Genre: Urban Fantasy (Romantic arc)
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay, Non-Binary
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
In New Philadelphia, demons would walk the streets.
Nathaniel has dealt with his fair share of demons. Using the powers afforded to him by his bonded shadow spirit, Umbriel, he and his associates, Xane and Rebecca, work hard to drive off the demonic threats that would wreak havoc
This time, though, is different. In the midst of an election campaign, the Coven of Unholy Nocturnal Terror seeks to make manifest their patron deity, Astaroth. Nathaniel finds himself embroiled in a maelstrom of political intrigue as they race to unravel the attempt to summon a demon and figure out how politics plays into this particular brand of malfeasance.
Even in the shadows, trouble sometimes finds you all the same.
The Review
As has been my experience with his other books, James Honaker’s story is compelling and seasoned with wry humor. Right away we’re brought up short by the setting—a city called New Philadelphia, seemingly built upon the ruins of the worn out city of the same name. What’s unsettling is that there seems to have been no apocalypse, and this isn’t a particularly dystopian setting, other than characterizing New Philadelphia as “a picture of American life, a stratified quagmire that pushes down those not already at the top.”
Well, that sounds familiar.
I confess, I think the author simply wanted to create a new world, a clean slate, on which to sketch his narrative. But not too clean a slate.
This is a world in which there are strong connections to the spirit world, which to my understanding after reading dozens of paranormal books means the Netherworld—home of demons and spirits (but not, apparently, ghosts). There is no magic per se that I saw here, but our hero (if that’s what he is) is a spirit caller—a human who has bonded with a spirit and can use their power. Nathaniel Keller is such a misfit—a small minority with such a spirit bond, and he prefers to keep a low profile. Nathaniel’s spirit is Umbriel, a shadow spirit, and hence the book’s title.
Nathaniel has forged a loose community with the other spirit callers in New Philadelphia, and joins them when the rather sinister mayor of the city requests their collective assistance in dealing with a fringe group of self-proclaimed demonists called the Coven of Unholy Nocturnal Terror. Their leader is a delusional narcissist who calls herself the Blood Countess Erszebet Bathory.
Now, the historical figure of Elizabeth Bathory is well-known to vampire buffs (including myself), as a 17th-century Hungarian countess who bathed in the blood of her victims to achieve eternal youth. What is more striking is that this figure, as well as her Coven, appear in Honaker’s novels in the “Beyond Good and Evil” series. That series is set in an entirely different universe. There must be something about the naughty acronym and the vampire history reference that appeals to the author.
The story is straightforward and, surprisingly, non-apocalyptic in the most unexpected way. The purpose of Honaker’s tale seems to be to underscore the human inclination to corruption and self-aggrandizement. Indeed, this whole book felt like it could be an allegory for our life in America right now. That, of course, could simply be my personal cloud of doom influencing my interpretation.
A romantic thread, which I welcomed, appears with Frederic Narros, a corporate player in New Philadelphia who becomes the target of both the Countess’s coven and the mayor’s dirty politics. He and Nathaniel strike up an unlikely friendship that threatens to upset Nathaniel’s self-imposed loneliness.
Honaker’s writing is solid, but there are moments when he seems to try to become high-flown in his language and makes dubious word choices. This seems to be his style, and I got accustomed to his quirks.
The book ends on a note of potential romance and not-quite-resolved resolution. It made me suspect that the author wants to come back to New Philadelphia. I would certainly be glad to join him there. Especially if Nathaniel and Frederic are there.
4 stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.