Tagged: real vampires
Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike
(Cover picture courtesy of The Book on the Hill.)
Alisa has been in control of her urges for the five thousand years she has been a vampire. She feeds but does not kill, and she lives her life on the fringe to maintain her secret. But when her creator returns to hunt her, she must break her own rules in order to survive.
Her quest leads her to Ray. He is the only person who can help her; he also has every reason to fear her. Alisa must get closer to him to ensure her immortality. But as she begins to fall in love with Ray, suddenly there is more at stake than her own life.
Oh no! Christopher Pike had a female vampire as his main character, but guess what? She was a real vampire. Yes, a blood-sucking, cold-blooded killing machine who has almost no regrets about murdering people in order to survive. Not only is Sita a real vampire, she has an amazing backstory and, in the context of urban fantasy vampires, it is a believable one. No, it’s not a science origins vampire story, but it is interesting and Christopher Pike created an interesting world around it.
I think Sita is proof of Loren Estleman’s statement in his book on writing that characters don’t have to be sympathetic, but they have to be interesting. She’s hardly sympathetic in the beginning, but at least she is interesting. As she grows throughout the three books that make up Thirst No. 1 (which were originally published separately), we begin to see an almost human side of her. Sita falls in love, confronts her past and begins to look to her future and even though it’s a slow character arc, it’s believable.
The plot moves along pretty quickly because the three books that make up the volume are less than 200 pages each. However, being a book about real vampires, Thirst No. 1 is extremely gory. I would not recommend it for young audiences, especially because of the gore and sexual content. But despite gore that seems almost unnecessary, Thirst No. 1 is a good book that overall, I enjoyed.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.
Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die…or become one of the monsters.
Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.
Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.
But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.
(Summary courtesy of Amazon.)
Finally, a real vampire story!
I can’t tell you how ridiculously happy Julie Kagawa’s version of vampires made me. Vampires are stone-cold killing machines; they’re designed to kill humans. They don’t sparkle in the sunlight and they certainly aren’t century-old virgins. And vampires are powerful, so they naturally end up ruling the world, rather than being in hiding like they are in so many modern books.
Allie is a great protagonist. She’s strong and accepts being a vampire relatively well, even though she got off to a pretty shaky start. Kanin is an awesome vampire and I suspect we’ll learn a lot more about his mysterious backstory in the next book. Or at least I hope we do because there’s a lot of hints about his past.
The plot is fast-paced, the characters are amazing and the world-building is nothing less than I would expect from an author like Julie Kagawa. Blood of Eden looks to be a promising series and I honestly can’t wait for the next book. Even if you don’t like vampires in general, you will love this book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.