I try not to be too picky with things like historical accuracy or logic of magical systems, but sometimes novels simply are not good enough to make me overlook anachronisms or flimsy “powers”. This book, Ascension (Demon Hunters), by A.S. Fenichel, never put the heroine in a plausible setting or explained the narrative in a way that made sense.
Ascension has a lovely cover picturing a young lady wearing a dress from the early-mid 1800s and carrying a sword. The guy behind her (whom we can expect to be a hunk since he shows a few inches of chest) is mostly hidden. The lady is Lady Belinda Clayton, the daughter of an earl, engaged to Lord Gabriel Thurston, the Earl of Tullering who goes to ton parties that include the promenade. Gabriel recently returned from four years of service in the war and wears his hear in a queue.
Those few pieces of background say we are in the early 1800s, possibly even the latter part of the Napoleonic wars, except the dress doesn’t match. And men didn’t wear long hair much after the early 1800s. And Belinda’s faithful maid, Claire, runs a hot bath for her after a long night of demon hunting, yet hot baths during the middle of the night required heating jugs of hot water, lugging jugs and the tin bath up the stairs to the bedroom, pouring the water in, then pouring it out, jug by jug, once the bath was over.
We have anachronisms upon anachronisms. Sadly the book didn’t appeal to me enough that I could overlook these, nor the ridiculous plot. Lady Belinda was kidnapped by demons to be a water sacrifice, tortured and then rescued just in the nick of time by her now-friends and associates in the demon killing gang. In the four years Gabriel was away, Lady Belinda developed muscles, dirty fighting tricks and learned to use a sword to kill demons. I guess that’s almost plausible, except why would even stupid demons kidnap a rich, titled lady when London was full of homeless, nearly nameless people of any age or gender.
The premise of the book sounded so good: “A lady by day, and a demon hunter by night”. “Gabriel … determined to show her that their love can endure, stronger than ever.” Doesn’t that sound enticing? Plus a strong heroine and a big dollop of romance where the guy is in love?
Unfortunately I just could not finish this. I got to page 60 or so, jumped to the end to see whether it actually ended or was set up for a sequel (there will be a sequel) and gave up.
There are some good points. The book is well edited with no obvious spelling, grammar or basic writing errors. A.S. Fenichel’s writing style is pretty good. The bad points are the flat characters and unrealistic (even for fantasy) plot. Plus, be aware there are sex scenes every few pages.
This book was given to me with the hope I’d write a review, but unfortunately I didn’t like and can’t recommend Ascension (Demon Hunters).
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