Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance
Written by Rebecca Levene and published by Abaddon Books
Second book in “The Infernal Game”

Having read a lot of Urban Fantasy of late, I began by wondering how this was going to stand out from the crowd. Starting with a high school massacre didn’t really improve my feelings towards. After that though, it spread its wings and flew, with a fascinating mix of Western European and Native American religion complete with a full cast of Angel’s, Demons, Shaman’s and the occasional Coyote.

Running from two main viewpoints the book tracks a Spirit Walking CIA agent investigating the Croatoan Cult which has been running clandestine meetings connected with young people going missing. The spirit walking angle is an interesting one, from the method of entering the spirit realm to its description as being more real than the normal world (Like Death in Terry Pratchett’s Books) and the ability to see people true natures and feelings. Alex makes an interesting main character, a spoilt young girl put in a hard place and making difficult choices with a few pushes from her enigmatic spirit guide.

Back on this side of the pond, the UK Hermetic divisions man Morgan is on the hunt for the people behind the murder of a leading historian, whose main objective was to follow Jon Dee’s research into the secret of immortality. This sets in motion a chain of event’s with further murders, chases and interesting alliances leading to a meeting with Alex and a thought provoking conclusion.

With two well written Anti-Hero’s, good descriptions of the real world locations in both the States and the UK, an interesting spirit world with some great rules and multiple interesting reference’s to both religion and contemporary history this forms a clever and enjoyable read. I fully intend to go and get Cold Warriors, the first book in the series to find the details of Morgan’s murky past and the girl referred to only as Belle.

Finally, there is also an overlap with the Black Hand Gang Novel by Pat Kelleher in containing references to Croatoan and John Dee. I’ll be interested to see if this is Abaddon developing an overarching evil force or whether this is just a case of great minds thinking alike.

On that note, I shall bid you farewell.

Regards, Kerl

If you enjoyed Ghost Dance, you may wish to consider:
The Watch Trilogy (+1) by Sergei Lukyanenko, notable for the similarity in the location of a partially overlapping spirit realm and the denizens within it. An excellent review can be found on Unbound here: http://hagelrat.blogspot.com/2010/07/night-watch-series-sergei-lukyanenko.html#links