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shecamefromouterspace's review
3.0
A friend of mine bought this book because it was $0.50 and there was a dragon on the cover. After reading the back cover synopsis and the corny-ass tagline on the front ("What's worse than murder and better than love? Only The Dragon knows..."), we assumed the book would be terrible. Even the first few pages seemed to support that thesis. The story opens with a scene in which Justinian, a centuries-old immortal man, is watching a teenaged girl get dressed in her bedroom. And while he attempts to be respectful and averts his gaze while she is naked, he is still watching an underaged girl without her awareness/consent...so that's pretty gross. Not the best introduction to a story.
My friend thought it would be fun for me to read and review some pulp fiction, so here I am. And while I was 100% sure I would hate this and laugh at it all the way through, I have to say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The writing is not very good, but the story is unique. I was intrigued up until about halfway through, and then I was hooked until the very end. And to my pleasant surprise, the ending was awesome, an absolute punch to the gut.
Dark Heart, published in 1998, was supposed to be the first book in a series. Tragically, David Baldwin passed away shortly after, so there are no sequels and there never will be. It's a shame, because this book sets up the world/characters pretty well, and it ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger.
Justinian, as mentioned before, is immortal. He gained his immortality by agreeing to serve an ancient entity known as The Dragon for eternity. His "service" means slaughtering anyone who stands in the way of The Dragon and his grand plan for the betterment of humanity. Meanwhile, Detective Sandra McCormack in modern-day Chicago is doing everything in her power to find the killer responsible for these murders. The two characters eventually meet up, and that's when shit really hits the fan.
There was one major issue (aside from the writing) that really bothered me, and that was the racism. Any character who is not white is a walking talking stereotype. The antagonists are Arab, and there are also some minor characters who are Asian (possibly Chinese? The book is not very clear about their origin). And of course the Arabs are ruthless, greedy zealots while the Asians are wise and taciturn and mystical. It was just so blatantly offensive that it made me incredibly uncomfortable.
Aside from the racism, the subpar writing, and the overall cheese factor, this book was a wild ride that I did ultimately enjoy. I never would have picked this up on my own, but it was worth it to read and discover something unusual that kept me entertained.
My friend thought it would be fun for me to read and review some pulp fiction, so here I am. And while I was 100% sure I would hate this and laugh at it all the way through, I have to say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The writing is not very good, but the story is unique. I was intrigued up until about halfway through, and then I was hooked until the very end. And to my pleasant surprise, the ending was awesome, an absolute punch to the gut.
Dark Heart, published in 1998, was supposed to be the first book in a series. Tragically, David Baldwin passed away shortly after, so there are no sequels and there never will be. It's a shame, because this book sets up the world/characters pretty well, and it ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger.
Justinian, as mentioned before, is immortal. He gained his immortality by agreeing to serve an ancient entity known as The Dragon for eternity. His "service" means slaughtering anyone who stands in the way of The Dragon and his grand plan for the betterment of humanity. Meanwhile, Detective Sandra McCormack in modern-day Chicago is doing everything in her power to find the killer responsible for these murders. The two characters eventually meet up, and that's when shit really hits the fan.
There was one major issue (aside from the writing) that really bothered me, and that was the racism. Any character who is not white is a walking talking stereotype. The antagonists are Arab, and there are also some minor characters who are Asian (possibly Chinese? The book is not very clear about their origin). And of course the Arabs are ruthless, greedy zealots while the Asians are wise and taciturn and mystical. It was just so blatantly offensive that it made me incredibly uncomfortable.
Aside from the racism, the subpar writing, and the overall cheese factor, this book was a wild ride that I did ultimately enjoy. I never would have picked this up on my own, but it was worth it to read and discover something unusual that kept me entertained.
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