It was a night ripe for fictitious interpretation. The rain-slick streets, the colored neon reflected in puddles, the steaming subway grates - all of it straight off the pages of a comic book.
We've finally reached the first chapter! If you stuck through the prelude, the preface notes, and the prologue, then welcome to the meat and potatoes of book one. Thanks for being here.
The thing about this series is there isn't a main character. Not really. I feel like Nik and Sasha are the overarching, unifying glue of the series, but page time gets spread across the board. I think some readers dislike that. Sprawling, multi-POV stories were de rigueur in the 80s and 90s, when I was starting my reading journey, so that's always the style I've favored. I think of it this way: no, we don't stay locked in one character's head for the whole journey, so you have to shift your focus, but you also get a much richer reading experience because you're seeing all angles of the story.
In Chapter One, we meet Trina, who is part of our ensemble, and not the main character, but a very important one.
We open with a glimpse of Siberia. A dream - or nightmare, rather. Dreams and dream-walking and psychic projection are central to the mythology system of this series. I like my magic systems to be fluid and inexact, and that's what we have here: no incantations and strict rules: different vampires have different strengths and skills within the psychic realm. Nikita, we'll learn, has his sire's incredibly strong ability to compel others, and that gets manipulated in this book by a third party, and none of those involved truly understand the mechanics of how it happens, only that it's *magic.* Give me vague magic all the live long day.
From her haunting, violent dream, we cut to Trina's reality. Every scene involving Trina and Lanny working as detectives in the city is one of my favorites. Writing about vampires and werewolves automatically makes for a strong fantasy element. But if you asked me, I think one of my strongest skills as a writer is bringing to life the dirty, unpretty, ordinary side of life. Here in this chapter: the NYC noise, the neon in the puddles, Trina's cramped apartment and overstuffed closet. I think if you write with intent, you can make all of those real-life details beautiful through words alone, if not through visuals. I find that sort of dirty detail to be comforting, and I really relish the chance to make a scene feel real, and gritty, and even unpleasant, like with the crime scene here.
Plotwise, this chapter sets up a murder that's about to lead our NYC characters down an immortal rabbit hole.
Character wise, we meet three important players. Trina, of course, but also her partner, Lanny, and Trina's no-nonsense medical examiner friend, Dr. Christine Harvey. We don't learn much about Dr. Harvey here, other than that she's quick, competent, and good at her job, based on her attitude alone.
Lanny, we can see, is Going Through It™, and handling it in unhealthy ways. So that sets up the Big Reveal for him in the chapters to come. One of the reasons I love Lanny as a character is that he is so NOT a character who belongs in a fantasy story. He's the sort of rough-around-the-edges, disbelieving guy not at all enchanted by magical forces, and I love the way he grounds the wildness of the immortal story in something more immediate and real for modern readers. My vampires run the gamut: ancient to modern, and that was important for me, to show the contrast.
I know that Trina has gotten a little flak, over the years, for being "boring." I would argue that all of my mortal characters are boring by comparison to the centuries' old characters, by default, and by necessity. I would also point out that, since character development is my most important aspect of storytelling, all those "boring" people have SUCH a journey ahead of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment