Lightning Rod

Title: Lightning Rod ( Broken Mirrors Series # 2 )
Author: Vaughn R. Demont
Cover Artist: Angela Waters
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Buy Link: Buy Link Lightning Rod (Broken Mirrors)
Genre: M/M Urban Fantasy
Length: Novel
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 rating stars

A Guest Review by Raine

Summary Review: I can’t help thinking of difficult second album syndrome with this smart but slightly less successful episode dealing with a personal journey from abuse in a magic structure dominated urban fantasy.

Blurb: Always stand. Never fall.

Broken Mirrors, Book 2

If I could offer one piece of advice now, as I fall past the eighty-fourth floor of Victory Tower, with the sky above me the swirling eye of a crimson hurricane, the blade of a goddess stuck in my thigh, and a man I used to love preparing to end the world, it would be this: Magic is not the answer to your problems.

Sorcerers have always been feared in the City, their origins as unknown as the nature and extent of their power. When James Black, a young man fleeing an abusive lover, becomes a sorcerer, his old life is erased from existence, and his new life is indebted to powerful entities.

Escaping the man who abused him was supposed to be the end, but the very magic that freed him has put him on a collision course with the gods and the Sorcerer King himself.

And only one of them can survive.

Product Warnings
This is a work of urban fantasy featuring a gay male protagonist, with a romantic subplot and focus on magic, dragons, tricksters, sorcerers, and survival of domestic abuse. Please adjust expectations accordingly.

Review:

I am sure there is a pithy saying about be careful what you wish for; I wished long and hard for the second in the Broken Mirrors series. Coyote’s Creed was one of the very few original books I have read in this genre, and I regarded it with substantial admiration. So when I got Lightning Rod and found it a long and hard read, and not in the usual way, though there is perhaps an element of priapic irony in that title – I guess I should not have been surprised. Spencer would have seen that one coming.

There are some necessary similarities with the first book. Once again we follow a main character, an underdog, on a dangerous personal quest. It is intensely written; layers of external references with a mythic structural overlay, this time it concentrates mostly on Greek myth. We have Hades and all his trappings as an omniscient but smart assed character, at various stages even kindly helping the action along. There is a patina of Dungeons and Dragons, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and I’m sure I found a dash of  Alice In Wonderland floating about too. On the real world balance sheet there are strands dealing with sexual abuse, incest, death and regeneration. Unfortunately this time I found I didn’t relish the terms of reference quite as much, which is clearly down to personal preference.

Consequently, I was less involved with the writing after the very beginning of the book which I found compelling. Miles’ flight from his abusive partner Heath was rooted in reality and felt painfully urgent. The dissipation of this into the explanations of the alternative urban fantasy world, left me floundering. Crazily I could not get past this section for three attempts at the book.

Miles’ dramatic transformation into James Black, an inept embryonic Keth sorcerer, lasted quite a while. This involved various developmental stages; finding a sorcerer teacher- Cale, eccentric almost to the point of insanity, getting yet another name, Lightning Rod, and winning a focus, or weapon. There is much detailed explanation of magic. After my initial struggles I enjoyed James’ magic dominated personal journey and there were some fun moments, his friendship with Dave, the rebound shag, and his unfortunate obsession with fast food transmogrification. The loss of his family is a theme echoed from the first book and is used this time round to spur him further on his quest. The balance to the fantasy was James’s job as a dish washer in Dave the friendly dragon’s diner, but it wasn’t quite enough of a reality check. Although the jack in the box reappearances of Heath, the personification of flash back abuse, was very effective.

There is a strong element of transformation and / or metamorphosis about this series so far. Mirrors, not surprisingly are used as a catalyst for various instances of change, and clarity of seeing. When James runs from his abusive boyfriend, it is after looking in the mirror at his battered self. Moreover many of the characters double up on roles in the story, start as one thing and finish as another. Once again this is a self consciously smart book.

Spencer reappears in the part he says he always wanted to play – side kick not hero, and yet whenever he was on page my unruly attention was on him. I liked James, his uncertainties and his compassion. I just found him far less compelling as a character partly because of his abuse formed defensive boundaries which leave him moving behaviourally between the poles of timidity and assertive confidence. While I found the premise of his transformation as Lightning Rod, with all that penetrative symbolism thought provoking, in fact in delivery it was a little uncertain for me.

As described in the blurb this is not a romance novel, and yet the sub plot is moulded into something dramatically important. The main relationship developed unexpectedly into an intensity which wasn’t backed up initially by the rather odd, Through the Looking Glass emotional frisson between the characters. I was a touch unprepared for the push towards the end for it being something rather more epic. Perhaps this could be put down to James’ understandable inability to share his feelings which can occasionally make him less than forthcoming as a narrator. That is not to say I didn’t find it moving at some level as this writer is very convincing.

This is not a blurred copy of the first book, it is essentially very different. For me it lacks the outrageous joie de vivre that linked all the tantalising elements of Coyote’s Creed and completely lit that book up. Here there are entertaining set pieces, genuinely thoughtful ideas and some great characters, but they didn’t come together and create something more. I will keep thinking of it as that difficult second album and am still looking forward to the next work in the series.