Review: The Rest Falls Away, Colleen Gleason

Title: The Rest Falls Away
Author: Colleen Gleason
Date Begun: June 9, 2007
Date Completed: June 10, 2007

I read almost all of The Rest Falls Away during a criminally slow night at work. The situation was not ideal - I would much rather have read it sometime in January with hot chocolate in constant supply, because that's the sort of book it is. The winter version of a beach read. But, and this is important, it's a high-quality beach read.

Originally, I picked Gleason up on a recommendation from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. They enjoyed the novel - it got a B+ - and the review led me to believe that I would too. There are a lot of elements that push the exact right buttons for me. Vampires in an historical setting, a "good guy" character who would probably be played by James Marsden in the movie version, a spunky heroine (but not one of those irritating spunky heroines, you know?), illegal activity and an alluring underworld. These are all elements that I enjoy in my fantasy life. And Gleason delivers, even if she never really surpasses any of my expectations.

The biggest strength, beyond the heroine, is probably how well-plotted Gleason made everything. Though she stuck in several immediate plot arcs and a couple more over-arching ones, she keeps them all well-organized. I don't think I ever got confused if I wasn't supposed to be, and I had to answer phones and run credit cards in between chapters. The plot and the characters mesh well together, and I enjoyed Gleason's use of mythology and original ideas even if it sometimes tended towards info-dumping. (And as a sidenote, I didn't need Judas Iscariot's identity explained to me. I don't think there are many people who do.) The romantic side-plots are interesting. The Rest Falls Away is getting a lot of obvious comparisons to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the romantic tension at least reminds me more of Michelle Sagara's Cast books (Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight, and so on). That a dynamic I enjoy, and I recommend the Sagara books if you enjoyed TRFA, though they're a bit more hardcore fantasy.

For me, the reason Gleason is only getting a B, is that the quality of her prose never really distinguishes itself. What would have been interesting to read would be something along the lines of Georgette Heyer with added sex and vampires. Heyer's style can be recreated, and something along its lines would have served this storyline well. At no point does the simple beauty of Gleason's prose strike you. It is well-written, but there is nothing very poetic in it. There probably should be, when you consider the subject matter.

But I enjoyed it, and I'll certainly look out for the sequels.

The Rest Falls Away at Amazon.com