I really liked this one. The characters were strong, the adventure was fun and there is a lot of "British" language I definitely don't hear every day in the United States. And even after the end, I have questions...and hope that means there will be a sequel coming my way soon. ( )

I read the end of Desdæmona - and what an ending it is: unexpected, inevitable, conclusive, teasing ("yes, but what happened after that?") - and I closed the book, and thought "Well, that was fun!"

And then immediately after, "Wait a minute, what do you mean, 'fun'? A really quite extraordinary amount of death, much of it happening to innocent bystanders - not to mention all the angst and betrayal - and that counts as 'fun'?"

Apparently it does. That's by Ben Macallan's standards, of course, and Ben Macallan is Chaz Brenchley, a writer known for putting his characters through the wringer, all in the most beautiful language. (I should admit that he's also a friend of mine, which isn't entirely relevant, and that I am a fan of his, which may be).

Ben Macallan is also a character in two books by Chaz Brenchley, Dead of Light and Light Errant, urban fantasies published before there was such a genre as 'urban fantasy'. There's an extra twist of enjoyment for anyone who has read these, in seeing how exactly Desdæmona is the book that their hero would write: Ben Macallan is young, an undergraduate, but Jordan, the hero of Desdæmona is younger still, seventeen (and planning on staying that way); Ben's has severed all ties with his family, who are very shady characters, but Jordan is on the run from his, who are worse; Ben is in love, but his love is not requited - what else would he write but what happened when Jordan met Desdæmona?

You don't need to know any of that to enjoy Desdæmona. Take it at face value: it's an urban fantasy, Jordan, on the run from his family, helps out other young runaways, and is enlisted by the irresistible Desdæmona to find her sister, who has vanished, hiding from someone very nasty indeed.

They encounter a number of supernatural beings: nothing as commonplace as vampires, vampires are just the warm-up exercise before the action really gets going. The threats in this book are more inventive than that. English folklore provides a Green Man, the Nine Men's Morris, but it's Ben Macallan's imagination and skill with language which makes them so frightening. There are some unexpected allies: a Sibyl in her cave perfectly fitted to contemporary London without losing any of her mythic force.

Episode after episode presents new delights, but the what holds it all together is the desire to know more about Jordan and Desdæmona: who are they (because it's clear from the start that neither of them is being entirely frank with the reader)? what will become of their relationship? and will they survive to the end of the book? The action is fast and furious, but somehow in amongst it all, there's time to become genuinely attached to the pair of them.

How fortunate that there will be a sequel, Pandæmonium in which we can find out what happens next...

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2011/08/201135-desdaemona-ben-macallan.html ( )

This is a pretty dang decent book, almost young adult, but does fine in the adult world, too. Jordan is on the run; he's been seventeen for a long, long time. He's being chased by his family and friends who want to kill him to make him inherit his birthright. Jordan has a weakness: helping unfortunates in need. Hence, when Desdaemona hunts him down and asks him to help find her sister, he helps, though reluctantly. Well, as reluctant as any seventeen year old boy can be when faced by a gorgeous, alluring woman not much older than him. Only, helping Desi puts him in the path of all those who want to find the girl, AND him.

The book is written first person, in a subtle humor that teases you along the storyline. Great urban fantasy debut for Macallan. Dang good writing, too. ( )

A welcome return to dark urban fantasy for Chaz Brenchley, writing under the name of Ben Macallan. If that pen name sounds vaguely familiar, it's because Brenchley previously used it for the lead character in a much earlier novel; and his usage here is more than whimsy, because this is exactly the sort of novel that the hero of Dead of Light would write. Jordan's a runaway teenager who makes a habit of helping the lost, both other runaways and those who've simply strayed into the world of the supernatural. Jordan's clinging to an existence somewhere on the border between the mundane and the magical, moving on to the next town whenever the hunters on his trail get too close. He's doing pretty well at it, until Desdaemona tracks him down and drags him into her quest for her runaway sister Fay. Desdaemona's something of a mystery herself -- she's a Daemon, a human who has been rewarded with occult power for contracted services to a Power, but she's barely more than a teenager herself. How and why Desi contracted herself so young is just as much of a puzzle for Jordan to solve as is the mystery of Fay's whereabouts.

Fay's got good reason to have hidden herself as well as she has, and Jordan and Desi aren't the only ones hunting her. As they search for Fay, they find all too many enemies amongst the world of the supernatural -- the hunters on Fay's trail, the hunters on Jordan's trail, and the enemies Jordan and Desi make along the way. The result is an ever-increasing escalation of power and Powers they have to defeat or escape from, and a roller-coaster ride through a sharply crafted world where the supernatural can be found down any alley.

What makes this book so good for me is that Macallan/Brenchley takes British and Irish mythology, polishes new facets on it, and sets it to perfection in a contemporary urban English landscape. And he does it with strong characters and snappy social observation, in a story that unfolds to show rather than tell exactly who and what Jordan and Desi really are. It's often very funny, and sometimes terrifying, and occasionally heartbreaking; all the more so because it shows how the monsters can be only too human.

The ending begs for another novel, and indeed there are the concepts for two more living inside the author's head, though whether they see the light of day is another matter. But the book is complete in itself, a fabulous modern twist on old fables. ( )