Benedict, Lyn: Sins & Shadows
Sins & Shadows (2009)
Written by: Lyn Benedict
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 357
Lyn Benedict is the pen name for dark fantasy author Lane Robins. Lane Robins, as you may know, is a graduate of the Odyssey Writer's Workshop. This, combined with the fact I read and really loved Robins's debut, Maledicte, made Robins's (who will be henceforth known in this post as Benedict) urban fantasy debut a must buy. Even if the cover did make me uneasy (I'll explain later).
The premise: After a colleague is murdered right in front of her, Sylvie Lightner has decided she's had enough of the PI business, enough of magic, and enough of anything remotely the supernatural. Unfortunately, just as she's closing up shop, she meets a man who won't take no for an answer, a man who claims to be a god. This man's lover is missing to the point where even a GOD can't find him, and he needs Sylvie to track him (yes, the man's lover is a he) down. If she doesn't, it's not just her family and friends who will be in danger from the god's wrath, but the whole world. Sylvie's in a race against time, because the longer it takes her to find the god's lover, the more control the god loses, and the world's at stake.
Review style: this time, I'm dividing the review into three categories: what I liked and what I didn't. Pretty straight forward, eh? No spoilers.
What I Liked
I know that Jim Butcher's Dresden Files are set in Chicago, but since that series has yet to grab my attention, I'm going to applaud the fact that Benedict's book is set in Chicago, and more so, the story is bookended in Miami, Florida. Also, while Storm Front never really gave me a sense of Chicago as a real city, Sins & Shadows did just that. I've only been to Chicago once, and the outskirts at that. For Benedict to be able to fully visualize the city in my reader's eye is pretty impressive.
Also interesting a notable is the fact that while Sylvie is pretty much a solitary character, she's not without her connections. We learn about her family, particularly her baby sister, and her partner at the PI agency is also a best friend. Another best friend from high school is also a witch who Sylvie has to rely on. One of the common complaints in urban fantasy is that not only is the heroine ALONE, but save for the hero, she doesn't have anyone to turn to, let alone girl friends. Benedict manages to straddle the line between making Sylvie a solitary character and giving her a solid, believable support group in terms of cast, and it works well. Almost too well, because sometimes when Sylvie was interacting with certain female cast members (Tish and Erinya), I began to question Sylvie's sexuality, but in a very good way. She's got friends, but she's got chemistry with other women that doesn't feel out of place in the book by any means. That's probably because Kevin Dunne, the god of Justice, is searching for his lover Bran Wolf, so right away, the reader knows that romantic relationships are not necessarily of the heterosexual norm, which keeps the reader on his/her toes.
For the record, that's another thing I like. And while the whole god of Justice bit sounds unbelievably cheesy, that's another thing that works too: Benedict's ability to take both Greek and Biblical mythology and mix them into a story in such a way that it WORKS. Sometimes, the use of the mythologies made me cringe a little, but really, Benedict handles it all with ease, and I'm very, very impressed with how smoothly the world-building and magic and mythologies came together. In the hands of another writer, it would've fallen apart in a flaming pile of crap. Here, it works.
Yes, I know the god of Justice isn't in either the Greek pantheon or Biblical mythology, so you'll just have to read the book to figure out how that works. It makes sense, it does.
What I Didn't Like
Here's the thing: I have yet to read an ADULT urban fantasy of the "Buffy-Lit" variety in third person that WORKS for me. For some reason, something about the third person takes away the immediacy of the read and the addictive need to keep turning the pages. It took me nearly two weeks to finish this book, and for an urban fantasy of the "Buffy-Lit" variety (albeit a rather dark one), that's just not good.
Which leads me to the other reason it took me so long: Sylvie herself. I'll be honest in that I'm not sure I would've really wanted to be in her head for the whole book in terms of a first person POV, but damn, this woman's a bitch. She's just not likable, and even when she's nice to people she cares about, I barely buy it because she's quick to anger and always willing to put someone in their place. The only good thing about her characterization is that 1) we kind of get an excuse for it, though I'd prefer a more immediate one, and 2) she pays for her actions. Oh, does she pay. And she deserves it too.
The thing is that we never really had a chance to root for Sylvie as a character. From the start, she's pissed and angry and quitting her job, and then she's FORCED into this case, which makes the book a reactive plot, and really, the whole threat of the god's power leaking away and destroying those she cares about, let alone the world, is too big to truly be effective. The fact that the only reason she's taking this case is to get it over with doesn't entice me to want to keep reading and learn more about what's really going on. She doesn't have something personal at stake, and it makes me wonder why people even like her to begin with, like Alex and Demalion, which then makes me wish we saw pre-bitch/pre-angry-all-the-time Sylvie, so we could at least get why others are drawn to her. Furthermore, I don't remember getting a really solid backstory as to how she came into the whole supernatural PI business to begin with. That would've been useful in sympathizing with her, if we were with her when she first learned that the world was not what it seemed.
No doubt, Sylvie learns a lot about herself and where her future will lead if she's not careful, but I'm not convinced that she really wants to change. Of course, that's what will make the series: having such an unstable heroine who might fly off into a murderous rage at any moment and attract the ire of the gods/goddesses/God. However, I can't say I'm willing to get on that ride, despite the book being written well (with one nitpick: sometimes Benedict's use of fragments are really jarring).
And I do want to say one thing: I've got to give Benedict some credit for creating such a difficult character. Likable protags are hard to pull off, but UNLIKABLE protags that can still carry the story is another can of worms, and in my POV, much harder to do. While this particular case didn't work for me, it definitely was interesting to read to see what the author did and how she did it, because we writers, we're always learning. :)
My Rating
Give It Away: you'll have to forgive me, because it's been several days since I finished this book and that distance makes discussing the text rather difficult. There's stuff in this urban fantasy debut that Benedict does well. I like the prose, the descriptions of magic and how Benedict blends various mythologies into a working world that doesn't come off clumsy or cheesy. It's definitely more dark fantasy than paranormal romance on the scale of urban fantasy, and that's important to note. However, for me this book lacked the addiction factor, and I'm not sure if it's because of the third person POV or the fact I really didn't like the heroine or a mixture of both. It took me much longer that I'd like to finish this book, and I can't say I'm going to rush out and get a sequel, at least, not until I get a chance to hear other readers' reactions. That said, fans of Lane Robins's Maledicte should check out this urban fantasy debut under a pen name (and I'm curious why Robins chose to write under Lyn Benedict instead of her real name), because there are similarities in the darkness, in the romantic/sexual relationships of the characters that know no gender trappings, as well as the fact that the use of angels and gods dominates the story, just as it does in Robins's Maledicte. This didn't really work for me on the whole, but there are a lot of ingredients in this book I really like, which I think makes this debut worth checking out for the urban fantasy reader, especially those tired of fangs, fur, and fey.
Cover Commentary: okay, so you know I said the cover had me suspicious from the start? Well, let's just say I wasn't disposed to liking Sylvie because of the cover model. And while this bias is a personal thing deeply rooted in my childhood, I'm gonna say it anyway: I hate, hate, HATE straight bangs like that of the cover model. I hate them so much that it's ridiculous and unfair, but you know what? I had a bad taste in my mouth for Sylvie before I ever started reading, and what's worse, I couldn't get that cover model out of my head. And just to show you how badly I hate these bangs, I'll give you an example: when Alias aired, I loved that show. I loved Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow. But when she cut her bangs in the latter part of S3, I wanted to reach through my television and choke her. No offense to those of you who wear your bangs this way, but I hate them. :) I hate them because I had to wear them myself once upon a time ago, and that will not happen ever, ever again.
Forgive me, I'm ranting, but I just want to point out how an irrational dislike of a cover (or cover model) can unfortunately influence the reading of a book. :)
Next up: Close Encounters by Katherine Allred