG (Canadian), GUD (American), and ASIM (Australian), that's pretty much the way the wind blows. The US has a huge English-speaking population, and some days it feels like they all want to write.

To stand out in that crowd, non-US content has to be extra-sparkly. Perhaps like Grant McLeman's poem Fall In:

he was the name,
who gives no reply,
the gap
in the parade ground,
the empty echo
across the square.

Definitely one for the nightstand.