Hot Summer Read: Such Wicked Intent

Sooo, I've been mentioning the followup to This Dark Endeavour that just came out last Saturday? Maybe once or twice? I keep talking about it because I did happen to get so lucky as to get an advance copy so I could read it and tell you about it, and I'm enjoying this story and how it ties in to the original Frankenstein a lot, so. Let me tell you about it.  

 

[Alert: contains spoilers for book one!]

Such Wicked Intent   by Kenneth Oppel

In This Dark Endeavour, we see Victor Frankenstein's deep devotion to his twin brother, and the astonishing lengths it drives him to in trying to save Konrad's life. This devotion, along with his strong ambition and natural arrogance, lead him into the forbidden territory of the occult in seeking answers, and in this second book, we find that the draw of the otherwordly still has a powerful hold on him.

Still chasing after returning his brother to the living, he discovers a way to enter the spirit world, where he reunites with Konrad and tries again to find a way to bring him back.  Unfortunately, he's not the only one with an interest in his ventures into this other realm... This book very much continues where the first one left off, and Victor has, it seems, learned nothing from his earlier experiences. Even as danger mounts and he nearly loses his own life as well, our young Frankenstein is obsessed until the end, when we see a little hint of what more might be in his future dabblings in weird science.

As I mentioned in my Q & A with Keneth Oppel, this book takes place much more in the spirit realm than in the "real" world, which is a little different, and makes for a little different feel, but the suspense is just as taut, Victor's character just as driven, and as with the first book, I had a hard time putting it down. If you haven't read This Dark Endeavour, I highly suggest you get ready to read both of these, and follow them up with Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, which started it all.