After Dark

Rating:
Summary: What the last review didn't cover
Review: The review I just read is no doubt by someone who is not familiar with Wellman's writing to an extent past the "Silver John" books.

No offense, however in reading the John Thundstone stories which introduce and set up the identity of the Shonokins, one finds that this race is evil-to quote MWW "Pure poison mean" . Let me reccomend reading "Third Cry to Legba and other Invocations" from Night shade books. The Shonokins are as evil as the creatures of Lovecraft's mythos.

Rating:
Summary: Good mountain fantasy, but it doesn't address what it could.
Review: This second (I think) of the John the Balladeer novels is, like all of Wellman's books on this hero, told in an engaging voice, features catchy songs/poems, and combines lore from America and elsewhere to good effect. The story's entertaining and compelling, the characters interesting, but there was, in my mind, one flaw.

The basis of the book is that, even before the Native Americans migrated to North America thousands of years ago, a race of supernatural beings called the Shonokins lived there, and a band of Shonokins in modern times want to reclaim their "rightful place" as the rulers of the land. Certainly, the Shonokins' intention to use black magic to rule by force makes them villains, but no one in the book seems to even consider that, when all is said and done, the Shonokins really do have some cause for retribution. No one expects the heroes to sympathize enough with the villains to allow them to win, but a little extra time given to the Shonokin perspective would have made the story even more interesting. It wasn't enough to spoil the book, but its absence was noticeable.