Fall of Light

LaZelle #2

by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Fistful of Sky

Opal LaZelle turned her magical gift to alter people's features into a career as a make-up artist. But when the actor portraying the "Dark God" remains in character off set, Opal realizes something supernatural has taken possession of him.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Fiction, Paranormal, Young Adult, Magical Realism

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2009

About the author

Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s first solo novel, The Thread That Binds the Bones (1993), won the Bram Stoker Award for first novel; her second novel, The Silent Strength of Stones (1995) was a finalist for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. A Red Heart of Memories (1999, part of her “Matt Black” series), nominated for a World Fantasy Award, was followed by sequel Past the Size of Dreaming in 2001. Much of her work to date is short fiction, including “Matt Black” novella “Unmasking” (1992), nominated for a World Fantasy Award; and “Matt Black” novelette “Home for Christmas” (1995), nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon awards. In addition to writing, Hoffman has taught, worked part-time at a B. Dalton bookstore, and done production work on The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. An accomplished fiddle player, she has played regularly at various granges near her home in Eugene, Oregon.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Opal LaZelle is a makeup artist, specializing in monsters and the grotesque. She’s excellent at what she does—partially because she applies more than makeup to her creations. Because Opal comes from a magical family, where every member has magical gifts and abilities—and Opal can change someone’s face with a touch and a thought.

On the set of the horror movie Forest of the Night, Opal is in charge of Corvus Weather, the Dark God of the movie. But it soon becomes apparent that Corvus is sinking too deeply into the role, and Opal realizes that something is possessing him. There is an ancient power in this town, a power that wants to rise again and is using Corvus—and the movie—as its vehicle. And while Opal may be the only person on the set who realizes the enormity of the danger, she may not be strong enough to stop it.

A Fistful of Sky is my favorite Nina Kiriki Hoffman book, and one of my favorite books in general, so I had high hopes for Fall of Light. Unfortunately, I really didn’t like it very much at all. I think it was missing a lot of what I loved about the LaZelles in Fistful—the introspect of the way their family magic works, and the interplay of the family and magical people and magic being common and accepted. It DID have the other trademark of Nina Hoffman’s work that I love so much—the way normal, nonmagical people accept magical events pretty easily.

I know it’s not fair to expect it to be the same book as Fistful, especially because Hoffman, maybe more than any other writer, never writes the same book twice. But I felt like it was missing some of the elements that made me love Fistful so much.

I also felt like the ending was no ending at all—it was so open-ended that I feel completely unsatisfied. Nothing was tied up—not the Dark God plotline, not Opal and Corvus’s budding romance, not the state of the movie people, not the state of Inner Opal. It definitely left me thinking, but not in a thoughtful way—more in a “what just happened” way. It felt almost like a setup for a sequel, but I can’t even imagine where a sequel would go or what it would do, and that certainly doesn’t feel like Nina Hoffman’s style.

There were other things that bothered me, too. I thought Blaise was a fascinating character, and it felt like we were only shown a glimpse of her. Hoffman teeters on the edge of making her the blond bitch versus an intriguingly ambitious woman. The ongoing concerns about Erika and leaked photos to the press just sort of goes away. The very nature of the Last of the Lost, and what it wanted with girls in the 50s, and what it’s doing to the current townfolk—never addressed.

I don’t need every question answered in my fiction—sometimes you just don’t get to know the answer, and I like that. Not every loose end is tied up—that feels honest and real, even when it’s frustrating. It’s just when NONE of the loose ends are tied up that I’m left feeling out of sorts.

I will definitely keep eagerly devouring Nina Hoffman’s new books as quickly as she can write them, but I think she really missed the mark with this one. Hopefully there will be more books with the LaZelle family to make up for it. Dare I hope for a book featuring Flint?

[Cait · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just like everyone else who's reviewed this book so far, it seems, I loved A Fistful of Sky and was deeply disappointed in this sequel. Pretty much the only reasons that this isn't getting one star instead of two are that it's mostly not actively awful and there's nothing in it which hurts any of the joy of A Fistful of Sky. It's not worth reading alone or as that book's sequel, though.

For the curious: This is the story -- or rather, a too-short excerpt from the middle (not the end) of what might be the story -- of Gyp's older sister Opal, the one who left home to be a make-up artist in Hollywood. Opal is married to her work in ways which ought to be weird and creepily sexual but actually play out blandly, doesn't care much about anyone (including herself), and appears to have split off multiple personalities which are just as boring as she is. Also, "things happen, some of them a bit scary or unpleasant" does not a plot make. Also, making the protagonist too stupid to notice what's right under the readers' noses does not count as subtle characterization or foreshadowing. Gah. So disappointing!

[MissM · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was highly frustrating to me. I was SO excited about it because I really enjoy Hoffman's books overall and when I saw it featured a character from A Fistful of Sky - my favorite novel of hers - I was all the more anxious to read it.

But I found it was a severe letdown. Opal let things get so far out of hand. She never asked for help and just kept going along with the events even when it looked like people might be in danger. When she finally does ask for help, she turns it down as soon as it's offered. There's some unrealistic and irritating "reason" given about how if she asks for help once, she'll never stand on her own two feet. Fine! But then stand dammit! Stop just letting events happen in, on and around you!

The book also just up and ends. Suddenly, abruptly and with no warning. Nothing is resolved and you don't even understand what it was that happened thus far. None of it is explained. It's like Hoffman had this idea for a book but instead of writing the whole story, she drew out the boring and annoying bits to the right number of pages to call it a novel and then just decided not to finish it. Seriously, it's as if the publisher left off the back 150 pages or so from the print run.

I just don't get it. I wanted to love this book and I couldn't wait to read it. Now I'm left wondering what the point all was and why Hoffman was so mean to readers by giving them an utterly incomplete story. If we're expected to go out and buy some follow-up sequel in a year just to get the rest of the ending we deserved in this novel, well, count me out.

Just a shame any way you look at it.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

That cover... a waif in the woods, pale in a snow-white shift, done in photorealistic and oversaturated style but airbrushed soft focus... you can just feel the girl cooties wafting off of this one. But.. marketing niches aren't everything, and Hoffman's a name who's known to me, so I picked it up anyway. And yeah, I'm glad I did.

Oh, it's not her best work—I remain more impressed by Hoffman's earlier straight fantasies, work like The Silent Strength of Stones (reviewed briefly elsewhere) or Fistful of Sky—and this novel was very lightweight in contrast. I also thought it was sometimes uneven in tone, and that it took an unnecessarily large lurch to the lurid later in the novel. But Hoffman remains a very good storyteller, and held my interest till the end of this one.

The story's cinematic; I actually think it might even make a better film than a book, if handled sympathetically and with an adequate budget. The protagonist Opal is a makeup artist, working on a film shoot on location in the small Oregon town of Lapis, just east of I-5 somewhere in the southern half of the state. This adds, by the way, some welcome local color for me as a Portlander—and from her bio page, Hoffman herself lives in Eugene.

The book's depictions of working on a film crew seem very realistic—Hoffman acknowledges the assistance of several people in the business, and she obviously absorbed a lot of information about how movies get made, and about how personalities clash and mesh, on-set and off.

Opal's also... well, a witch, or at least someone with magical powers, from a family of such who are living incognito among us. Some might call Opal's powers glamour . Which comes in very handy when she's doing monster makeup for her current job with 7-foot-tall star Corvus Weather, at least until her magic makeup skills seem to succeed too well, and Weather turns (heh) into something a little more realistic and a lot more dangerous than he should be...

There are occasional flaws, wobbles in tone that do make it a little difficult to tell what effect Hoffman's going for in that particular chapter, but there's nothing that couldn't be fixed in post-production...

[Kristina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't really know what about this book I didn't like. The story idea was ok in and of itself. It seemed to lack flow. It felt like I was missing parts of the story or I had put the book down for too long and had forgotten what I'd read about already. And the ending was a complete letdown (unless there is maybe a sequel in the works). The whole story is about this ancient god power awakening during a movie shoot, and we never really find out who the god is, what he wants and whether he is good or evil. And nothing is resolved one way or the other.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished this ARC last night. There's only one instance where the editor REALLY needs to catch an error--it brought me to a screeching halt.

The book kinda ends up in the air and other than Opal we see only Uncle Tobias (and talk to M&F and Flint on the phone), so this doesn't have the "feel" of the LaZelle novels. Plus I don't like Opal as much as Gypsum.

It's an excellent book, though!

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this story well enough but it didn't grab me like the prequel, A Fistful of Sky did. I also found the ending somewhat ambiguous and it took the wind out of the climax of the story. Having said all of this, I think that it's a must read for Nina Kiriki Hoffman fans which gives more depth to the character of Opal La Zelle.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Opal is the oldest sibling in a family filled with Talents. Every one (excepting her father) has a magical gift; Opal's is to do with light and illusion. She broke free of her controlling mother and created a new identity for herself, as a movie make-up artist. Unfortunately, years of repressing her true feelings and abilities leave her vulnerable to the powerful forces haunting her latest movie set.

This book should have been fascinating and creepy--instead it was frustrating and boring. Opal notices immediately that the leading man is being possessed and that the set itself has some sort of magic thrumming through it, but does nothing about it for fear of getting a bad reputation in the movie business. One by one, everybody else figures out that something is horribly wrong--the leading man literally stabs someone ON FILM and drinks their blood--and each of them say, "eh, let's just see what happens next." The leading man himself is aware that through the set, he's being possessed by an unknown deity who wants to drink people's life force, but decides to stay because abandoning the project would be bad for his career. Um, wouldn't charges based upon the physical and sexual assault be worse? The deity eventually makes everyone on set have an orgy, again ON FILM, and everyone wakes up, figures out what happened, and then goes back to work. WHAT? No one freaks about, no one goes to the cops, no one even demands answers. There is no emotional tension at all, even after events that should cause serious consequences--like, say, getting stabbed, or getting possessed, or getting raped.

And then, randomly, the book ends. No resolution at all. Just--no more writing on the pages. Very weird, and very unsatisfying.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of the danger of being an impulsive book reserver at the local library is that you can easily forget why you put a book on reserve in the first place or what it was about a review or recommendation that initially drew your interest.

In most cases, reading the book I will recall what initially drew me to the book. But in a rare case, I'll read through an entire book and never remember what originally caught my eye.

That's the case when it comes to my initial motivation for "Fall of Light."

It wasn't that it was necessarily a bad book. With a blurb on the cover comparing author Nina Kiriki Hoffman to Ray Bradbury, it has some potential. And the story of a make-up artist who uses magic to help create some truly spectacular creatures all while working on an apparently haunted set, is an intriguing one.

It's just too bad I felt a complete disconnect from the book the entire time. I kept reading, turning pages and thinking that at some point the story would click, pick up steam and start gaining some momentum. Instead, the story just kind of moves from point to point, but it never really drew me into the story itself in any significant or meaningful way.

It's not poorly written and it has some intriguing ideas. But in the end, it's a disappointment to me.

[Haley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay... what the heck!? Is this even a finshed story?

I absolutely love NKH and make it my mission to read as much of her work as possible. I hunt down every little short story I can find (and wow, there are a lot!), so I was so excited that #1 there was a new novel coming out and #2 it was based on the Lazelle's, which were in the first NKH novel I read (Fistful of Sky) and is one of my favorite novels of all time.

This story goes nowhere. Way too much time is spent on explaining the whole movie-making process and not enough time on say, the plot? The ending? What the heck even happened in this book is beyond me. Maybe there's a sequel in the works, but even if there is, I would be hesitant to read it.

This is the very first time I've been even slightly disappointed in anything NKH has produced, and boy am I disappointed in it; big time!

The only reason it gets two stars is because I can't bear to give one of my favorite authors only 1 star.

[jen8998 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really excited when I saw Hoffman had written a follow-up to Fistful of Sky. Unfortunately, this novel doesn't live up to the promise of the earlier story of magically inclined siblings. Opal LaZelle is now living apart from her family working as a makeup artist on a horror movie. Her makeup turns out a little too good and leads to the main actor being possessed by some sort of spirit. If this is starting to sound confusing, it's because the book is kind of muddled. It also ends abruptly without really tying up any of the loose ends, leaving one feeling like you'd just read the middle of the story without any real beginning or end. I also get frustrated about how characters in Hoffman's books accept magic without any skepticism, fear or inappropriate requests. Hoffman is a much better writer than this novel would suggest.

[Stephanie Graves · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, up until the ending. And then I thought, I can haz ending? Because the one here... let's just say I was confused, and looking for more pages to clear up the confusion, but alas, I had come to the end of the pages.

What is they say about not with a bang, but with a whimper? Yeah, that.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written but slow. Somewhat disappointing for NKH, though I think her short stories are way better than any of her novels anyways (except maybe for The Thread that Binds the Bones, which is fantastic)

[Kate Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Hoffman's in the past but this one was just problematic. The writing was sloppy and the plot held together only loosely. Teere were some good characters and concepts, but it didn't feel fully realized, and ultimately I just wasn't invested in the characters or the story.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure I can write a review that doesn't say what nearly all the others do at this point. The premise of the book had me super excited - special effects make-up artist who enhances her work with a bit of magic, falling in love with the actor she's currently doing make-up for, god-like entities wreaking havoc - but on the whole it simply fell flat.
None of the subplots were neatly tied up, the characters simply lacked the spark that makes written people intriguing. At times I felt like I was reading dialogue from unknown characters and had to re-read to figure out who exactly was speaking.
The second star I think is because I wanted so badly to enjoy this - the premise still tickles my fancy - but SPOILER!!!! the allusion to magic induced sexcapades left a very bad taste in my mouth.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fall of Light (FoL) follows another of the LaZelle children (no longer a child) - Opal, who has the ability to change the appearance of things, has become a make-up specialist for movies.

A Fistful of Sky, the first of this subsection of one of Hoffman's worlds, is decidedly YA. Fall of Light is not. FoL is less smooth than her usual work, to my reading, and it leaves some very loose ends. It is still a tale that commanded my attention and provided a great deal of pleasure. I would gladly read a third in this sequence if that became an option.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Decent Sequel

I found Gyp's story more engrossing than Opal's, but that could be personal taste. A Fall of Light is a story with enough twists to be entertaining even if you haven't read the first book.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't even remember when I read this, just that I did read it.

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved A Fistful of Sky which told the story of Gypsum LaZelle and how she coped with being the last of her siblings to get her magic. Fall of Light follows Opal, her older sister who works in the movie business as a make up artist. Forest of the Night is the second monster movie where Opal will be doing the make up for Corvus Weather, here he is playing the Dark God. The first day of the shoot Opal notices a tingling from the ground. When Corvus acts too much in character, starts calling Opal his handmaiden, she and Lauren, a co-star, both know something is up. After a shoot and removing his make-up Opal and Corvus head to a local restaurant where they see the writers. It turns out Bethany grew up in this area, and one day had a dream where she got most of the ideas for the plot. That is not a coincidence.

Opal loves Corvus, but she has loved all the people she worked on, it makes it easier to do her job, work her magic. She keeps it locked away inside, and once the project is done it goes away. Except for Corvus, she still loved him after their last movie. Although the Dark God may or may not be evil, he certainly has plans of his own that he's not sharing, and she certainly doesn't want anything to happen to Corvus. After a shoot when Corvus is himself and has had a day or two that he can't remember at all Opal and others tell him he could walk away, but he's stuck, if he walks away from a multi-million dollar project he'll never get another acting job.

Opal doesn't have the power to battle this entity. Doesn't even know what it really is. She calls the family, she also looks inside herself, to that manipulative teenager she was when she first got her power, but she has since locked away.

The story flowed, I read page after page and suddenly it was a hundred pages later. Fantastic. Great characters. The way that Hoffman reveals magic to the non-magical characters is refreshing. Hoffman has worked her way into being one of my favorite authors with "Home for Christmas" (Jan 95 FSF), "Vinegar and Cinnamon" (Jan/Feb 2017 FSF), and A Fistful of Sky. Fall of Light maintains that level of being enjoyable, fun, entertaining and satisfying.

[Karen Baadsgaard · Rating 1 out of 5]

BORING- DIDN'T READ

[Catching Shadows · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fall of Light is an indirect sequel to A Fistful of Sky; it involves Opal LaZelle, Gypsum’s older sister, who works as a makeup artist. She uses her magical talents to enhance the effects of her work, and her talents are very much in demand. She’s working on location in Oregon for a horror movie, transforming her romantic interest Corvus Weather into the main monster/villain of Forest of the Night, a horror movie of the “secret witch-cult” variety which is deeply amusing, consider that Opal is from a clan of magic-users.

Unfortunately, it turns out there really is a Dark God, an entity calling itself Phrixos that has a definite connection to the town, and who might be responsible for the disappearances of young women in the area for decades. Phrixos decides to take Corvus–and the movie production–over. This results in a battle of wills and magic between Phrixos and Opal, as well as a few panicked calls home, and a consultation from Opal’s Uncle Tobias. Phrixos gets into and out of trouble with the cast and crew, with Opal acting as unwilling “handler” and agent as she tries to find a way to permanently evict Phrixos–or find a way to deal with him, as his personality begins to blend in with the personality of Corvus.

(The name “Corvus” is an interestingly ominous name for an actor possessed by a “dark god.” I’m not certain whether it’s annoying or not that the entity–seems to be identifying with European Green Man imagery, when the being in question is later revealed to be one of a number of sleeping powers in the area. From the subtext, it is strongly implied however, that Phrixos is grabbing onto the predominant culture of the cast and crew.)

As is often the case with Hoffman, the major theme is about how people interact and fail to interact with each other. There is very little action, and while Phrixos is definitely creepy, he’s not played in the way you’d generally expect a “dangerous entity that possesses people” to be played. Instead, his domineering and arrogant personality traits are compared to the more obnoxious habits of other actors Opal has worked with. (Which are in turn compared to Opal’s uneasy relationship with her domineering and controlling mother, a woman who combines the overprotective behavior of a helicopter parent with the aspects of a neglectful, narcissistic one.)

Another theme of the novel involves the way Opal interacts with both her not-quite-boyfriend Corvus, and with the affects of Phrixos’ presence. It’s also very much about discovering what Phrixos is, what he’s up to, and what he wants–in the context of Opal also trying to understand the more negative aspects of her own personality, (a negative side that chooses to express itself as a stereotypical Goth.) In the end, things come to a more or less peaceful resolution, and we discover Phrixos’ goals, (which turn out to be he wants his name up in lights.)

I enjoyed the book, but I’ll admit that I mostly got Fall of Light in hopes of Gypsum turning up. (We only get a few brief mentions of her. The people Opal mostly talks to in this book are her mother, her uncle, and her brother Flint.) Opal is an interesting and engaging character however, and it’s interesting to see her from inside her point of view. The ending is an open one, and while some situations are resolved, there are still questions concerning Opal’s relationships and the fall out of people she knows discovering that she can use magic. I’m really hoping we get to see more LaZelle stories in the future.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second book following the magical Lazelle family this time the older sister Opal who was a minor character in the last book.

Opal works as a special effects makeup artist with her power to be able to make things appear anyway she likes she's ideally suited to this sort of work. But when she makes up Corvus Weather into a dark god of the wood something else slips in with her magic and begins to take over Corvus and slowly the movie in general.

It's down to Opal to figure out what's going on and see if it needs stopping while she falls for the man behind the monster mask who is becoming more of the monster as the shoot goes on.

I didn't like this one as much as Fistful of Sky Opal isn't as interesting a character and she seems very confused about what she wants. She never really comes to any conclusion and even the book seems to just run out of steam there's no climax there's no conclusion it just stops with all the questions about what the hell is going on unanswered.

Opal has this mechanism where she falls in love with the person she is making up for a movie and thus because she loves them she puts up with any of their rubbish without complaint and then makes them the best they can be. This seems a bit twisted as with real love someone would call you on your bs if you're getting out of hand. She also carries a lot of conflicted emotions about her family she left because she was being smothered by her mothers webs of entrapment but she also craves being taken care of the way her mother never did. She also has a bit of a dark side that she suppresses that likes to manipulate and torture which we saw a bit in fistful of sky and she tries to use this to counter the machinations of the dark god possessing Corvus.

Still it's a bit of a directionless book it's entertaining enough but there's no direction. Opal seems to be coming to the point of seizing control of forging her destiny then doesn't. Even the other characters seem to meander through the book. There is all this concern about this Dark God but he doesn't really do anything much bar one incident he sort of acts creepy and seduces a bit. His motivations and goals are kept nebulous and vague for the whole book and never really clarified. I suppose maybe that's left as an exercise for the reader to decide but there's nothing much there to work with I could see the spirit what ever it is is using the film as a vehicle to gain a foothold but beyond that it's nebulous. The characters are less well explored and while there are opportunities for growth none of them seem to take them.

In short it's a bit of a mess and not as great as the first book. Opal is indecisive and ineffectual the story lacks any sort of conclusion and just stops. Not sure I would recommend this one which is a shame as I really loved Fistful of Sky and was so looking forward to seeing more of that world and characters which this book doesn't give me really.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only realized partway into Nina Kiriki Hoffman's Fall of Light that this was actually a sequel to a previous book: A Fistful of Sky. I elected to keep reading anyway, but I can't help but wonder if I'd read the other book first, whether this one would have made more sense.

This one's premise was promising, I thought: Opal LaZelle is a makeup artist working on a movie set, and she's got a thing for the man who's playing the monster of the movie. Only something awakens to possess him when Opal goes a little overboard on mixing her magical talent in with her gift for makeup artistry--and she discovers that the location where they're shooting is no coincidence. Makeup artist is certainly something I hadn't seen done before in a fantasy novel, and I wanted to give this one points alone for an unusual profession for the heroine.

Unfortunately I found the read disappointing, I fear. It was admittedly a bit of a relief to have most of the cast react surprisingly well to discovering that Opal is magically gifted--but on the other hand, all of them, including Opal herself, seem surprisingly casual about the fact that something else has invaded the consciousness of Corvus Weather. Also, there are several interesting concepts the plot toys with--is the invader of Corvus truly evil? Are Opal's past flirtations with darker magics going to unleash part of her that should never have been given form? But these concepts seem thrown forward for the reader's consideration, and none of them get any real resolution at all.

Which isn't surprising, given that the book overall doesn't get any real resolution, either. Without going into spoiler territory, I'll say right out that the ending is a cliffhanger, and I'll have to hope that Ms. Hoffman plans a followup, if nothing else just to give these characters some closure. If one isn't coming, I have to take this book as a standalone experience, and ultimately as such, it doesn't satisfy. Two stars.

[Bryn]

Unlike the first book, this one is just not my thing -- too much bloodstained altars and traumatised children, not enough using magic to make delicious food.

(May 2018)

[Katrina Guy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This gets two stars because while there are individually many well written scenes and it made me laugh here and there, this is a story that went no where. And that's hard to fathom when you've got a book that includes a on locations film set, a make up artist with witchy powers, a possessed movie star, a land god, a haunted b & b, a creepy landlady who refers to possessed movie star as "Master", estranged witch family relations coming into play and an on set orgy.

And none of that apparently matters or has follow through in the book.

[Heather D-G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before I began this novel, I reread the first LaZelle book, A Fistful of Sky. Afterward, I found I had to wait a bit, because I had to get over my disappointment that this title, a sequel of sorts, did not feature Gypsum LaZelle, but instead centered on her older sister, Opal. I didn't want Opal. I wanted more Gypsum! So I gave it a little breathing room so it wouldn't suffer by comparison. Opal is the sister who left. While her siblings are tightly bound to their mother and home, Opal broke away and moved out on her own to work as a special-effects makeup artist for film. It's a job that takes full advantage of her natural magic, which centers on illusion and the manipulation of light. What most makeup artists take hours to do, Opal can do in minutes. The story opens as Opal and the film crew have arrived in a small Oregon town to shoot a horror film that was inspired by local legend. As the shoot progresses, it becomes clear to Opal that more is going on than meets the eye. There's other magic at work, and once her charge, the film's main villian, becomes possessed by something old and powerful, it will take all of her strength to unravel the mess. Through it all, Opal will come to question many assumptions she's made about herself and her relationships. I've noticed that Hoffman has trouble with endings, and that's true here as well. The conclusion feels lackluster and unsatisfying. We're left with a vaguely uneasy feeling about Opal. What will her future hold? Not this author's best work, but still enjoyable. Recommended.

[Melanti · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a sort-of sequel to A Fistful of Sky, focusing on Gyp's sister, Opal, who is a special effects makeup artist in the movie industry.

Unfortunately, it's widely different from the first book. Instead of having a strong family element, it focuses entirely on Opal and her co-workers, leaving the family (mainly Flint and Uncle Tobias) to appear in a couple of brief cameos. To compensate for the lack of family to talk to, it seems like nearly everyone figures out Opal is a witch. The lack of secrecy seems to go against what is established in A Fistful of Sky.

It does have the same strange magic shown in her other books, but even more strange than usual. Huge long scenes take place entirely in Opal's mind, and it doesn't always make sense.

Also, it's got the same non-resolution that A Fistful of Sky has, but here it's a non-resolution that affects a lot of people in an unknown way. It might be good, it might be bad, but it's probably permanent, and Opal just doesn't seem that concerned. Probably because she has an entirely different non-resolution of her own to worry about. But it's not the sort of non-resolution that points to a sequel down the road, so we're just left hanging.

I really liked A Fistful of Sky and Fall of Light seems even worse in comparison.

[JoyfulK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nina Kiriki Hoffman's excellent fantasy works are about people who have unusual psychic powers. Within this setting, her work is perennially concerned with questions about the ethical use of power, and about how the use of power influences relationships among family, friends, and strangers. (Other SF/Fantasy authors who investigate these questions in interesting and startling ways include Zenna Henderson, Octavia Butler, and Sarah Zettel.) This book fits into her overall fascination with the use of power.

That said, this book isn't Hoffman's best work. I enjoyed reading it, but she's moved more into "traditional horror"---monsters, in short---and away from the material of human relationships that made her earlier books, such as Fistful of Sky and Red Heart of Memories, such fascinating reads. In addition, the primary problems facing the main character change, rather than develop, throughout the book, and are not really resolved at the point where Hoffman chose to stop.

If you're a Hoffman fan, pick this up---especially if you liked Fistful of Sky and want to know more about Opal. If you're not a Hoffman fan yet, don't start here. Try The Thread that Binds the Bones or Red Heart of Memories instead.

[Katharine Herndon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've loved Nina Kiriki Hoffman since "The Thread that Binds the Bones" and the short stories she used to write for "Fantasy & Science Fiction." But I don't think I've really connected with her last several books. I was excited when this came out, because it was a continuation of one of the characters from "A Fistful of Sky."

But it turned out to be unsatisfying in the same way "A Fistful of Sky" was, but more so. It's a coming of age story about older sister Opal, and since she has left the family, there's none of the great family relationships that I liked about Fistful (except one great phone call to Flint). In fact, the few connection she does make with the family are ultimately pulled punches.

The main reason I only gave it two stars is that it spends SO much time inside Opal's head. And I don't just mean with her thinking. I mean literally with her wandering around in the landscape she has built within her own mind, hanging out in her sitting room, wandering the hallways looking for things. It tried my patience. Plus, the different entities in the story were confusing. I think it could have been clearer and more streamlined.

Basically, not enough happened, and what did happen happened very slowly.

[Sarahz · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a very frustrating read. It has a lot of potential, but it kind of is the complete converse situation from Fistful of Sky - where Sky is largely about the internal journal, and doesn't have a ton of plot to it but ends up being satisfying, Fall has a lot of things happening, but it doesn't go anywhere or come together.

Opal *never* takes initiative, she never comes up with any plans, and in the end she just lets the big bad win. There are various people, ostensibly her friends, who end up brainwashed by some sort of dark god thing against their will, and she doesn't even seem upset. All the "Dark Opal" stuff left me cold, too - unleashing her leads to her being rude to her friends, but never leads to her actually accomplishing anything. She has the intelligence to ask for help from her powerful family, then sends said help away without them doing anything, for *reasons*. Are any of the people ok at the end? We don't really know. Are she and Corvus together? I think so, but not sure why we're supposed to care - he doesn't spend enough book time as himself for us to really be invested. Is it going to be a problem that people know she can do magic? We don't know. The book (and opal) just spin their wheels for ages, then ends mid-story.