Title: The Night House
Author: J.C. McKenzie
Beware of spoilers.
The Night House is the first book I have read by author J.C. McKenzie. From the synopsis of other books by this author, I am going to say The Night House is a bit different. First, this is a stand alone book. Which I quite like. Second, I found the Night House felt similar to Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series. Maybe it was the blade wielding white-blond assassin characters found in both stories. Survivors of great tragedy that killed their families, these two strong, snarky women would become a force to be reckoned with as they uncover dark plots in black magic tainted castles. Obviously there are many differences between these two characters. Their stories are not the same, but there was a general presentation of plot and character that was reminiscent of the other.
In The Night House, Taya is camping with her best friends when the apocalypse sweeps through as a blue wave of destruction. It opens a portal to another reality where medieval- esq raiders originate. They have come to our Earth for resources, including slaves. Taya, trained in a variety of martial arts by her father, is a survivor of the first death wave. But surviving on the West Coast of Canada as winter settles in is not easy. Captured, Taya is hauled through the magical portal by Lord Thane and forced to choose how her survival will look going forward. Spoilers, she chooses the path of a warrior in Thane’s personal army. Besides, Thane has offered Taya a chance at revenge, and that is something she is not willing to pass up.
There are lots of things I liked about this story. I liked the pure fantasy of magic and super fighting skills. Though their methods for problem solving are rather primitive – stab with pointy objects. I like the Canadian setting. It is understated, but present. And since most modern fantasies I come across take place in the US, it is a nice change. Though, really, there is not much that is distinctly Canadian other than some place names.
The Arkavian’s are a mix of medieval knights and vikings on steroids. And as each one is described as massive, I can only assume they are actually on steroids. Their world is simplistic and not well developed. But they are fine for moving the plot along.
The first few chapters of the book dealing with Taya’s survival after the portal opens is interesting. I like the way the author discusses some of the challenges faced in this post-apocalyptic world; finding food, shelter and other survivors. Not a lot of time is spent on this, as Taya is then captured and dragged through the magic portal. Not much time is spent developing Arkavia either. A lot of short hands are used so the reader feels they have a good enough idea of how things are going for Taya.
I did like the character dialogue. I think the author was rather good at conveying information through dialogue and building interest with the characters this way. While there were areas of the story I would have liked to see explored a bit more, I do appreciate the pace of the story. It moved, and at points time jumped. This was used in an effective manner, so I didn’t feel like I missed a great deal. Besides, in real life time does have a way of slipping past so we don’t realize that days, weeks or even months have gone by.
Overall I enjoyed this book, which looks different in tone than McKenzie’s other novels; 4.5 stars out of 5.