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A review by pither
Blood Rock by Anthony Francis
2.0
I was eager to start the second in the Skindancer series, as I really enjoyed the first one, Frost Moon. Dakota is a great protagonist, sharp and intriguing and well-written. I also wanted to see where Francis would take Cinnamon, Dakota's newly-adopted werecat daughter.
Blood Rock follows Dakota Frost, tattoo artists and magical skindancer, and her wide variety of friends through an alternate Atlanta. This time the city is beset by magical graffiti, and she's tasks with cleaning it up and the magical mess that follows.
Got to say though, Blood Rock was a big disappointment for me. I got about halfway through and wanted to put it down, but a dogged determination to see what would happen to the characters kept me going.
The action in Frost Moon was well-written, keeping your interest level high without bogging you down in the finer details of magic and science. Blood Rock though, you have to positively wade through. At several points I felt like I had to have a degree in physics or engineering just to know what they were talking about. The magic is explained through scientific terms, but if you're not quite sure how the scientific concepts work that Francis using as comparison, you're out of luck.
The plot also fell kind of flat for me. Bad things kept happening to Dakota, one after the other after the other. I get that her life isn't sunshine and lollipops, especially with having to fight the magical graffiti, but often I had the reaction of "Oh NOW what?" At some points it felt like a whole range of plot points being strung along together without a lot connecting them.
Between the stodgy plot and difficulty of scientific concepts, Blood Rock was more work than pleasure for me. I'm not sure yet if I'll read the third, Liquid Fire; I'm reserving judgment.
Blood Rock follows Dakota Frost, tattoo artists and magical skindancer, and her wide variety of friends through an alternate Atlanta. This time the city is beset by magical graffiti, and she's tasks with cleaning it up and the magical mess that follows.
Got to say though, Blood Rock was a big disappointment for me. I got about halfway through and wanted to put it down, but a dogged determination to see what would happen to the characters kept me going.
The action in Frost Moon was well-written, keeping your interest level high without bogging you down in the finer details of magic and science. Blood Rock though, you have to positively wade through. At several points I felt like I had to have a degree in physics or engineering just to know what they were talking about. The magic is explained through scientific terms, but if you're not quite sure how the scientific concepts work that Francis using as comparison, you're out of luck.
The plot also fell kind of flat for me. Bad things kept happening to Dakota, one after the other after the other. I get that her life isn't sunshine and lollipops, especially with having to fight the magical graffiti, but often I had the reaction of "Oh NOW what?" At some points it felt like a whole range of plot points being strung along together without a lot connecting them.
Between the stodgy plot and difficulty of scientific concepts, Blood Rock was more work than pleasure for me. I'm not sure yet if I'll read the third, Liquid Fire; I'm reserving judgment.