Review and Giveaway: Ni'il, the Awakening by James Boyle

Title: Ni'il, the Awakening

Author: James Boyle

Pages: 202

Source: Author

Rating: 6/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

First Sentence: The banks of a small creek in Oregon's Coast Range Mountains."

Summary (From back of book):

When several people are brutally killed in the town of Placerton, on the isolated Oregon coast, most locals think a rogue bear or cougar is roaming the forested hills near town. Police Chief Dan Connor is not so sure. He has witnessed some very strange things lately, such as disembodied voices, muttering a strange foreign language and an old Indian man who seems to be near every crime scene, but disappears before he can be questioned.

Dan's investigation takes him to the local Sihketunnai Indians and their legend of the Ni'il, magical shamans charged with maintaining the balance between humans and the natural world. According to the elders, one of the Ni'il is responsible for the murders and intends to kill everyone in the community. It is Dan's job to stop it.

It sounded unbelievable, but was the only explanation that fit the facts.

As a violent Pacific storm crashes ashore, cutting off power and washing out roads -- cutting the town off from the outside world -- Dan finds himself entering a strange world of myth and magic that was not covered in his police training. He must use all his wits and new-found powers to save himself and his community from the Ni'il.

My Two Cents:

This was a really easy read. I read it in two sittings, but it could've been finished in just one.

The story was intriguing. I didn't find myself sucked totally in, per se, but I did want to find out what would happen. I liked that there was enough mystery surrounding the murders that most people could attribute them to wild animals, at least at first, but that those who looked closely enough and who asked enough questions saw that there was something more going on. The main problem, though, is that the summary from the back of the book pretty much tells me a lot of what I find out later in the book. I wish people wouldn't do that!

The characters were likable enough, but I didn't really feel intensely connected to any of them. The main character, Dan, is pretty much your typical police chief -- He puts the good of his town and the people in it before his own well-being, often running around with a severely injured shoulder just to check on things. It was hard to tell how old Dan was supposed to be. Sometimes I got the impression that he was in his 30s, but other times he felt as if he was in his 40s. Not really a significant detail, but something I wondered about while reading the book.

Boyle's writing is easy-to-read and accessible. He does a good job with giving detail and painting a scene. Sometimes, in the case of describing crime scenes, a little too much detail for my taste. There were several places, though, that could have benefited from an editor. The tenses of verbs changed from time to time, and there were a lot of extra commas, which got a little distracting.

This book was an enjoyable, easy read. Boyle released the second book in this planned trilogy, Ni'il: The War Within, in late 2008. I'd be interested in reading it to see what happens because Boyle left us hanging at the end.

Giveaway

I've found myself with an extra copy of this book (I'm still not quite sure how that happened...), so I'm offering it to one of you, my dear readers.

Just leave a comment with your e-mail address by 8 p.m. CST Friday, August 6, and this book can be yours!

This contest is even open internationally, since I've got some lovely readers across the globe!

Giveaway: Last Snow and First Daughter by Eric Van Lustbader

I am so excited to host my first giveaway!

Forge Books has graciously allowed me to give away a copy of each of Eric Van Lustbader's Jack McClure books, First Daughter and Last Snow. One lucky reader will win both!

I will be posting my review of Last Snow later today, but I wanted to give everyone a headstart on the contest.

Here's a summary of First Daughter:

Jack McClure has had a troubled life. His dyslexia always made him feel like an outsider. He escaped from an abusive home as a teenager and lived by his wits on the streets of Washington D.C. It wasn't until he realized that dyslexia gave him the ability to see the world in unique ways that he found success, using this newfound strength to become a top ATF agent.


When a terrible accident takes the life of his only daughter, Emma, and his marriage falls apart, Jack blames himself, numbing the pain by submerging himself in work. Then he receives a call from his old friend Edward Carson. Carson is just weeks from taking the reins as President of the United States when his daughter, Alli, is kidnapped. Because Emma McClure was once Alli's best friend, Carson turns to Jack, the one man he can trust to go to any lengths to find his daughter and bring her home safely.

The search for Alli leads Jack on a road toward reconciliation . . . and into the path of a dangerous and calculating man---someone whose actions are as cold as they are brilliant, and whose power and reach are seemingly infinite.

Faith, redemption, and political intrigue play off one another as McClure uses his unique abilities to journey into the twisted mind of a stone-cold genius who is constantly one step ahead of him. Jack will soon discover that this man has affected his life and his country in more ways than he could ever imagine.

 Here's the information on Last Snow, which will be released February 16:

An American senator, supposedly on a political trip to the Ukraine, turns up dead on the island of Capri. When the President asks him to find out how and why, Jack sets out from Moscow across Eastern Europe, following a perilous trail of diplomats, criminals, and corrupt politicians. Thrust into the midst of a global jigsaw puzzle, Jack's unique dyslexic mind allows him to put together the pieces that others can't even see.

Still unreconciled to the recent death of his daughter and the dissolution of his marriage, Jack takes on a personal mission along with his official one: keeping safe from harm his two unlikely, unexpected, and incompatible companions, Annika, a rogue Russian FSB agent, and Alli, the President's daughter. As he struggles to keep both women safe and unearth the answers he seeks, hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the Ukrainian police to his own NSA, Jack learns just how far up the American and Russian political ladders corruption and treachery has reached. And though Jack's abilities are as good as its gets, there is much more to gain—and lose—on this journey than the truth about the Senator.

 

This giveaway will be open until Friday, February 19 at 10 p.m., CST. It's only open to readers in the US and Canada (Sorry!), but PO Boxes are a-OK.

 

Here's what you have to do:

 

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me when (If ever) you think it's OK to lie. (1 entry)

2. Become a follower. (+1)

3. If you're a current follower, let me know. (+2)

4. Follow me on Twitter, and leave your Twitter username. (+2)

5. Tweet, blog or post this contest in your sidebar, and link me to the URL. (+4)

 

Just leave a separate comment for each one. Make sure to leave your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you.

 

Good luck!