Enjoyed this book a lot more than expected. Picked it up from a free library.

Had enough mystery left by the end I decided to go to the second one.

Like the characters and the pacing in this one. And how it sets up the world for us. Could also tell it was written by an Australian from a km away. Has certain writing qualities that make it a dead give away.

Would recommend for anyone whose into scifi with a hint of old world magic and post apocalyptic seasoning. ( )

Probably a 3.5 ( )

Positioned in outback Australia after some kind of holocaust or destructon of the society and enviroment as we know it, the setting has a slight Mad Max feel about it. The reader is kept as much in the dark as the main character, Saria, and as she comes to terms with her gifts and background so do we become more informed. I do not mind this style of writing but some readers may find it frustrating.
Not a lot actually happens in this first book of the series. Various incidents reveal more of the themes and characters and position the reader for the upcoming events. Characters are well developed but don't be surprised if you find Saria and Dariand to be frustrating and at times difficult to like. I was sufficiently tantalised to read the rest of the series. ( )

I was inclined to read ‘Nightpeople’, the first novel in Anthony Eaton’s Darklands trilogy, because I would be going to a workshop run by him at the Sydney Writers Festival. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t heard of Anthony Eaton before and wasn’t really sure what to expect from one of his books. I found myself browsing the library and under his name found a variety of books from several different genres, by was ultimately drawn to his fantasy novels.

Nightpeople is set in a dystopic version of what is very similarly described as an ‘Australian desert landscape’. The surroundings are desolate, sandy and full of Australian fauna such as lizards and wild dogs. It is the people, however, that set this novel apart from the country many of us call home today.
The novel is written mainly from the perspective of Saria, who is taken from everything she knows out into a world she has never seen, and told that she has a destiny to fulfill, and she cannot know anything about it.

The premise of this books was interesting, but I just couldn’t get into it. At times, I wanted to put it down because there just wasn’t enough happening to hold my interest. The concept was interesting, as was Saria’s ability to slip into the minds of animals. I have always wanted to see the world from my dogs’ eyes, and Saria got to do just that!

Quite a lot of the plot is left unexplained, obviously leading up to the other two books in the series, titled ‘Sky Fall’ and ‘Daywards’, though I found this a little annoying as very little is revealed in the book, though there are a few plot twists that I guessed, though that’s not really unusual.

The characters were interesting, and each was different, though I found myself having a mixed bag of reactions towards one of the main characters, Dariand. One minute I hated him, the next I didn’t mind him, the next I hated him again. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure what to think.

I apologise for my short review, but it has been a while since I read this and I hadn’t been able to get to the review until now – oh, and stupid me didn’t take notes while I was reading this one! So I’m going to stop now before I start babbling about something that didn’t actually happen.
Nightpeople was an alright book, though it didn’t grab me as I had hoped it would. It had interesting ideas backing it, though not much was revealed in this first installment. I will eventually get around to finishing the series, but not just yet. The reason I am only giving Nightpeople the rating that it got is not because it was a bad book overall, but it just didn’t grab me personally. Who knows, it might be your type of book…but it wasn’t really mine. ( )