3 out of 4 stars
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Nightlord: Sunset by Garon Whited
The main character, Eric, is a single, unassuming college physics professor. After a bad breakup, he goes on a drinking binge with his buddies. He wakes up the next morning with what he thinks is just a bad hangover and in a bed in a majestic home owned by a beautiful woman. Gradually, over a period of a few days, Eric realizes his body is different. Sasha, apparently his wife in a previous life, lets him try to discover his new life gradually. He soon comes to the realization that he is a vampire, but he is not like the vampires of other books and legends. He is alive in the day and dead at night, among a few other unique differences. By reading journals left by the man Sasha claims he used to be, he also learns he can do magic.
He and Sasha (also a vampire) soon attract the attention of a religious sect that is hell-bent on destroying them. Eric tries to protect them by fortifying their estate, but it is not enough. When Eric finds Sasha burned to death by the religious zealots, he performs a spell that opens a doorway to the occult’s headquarters.
When he enters through the portal, he soon discovers that he is in a whole different world, one in which the inhabitants are still living in medieval times. His goal is to exact revenge on the religious leaders who killed Sasha, but before he can do that he settles into this new world learning its language, its geography, its people, and their many beliefs.
Nightlord: Sunset is epic in length and depth. This is the first book in a four-book series. It has elements very similar to Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, with dragons, orcs, goblins, knights, witches, demons, mermaid men, people similar to the Native Americans, priests, and wizards. I especially love the main character’s helpful companion, a metal horse, that he created through magic. He also has a talking, flaming sword.
Told in the first person like reading a daily journal, Eric goes through many adventures while gaining strength, power, and personal allies. I love this genre. I especially enjoyed the fact that the main character (and thus the author) knows a lot about the fundamentals of science. He weaves science into the spells that the main character performs. I also thoroughly enjoyed the author’s sense of humor that came through in the voice of the characters.
The book is long, about 700 pages in print. At times, I felt some of the material could have been left out in order to keep the pace going and shorten the book a little. I loved it when the hero (MC) performed superhuman feats and literally knocked heads together. However, I felt that the sensitive side of the main character was too weak. There are ways to make a character have a soft side without making him second guess his motives so much.
Throughout this lengthy book, I did not find any misspellings or grammatical errors. However, there were several instances where a word was left out of a sentence, i.e., a, the, at, etc. Because of this and the fact that some of it could have been cut out, I give it 3 out of 4 stars. I think all lovers of science-fiction fantasy would love this book and the others that follow it.
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Nightlord: Sunset
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