ISBN: 978-0425236352

I was given this book by the author.

I read this book back to back with Through the Veil, the first in the series, so I’ll be comparing the two. Here’s my Through the Veil review. And also this review will contain spoilers for the first book.

Veil of Shadows is the second book in Walker’s Veil series, which focuses on the world Ishtan, a realm sandwiched between Earth and the demon realm of Anqar. The Warlords of Anqar, a dying race, have been raiding Ishtan for female breeding stock for centuries, unleashing the native demons and monsters of Anqar on Istan, both on purpose and accident.

Walker’s world building is absolutely killer in this book, hitting the perfect notes between character focus, showing readers the larger conflict of the land, yet not letting anything be black and white. This book’s focus is on a small military outpost, nearly abandoned by the rest of the world who believes themselves to be safe now that the gates between worlds have fallen. But last book’s heroes, Kalen, Elina, Lee and more, are still in the wilds of Ishtan fighting the pocket populations of demons, wyrms, not to mention the Warlords who were left behind when the gates fell. They stand between the recovering world and disaster and the recovering world is only too glad to pretend the threat is all over.

Enter Syn and Xan, two warriors in Kalen’s army. Syn is his captain, a witch completely unsure of herself now the the Ishtan magic was shattered in the backlash of the gate’s fall. Xan is a drifter, a battle-hardened warrior who signs on to Kalen’s fight, but whose past is a mystery. While the romance between the two is an important part of the story it’s not all of the story and there are frequent point of view breaks to display the larger story of Walker’s world.

Also my complaints about the first book are completely invalid for this one. Syn is a more sympathetic character than Lee, and since she’s native to both the fight and Ishtan she’s more in tune to the world setting (and therefore her point of view contributes better to the world building) than Lee was. Also Walker doesn’t shy away from conflicts and fight scenes in this book, while still making them not the most important part of the story.

The pacing is better, and the story fleshier, making Veil of Shadows a fabulous read. It will especially appeal to fans of Anne Bishop or fantasy readers who enjoy a touch of romance and a touch of darkness with their epic fantasy.

Available exclusively through Horror-Mall.com

Tales of Madness is small (about 30 pages) collection of shorts from William Ollie, who displays his strength and knowledge of horror with every page. This pair of stories are sure to give readers a fierce, short read whether they’re stuck in a line or at the doctor’s office or just look for a dark little literary snack before bed.

First up is “Dial Any Number”, a tale of two psychosis and the people caught between them, centering at a call center that just might be a little slice of hell. Next is “Honeysuckle and Magnolia”, a southern tale of greed and gambling and black magic.

At only a buck fifty it’s also a great way to sample Ollie’s voice before shelling out for the higher priced Ollie books, The Damned, and Sideshow.

ISBN: 9781593155407

I won this book in a contest.

Isis is the first work I’ve ever read by Douglas Clegg and I have to wonder why it took me so long. Isis is a classic style horror story, part darkness, death and depression, and part fairy tale. Gorgeously written it’s the tale of Iris Villiers, a girl who grew up wandering a land haunted by ghosts and legends, who by all means should have known better than to breach the veil between the living and the dead.

Short (about 100 pages) Isis is full of barely restrained raw emotions, sadness and love. Also peppered between Clegg’s stunning style are illustrations that match the tone of the book with their classic fairy tale style and simple black and white morbidity.

It’s hard to review such a short tale without ruining the plot, so I’ll leave it at this: Isis is not to be missed, a haunting tale that crosses genres and trends and is sure to be just as appealing years from now.

ISBN: 9780425222478

Lee wakes up every morning, battered, bruised with no idea what happened to her while she slept. Haunted by half-remembered dreams, maybe even memories, she’s tried everything to find out what’s happening to her. The truth is more than she expected. Born of another world, a world at war, Lee somehow manages to travel there, to fight on the battlefront in her sleep, though she can’t get there when awake. Until the call of Kalen, a fellow warrior desperate for her help and her magick, pushes her through the veil between worlds during the day.

Ishtan is a buffer world, sitting between the demon realm of Anqar and our world. The demons of Anqar have nearly laid waste to Ishtan. Desperate to continue their race they kidnap women and children for use as breeders and body slaves. Women who breed powerful children with the Anqar Warlords are highly prized and well treated, but still prisoners.

Kalen is a battle leader on the front lines of the war, trying to defend the women of his world against the Anqar raids. He’s worked with (and loved) Lee for years, never having an opportunity to tell her how he felt. But now she’s reappeared, in the flesh, and his biggest priority is keeping her safe.

Through the Veil is mesh of a book. It’s a romantic fantasy that reads like an urban fantasy, but these character also wield plasma charges and cold-firing guns (and cannons). The world setting is excellent, intriguing and reminiscent of Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books (which are a favorite of mine).

The book, however, is not without its flaws. Lee is set up to be very powerful, almost infinitely powerful, special and an all around bad-ass. However nearly the entire book she’s shown as a shaken, obtuse woman. Some of this is understandable, since she’s not the same person awake in Ishtan as she has been dreaming in Ishtan. It’s her refusal to believe in herself, combined with everyone else’s blind faith in her specialness that wears the patience thin.

Kalen is a drool-worthy, sizzling hero and had my vote of most awesome character until about halfway in, when Lee repeatedly tells him to stop touching her and instead they have sex. Set in a frame of Kalen being the hero fighting against a race that’s kidnapping and raping women, keeping them as sex slaves and breeders, the multiple times Lee said no and Kalen kept going anyway until Lee finally loosened up and gave in to her own lust killed off the like I had for him. (Note: I don’t consider the scene to be rape per say, but it was too close to non-consensual for m tastes.) I’m afraid I just couldn’t simultaneously accept that the Anqar demons are evil for what they do to women, but when the hero does it it’s supposed to be hot.

As stellar as the world building is the description gets repetitive and there’s a lot of time spent repeating that could have been spent on other things, namely the missing battle scenes. After all Kalen and Lee and everyone else are in the middle of a huge war for their world, yet there aren’t any battles shown “on screen” and the darker aspects of the tale are glanced over and described as little as possible. Lee and Kalen might be watching a pyre of the teen soldier that just died in a fight with the giant wyrms that the Anqar demons put on Ishtan to take out the natives, but the emotion of these moments is glanced over.

Given the power of the lust between Kalen and Lee, the vividness of the world setting and story concept, and the depths of the emotion Lee feels between what she’s supposed to be and what she thinks she is, the lack of power to the darker parts makes the story feel like Walker is pulling her punches. The combination of how very much I loved the fantasy setting, Kalen in the beginning and Walker’s style versus the things I was dissatisfied with leaves me feeling very conflicted about this book. Certainly it will appeal to romantic fantasy fans, and probably also to Anne Bishop fans. The uniqueness of the world and its conflict is engaging (and that’s why I bought the book), I just feel unsure that this is the tale Through the Veil wanted to be.

One thing I do know is that if Ms. Walker ever turned her pen toward a true dark fantasy or urban fantasy I would be all over it.