I just finished new-to-me author Jessica Andersen's novel Night Keepers, the first in The Final Prophecy series about a race of people whose sole purpose is to save the world from demonic destruction come December 21, 2012.
Given my strange fascination with the prophesied apocalypse, my flirtation with history, and my love of paranormal romances, this book had a lot of compelling elements to it. And I could spend a blog praising the author's devotion to hot male leads (and female, if you're into that), good solid writing, amazing depth of research, etc., but my final impression is this: it made me restless.
More accurately, I'm not sure if I was simply restless when I read this novel or if its rhythm and pace made me restless. I've got book two on my shelves, but I'm going to take a break between these two to determine if it's Andersen's writing or me.
I might have chalked it totally up to me, except for the fact that there were too many times when I was reading the novel when I was irritated by the shift in character focus. This is not a novel that focuses on the two main characters and their quest and troubles in finding love. Night Keepers bounces between a cast of characters, delving to inconsistent depths in their lives before flitting off to the next character. Obviously, as the first in a series, Andersen needed to build the world, and given the circumstances, bring together a host of characters for some pretty amazing battles. I found myself often wanting a little more depth or time with the main characters, and either a consistent less or more depth with the secondary characters.
I felt scattered at the end of this novel, but I don't feel like writing this book or this author off (as I was tempted with Benson). I think knowing a little more what I'm getting into, I'll wait on the sequel until I'm ready for a large-cast, more plot-focused novel.
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