...And book two shall set the trilogy...

As mentioned in my last post, Ah yoo a nahc?, I've started the adult series Darren Shan wrote.

With the first book originally titled "Ayuamarca", (and later titled Procession of the Dead) The City devours you. Capac Raimi and his quest for answers, be damned! Hell's Horizon (book two) is on the prowl!




Yes, this is the second of three books, so it's one of those "in between" books. But, the truth is kind of revealed a lot later (more towards the very end) in this read. It's not supposed to be 'the next decade...' type of trilogy books.... or so Hell's Horizon seems. It's really it's own separate novel, masquerading book one's centralized themes (Inca, gods, sex, lies and killing). Sure, it's the point of view of a new character (in a way, ironically enough, Al Jeery... tell me that doesn't drum up some profiling thoughts), but the main villains are the same. The people Raimi was fighting in the first 200+ pages, bounced over to this hard cover. The Cardinal (main villain / watcher) still reigns supreme and takes life in his own hands, but Jeery is one of The Cardinal's fighters. So we see life in The City through a "I'm kinda the bad cop, but not a legit cop"'s eyes. BUT, Raimi is mentioned in all of 4 pages. It's like he never existed (another theme in this series... people seem to only exist on a certain level - they are there physically, mentally, emotionally, and then hell breaks loose and they disappear, and the citizens of The City seem to "forget" that person lived). But he does exist. He just took a really back, back seat in this version. The guy is in the back seat of the 1985 station wagon 5 cars behind you, back seat.

This is shady detective work at its finest with undertones of the involvement of mafia and sun worshippers (no, not the ones who live in bathing suits... actual people who worship the sun god(s)). Shan takes truth in his own hands, leading us down damp and dirty streets, where blind priests called villacs (Inca reference) are the real underbelly rulers.

All in all, I'm ready to finish the series and see where City of Snakes gets me. Hopefully, it will tie in pretty nicely with the first two. As the title suggests, I'm really keen on seeing where the snakes go....



Cheers;







Further reading:

Darren Shan on Amazon