Nephilim

Review Date: 2008 October 22 10:56

Reviewed by: Priss

Released by: Aurora Publishing

Publishing Country: USA

Author: Anna, Hanamaki

Age Rating: 16+

Page Count: 192

ISBN-13: 9781934496275

ISBN-10: 1934496278

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Summary

As darkness falls in the mystic realm of Midland, the entrancing form of the ethereal Nephilim bear their true identities. Shedding his male visage, young Abel becomes a beautiful girl who dreams of her love now lost to disaster.

Unbound by the curse that blights all those who encounter the nocturnal Nephilim, Abel is on a quest to find her beloved Guyfeis, the man she once swore to kill.

Tragedy and mystery beset the path of true love as Abel fights in good faith for her future with the wayward warrior

Review

Stepping once more into Anna Hanamaki's tale of transcendent love and the fantasy of a fluidic sexual body, Nephilim picks up some of the scattered pieces of Abel's adventure in volume 2.

I had hoped that the tale would ripen with the experience of both character and author, that their time together would season a greater saga from some semblance of promise. Sadly I was wrong. If I had found the portrayal of the so-called "truth" of Abel's femininity resoundingly restricted before, the second was instalment was insultingly so. Abel's angelic nocturnal female form becomes less fierce, more frail and flimsy as the story progresses. Fay and faltering in the resolve to achieve her aims and desires, Abel's quest to locate Guy and to become his wife provides a painfully paltry plot driver. When focus falls upon the lonely heart of the naïve Nephilim, all the death defying, reckless romantic adventure dissolves in a narrative awash with insipid insecurities. While volume one closed upon a cliffhanger that left behind a stronger, steadfast Abel, impelled by love and poised at the precipice of adventure, volume two falters and fails to follow this through.

While Abel is naturally altered by experiences with Guy, softened by love and clinging to the hope of their union, Hanamaki seems to have lost touch with the feral side of the gender-bending beauty. In an attempt to get close to Abel's heart, the story meanders and the fire of the fable falls apart. Not even Guy's mysterious unspoken emotions or the entrance of a rival for his affections are enough to accelerate the story into action. Oh yeah and wasn't Abel supposed to have a vendetta against Guyfeis at some point?

Part 2 dallied in a disappointing detour that could possibly prove to be a roundabout route to a fabulous finale... though I dare say I shall not be holding my breath.

Rating: 5/10

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