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Reviewed by Mel Keegan Publisher: Dreamspinner Press Picture the world in a quasi-nineteenth century where ancient, sometimes sad and lonely beings imbued with incredible powers are at war for the prize of global domination over humankind. No, it’s not Highlander, though Blood and Rain by Shira Anthony focuses tightly on immortals, and their responsibilities as well as their rights. In this world of vampires and hunters, ancients and immortals (not the McLeod variety!), the players in the Great Game -- if I may borrow the term often used for the “game of empire” right up to the First World War -- have gifts like those of Jedi Knights. Magic swords crackle with lightsaber-like energy, firing beams of power; adepts of fighting arts passed down from time immemorial possess the levitational gymnastic abilities of Master Yoda himself. Blood and Rain is high fantasy set mostly against the backdrop of a late nineteenth century that is not the history our ancestors knew. This world is different in profound ways; there’s a timelessness to the environment Anthony describes, a quality setting the tale afloat in a temporal sense. As principal protagonist Adrien Gilbert leaves home to undertake his quest -- vengeance for the apparent murder of his brother -- it could as easily be d’Artagnon setting out to join the Musketeers. In this scenario, everything travels at the languid speed of the horse or horse-drawn carriage, whereas at this very time in the Europe and America of the world we know, people covered great distances fast, by train. Similarly, in this period of our own history, if a foe appeared utterly unstoppable, he would soon walk headlong into a battery of Gatling guns and dynamite ... and even vampires won’t heal if head and limbs land twenty yards apart! Blood and Rain pointedly ignores technology even to a stage where the telegraph and gramophone, workaday objects in our own past, never appear. It is important to focus on the fantasy aspect of this story, which is the first segment of a trilogy, yet at the same time mark the difference between Anthony’s scenario and steampunk, in which future technology is transplanted backwards (and frankly unfeasible tech works just fine). The author has created a fresh, complex and intriguing playing field which would be impossible to do justice, here, in anything remotely resembling a thumbnail of the plot. Suffice to say, Adrien fully believes his elder brother, Francois, has been killed by an immortal vampire, Charles; and since Francois was a hunter and Adrien is a hunter in training, it falls to the younger Gilbert to fill his brother’s shoes ... hunt down Charles, though his skills are inadequate to the task. Along the road he meets the love of his life, Nicolas, who is already betrothed in a wedding match made in hell, a desperate attempt to wreak peace between warring vampire clans. Then the plot thickens: friends become foes, enemies become allies, nothing is as it seems and the story twists will keep you guessing till the end. The book is very definitely a first segment, and concludes on a “to be continued” moment which will certainly frustrate some readers, insofar as no resolution, no matter how provisional, is reached. The next segment should begin right where this one simply stops, and the author does promise a happy ending in the final instalment. For myself, once the penny dropped and I realized this is pure fantasy, not a historical -- which relies on exhaustive research, painstaking attention to detail and the depiction of history under the lens of absolute realism -- I allowed myself to be fascinated and entertained by Anthony’s gift for free invention. The strength of Blood and Rain is in the new ground broken by the author, who creates a satisfyingly complex scenario. Great heroes and complete villains exist among the vampire and also among the hunters, who are charged by both humans and honorable vampires to exterminate the rogue predators who victimize humans, vampires and hunters alike. Go along for the ride; prepare to be surprised. Several romances unfold in tandem, and all are troubled. The road for Adrien and Nicolas is as rough as that walked by Charles and Francois; and these are not the only couples in physical and psychological jeopardy. The novel is romantic throughout and sexy in places without being overwhelmed by sensual episodes, as m/m fiction is liable to be. For me this was a bonus. The sex scenes are written quite delicately; the romance is fraught, balanced on the fine line where melodrama can tip over into the simply maudlin. Shira Anthony does a good job of keeping it just on the right side of the line. The major characters are clearly drawn, and the author has allowed plenty of space for development. Adrien in particular grows visibly during this first part of the trilogy, from a sometimes rather annoying Skywalker type (d’Artagnon, if you prefer -- the archetype is at your fingertips), to an introverted, introspective young man ready to sacrifice for those he loves. Blood and Rain is peopled by such a large cast of characters, readers might take some time to get to grips with them all. The prose is simply written and easily read, suffering only here and there from repetition and cliché, though the author does have the common habit of overusing names, which can begin to annoy. To balance this, occasionally the narrative is lyrical, and once again it’s hats off to Dreamspinner Press for producing a long novel in which I spotted exactly one very minor typo. The tenor of the book is extremely intense from page one, and the denouement does tend to be somewhat lumpy, with dream sequences nested within flashbacks, all buried inside the major flashback forming the main body of the story. However, though the plot often unfolds in a choppy manner, it is not difficult to follow. Blood and Rain does have some bloopers, and a couple are whoppers. Ms. Anthony might occasionally consult a map, for example. At one point our heroes visit England, and ... well, I understand that, like Australians, Americans think of England as a very small country -- and indeed, it is. But it’s not that small. Adrien and party come ashore in Dover and arrive in Cambridge by horse-drawn carriage in the late afternoon of the same day. In fact, Dover to Cambridge by the shortest road route is 117 miles. At the best speed of carriage horses, and allowing for team changes, the journey would have taken at least two full days ... a few hours by train, but no such technology in employed in this scenario. A chapter or so later, a character walks out of a house in Cambridge and, on foot, goes swimming in the ocean. Cambridge is over 70 miles from the nearest beach. (And yes, I know Kevin Costner pulled this same geographical trick in Prince of Thieves, when Robin Hood lands on the south coast and beds down in Nottingham the same night. Only if he had a ticket on the intercity express, folks!) However, perhaps the fantasy aspect of Blood and Rain excuses this too. The narrative promotes a strong impression of being afloat in space as well as time: there is no sense of “Englishness” in the chapters set there, and no sense of “Frenchness” in the remainder of the book, which is staged entirely in France. Instead, Adrien et al move through an almost chillingly surreal landscape that is elsewhere, dislocated from the real, separated from what we know of real places, real times. The essence of the novel is almost dreamlike, as if past and present are strangely compressed and geographical locations are inconsequential, interchangeable ... modern-idiom dialog might seem at odds with a setting where there is not so much as a gramophone or a telegraph pole -- immerse yourself in this and let the hair stand up on the back of your neck. The narrative’s very incongruity is its strength. Having said all this, Shira Anthony did come perilously close to losing me in the middle of the book, where the action quite literally becomes a video game for several chapters. (Confession: I’m not a gamer, never was -- film is my preference.) If you love your X-Box, you’ll lap it all up, but I did skip the energy-shooting-sword scenes. I also picked up the threads and continued, and was glad I persevered. Much world building lay ahead, and the author surprised me a couple of times with welcome plot twists. So: if you like a fantasy with a gay romance at the core; if you love your PlayStation (or know how to turn pages devoted to magic energy swords and gravity defying feats a la Yoda); and if you enjoy an utterly surreal reinterpretation of history that’s entirely different from steampunk, this one is for you. I’ll be interested to see how it develops. |
