You might be surprised, considering my reaction to the first book in this series, that I carried on and read Glen Duncan’s Talulla Rising. I picked it up mostly because of the reviews. Surprisingly, I actually found myself in accord with the critics on this one. This book is better than its predecessor. A lot better. I actually have fewer misgiving in recommending this one to others. While Duncan still uses the c-word fairly liberally and there’s some fairly gruesome violence in this book, there’s a lot of plot, a lot of intriguing mystery, and, for me, a better narrator.
The Last Werewolf was narrated by the putative last werewolf, Jake Marlowe. Talulla Rising is narrated by his lover, the eponymous Talulla. We rejoin her in remote Alaska, just before she gives birth to their twins. But enemies from the previous book kidnap her son and leave Talulla helpless to follow. (It’s not a spoiler if it happens in the first chapter.) Most of the book follows Talulla’s attempts to get her son back and learn how to be a mother to her daughter. She worries a lot about being a good mother and bonding and what she should do and be–which humanizes her for all that she becomes murderous, hairy monster every month.
The Last Werewolf introduced us to WOCOP, a secret organization dedicated to controlling supernatural creatures. Talulla Rising brings in even more. There are all kinds of agendas and Talulla and her allies get attacked by representatives of just about everyone on of them. Duncan’s a little overfond of the “Suddenly, guys burst in through the door/window” cliffhanger, to be honest. But it makes for a some fascinating complications when it comes time for our narrator to decide who she’s going to trust. It also lays the groundwork for another book in the series, which looks to be even more complicated.
It doesn’t take long for Talulla to find out that her son was kidnapped by a vampire cult. They’re very well connected and very well hidden. And since they’re well armed, too, Talulla has to gather allies. It’s a little convenient the way that trustworthy people wander into her path. As I said, Duncan likes his coincidences. But there are enough moments of danger to keep things from seeming too easy. In fact, there’s a part in the middle of the book where Talulla herself gets kidnapped and subjected to some gruesome tortures by doctors who take after the example of Dr. Mengele and his ilk–that is torture in the name of dubious “science.” It all got pretty close to my limits for the amount of violence I can handle in fiction.
Talulla Rising is well plotted, well written, well paced, and has a great narrator. I like this kind of contemporary fantasy. It’s not just standoffs in a big room like a lot of the other well known series seem to have degenerated into. It has a few problems, but not enough to totally derail things. While I enjoyed the philosophical ponderings of the last book, this book did a better job of blending action and thought together. It didn’t bog down nearly as much as The Last Werewolf did. I’d still recommend the first book, because readers will get lost trying to pick up what’s happening in this book.