Immortals After Dark (7) - Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole
7/18: Kiss of a Demon King (Zauber der Leidenschaft), about Rydstorm’s un(?)lucky capture. I read the 417 pages English, originally published 2009.
Rydstorm Woede finally – finally – found a way to kill the oppressor of his people, Ormont the Deathless. But then, he’s abducted by his half-sister, Sabine, Queen of Illusions. An impossibly attractive sorceress who happens to be his fated female. And who happens to want to still his crown – for Ormont. And bear his child, to sacrifice it in the Well of Souls. Needless to say, this situation is not ideal. But there’s a lot more to the Queen of Illusions than meets the eye… her real plan has not yet been revealed.
Now, before I start with the actual review, I think I owe you an explanation for why the introduction to the article is so weird. You might have noticed that I always include the names of the protagonists. That’s actually a necessity born out of desperation, because finding the right order for the English books is hard enough, but manageable if you got Kresley Cole’s website. With the German translations, though? Pretty confusing, and I already read 15 of the books recently while I write this review. If I have issues sorting titles to stories, how is someone supposed to manage who didn’t? Besides, it’s simply a novel intro.
Well. Anyone who read Dark Desires after Dusk (Verführung der Schatten) knows that Rydstorm is in a… precarious situation, to put it lightly. First of all, let me again tell you to NOT read this part before Cade’s story. I did. I was spoilered so badly I swore to never do it again (and ended up doing it anyway, though by accident. I thought Demon from the Dark (Sehnsucht der Dunkelheit) actually came after Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Versprechen der Ewigkeit). To my credit, the titles are so similar – there are amazingly many titles featuring the word “dark” in this series, by the way, Dark Needs at Night’s Edge (Tanz des Verlangens), Dark Desires after Dusk (Tanz des Verlangens, Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Flammen der Begirde), Demon from the Dark (Sehnsucht der Dunkelheit), Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Versprechen der Dunkelheit), Dark Skye (Endlose Dunkelheit)… who can you not confuse this after a while?). Well, back to topic.
Rydstorm is a responsible, regal, down-to-Earth kinda guy. At least I thought so in Wicked Deeds on a Winter Night (Versuchung des Blutes), to throw another link in the mix. But there’s another side to the crownless demon king that we get to know here – actually, the title shouldn’t be as focused on the sexual part of the book, but rather how two characters from two opposite sides of the moral spectre end up being amazingly similar to one another. Because Rydstorm isn’t anywhere near lawful as we were led to believe – and Sabine isn’t as evil. I was amazed as to what Rydstorm does to her to retaliate. And I was even more shocked by how he treats his brother. Even if you read the prequel before this part (which I did not), it’s a surprise to see how Rydstorm really thinks of Cade as some sort of servant – some sort of idiot he wished he killed long before. But whom he had to let alive because of honour, family and all the memories from their childhood. But whom he resents even more. How Rydstorm in the beginning thinks that Cade “please shouldn’t screw up again” and should sacrifice the woman he loves for a crown! I was so angry… Well. Rydstrom can be quite the cold bastard, if you ask me. And quite insane as well, if you look at what he did to Sabine. But still, she isn’t much better.
Sabine is far more than a sexy, evil sorceress – as I’ve hinted in the briefing of the content above. She is bound to her half-brother by poison, would do anything to stay alive – and makes an effort to get away from his filthy claws. God, Ormont’s such a creep! Seriously, he makes his half-sister a concubine – and the one that looks exactly like his other half-sister, while he lets the entire court know he would have Sabine in his bed if he just could. Gah! Well, back to topic. Sabine has a rather interesting, heartbreakingly terrible past. And she’s the product of it – on a writer’s level wonderfully done product. She’s cold and heartless, would do anything to not die again – because she already did so over twenty times. And each and every time, her little sister’s magic brought her back. Which end up draining Lanthe so much that the Queen of Persuasion can almost never use her gifts. No wonder Sabine would do anything to keep alive, amoralic stuff included. Doesn’t mean I have to like what she does (I don’t, just for the record) but it’s understandable.
Now, to the Queen business. Sabine and Lanthe are Sorceri, that means that they are more human-like than any other Lore species except for maybe witches. They worship gold and other metals, but mostly gold, poison each other frequently and wear almost nothing – but that nothing’s worth more than an entire three-family home with garden. And Sorceri are magic-wielders, more powerful but also more specialised than witches. A Queen is a Sorceress more powerful in a certain specialisation than anyone else – Lanthe is Queen of Persuasion, which means that she’s capable of saying “Jump of the bridge” and anyone will do it. Sabine herself is the Queen of Illusions, she can trick any mind into seeing and hearing what she wants them to see and hear, plus making them live their worst nightmare or most coveted dream. But only if she can use her hands, one of her big weaknesses. Now.
Lanthe’s one of my favourites in the book, she’s so fascinating! Her fate’s even worse than Sabine’s, in a way, because she’s responsible of keeping her sister alive – literally – and then there’s this Thronos business. As soon as I read this part, I wanted to fast-forward to Dark Skye (Endlose Nacht), but didn’t. Due to the fact that I was traumatised by this book’s spoilers I brought unto myself. Lanthe managed to stay sweet, a more gentle-hearted girl who hides her kindness behind a mask of ruthlessness. She does have a hard streak, but she’s not nearly as bad as she makes people believe. And she’s the only person Ai-bee lets herself love – until Rydstorm. She managed to stay sane and good in an environment that makes this very hard.
Another interesting side-character in this book is the Hag in the Basement – yes, seems pretty much Robin Hood with Kevin Costner to me, but she’s an interesting character I’m glad we’ll learn more about. But that’s a story for another day.
Back to Sabine. Against Rydstorm’s belief, she’s not an entirely hard-hearted b*** who doesn’t care about anyone. She wants to be rid of her half-brother and is prepared to impregnate herself to achieve that. But she never even thought about going along with his plans – or Rydstorm’s, for that matter. She would never endanger her children like that. Apart from that, she’s fiercely independent by nature, the fact that she needs Ormonts poison doesn’t sit well with her at all. She doesn’t believe in promises or protecting people other than her sister, but in the end, she goes to a dragon to make sure the village isn’t annihilated. And she misses the little boy – even tells him to acquire gold, which is more than holy for Sorceri. And she does play an important role in her fight against Ormont – one that’s amazingly altruistic.
The relationship between the Sabine and Rydstorm is literally reduced to the bedroom. Outside of it, they almost don’t work at all – extreme, even for Immortals After Dark (from which I’m used to a lot). And it kind of sucks, because – although this is Adult with capital A – this is also supposed to be at least a little romantic, and seriously: It’s not. Additionally, neither Sabine nor Rydstorm actually pay the consequences for their bad decisions.
Apart from that: Content was sound, ideas original and style nicely done.
In brief:
Stars for depth of characters and the way they surprise you by being the opposite of what you expected, ideas and content, minus one for the romance. Minus one for narrative cuddling.
Prequel:
(Cadeon Woede, Mercenary second in line to the throne of the rage demons, a.k.a Cade the Kingmaker
& Holly Ashwin, Tulane math instructor, PhD candidare with emphasis on formal and computional cryptography)
Sequel:
(Daniela the Ice Maiden, Valkyrie and Rightful Queen of the Icere, the Fey of the frozen North
&Murdoch Wroth, former human warlord, today vampire soldier)