Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon
Jan. 19th, 2010 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
There is a secret war raging beneath the streets of London.
A dark magic will be unleashed by the Untainted.
Unless a new hero can be found.
Niall Peterson is a normal middle-aged bloke. Divorced with a teenage daughter who lives with a wife he constantly argues with, he works as a project manager in the City and is resigned to his normal life. All this changes when he has a heart attack on the Tube and his life is saved by an old lady called Blackbird.
Blackbird introduces him to the world of the Feyre, creatures of magic who are divided into 7 courts determined by their aspects. When the Feyre realised that they needed to breed with humans to preserve their fading magic, the seventh court decided to separate. Instead the people of the seventh court – the Untainted – chose to hunt ‘half-breeds’ and humans alike and wait to return their people to power.
The bad news is that Niall is one of these half-breeds and has been marked by one of the Untainted. If he’s to stay alive, then he has to master the magic within him. Fortunately Blackbird agrees to help him, only for the two of them to become embroiled in a darker plot, one that threatens to bring down humanity itself.
Shevdon has crafted a well-researched urban fantasy, one that makes good use of faerie folk lore, London’s geography and an obscure legal ritual that’s been carried out in the City for hundreds of years. The idea of faerie living among us, unhidden and unnoticed is deliciously depicted, as his portrayal of he use of magic.
On the downside, this novel is let down by poor copy editing and is over-written - at over 500 pages long, it could have easily been reduced by a fifth. The action is slow to start, dialogue often goes on for too long and is frustratingly circular, with Niall being far slower to grasp Blackbird’s explanations than the reader is. There’s also a sense at times of Shevdon trying to put too many obstacles in the path of his hero, which lessens some of the tension. This is a shame as characterisation is good, Blackbird in particular proving an intriguing character – cautious, but ready to give her assistance – while Niall’s first person narration gets stronger as the novel continues.
There’s an excerpt from the sequel, which seems to have potential. Shevdon is a writer to watch, but he’s got a way to go yet.
The Verdict:
A well researched urban fantasy, this makes excellent use of faerie folk lore and London’s geography, it’s let down by over-writing and poor copyediting. Nevertheless, it’s well worth a look as Shevdon promises a sequel that further explores the seven courts of the Feyre.
There is a secret war raging beneath the streets of London.
A dark magic will be unleashed by the Untainted.
Unless a new hero can be found.
Niall Peterson is a normal middle-aged bloke. Divorced with a teenage daughter who lives with a wife he constantly argues with, he works as a project manager in the City and is resigned to his normal life. All this changes when he has a heart attack on the Tube and his life is saved by an old lady called Blackbird.
Blackbird introduces him to the world of the Feyre, creatures of magic who are divided into 7 courts determined by their aspects. When the Feyre realised that they needed to breed with humans to preserve their fading magic, the seventh court decided to separate. Instead the people of the seventh court – the Untainted – chose to hunt ‘half-breeds’ and humans alike and wait to return their people to power.
The bad news is that Niall is one of these half-breeds and has been marked by one of the Untainted. If he’s to stay alive, then he has to master the magic within him. Fortunately Blackbird agrees to help him, only for the two of them to become embroiled in a darker plot, one that threatens to bring down humanity itself.
Shevdon has crafted a well-researched urban fantasy, one that makes good use of faerie folk lore, London’s geography and an obscure legal ritual that’s been carried out in the City for hundreds of years. The idea of faerie living among us, unhidden and unnoticed is deliciously depicted, as his portrayal of he use of magic.
On the downside, this novel is let down by poor copy editing and is over-written - at over 500 pages long, it could have easily been reduced by a fifth. The action is slow to start, dialogue often goes on for too long and is frustratingly circular, with Niall being far slower to grasp Blackbird’s explanations than the reader is. There’s also a sense at times of Shevdon trying to put too many obstacles in the path of his hero, which lessens some of the tension. This is a shame as characterisation is good, Blackbird in particular proving an intriguing character – cautious, but ready to give her assistance – while Niall’s first person narration gets stronger as the novel continues.
There’s an excerpt from the sequel, which seems to have potential. Shevdon is a writer to watch, but he’s got a way to go yet.
The Verdict:
A well researched urban fantasy, this makes excellent use of faerie folk lore and London’s geography, it’s let down by over-writing and poor copyediting. Nevertheless, it’s well worth a look as Shevdon promises a sequel that further explores the seven courts of the Feyre.
