Silver Under Nightfall
Ratings21
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings21
Average rating3.5
Full of court intrigue, queer romance, and terrifying monsters—this gothic epic fantasy will appeal to fans of Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree and the adult animated series Castlevania. Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost. When a terrifying new breed of vampire is sighted outside of the city, Remy prepares to investigate alone. But then he encounters the shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress Xiaodan Song and her infuriatingly arrogant fiancé, vampire lord Zidan Malekh, who may hold the key to defeating the creatures—though he knows associating with them won’t do his reputation any favors. When he’s offered a spot alongside them to find the truth about the mutating virus Rot that’s plaguing the kingdom, Remy faces a choice. It’s one he’s certain he’ll regret. But as the three face dangerous hardships during their journey, Remy develops fond and complicated feelings for the couple. He begins to question what he holds true about vampires, as well as the story behind his own family legacy. As the Rot continues to spread across the kingdom, Remy must decide where his loyalties lie: with his father and the kingdom he’s been trained all his life to defend or the vampires who might just be the death of him.
Featured Series
5 primary booksReaper is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2011 with contributions by Rin Chupeco and Donna Grant.
Reviews with the most likes.
listen the author can call remy a himbo all they want but he is not a himbo in my heart. i feel like its mostly just that he doesnt understand politics and doesnt care to. there were a few moments where i could squint and be like yeah himbo energy but overall not really. he's lowkey annoying but i also liked him probably 70% of the time. i adore xiaodan and zidan though so i am sat for book 2. killing naji at the very end was sick and twisted actually. i did really enjoy this book though.
Well it's been on my currently reading shelf at 36% since November 2023 so it's obviously not happening.
DNF it is.
This was pretty much everything that I wanted for an epic vampire novel. The characters were very well flushed out and the author did a great job with the setting. My biggest problem was with how large the cast of characters was, I had a hard time keeping everyone straight but eventually figured it out.
Thank you to Gallery Books, Saga Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.
Let me state straight out: From the blurb I kind of suspected this book would not be for me. I received it as part of my GSFF subscription and I have a rule to read every book I receive through this so I gave it a go.
First off: I do not like lovey dovey vampires. They should be sleazy, yes, but the extremely sanitized version of vampires presented here was way too emotionally sensitive, way too twilightesque. I am also not a fan of love triangles - I find the teenage angst that tends to come through them just annoying. There seems to be a bit of renaissance on vampire novels recently, and vampires can make very entertaining protagonists. They can even work well as antiheroes, but I struggle with them as love interests as it tends to detract from their very base monstrous character. I can almost get the idea of wanting to subvert that, but that subversion has become such a cliché as to make it irrelevant and to me it just doesn't work.
My biggest peeve is the stupid weapon being used. I get that this is a fantasy setting and weaponry can be different, but fantasy weapons still need to be useable weapons. This just seemed like some ridiculous deus ex machina thing, and would in reality be completely impractical to wield. The ridiculous swiss army knife sword thing here was distracting and unnecessary and was used continuously just highlighting the entire dumbness of it.
Beneath all this cloyingly sweet angst and annoyingly dumb weaponry there was a story that had some interesting twists and politics. The conflict between the main character and his father was genuinely quite interesting and well worked, but there was so much in my face annoyance that I really struggled to enjoy this.
