Book Review: A Rush of Wings; Adrian Phoenix

Title: A Rush of Wings
Author: Adrian Phoenix
Type: Fiction
Genre: Horror
Number of pages: 399
Link: @ amazon.com
Rating: 30/50; 60% – D.

From the back of the book:
HIS NAME IS DANTE.
Dark. Talented. Beautiful. Star of the rock band Inferno. Rumored owner of the hot New Orleans nightspot Club Hell. Born of the Blood, then broken by an evil beyond imagination.
HIS PAST IS A MYSTERY.
F.B.I. Special Agent Heather Wallace has been tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as the Cross Country Killer, and the trail has led her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and Dante. But the dangerously attractive musician not only resists her investigation, he claims to be “nightkind”: in other words, a vampire. Digging into his past for answers reveals little. A juvenile record a mile long. No social security number. No known birth date. In and out of foster homes for most of his life before being taken in by a man named Lucien DeNoir, who appears to guard mysteries of his own.
HIS FUTURE IS CHAOS.
What Heather does know about Dante is that something links him to the killer — and she’s pretty sure that link makes him the CCK’s next target. Heather must unravel the truth about this sensual, complicated, vulnerable young man — who, she begins to believe, may indeed be a vampire — in order to finally bring a killer to justice. But Dante’s past holds a shocking, dangerous secret, and once it is revealed not even Heather will be able to protect him from his destiny….

Plot:
It sounds intriguing, fast-paced and dark. But as far as originality goes, I found it to be a little lacking. New Orleans? Yawn. It seems like every vampire novel nowadays isn’t considered “authentic” unless it mentions (1) Romania, or (2) New Orleans. It’s been done. A million times, in fact. The plot wasn’t really what it was cracked up to be; as I read, I found myself turning pages more for the romance subplot (that was still a little unoriginal). It’s like a she-Bond meets I-don’t-know-what. And I’m sorry, but Cross-Country Killer? Why not something with a little more flair? What about “Travelin’ Tommy” or “Roamin’ Roy”? That would have at least made me smile.

In addition to being kind of dull and regurgitated (and 400 pages long) there weren’t really any decent descriptions of the characters in the novel, and there were a lot of characters. Every character had his or her own sub-agenda and it made the plotline jump around worse than a kangaroo on speed. I found myself turning back to reread a couple of pages more than once. They all came together–kind of–in the end, but it was hasty and a little contrived, and maybe even a little out-of-character.

The mystery aspect was a little lacking. Several times throughout the novel, Heather mentioned her family and I got the feeling they were dead, but I can’t be sure. Dante’s past eventually came to light, but the readers weren’t privy to the “worst” parts. It made that whole part of the storyline–the main characters’ tortured pasts–seem a little like filler material as opposed to something that actually advanced the plotline.

On the upside, there were a few original aspects. I’m talking about Lucien De Noir here. It’s completely obvious who Lucien is, and introducing that individual into a vampire novel isn’t that original, but the spin she puts on the character is, at least, different. Also, I liked the idea of the Nightkind living among the humans, although I wish they had chosen a more creative way to hide themselves other than vampires-pretending to be Goth-pretending to be vampires.
Total points: 13/20.

Characters:
I really thought I’d like Heather, the FBI agent. I generally like strong female characters, but she was strong to the point of being stupid. All she talked about through the entire book was how she had to protect Dante, who didn’t want, need, or ask for her protection. Even after she found out (and believed) that he was a vampire, she still insisted on protecting him. Admirable, but wasted. She got into more trouble because of her insistance to stick her nose in where it wasn’t wanted and even more ironic, she had to keep being saved. And I never thought I’d find myself typing this, but I found her sense of “justice” to be contrived and hypocritical. And OVERDONE. I just wanted to scream at her–lay off.
Dante, the vampire, was unexpectedly adorable, though. As a vampire, he was lacking, and his “fuck you” attitude was both annoying and cute, but he had me won over from the scene in Heather’s car where he was trying to stay awake. And I felt bad for him, actually–the poor boy was annoyed from every angle.
I’ve already said what I think about Lucien. Obvious, but intriguing.
As far as the other characters go–I can’t even remember their names as I’m typing this. They were around in abundance. Some had two or three names. None of them had character descriptions. They were everywhere. Mortal. Vampire. Fallen. More than one. And Inferno’s fanboys–whoever they were. Whatever point they had.
Total Points: 6/10.

Readability:
It was an easy book to get through, if you can pay careful attention to detail–hanging on every word and making good use of the glossary in the back. The grammar and sentence structure was fine, with no major mistakes, but this novel’s biggest readability problem was that it used an overabundance of Cajun French and Welsh. Yeah, there was a glossary in the back, but constantly having to flip back and forth between the glossary and the actual novel made the storyline difficult to get into. I could see the necessity and the authenticity in single words used sparingly to enhance the characterization, but long phrases in Cajun were unnecessary and annoying. Just say it in English; everybody gets that they’re Cajun. It’s thrown on us in every other paragraph. On top of that, they’re in Louisiana. We get it. It’s hard to forget.
Also, because it might offend some, this book gets a little heavy on the blaspheming around the middle and end. It doesn’t bother me personally, but it’s worth a mention.
Total Points: 6/10.

Re-readability:
To be completely honest, I can’t see myself rereading this book. At least not for a few years. It’s not one that I want to pick up immediately and read through again, and I do that a lot. I’ll probably sit this one on a shelf and let it collect dust. Maybe I’ll read it again once before tossing it into a box bound for the used bookstore.
Total Points: 2/5.

Anything Else:
–Would I recommend this book to a friend?: Yes, but not because it’s an excellent book that I think people would benefit from reading. For amusement, or just to pass time–yes.
–Do I want to see a sequel or a series from this book? Am I going to look for more material by this author?: The characters weren’t engaging enough for me to look for a sequel or a series. I’m not going to actively look for anything else by this author, but if I find one and there’s nothing better to read, then I might. If I thought the next novel would be a step up from this one, then I’d be more inclined.
–Would I like to see fan media for this novel?: I’m not going to go actively looking for it.
–Is it worth paying the cover price? (on the back of the book): $15.00 US/$17.50 Canada – nope. Maybe at a used bookstore or at a library, but I wouldn’t pay that much for it.
–Other impressions/things to note: nothing
Total Points: 3/5.