A book that reads like a freight train

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	• Daughter Of Hounds Caitlin R. Kiernan Roc Trade, 2007 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail"

The Queen of Darkness is back triumphantly. Caitlin R. Kiernan's dream of a novel, the sequel to her "Low Red Moon," picks up the story of Emmie Silvey, daughter of Deacon and the late Chance, born as the sun set and the full moon rose on Halloween, 2001.

Now, it's eight years on, and the precocious yellow-eyed Emmie is pursued, among others, by a huntress named Soldier (their tales are told in alternating segments) and haunted by dreams.

After a scene-setting prologue, the action picks up in Providence, where Emmie is about to take a train trip to New York (on the way she's warned to stay away from horses) to stay with her stepmother, Sadie, who's married to but separated from Deacon. That's where the story gets kick started, as Emmie indeed does her best to avoid horses.

As always, Ms. Kiernan's beautiful prose style never gets in the way of the action. Her writing is clear, poetic, and often witty; but it's never showoff. Even the occasional typographical tricks--usually the sign of a bad author not know quite what to do--work well here. You'll admire the author's cascading sentences (a woman's tattoo is described as "very bright beneath the afternoon sun, all those shades of ink shining from her skin like a beacon, like a warning"), but you'll probably never think "get on with it!"

The author freely acknowledges her debts to H. P. Lovecraft's work, and, in a New England state of mind (she's from Atlanta by way of Birmingham), she sprinkles in Emily Dickinson's poetry as epigraphs here and there. But this gaspingly terrifying but gaspingly beautiful book is all her own. Make it yours.

Notes and asides: you need not have read "Low Read Moon" to enjoy this book, but of course it's better if you have. As always there's a reference to Lewis Carroll's poem "The Lobster Quadrille," but only one, I think. Violence and strong language make this book unsuitable for preteens.

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Different, but GOOD different

First, I am a bit of a Caitlin R. Kiernan fan, ever since reading 'Silk'. The only problem I ever had with Kiernan's writing was her ambiguous endings. Maybe I'm too trained by a lifetime of Hollywood movies, but I would like a conclusion and denouement at the end of a story. Still, that never stopped me from fully enjoying her complex, unique characters and fantastic settings. It's hard to finish a book by Kiernan and not have a strong urge to go and explore the rusting remains of an abandoned factory - just hoping to catch a glimpse a dark reality lying, tantalizingly, beyond this one. Her ability to evoke this deep sense of dread and wonder at the same time makes each of her works a treasure. In 'Daughter of Hounds' she's as concrete as she's ever been, which is a bit of change for her. It was refreshing to see that the characters acted and their actions were described as they were and I could follow along. The story wasn't in the 'Hairy Potter' mode of overt magical use, but it did have that feeling of a settled place with people and rules and dark powers that worked consistently; only it did so while maintaining the necessarily hidden aspects of magic. The characters were as complex and 'living' as any I've seen in writing, and that means they weren't that nice or flawless or obvious in their flaws. They seemed like a group, each one doing their best to survive, and struggling and suffering to do so. The book ends with a bit of an opening for a sequel, and since all of Kiernan's works appear to take place in the same universe, I'm sure she'll be revisiting some of these characters again. I can highly recommend this book, along with nearly everything that Kiernan writes.

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not kiernan's best by a long shot...

I am a huge fan of Caitlin Kiernan's work, but this may be her weakest novel; she says in her introduction that she's never struggled with a book the way she did with this one, and unfortunately it shows. The story tells of the intersecting paths of Soldier, a woman who has forgotten her past and is slaughtering her way around New England on errands for the ghouls, and Emmie, a stubborn 8-year-old who is only now (for no clear reason) being hunted by forces who need her power. There is a *lot* of talking in this book, and much of it is repetitive and off the point. Emmie in particular spends most of the book insisting, constantly, repeatedly, that everything happening to her is all a dream and just stupid; this gets a bit exhausting by page 300, and makes her dialogue remarkably repetitive. Soldier's amnesia means that her character is not grounded in the way that Kiernan's characters usually are, by their past or other ties. The truly creepy sequences that Kiernan produced in Threshold and Low Red Moon are missing here, traded for less-than-subtle action or drawn-out dialogue, and instead of the vulnerability of a Chance Matthews or Deacon Silver we are left with Soldier and Emmie, both of whom are resistant to the reader-- Soldier because of her ur-competence, and Emmie because she simply doesn't want to be in the book. The reasons for Soldier's and Emmie's experiences, and the timing of them, are never resolved, nor does the end make much sense. Altho' readers of the first two books in this series will probably read this just to find out what happens next, anyone looking for an introduction to Kiernan will find much better work by her in her other novels.

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Moving Adventure

'Soldier' kills for a living. She doesn't take joy in it, but she doesn't mind much, either. She stays alive because she's good at it, and because she has a little trick--she can create a do-over when things don't work out right the first time. Emmie Silvey has always been odd--with her yellow eyes and her ability to learn and understand so much beyond her eight years of age. But when Emmie sees a strange woman on a train and that woman gives her a warning about horses--a warning that saves her live a couple of days later, Emmie learns that there's something strange going on in the world and that the bright line between dreams and reality is really not so clear after all.

Although they don't know it, Soldier and Emmie's lives are bound together, both by their unusual histories and by their shared need to create a different future. First, though, they need to stay alive, and second, they need to figure out what to do. Because nobody is telling them what they need to know and there are far too many secrets.

Author Caitlin R. Kiernan creates a powerful and beautiful story. Both Soldier and Emmie make fascinating characters, caught between forces they don't understand, lacking true understandings even of their own natures, and yet intent on keeping on going despite the odds against them. Kiernan's writing is engaging and vivid, pleasing the reader with its texture as well as with the story.

DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS falls somewhere between urban fantasy and horror. There are no sexy vampires or earthy shapeshifters, but there are ghouls, demons, and lost children forever dreaming of finding parents and families, and forever denied the hope of doing so. I am happy to recommend DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS.

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A book that reads like a freight train

In three words: BUY THIS BOOK! It is amazing. Once again, Kiernan takes two (or more perhaps) worlds and throws them together to make one horrific, beautifully written novel. The characters are simply unforgettable, particualrly Soldier and the Daughter of the Four Pentacles. Emmie Silvey is the key here however. I don't want to give too much away but I must say that Emmie is a versitle character that can fit into a place where she doesn't necessarily belong.
Somthing tells me we haven't seen the last of Emmie Silvey or the Hounds of Cain...

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

They are the Children of the Cuckoo. Stolen from their cribs and concealed in shadows to be raised by ghouls, they are now changelings in service to the creatures who rule the world Below and despise the world Above. Any human contact is strictly forbidden and punishment is swift and severe for those who disobey. Raised by her widower father, Emmie Silvey has a precocious personality and striking yellow eyes that have left her a solitary child. But that changes when two women enter her life-one who stalks her, one who haunts her dreams- both insisting that her entire life is a lie and warning her of an encroaching darkness.

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