Index
Preview:
Death’s Daughter is a concept-novel. If you were one of Death’s daughters, would you want to be Death’s heir? What would you do to get out of that heirship?
This is a solidly constructed urban fantasy world, a cross between the TV shows Joan of Arcadia and Reaper.
It’s about mythic figures made real. It has God in it, in a cameo role. It has the Devil in it, in various guises. The connecting link between them is Death, a human endowed with immortality and the power of life (revivification) and death. The spiritual values are hidden within the visuals of the premise itself, but resonate particularly well with me.
In Death’s Daughter, Death has been kidnapped and the prodigal daughter, Calliope Reaper-Jones is called home to take his place as Death. She must claim the title to keep its powers from being controlled by the Devil, then rescue Death and give him back his powers.
This urban fantasy world is wondrously original but just exactly like several other very popular UF worlds. In
other words, Benson has done what Hollywood always demands: give me something the same but different. So Manhattan is covering her in glory because publishing has learned only the Hollywood formula works anymore.
Benson’s characters (which I find most welcome) are epic mythic figures, but presented as real people you can root for and understand.
Here’s the real key. The background, the fantasy world Benson built, is fabricated from the mythic, Hollywood style. It’s very strange and different, but familiar. Meanwhile, Death’s daughter and her mother and sisters, her taste in men, clothes, and vocabulary, her relationship problems and her responses to a challenge are all plain, simple, normal, average human. This is mundanity floating on top of the bizarre. And that’s how young people today see their lives.
Send books for review in this column to: Jacqueline Lichtenberg, email jl@simegen.com for instructions.
