On The Nightstand – The Night Dahlia – 4/8/2018

I’ve commented in several past posts on R.S. Belcher and his three series:  Golgotha (very good), Nightwise (good) and Brotherhood Of The Wheel (not good at all).  This is the second book in the Nightwise series and I downloaded it the day it was released.  I enjoyed the first in the series – “Nightwise” – very much and have been looking forward to this one.  It didn’t disappoint but it also didn’t do anything to change the way I feel about these three series.

I read a lot of books built on this relatively common formula – set in our day and age, assuming the existence of a supernatural counter-culture consisting of a range of powers – from puissant to pitiful – from relatively righteous to disgustingly dangerous – with the common, daylight world protected from it’s supernatural residents by either self-appointed or organizational guardians.

The Nightwise books and their protagonist – Laytham Ballard – represent a respectable addition to this sub-genre but in some ways, it may be one of the hardest to read.  The primary challenge lies in the nature of the protagonist – Laytham Ballard.  I know what Belcher is trying to do with this guy – he’s a tortured individual – thoroughly compromised spiritually – completely polluted physically.  He wants desperately to hold onto a tiny sliver of decency and humanity but carries around a list of past transgressions and violations of rules, relationships and personal discipline – that leave him with little faith in his ability to do so.  He has a lot of red in his ledger – similar to Black Widow – with very little of the personal and professional discipline he would need to see it expunged.

I really want to empathize with Ballard – find a way to like him – but he makes it almost impossible.  He’s incredibly powerful but thoroughly dissolute.  He picks appropriate causes and strives to achieve ethically acceptable outcomes but he repeatedly compromises principles and relationships along the way.  While he does achieve some very small measure of redemption by the end of this book, he does it at significant cost to one of his oldest and most loyal allies as well as the one true innocent in the book – the person whose well-being he’s charged with protecting – and who he ultimately betrays to save his own life. He may bring bad guys down but he’s a drunk, a drug addict, a user and a selfish jerk.  I just don’t know how anyone comes to like this guy and that – in my opinion – bodes ill for the long term success of the series.

I find myself enjoying those around Ballard – the supporting characters who repeatedly choose to help him – at great risk to themselves – far more that Ballard himself.  While this crew are motivated by their belief in the existence of a kernel of good within Ballard – a belief reinforced by the relative worthiness of Ballard’s objectives – he deals with them all in a disappointingly transactional manner.  This group displays a repeated willingness to sacrifice themselves on his behalf and he gives them very little reason to continue to want to do so.  I have to say that this structure has worked for the first two volumes but it’s going to wear thin if Ballard doesn’t evolve – if he doesn’t begin to re-establish at least some small degree of the faith in himself and a measure of commitment to those around him – get back to the relatively virtuous and noble young Ballard that Belcher gives us a very brief flashback glimpse of at one point in the book – the young kid who doesn’t smoke, who runs and who reads when he’s not serving The Nightwise in their effort to protect normal human society from supernatural predators.

When I hold these books up against two other similar series – The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher and The Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey – I feel like it falls somewhere in between.

Dresden has a rich life filled with friends who support him and who he, in most cases, has been able to protect – with a few notable exceptions, he’s always been fighting the good fight – he’s dealt with his demons and has a solid sense of self – he’s rational and represents a source of order in his world – he’s made mistakes and hurt people but it rarely shakes him and never breaks him.  Harry is a White Night – a protector and guardian – a bonafide good guy.  It’s easy to like him.

Sandman is an amoral, ruthless, uncaring killer who indulges any / every vice accessible to  him.  He is a source of chaos in a very unsteady world – an actor with the potential to send the whole thing spinning off it’s axis – he has friends and he cares for them but he is guided by pure, unadulterated self-interest and he makes it clear to those who choose to connect themselves to him that they do so at their own risk and that he can’t be held responsible for the consequences of those decisions – he’s a bit of a monster but he’s completely comfortable with who and what he is – he’s not tortured – he feels few, if any regrets – and he’s still weirdly likable.  He’s insanely funny and he stumbles through book after book somehow doing a reasonable amount of good – whether that was his original intention or not.

Ballard is something different altogether.  Where Harry is noble and Sandman is reprehensible and both are comfortable with their choices – Ballard is reprehensible but lives with regrets and struggles with choices he might have made.  While Harry has true friendships based on mutual affection and obligation and while Sandman has twisted relationships based respect and loyalty – Ballard has one way relationships that are all take and very little give.  Harry moves fast and saves people and you love him for being a hero.  Sandman moves fast and breaks things and you love him for being a crazy clown.  Ballard moves fast, he saves people, he breaks things and it’s almost hard to care for him one way or another.

Now, having said all that – this was still a good read and I’ll buy future installments.  As stated above, Ballard did find some very small measure of redemption by the end of the book and he seems poised to try and exorcise some of his demons – make a real effort to find his way back to a better version of himself.  I’m willing to see where Ballard takes this and whether he’s willing to make Ballard someone I want to invest in.  My fear is that Belcher might like Ballard too much the way he currently is and just may not be able to get me there.

One final note on both this series and on the Sandman Slim books.  I really wish both Authors would stop trying to impress me with their voluminous knowledge of popular music.  There are very few scenes in all of these books that don’t contain a reference to the song playing in the background.  Thanks.  You’ve impressed me.  Could you now please move on.  It doesn’t really add anything to the story.