Sixteen Sunsets by Mark Gardner

Time for another book review by one of the WriteOn members - Mark Gardner. He's been really helpful in giving advice, and when he asked me if I wanted to read his latest book, I readily said yes.

Sixteen Sunsets is about (I think) Kristof, who has cancer and only sixteen days to live (hence the sixteen sunsets), and Joaquin, a young criminal. Both of them aren't completely human - they both have super powers of their own. Joaquin has some sort of impervious skin, and Kristof... has his own special powers. The story starts when Kristof gets his dreadful diagnosis, and rapidly introduces a whole host of characters.

I think this book is going to be the start of a series. When it finished, I felt like the stakes were finally set. For most of the book, I was rather confused as to who was on what side, and what did each of the sides want? That was basically my main reason for continuing to read - I wanted everything to eventually make sense. Plus, the premise was interesting, and I liked the secret history that Anne revealed.

Oh yeah, Anne. Anne was the most interesting character to me (Sorry, Mark, I wasn't too fond of the two male leads). As the character with possibly the longest history, Anne's take on how things actually went down was what I enjoyed reading the most. I'm not too sure about what I think about her at the ending of the book (no spoilers, tough), but for most part, I found her fascinating, even though I never want to meet her, ever. She and the powerful little girl, Bree, scare me. By the way, Bree is another interesting character - she only really pops up at the end, but if I continue to read on, it'll be because of her.

By the way, this book contains fairly explicit descriptions of violence and lots of swearing. For the faint at heart, this might not be for you.

Overall, this was an interesting start to the series. I wish the book continued a little longer, because to me, the stakes only felt real at the end, but I suppose that's all part of Mark's plan. I guess now that we've got a sense of the characters, there's no choice but to read on and find out what happens.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for a free and honest review. I did try my best to be impartial, but as I said in the start, I am kinda biased.