Shadows of Falling Night by S. M. Stirling

 This third installment in the Shadowspawn series doesn't seem to quite have the (pardon the expression) bite of the first one. It's as if Stirling has gotten everyone hooked on the series, and now can settle in to make it as long as possible, selling more books along the way. I remember something similar happening with the Left Behind series towards the end, when one day's worth of events would fill and entire volume, putting us no closer to the resolution of Revelations.

The Shadow Council is on the move, coalescing to a gathering in Tblisi, where they will vote on which option to take with regards to "thinning the herd" of humans; EMP to destroy technology, or plague to kill the masses without spoiling the fruits of industry. Harvey Ledbetter, of the Brotherhood, is also moving towards that dark reunion, with a nuclear weapon in his back pocket, figuratively speaking. He hopes to detonate it near the conference, killing a large portion of the Shadowspawn and making the Brotherhood's overall mission of defeating the remainder much simpler.

Adrienne Breze wants Harvey to succeed in his plot for her own reasons. If the old discorporeal leaders are killed by the radiation from the nuclear blast, she can assume leadership of the council and have her own reign of terror when she releases the plague. Adrian Breze and his wife, Ellen, are trying to foil both Harvey and Adrienne's schemes, while behaving reasonably politely towards the rest of his relatives. Adrienne's minions attempt to kidnap back hers and Adrian's children, which prompts a nightmare flight by Eric (the former detective), Peter (former renfield and physicist who has discovered a way to mask humans from the power wielded by the Shadowspawn), and Chiba (peasant girl who wants vengeance on Adrienne) across the face of Europe, trying to reunite the children with their father before another assassin gets to them first.

Some good twisty plot elements and a very surprising ending which should twist things in an interesting direction in the next book, which I trust will be forthcoming when Stirling needs some more money.

The Council of Shadows by S. M. Stirling

This second book in the Shadowspawn series continues, in a somewhat relaxed manner, what was started in the first book, A Taint in the Blood. Ellen and Adrian are finally free of his evil twin sister, Adrienne, and they get married to...live happily ever after? What's the line from the Hertz commercial?

Of course, the Shadowspawn are still around, and the Council is determined that it is time to thin out the human herd. The only question is about which method of inducing mass extinction is best. The "progressives" think it should be done in a manner which leaves all of the modern conveniences which they've grown accustomed to in place, while the "conservatives" don't care for all this modern nonsense, and just want to return to the glory days when their kind ruled the world.

The Brotherhood is sneakily trying to put together a plan to catch all of the Council members at a summit in Tblisi and to nuke them out of existence.

In this installment, most of the graphic sex and violence happens "off-stage", for a change. Evidently after setting the scene in Taint, Stirling feels comfortable knowing that we all understand how depraved the Shadowspawn are, and doesn't belabor the point, but reinforces it more subtly. There's a few good plot twists, as Ellen and Adrian indulge in a bit of intrigue while honeymooning, and there's a new side plot about human detectives looking into some bizaare happenings, that I expect we'll see more fully realized as time goes on.

A Taint in the Blood by S. M. Stirling

I used to read quite a bit of S.M. Stirling's work, until he started his postapocalyptic series of "The Change", and I just found them far too depressing to enjoy, so I laid off for a while. I discovered the first book in his new Shadowspawn series at the library, and thought I'd give it a go. There's really nothing new and exciting here, I think we've seen it all before, though perhaps not lumped into one big heap before.

The Shadowspawn are a sub-species of humans who have what amounts to vampiric and shape-shifting abilities, as well as a bunch of other minor "spells" that they have used to dominate the human race for centuries. Like the Illuminati on steroids, I suppose. Nearly everything horrible that has happened on Earth in recent memory is their fault, from the rise of Hitler to ebola, either just as a result of their twisted amusements or as a way to cull out the herd a bit. Their favorite thing to do is to rape, slaughter and drink the blood of humans, though not necessarily in that order, but you get the drift.

Their High Council has decided that there are far too many humans on the planet, and that they'd like to return to a much simpler time, so they are planning to use massive EMP explosions to drive civilization back to the Stone Age and wipe out most of the pesky humans, leaving the rest easily ruled. Some of the younger, more progressive members would rather not act so drastically, enjoying the fruits of modern technology, and merely propose a genetically engineered plague to thin the human ranks a bit. So, there's some major political machinations going on in the midst of the obvious plot in this novel.

One of the Shadowspawn, Adrian Breze, has renounced the vicious ways of his people and has tried to remain uninvolved in any of their power plays and sadistic amusements. His sister, Adrienne, steals his girlfriend, who starts out unaware of his non-human nature, away from him and makes Ellen her own sexual slave and blood donor. The human servants and blood donors for the Shadowspawn are, of course, called 'renfields' and 'lucies'. The foreground plot of the book is Adrian's quest to rescue Ellen and foil his sister's plans, with any luck killing Adrienne in the bargain.

This novel contains a ton of graphic, bondage and discipline, sado-masochistic sexual scenes, as well as brutal and graphic violence. In this, it's not much different from some of Stirling's earlier works. The story is somewhat amusing, however, and it's interesting to see how he explains away all of the horrible things that have gone on in the world by attributing them to the Shadowspawn, plus the belief in gods, demons, faeries, and all other things that go bump in the night.

One of the things I found fun was how Adrienne would refer to the flavor of Ellen's blood, depending on her emotional state. Phrases like, "Two distinct layers of fear, and anger, dread, longing, resignation, courage...like a very, very good beef bourgignon garnished with sauteed pearl onions and mushrooms. The sort cooks with a really fine Burgundy and a bouquet garni from a farm stall..." Priceless.

A most definitely adult novel.