Digital Knight (Baen Fantasy)

The main character - is one who you soon get to feel sympathy for, but every time you feel that you understand what the plot is - a new secret is revealed, or a new creature is discovered or in some way or another the plot changes direction - seemingly without the author having any long term goal.

There are good bits to this book, and less good bits too. It is quite an enjoyable read - if you are prepared to accept that you'll never know where the plot is going - and there is a fair amount of humour in it. Certainly there is lots of creativity and I would have no hesitation in buying another book by this author (though hopefully by then his writing style will have settled down).

So as I said - an allright read - not great, but not too bad.


A somewhat dissapointing vampire tale   October 14, 2003
M. E. Cooper (England)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I found this book to be disappointing not because the story is bad, it isn't, but rather because I was expecting something else. Digital Knight is about a man who works with the police as a private contractor working in the field of information analysis. He basically researches information and compiles databases. He is also good with enhancing photo imagery. Later in the story he becomes something of a private detective.

Now all this is fine as far as it goes, but I bought this for the vampire/supernatural angle, but the vampire in the story turns out not to be a vampire at all but an immortal high priest of Atlantis. Werewolves with crystal claws become the age old enemies of this man and his people and... I may have this wrong, but it seems there is an alien angle threaded through the story too.

The story was different and imaginative, though the first portion of the book read like a collection of short stories at first, but I found the entire thing vaguely annoying and unsatisfying. The story and dialogue didn't ring true and I never once found myself caught up in the story enough to exclude the world around me.

Three stars is generous for this one I think. I gave it this many because the book is genuinely different from others in this genre, but that very fact makes it not as worthy of more stars in my opinion. It is just plain not as good as those others.

Mark E. Cooper
Warrior Within (ISBN:0-9545122-0-0)