Bitter Night

Bitter Night (2009) Diana Pharoah Francis

Max is a Shadowblade. A warrior transformed by and bound to a witch. Shadowblades cannot stand the touch of the sun, and their counterparts–Sunspears–cannot bear the darkness. Between them they guard and protect the witches they serve. Being a Shadowblade or Sunspear incredible abilities and immortality of a kind, however, their lives are hard and full of pain and danger.

I was both pleased and surprised to find a supernatural fantasy that was not full of werewolves and vampires and boinking. Witches have been hiding for centuries (or longer actually) in plain sight, but the power struggles amongst the different covens can be deadly, as witches are both territorial and jealous.

Max is an extremely complex character. Although Giselle has given her incredible strength and powers and seemingly lasting youth, Max hates Giselle and has tried repeatedly to escape, only to be made to suffer more and more after each attempt.

This book had a lot of things I liked–the characters grew throughout the story, and did not remain willfully blind to events around them. Although it wasn’t particularly clear how magic worked, it had limits and didn’t give witches unlimited power.

I was initially unsure of the structure of the covens, but the long lives of witches provided an explanation for the somewhat feudal (and cruel) system.

There were a couple of drawbacks to the book however, first and foremost was the resolution between Giselle and Solange.

Second, was that although this book had a self-contained story arc, it was clearly a set-up for what looks to be a long running series. (Interestingly, the story looks almost like it’s trying to create a world similar to that in Faith Hunter’s Rogue Mage series. (Accidental for sure, but since I recently finished the Rogue Mage series, the similarities stood out.)) As a matter of personal preference, I tend to dislike plots that take multiple books to resolve, but I was pleased to see the arc of the story concluded, despite the threads of the story begging to be picked up in later books.

Although this book was boink free (YAY) there was romantic tension between two of the characters that will probably lead to boinking in later books. Just so you’re aware.

And although it has no bearing on the story, what is the deal with the headless body on the cover? OK, OK, it’s not completely headless, but I still think it’s incredibly creepy. What is appealing about a book with a torso on the cover? This seems to be the opposite of the floating head paranormal romance covers. Are women who read fantasy incapable of seeing an entire body on the covers of our books?

Would I like to read more about the characters? Yes. But I’m hesitant to get into a long running series without a set endpoint. (I do think that in some ways Robert Jordan ruined epic fantasy, in that who wants to get involved in a story that is going to take decades to resolve?)

If you like supernatural fantasy, then I think you’ll enjoy Bitter Night. However, this is almost certainly going to be a long running series, so you may want to consider that if that’s an issue for you as it is for me.
Rating: 7/10

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