If you want to like the Guardian series but couldn’t get into Demon Angel…
my advice is to skip to Demon Night* (and catch up on everything that happened in Demon Angel and Demon Moon here). There’s a couple of reasons for this, but the big ones are:
1) My pacing improved and the writing became more straightforward, IMO. I wrote Demon Night after receiving a lot of feedback on Demon Angel — and many readers who enjoyed that book still had some trouble following exactly what was going on. So I wrote Demon Night with that in mind.
2) Charlie, the heroine, is a newbie to the Guardian world. I know the worldbuilding can be complicated and dense, but Charlie’s outsider status means that everything is explained to her (and the reader) as the book goes along. Now, there’s still a LOT happening and a lot to take in, but compared to Demon Angel/Moon, I think the presentation of that information is easier to swallow, and there’s not as much reading-between-the-lines.
3) Demon Night opens up the second story arc in the series and follows a minor arc resolution in Demon Moon, so it’s a good jumping-on point.
*Don’t get me wrong, I love Demon Angel and Demon Moon. But I know some readers have had trouble getting into the series because of the writing in those books, and recent comments in various locations have made me realize that maybe it’s just easier to skip those two for now (and maybe they’ll be easier to take in after the reader already has some familiarity with the series and the characters).
Was just telling someone the other day how much I wanted to like this series because I enjoy your blog so much, your sense of humor/personality. Okey, I’ll try again. I read the first two novels and the short stories and was never sure how I felt about the series. I really liked it but I didn’t, if that makes sense. I haven’t gone back to the series till now.So I’m going to order Demon Night and give it another go plus I have the two subsequent anthologies so I’ll read the stories in them as well.
@LaurieF: That makes perfect sense. I feel that way about several series, as well. And if it is the writing that was the problem and why the books never clicked for you, I think those issues are probably mostly cleared up in Demon Night.
If it just ends up that my voice and storytelling don’t click with you on a different level, and that it wasn’t the pacing and opaque writing at all, that happens, too. Either way, I really, really appreciate you taking another shot.
I did notice that Demon Night was a somewhat more straightforward read, but maaaaaan. I would be so sad if I’d never read Demon Moon. Some parts of that book were so beautiful it HURT. Colin is an epic masterwork of beautiful, subtle characterization. And Savi! Savi! I love Savi like I love Surreal.
…but Drifter is still my favorite hero, so there you go. :p
This is funny. I just blogged about this. I had a hard time w/DA, such a hard time I never started DM. But then I won Demon Forged, and have flown through it and *loved* it. There are a few things that are confusing me, but I’m thrilled at the idea that I get to go backwards now and read about some of the Guardians. I know I’m doing it backwards, but honestly, I’m just thrilled to be on the Meljean bandwagon now. I was always completely embarrassed by the fact that I’d never read your books (other than DA). *sheepish grin*
Weirdly, one of the things I like about DA is that I don’t entirely understand what’s going on (even after having read it 3 times!). At the same, I love the fact that I completely get the ending of Demon Bound.
So there you go: It works for me no matter what…
Well, I read most of Demon Angel (and thought I’d actually read all of it) and then bought Demon Moon and the anthologies, but never got around to them. then I read Demon Forged (despite my hatred of reading out of order) and loved it. So now I’m reading them in order starting with Demon Moon. ‘Cept I’m actually MISSING Demon Night. I’ve got Demon Bound, but no Demon Night. So now off to search for an e-copy.
I know that everyone’s likes in books are different, but after getting acquainted with the Guardian world – please, please, try Demon Angel and Demon Moon again. DA and DM are what got me hooked on the series. I *LOVED* them. (Which is not to insist that everyone should love them, but I do want everyone to have the chance to get the same feeling of “Wow! That was awesome!” I had when I finished each book.)
I love demon moon…. It is so heartbreaking. If you have not read it, please try again.
Demon Angel took me a couple weeks to get through (which was a long time for me since I usually finish a book in a day or two) but I enjoyed the world enough to read Demon Moon (which also took me a couple weeks to get through) but I enjoyed the world even more so I read Demon Night and was all “OMGILOVETHISWORLD!!!11!!” because I understood the story a lot better.
Okay, so maybe I was swayed a bit by the suspenders and my reaction was “OMGSUSPENDERS!!!11!”
Um, lost my train of thought. Oh, right. So I went back and re-read Demon Angel and Demon Moon and caught a ton of stuff I missed during the first read since I really “got” the world after Demon Night.
(Suspenders! Okay. I’m done now.)
I responded to Kati’s blog post on this because I felt so inadequate for not loving DA as much as other people did. It was just too intellectual for me. But I like to read series in order, so I’m thinking since I have DM, I’ll start over and re-read DA so then I can get to the rest of the series.
Uh, I really had no problem with your early work. And no, it’s not because I go through life confused and just didn’t notice.
Yes, I sometimes had to re-read a paragraph or two, but I always do that when I read. My mind tends to go off on a tangent, especially when I’m intrigued and wonder what’s going to happen next. I start to speculate and then I realize that I’ve just been following the words with my eyes and not reading. *sigh*
Granted, I think the books are getting better and better as we go along, but I still enjoyed the early ones. Of course, I didn’t discover them until this past summer and had a marathon to get up to speed for Demon Forged.
I started with Demon Night (after Falling for Anthony), and then I went backwards and read Demon Moon (my fave, although it’s a tough choice because they’re all so great), so I can vouch for this order of the series. Still haven’t read Demon Angel because it’s not out as an ebook, although I’m considering making my way to an actual bookstore to purchase it in physical book form (!), since I devoured the rest of the series and I don’t think I can stand not knowing all of Hugh and Lilith’s story for much longer…
I started with Demon Moon and I loved it. I consider it one of the better books. After that, I read DA and just couldn’t get into it. Liked the story well enough, but it just didn’t work for me. I did read the other books when they came out and loved them.
Thanks for this. I loved Demon Angel, but couldn’t get into Demon Moon. You gave me permission to skip it
, so I read Demon Night and Demon Bound – excellent books! I’m looking forward to getting Demon Forged for Christmas.