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Nalini Singh
Guild Hunter, book 4
Gollancz (2011)
ISBN: 9780575113473
Reviewed by Stephanie Gunn
Archangels’ Blade is the fourth book in Nalini Singh’s paranormal romance Guild Hunter series.
In the world of the Guild Hunter books, angels exist, with the most powerful of them, the archangels, ruling sections of the world. Vampires also exist, and are Made by the angels, and subsequently bound to those angels for a period of indenture. Hunters are humans who have the ability to sense vampires, and are employed to seek out rogue vampires who break their contracts with their angels.
The first three books in this series followed the Guild Hunter Elena and her relationship with the archangel Raphael. Archangel’s Blade departs from this storyline, instead following the vampire Dmitri, Raphael’s second-in-command, and his relationship with the hunter Honor. Some readers and fans of the previous books will no doubt be disappointed with this change of focus, especially since both Elena and Raphael only serve very small parts in this book.
Nalini Singh
Book 2, Guild Hunter Series
Gollancz (2010)
ISBN: 978-0-575-09474
Reviewed by Mitenae
Elena has been awake for three days after spending a year in a coma and is still getting used to the idea she has wings. Raphael is having to get used to the fact – whether he likes it or not – that she is not his toy, plaything or possession. True love doesn’t work that way.
Elena has two months to learn how to use her wings, for Lijiuan is holding a ball and Raphael won’t have them being seen as weak. Only they stumble across a mangled but still alive vampire with a branded chest. And the only way to identify him is by the ring he won from Illium in a poker game.
An angel is challenging and whoever it is, is willing to pit one archangel against another to gain it.
Nalini Singh has managed to not only continue a good series, but to make it even better than the first novel. The world is great, the writing fantastic and the characters are nicely balanced between strong and feminine.
This book is not just for those into paranormal romance, but also for those who have shied away from it and the many clichéd novels currently about. Nalini Singh is proving to be a writer capable of breathing life into, for me at least, a predictable sub-genre.
Nalini Singh
Book 1, Guild Hunter Series
Gollancz (2009)
ISBN: 978-0- 575-09572
Reviewed by Mitenae
Archangel Raphael wants the best, even if the mere mention of his wanting her for a job scares the shit out of Elena Devereax, the best guild hunter there is. Upon meeting him, Elena is forced to walk a fine line between not being manipulated and not being killed by Raphael for her defiance.
Elena learns that she is to track not a vampire nor a human and not even an angel, but an archangel. Raphael won’t tell her why nor will he allow her to tell anyone else about the job. Not even when he begins to fall for her and it threatens to make him mortal.
Nalini Singh is on of those rare writers who is able to take what is the current fad and twist it just that little bit, not only making it her own, but making her work a clear standout above everything else.
Nalini Singh
Guild Hunter Series, Book 2
Gollancz (2010)
ISBN: 978 0 575 09574 8
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely, May 2010
WARNING: Possible spoilers for Angels’ Blood.
Elena Devereaux, the best Guild Hunter there is, has survived the biggest job of her life, but only just. She’s been irrevocably changed, and not only because she’s in love with an Archangel. Can Elena adjust to her new life, or even survive it?
This is quite a different book to Angels’ Blood – the first book focussed mainly on the Guild and the hunting aspect which made Elena come across as such a strong character. The second novel is less action-oriented, although the element of mystery is still present. Fortunately, Singh’s writing stands up to the challenge of a more relationship-driven story, and while the “adult” elements still feel less natural than the rest of the scenes, they are not as obtrusive in this book than in Angels’ Blood.
Nalini Singh
Guild Hunter Series, Book 1
Gollancz (2010)
ISBN: 978 0 575 09572 4
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely, May 2010
I purchased overseas versions of Angels’ Blood and Archangel’s Kiss earlier this year after reading a Guild Hunter story in an anthology. I became so involved in the characters and world that I was delighted to be able to get more depth immediately. Gollancz has now published new versions of both books and I’m delighted to see the covers are far more elegant now than the original versions; new readers will be far more likely to pick these up and want to have them on their shelves.
Elena Devereux is a vampire hunter with a past that makes her better at her job than anyone else. In her world, vampires are made by Angels and owned by them until they fulfil their debt for being turned. Vampire hunters aren’t necessarily killers – more often than not they are simply retrieving vampires who have run away from their Angel masters. But Angels have bosses too. Elena finds herself on a job for one of the scariest of all, the Archangel Raphael. It’s not a regular job either, but one so dangerous that her chances of surviving are lower than ever before. And even if she does survive, will she still have lost her heart?
Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus 