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| Touch the Dark | 
 enlarge | Author: Karen Chance
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £1.64
You Save: £5.35 (77%)
New (27) from £1.64
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 1239
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0451460936
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780451460936
ASIN: 0451460936
Publication Date: June 28, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New Book direct from the publisher. Takes 7 business days to ship from New York. Usually delivered in 10 business days from despatch date.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Meh July 29, 2007
18 out of 28 found this review helpful
Let me start by saying that I'm not massively picky when it comes to vampire romances, so when I say this one was bad, I'm not exaggerating.
It's predictable, which isn't a crime. Most of these books, the heroes, villains and surprise twists are pretty clear from page 1. It's cliche, which again, is not in itself a crime.
The problem is, it's boring. The romance is slightly unnerving (father figure to love interest does not rock my boat), but also quite dull. There's not much in the way of suspense. The main character isn't awful, but she's not particularly interesting or appealing either.
The biggest problem is that there's nothing really to recommend this book. It's not well-written enough to be special. It doesn't have anything particularly interesting about the characters, the world set-up, the plot. It's nothing new, and it's nothing new done in a not very special way.
 Enjoyable, pacey May 10, 2007
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
A marvel of a find! I really enjoyed reading this book therefore will recommend to others. No slack, pacey read, story well-told. However the sequel, Claimed By Shadow, did not retain the good story-telling quality.
Great story, great writing style, great characters March 18, 2007
20 out of 23 found this review helpful
This book came as a very good surprise. It's the story of Cassandra, a talented Clairvoyant raised by a Mobster/Vampire, that eventually is involved with more Vampires, Spirits, Mages and more.
From the very first page you are immersed in the deeply involving story, the gripping writing style and by depth and originality of the characters, and such quality is maintained throughout the book.
Even if the story revolves around a few locations (four, to be exact), each is rendered memorable by the revelations and events that illuminate both the reader without interrupting the flow of events.
The novel is very eventful, action packed, and eventually there is a satisfactory explanation behind every small action and event. There are even some sex "scenes", which are integral to the story, but never become too explicit or foul.
All in all an excellent book, I just wished that Tony (Cassandra's nemesis) would die a horrible death, but for that I guess we will have to wait the sequel (due to come out in April 2007).
Loved it - can't wait for the sequel February 3, 2007
47 out of 48 found this review helpful
What a great debut novel.
The plot revolves around a series of interlinked supernatural power struggles with Cassie, a runnaway clairvoyant, at the centre of it all - and it slowly becomes clear that a rather large destiny is about to come her way. Although there is lots of backstory, it's pretty apparent that there's a lot more going on underneath it all (as I'm sure will become clear in later books in this series.)
I tend to flit around the edges of this genre, not having read anything by some of the big players like Laurell H, but I thought that this book was enjoyable and accessible, while still being quite dark and densely packed with detail.
I liked the humour and humanity of the book and the fleet of different characters, magical creatures and supernatural beings. The dialogue was snappy and readable and had fun with a few stereotypes, like when Mircea commands Cassie to come to him.
Characterisation is a real strength of the author. Cassie is a great heroine - I didn't think she was passive at all, just very aware of the strengths of those around her and slowly coming to realise what her new powers meant.
The vampires were fabulously written. Suitably enticing, but with real ambiguity in their intentions. I liked the idea that many of them were famous historical characters.
Mircea was gorgeous, but managed moments of apparent vulnerability which only added to the attraction. When he finally lost his temper, you were left in no doubt of why he held a senate seat.
One of my favourite characters was Pritkin the barking mad, demon-hunting war mage. He has an awful lot of unattractive features, but there was just something about his single-minded determination.
I loved all the backstory and complications. It reminded me a bit of Simon R Green's Deathstalker and Nightside novels - those books also have a phenomenal number of beautifully realised characters, lots of intricate backstory and some mind-bending time travel. I rather suspect that like Green, Karen Chance will be picking up tiny strands hinted at in this book and weaving them into later installments.
Not another Anita Blake - a book with its own strengths and foibles November 8, 2006
48 out of 54 found this review helpful
I suppose at first glance a reader might think this is another Anita Blake novel - we have a feisty heroine who is surrounded by vampires and keeps getting herself into complicated situations. Like the Anita Blake series, you're never entirely sure what's going on and the roster of things-that-go-bump-in-the-night seems to grow as you move through the book.
I don't think this IS another Anita Blake book - our heroine Cassandra Palmer isn't a vampire hunter, for a start - she's a Clairvoyant. She was raised by Tony a vampire after he had her parents killed and she eventually managed to escape him. The book starts with her discovering her obituary on her computer with the details of her death - to take place in an hour's time. She knows that Tony must have found her and is sending his vampire hit squad after her, so she must flee. First of all, though, she needs to warn Tomas her roommate as he is at risk. When at the club with Tomas the vampire hit men arrive and Cassie has to try and escape and to defend herself and Tomas and, at this point, she is plunged into something a lot more complex than she had ever imagined.
This complexity is at the heart of the book - Cassie finds herself dealing with vampires, ghosts, mages, witches, sybils... the list goes on and on and I, for one, got a bit confused between the Dark Circle and the Light Circle and the Vampire Senate and all the rest of it. The story is packed with events, discussions, characters... it is difficult to keep up with everything and all the plots, twists, different viewpoints, changes of motivation etc.
Cassie is certainly not Anita Blake - she doesn't kill vampires, for a start. She's perhaps more passive than some heroines - things seem to happen around her. A lot of the action takes place in words - people discuss what events mean, what happens. Cassie also finds herself possessing other people's bodies now and again which is a very interesting aspect to the story but gets confusing again.
I presumed there would be a vampire love interest in the book as we have four or five eligible vampires paraded before us. However this doesn't work out quite as you might expect either, and in fact the sex scene towards the end of the book felt rather like something the editor had requested the author included rather than an integral part of the plot. It felt tacked on, somehow, and I think the book would have been just as good, or better, without.
Her vampire characters were good though. Of course many of them are people famous from the past (Raphael, Dracula's relatives, Rasputin and other well-known names) and they all have their own charms and scary sides. The vampires were particularly well described and were great characters - there's even a French double-barred vampire; no, not Jean-Claude, this one is Louis-Cesar. I liked it when Cassie interacted with the vampires because they were such complex characters and Cassie was aware of this and read the deeper meanings in a lot of what they said. That was well written.
I have some criticisms of this book, the main one being I wasn't really sure what was going on and, now I've finished it, I don't think I really understand it - and I don't consider myself dim. Maybe a re-read would help but I don't know if I enjoyed it enough for that. I felt that the world Karen Chance had built was perhaps a little overcomplex for the first book - maybe she should have added aspects over time rather like Laurell K Hamilton did (although she added way too much over time).
Although I enjoyed reading Touch The Dark I also read three or four other books over the time I was reading this one. In other words, it wasn't unputdownable at all. It's all set up for a sequel but I don't know whether I enjoyed this one enough to search out the next book in the series when it's published.
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