Lena Meydan: Twilight Forever Rising
Yes, the title is terrible. And no, this has nothing to do with sparkly vampires. But it is a vampire novel - a Russian one. I must admit, I’ve read one Russian novel in my life (Doctor Zhivago) and hated it. I read Polish novels and Lithuanian novels and occasionally Serbian novels, too. But since the Doctor Zhivago experience I’ve stayed away from the Russians until now.
Twilight Forever Rising was worth it, though. Despite the title, it has more to do with Kindred - The Embraced than it has with Twilight. The premise is that different vampire families are (un)living in present day Moscow fighting for dominance. We see most of the story through the eyes of Darrel, a telepath who falls in love with a human girl (which of course complicates matters). But what made this novel interesting where the changing POVs - while Darrel is the focus, we also learn about a lot about other characters, following them around, learning about their past. In this fashion, Twilight Forever Rising is very panoramic - something for readers who like their novels in Cinemascope. This is definitely a novel you can fall into for a weekend and not come out until you’ve finished it. A real pageturner and those aren’t all that common anymore.
I did have a hard time getting into it, because it takes some time until you can keep apart the different families and who belongs where. But this novel is 600 pages long, so you have a bit of time to find your footing. A warning though: This is the first part of a tetralogy and - sure enough - it ends with a mean cliffhanger.
Originally published at Unspoken. Please leave any comments there.