Smith, L.J.: Dark Visions II and III: The Possessed and The Passion

[rachelmanija]

I finally managed to obtain the sequels to the delicious psychic kids novel, This Strange Power. While I like the first book the best, partly for the thrill of discovery but also because it had my favorite plotline, "We all live together in a little psychic house," the third book in particular brought on the crack and came to a mostly satisfying conclusion, even though I don't ship the same characters the author does.



The second book consists of the five teenagers, now connected telepathically whether they like it or not, driving around in assorted vehicles hunting for a house they saw in a dream. Meanwhile, Gabriel has been altered by his encounter with the evil crystal and must suck people's life force to survive. He can do it from Kaitlyn, who has plenty to spare, but doesn't want to because she's the girlfriend of Golden Boy Rob and Gabriel's angst o'erhangs him like a hat. In a nice interlude, they go visit the family of Marisol, whom the evil dude put in a coma, and her cool brother drops a little Spanish, then says, "Want some food? We've got tamales and chow mein." Heh.

Fighting off psychic attacks all the way, they make it to the House O' Refuge. Unfortunately, it turns out to be inhabited by this totally uptight, useless Lost Race of Atlantis, who make Gabriel sleep in the toolshed because he took human life, oh noes! They don't care that it was self-defense. But luckily, Zetes (the evil dude) sends more psychic attackers, and the good Atlantean crystal explodes, leaving them with a fragment they can use to destroy the evil crystal. But UNluckily, Gabriel defects to the dark side, along with Lydia, the Big Bad's daughter, who mostly seems to have appeared so Lewis could have a love interest, as Smith is now shipping Rob/Anna and Kaitlyn/Gabriel. Dammit, I like Anna/Lewis!

In book three, Kaitlyn infiltrates the House O' Evil Crystal, claiming that she was madly in love with Gabriel and must go wherever he goes. The house is now inhabited by other psychic kids... all totally insane from evil crystal exposure. I have to say, this is awesome! The timeline is a little wonky, as the psycho psychics pre-dated our guys so I don't know where they were before, but I love them and they are very creepy.

In the end, the evil crystal blows up, the Atlanteans realize that they're a bunch of stultified hippies, the psycho psychics flee screaming, get therapy, and/or die, comatose Marisol recovers, and Kaitlyn/Gabriel, Anna/Rob, and Lewis/Lydia live happily ever after. Maybe later Lewis and Anna can realize that they belong together, and Rob and Lydia can join the Atlantean hippie love-fest.


I have obtained but not yet read the complete "Secret Circle" trilogy, book two of "The Forbidden Game," book two of "The Vampire Diaries," and two volumes of "Night World," which has no sequence listed: Soulmate and Daughters of Darkness. Can those be read in any order? How do you all like the ones I have?

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

>The house is now inhabited by other psychic kids... all totally insane from evil crystal exposure.

I REMEMBER THAT!

I LOVED THAT!

[pornography.livejournal.com]

Night World is my favourite LJ Smith series :"> They are ordered, but the books up to Huntress can be read in any order really:
* Secret Vampire
* Daughters of Darkness
* Spellbinder
* Dark Angel
* The Chosen
* Soulmate
* Huntress
* Black Dawn
* Witchlight
* Strange Fate (not yet published. i have been waiting YEARS)

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I had not even heard of strange fate!! Will it actually come to be, or will it fester in my heart and never get published/written?

[ki-caelum.livejournal.com]

LJ Smith has reappeared on the internet with her own website and all, and apparently Strange Fate is a summer 2009 job.

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the Secret Circle or Vampire Diaries, but yeah, the books of Forbidden Game should be read in order. (They build on each other nicely, actually.) Night World books have the following sequence:

Secret Vampire
Daughters of Darkness
Spellbinder/Enchantress (UK title)
Dark Angel
The Chosen
Soulmate
Huntress
Black Dawn
Witchlight
And then the yet-to-be-published Strange Fate, which has been in release limbo since '99

There's no real need to read them in order -- I didn't -- but they do refer back to events in earlier books subtly, and the bad guy in the preceding book tends to be the romantic interest of the next, or at least one further down the line. It can be confusing if you don't know the order of the books.

(That said, I think Secret Vampire is something of a wash; Smith didn't hit her stride until Daughters, so I think you'll be fine starting there. It's one of the better in the series, anyway.)

Have fun!

[oyceter]

OOo! I wasn't that fond of Soulmate, but Daughters is one of my favorites of the series. I think all you really know to read that is that Ash was the evil, mean vampire cousin of the first book.

[oyceter]

Oh yeah, the non-Night World ones ;).

I have a deep and abiding love for the Forbidden Game because of my deep and abiding adolescent crush on Julian. But the books should definitely be read in order. I've never read Secret Circle, so will be interested to see what you think, and I read Vampire Diaries backwards, starting with book 4 and finding the rest later. They should probably be read in order, but I still think book 4 is the best because it is the least conventional.

On the Night World ones... be warned that the basis of the series is soulmate stuff.

Secret Vampire - I liked this, but that is because I was in my vampire phase.

Daughters of Darkness - one of my favorites because of how it deals with the soulmate thing.

Spellbinder/Enchantress (UK title) - was bored by this.

Dark Angel - was bored by this.

The Chosen - liked this.

Soulmate - like this largely because it has lots of reincarnation. Unfortunately, IIRC, the heroine's a bit of a sop.

Huntress - LOVE

Black Dawn - don't remember

Witchlight - don't remember

[pornography.livejournal.com]

huntress was my favourite :x

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Did you notice my icon?

[oyceter]

OH! I just did! How awesome!

[larryhammer]

It's been years since I read the Night World books, and have been waiting for Strange Fate to reread them. Daughters is, as mentioned above, one of the better ones, as is either The Chosen or Soulmate -- to be honest, I don't remember the title of the one I'm thinking of.

---L.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

The Secret Circle books were my first L.J. Smith and they are awesome. I was also quite fond of the Forbidden Game ones. Both series do need to be read in order. I wasn't as fond of the vampire ones.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I just reviewed the Secret Circle books! Gosh there's a lot of lesbian... well, it's not even really subtext, is it?

[sho-sunaga.livejournal.com]

You wetted my appetite for new books!! It sounds really really good!I will try to find them here... So which books should I read first?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I have an extra copy of the first book in this series (and some extra BPAL imps). Please email me your mailing address, and I'll ship them to you.

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

Ooh, read Daughters of Darkness, it's one of my favourites! But then, blond bratty Pride-and-Prejudice-readin' vampires are kind of my kryptonite.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

I don't remember very much of the epic poem. And believe me, I have done some serious googling, but it appears to be gone. I am going to interrogate my best friend from high school next time I see her, on the off chance that she still has a copy saved, somewhere.

But mostly, all I remember is the line that we quoted the most:

"Rob or Gabe?
Duh, Kait picked the babe."

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. I would have gone for Gabriel too.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Your icon!!! My copy of book two [or three?] has that cover as well. Is it wrong that I don't find Julian at all attractive?

Definitely recommend Daughters of Darkness.