Eleven years before the events in the series’ first
book, The Lazarus Gate, Lillian Hardwick and Sir
Arthur Furnival have been sent to investigate disappearances
in the slums of London. Meanwhile rifts are letting in terrible
creatures from another dimension and the sky is on fire; this
is not our reality but the parallel one from the first book.
This is the “villains” story of how they try to
save their home from invasion.
Having read the first book, I expected a sequel and a second
case for the hapless John Hardwick. He does feature in this
or rather his other version does, but instead this is actually
a prequel which allows us to see things from the other side’s
perspective. This is an unusual idea and it works; first we
saw events from our side of the portal with agents valiantly
trying to save our world from invasion by a parallel universe.
Now we see how bad things truly are there and can sympathize
with why people are desperately trying to locate a new safe
place to live. Lillian came over as a stock character in the
first book - a sort of tough, implacable dominatrix –
but here we get to see what made her this way and appreciate
her struggle in a man’s world. This is also a story
about vampires, rather different ones to the type currently
popular, which is another point in the book’s favor.
It is a longer novel than the first one, but part of the length
is showing the reader another dimension which is similar to
ours but with many differences. Despite the length there is
always something going on, usually exciting and rather original.
I can’t wait to see where the author takes this series
next, but I can imagine that it will be well worth reading
about.
Reviewers
Note: Violence |