Nightlord: Sunset by Garon Whited

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sunset brought a hangover, a beautiful woman, and the thirst for... blood?

Eric didn't ask to be a vampire.

In fact, he didn't even believe in them. Then he meets a beautiful woman, wakes up with a hangover, and bites his tongue with his own fangs.

Which pretty much settles the question.

Now he's trying to hold down his day job while learning the rules of the Undead -- the most important being that bloodthirsty urges and predatory instincts are a real bitch.

Upside; Eric has the beautiful Sasha to teach him the ropes, including the magic he'll need to survive.

Downside; it turns out being a vampire is the least of his problems.

When Sasha is killed, Eric is thrust into an alternate world in his quest to avenge her death. There he becomes a Nightlord, fights a dragon with the help of his magical steed, Bronze, and upchucks a sword named Firebrand.

But things get really interesting when Eric finally finds Tobias, head of the Church of Light. Soon Eric finds himself at the center of an epic battle at the literal edge of the world in a fight to keep a terrible darkness at bay.

"When you fall off the Edge of the World into hordes of demonic THINGS from the Outer Darkness, you really start to wonder about your life choices."

--Eric, part-time undead, expectant father, and short-term astronaut.

PURCHASE ON AMAZON

REVIEW

Eric's tale starts after meeting a beautiful woman in a bar and having a one-night stand. Sasha quickly confesses to Eric that he is the reincarnation of her lost love, and she has gifted him with the power of a Nightlord. Sasha's death leads Eric to track down her assassins. Eric locates their stronghold in a far-off land and jumps through a portal to exact justice for her death.

Eric apprises the reader of the world around him through his journal writings. Eric is entertaining. He is a bit self-deprecating while being witty. I often found myself laughing aloud at his quips. We see the unfamiliar world through his modern eyes, which helped me connect to it.

Eric provides insights into his experiences, detail on occurrences such as how he feeds and how his magic spells develop. I found these descriptions comprehensive and fascinating. Eric explains his changes on a biological level. He attempts to make sense of it rather than explaining it away as the supernatural. He contemplates things like his aversion to the water brought on by his metamorphosis or why his species may live a nocturnal existence. I appreciate the attempt to find the logical evolutionary cause of his inherent abilities. The mythos of a vampire is a common one, but the uniqueness in Nightlord is an engaging change.

The journey Eric has is a long and epic one. The reader follows while he learns a new language, meets the barons of many territories, and becomes a skilled magic and weapon user. During this, Eric gains loyal companions by being kind to commoners, freeing slaves, and battling among great knights. At times I found his explorations to be a bit too extensive. I stopped the story repeatedly in frustration feeling nothing of import was happening. Then at the culmination of his tale, the story abruptly ends. I understand the idea of a multi-book chronicle. But without a satisfying climactic ending, the cliffhanger felt like a ploy to pick up the subsequent book. Due to that, I am uncertain about moving forward with this series. I am eager to see what adventures lie ahead. However, I do not know if I can handle another story with more lengthy character interactions than plot resolutions.