Josh Reviews: Night Myst by Yasmine Galenorn

Night Myst by Yasmine Galenorn
Series: Indigo Court #1
Published by Berkley
Published on: June 29th, 2010
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 317
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed

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Eons ago, vampires tried to turn the Dark Fae in order to harness their magic, only to create a demonic enemy more powerful than they imagined. Now Myst, the Vampiric Fae Queen of the Indigo Court, has enough power to begin a long prophesied supernatural war. And Cicely Waters, a witch who can control the wind, may be the only one who can stop her-and save her beloved Fae prince from the Queen's enslavement.

Night Myst makes forests fun again!   Not a place you want to go to after dark or without your whole gang of friends in tow, this collection of trees where spiders weave their merry webs and Frost Elementals shoot ice crystals from their fingertips will not disappoint the fantasy crowd.

On the urban end of things, we have Cicely Waters (a satisfactorily named protagonist?).    Anyways, she’s been away from her hometown for a long time, marinating in the LA scene.    There – we are told by all the vampires and Faes she meets later – she learned something essential.    What it could possibly be is anyone’s guess, even those who have yet to pick up this book.    Could it be survival instincts?    A magical incantation scribbled on an alleyway?    The dangers of guns?

What I am trying to get at is the sharp divide between urban and fantasy in this UF classified read.    Although Cicely may have a background in “How to Travel Around Country with your Drug-Addled Mother”, she rarely, if ever, gets to use this degree.    Or, perhaps, it hums so silently in the background that when something truly psychologically devastating comes her way, she just shrugs it off unconsciously.

Because of this sharp divide, I think there’s room to imagine a more disturbing storyline like all these fantasy happenings are really just hallucinations brought on by the tremendous grief of Cicely losing her mother.    This would explain why Cicely’s eternal mate, Grieve, is so named (but not really; but seriously how do you make sense of his name or Chatter’s for that matter?).

This hypothesis is somewhat threatened, however, just by the thorough mythology underlying the tale, one that becomes more and more intricate as one keeps reading.   Seriously, if Cicely is good enough at making things up to produce not one but two raggety old tomes filled to the brim with juicy facts about the vampires and Faes, well then I must be a spider, weaving a weak web of deceit.    Seeing as we’re getting close to winter, I would say instead make like a Frost Elemental and get this shining read in hand!

Recommended:	For Winter
Like this, like that:	The Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, Spellcrackers.com series by Charlaine Harris, and Dark Angels series by Keri Arthur

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