REVIEW: Sister of the Dead

Barb and J.C. Hendee
Sister of the Dead (Noble Dead, Series 1, book #3)
Roc
ISBN-10: 045146009X
ISBN-13: 978-0451460097
Fantasy
January 6, 2004

The Noble Dead Saga continues as Magiere and Leesil, the slayers of the undead from Dhampir and Thief of Lives, embark on a quest to uncover the secrets of their mysterious origins – and those responsible for orchestrating the events that brought them together…

Magiere the dhampir – half human, half vampire – sired for the purpose of slaying the undead. Outside the village of Chemestúk, where she was born and raised, stands her father’s keep. Within its walls, she hopes to discover the secrets of her past and figure out why a vampire would wish to breed a creature capable of slaughtering his own kind….

But there are those who don’t want Magiere to learn the truth – and when her half-elven partner, Leesil, makes a startling discovery in the keep, he can understand why. Before Leesil can reveal the truth to Magiere, they must vanquish a creature of unimaginable and unlimited power who has damned a small village of people with a horrifying curse…

Slight spoilers, nothing major.

I reviewed the first book here and the second book here.

Oh my me, I am really enjoying this series. A) Magiere’s past is obviously so gripping that I have to know more. B) The dynamics between the characters are pretty decent. Wynn and Chap especially add a nice counter to the somewhat-awkward romance between Leesil and Magiere. What? Oh, yes – I said romance. More on that later. C) The action is getting better with each book. D) So is the authors’ writing. And that’s it in a nutshell. But since I’m a liberated nut, we’re of course going to delve a little deeper.

We’re off again, the action moving right along, this time leaving the Belaski capital city of Bela behind for the dreary wilds of Magiere’s country of origin, Droevinka. Dreary because of the evil that walks and acts in such unspeakably horrible ways there. Ways Magiere and Leesil will have to face and destroy as they continue to learn more about her past. I have to say that Magiere grows on me more and more. In Dhampir she was almost and anti-heroine with her and Leesil’s pretending to slay vampires, fleecing poor villagers out of much-needed supplies and money. Not only did she want to just retire from that and act like if it never happened, but she also buried her head as deep in the sand as it could go when strange things begin to happen to her physically. When creatures called the Noble Dead step from the shadows to force her to face them or die.

So she’s grown a lot in just three books, going from a reclusive figure to one that finally sees she has no choice but to face whatever destiny is coming for her. She can either prepare herself with knowledge, discover who her enemies are and what she must do, or she can hide, pretending nothing is wrong. Needless to say, it’s the latter we see more and more of in her, and thankfully so. With each book, we see the danger to her and her companions increasing. And they are with every step of the journey becoming more and more her salvation, the strength keeping her going, especially Leesil.

There have been subtle undercurrents from almost the beginning of the series of a physical awareness between Magiere and Leesil. It had all the hallmark beginnings of a skittish and disbelieving discovery. After gallivanting across the land as mere business associates, maybe even passingly decent friends, this budding awareness puts quite the cramp in Magiere’s style. I find her worries to be believable; she fears hurting Leesil too much to let her guard down enough, or as much as he obviously wants her to. It was with somewhat of a sweet sigh to see a romance progressing much further this time, even if it is still somewhat of an awkward and disjointed one at times. Magiere seems able to let him in only so much at times, those being when the situation is so dire and they’re about to face yet another facet of her past she’s dreading. It’s as if she chooses, just barely, to bear Leesil being witness to it all, too, that him seeing what she truly is might taint what they’re trying to be to one another. So even as the romance progresses, it takes tiny steps back sometimes, here and there, as she tries to disengage herself from him when the suspense of learning a new part of her past rears its head.

Leesil takes Magiere’s stilted attitude in stride. He too has a personal stake in their journey, that of finding his mother, who he suspects might still be alive. After years of believing her dead, he’s now determined to rescue her should that need arise and searching her out is the next leg of their journey after they’ve settled business in Droevinka. His internal struggle, the guilt he feels about his mother, drives him nearly as frantic with urgency as does Magiere’s need to discover her past. Yet, Leesil puts aside his own needs in favor of being there for Magiere, a quality that raises him high in my esteem and makes me a bit peeved at Magiere sometimes when she reverts to her frigid and controlling side. For all that, though, there is no doubt that, at times, the couple needs one another and they do have some tender moments.

Wynn, as their young perveyor of knowledge, struggles at times to come to terms with Magiere’s need to kill,kill, kill all Noble Dead. In fact, Wynn is hiding something from Magiere and the others that will try the dhampir’s trust and patience with the young sage. In some ways, Magiere used to be the naive one, when she was determined to scoff at any hint of Noble Dead existing. Now her eyes are open to the lengths they will go to, whereas Wynn is just as rigidly determined to see them in a more fair light. It’s a major source of contention between the two, although when it comes down to the heat of the moment, they are loyal to one another. Still, I’m starting to see why Wynn eventually goes on to heroine status in the second Noble Dead saga, the first book of which is already out (In Shade and Shadow). Her determination to view Noble Dead as possibly something more than killers is a subtle yet prevalent theme in some parts of this book, as they were in the second.

We bring in a new POV with Sister of the Dead, that of Chap, their wolf-like dog who Wynn discovered in the second book is more than just a mere hound. Up until now we’ve only seen him through the other characters’ eyes. He’s a Fay, a race of spirit-like beings that embody the basic elements: fire, water, earth, etc. So Chap is every bit a sentient, intelligent being as his companions, and is one of the huge contenders in the manipulation of Leesil and Magiere’s lives. With Sister of the Dead, it’s finally revealed (albeit slowly again) somewhat that there is indeed a good and bad side in allof this, maybe even a contingent between those two. While the intentions of each side isn’t completely clear as of yet, I do suspect that Chap’s Fay race is erring more on the side of the good.

The plot introduces us to a good bit of information on Magiere’s past and brings into play more firmly not only those involved with her birth, but also Welstial (who first appeared in Dhampir and also played a shocking role in Thief of Lives, book 2) and Chane, one of the main Noble Dead characters in book 2. If I found book 2 immensely more satisfying than book 1 in terms of action, then this book was equally if not more satisfying in terms of plot development. We get to learn exactly what happens to “cause” Magiere’s birth, confirming her suspisions that it wasn’t anything natural. That she is something unnatural, more so even than the obvious state of being a dhampir. Along the way to the keep where she was born, the small band of protagonists encounter a strange Noble Dead with powers they’ve never seen or even heard of. Dogged unknowingly by Westial and Chane, Magiere, Leesil, Wynn and Chap have never been in more danger than in this installment. They go into it all quite blind, yet determined for Magiere’s sake.

Welstial knows what is going on, though, and he knows who and what Magiere is walking into. He wants to protect her, but his intentions, while having all the hallmarks of heroic effort, are actually in place to serve his own needs. Again, like with much of the series, we don’t fully get to know what his plans are. They are however at least hinted at more this time and I was very happy with how much we come to know in this book. Very much so. The authors continue to amaze me with how well they dole out details, keeping the suspense and tension high enought o drag me right from this book and into the next, very eagerly so.

The real antagonists in this one are, of course, those that were present for Magiere’s birth and had a hand in orchestrating it. Ubâd is the main one they needed to watch out for and he proves to be a worthy adversary for Magiere, who I felt up to this point hadn’t had a real enemy. The Noble Dead she’s fought up to this point have all been vampires, and while she was and still is in a sort of learning stage with her powers, the previous Noble Dead were nothing at all like the creatures she faces this time. They are, really, quite horrifying. As much as we come to know about them, they too remained somewhat of a mystery by the end of the book as whomever is ruling over their actions is still yet to be revealed. The final battle between good and evil this time was immensely satisfying. I’m finding that each book seems to get more imaginative in terms of the action.

The ending of this book ends on a absolutely awesome cliffhanger,which can be so tricky. Cliffhangers will either disgust or placate a reader, or possibly not effect a person one way or another, but this one was really clever. Something bad happens to one of the bad characters that actually made me a bit sad, but the ending made me so satisfied – for this character, I was willing to wait to see how that situation turned out, as it would affect one of the good characters. I know it’s vague, but trust me, it was a great way to end the book.

I’m enjoying each book progressively more and more. For anyone that enjoys the epic fantasy, full of increasingly good action, character development and suspense, this is a great series to try. Highly recommended.

Rating: Five Scoops

Series 1 order:

1. Dhampir
2. Thief of Lives
3. Sister of the Dead
4. Traitor to the Blood
5. Rebel Fay
6. Child of a Dead God

For more information visit the authors’ site.