Tagged: vampires

Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike

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.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

(Cover picture courtesy of In The Next Room.)

Okay, let’s clear up some myths about vampires.  First of all, you won’t see me using the v-word much.  In the Night Watch, we prefer the term parasite positives or peeps for short.

The main thing to remember is that there’s no magic involved.  No flying.  No transforming into bats or rats either.  We’re talking about a disease.

After a chance encounter with a mysterious woman one night, Cal Thompson’s life is changed forever.  He’s been infected with an insidious parasite.  The good news: he’s only a carrier—still sane, without the worst of the symptoms.  The bad news: he’s infected all his former girlfriends—and now they’ve turned into what Cal calls peeps.  The rest of us call them vampires.  And it’s Cal’s job to hunt them down before they create even more of their kind.

I don’t consider myself a person who’s easily grossed out, but congratulations must go to Scott Westerfeld for managing to do just that!  He goes into incredible detail not just for the peeps parasite, but for many other parasites.  You see, every other chapter he describes a kind of parasite that is either good or bad and ties it into the story very well in the end.  That’s a lot of parasites to gross you out.  And the parasites are nothing in comparison to some of the disgusting situations Cal gets into.

In other words: Don’t read this while you’re eating.  Or before you go to sleep, like I did.

Scott Westerfeld’s sense of humour shines through more in Peeps than in his Uglies series because Cal is just that kind of character.  He’s snarky and sarcastic, but also wracked with guilt over spreading the peeps disease to all of his ex-girlfriends, making them insane.  Not only is the parasite spread through sexual contact, it can be spread by bodily fluids like saliva.  So you can imagine how scared he is when he meets Lace, who seems determined to interfere in his life and may even be falling in love with him.

The plot is quite fast-paced and Peeps has lots of twists and turns I never saw coming.  The best part is that it’s not your typical vampire story, so it’s pretty hard to get bored with the premise.  And the cliffhanger at the ending will make you want to read the next book, The Last Days because of the huge plot twist in the end.  I can’t wait for the next book!

I give this book 4/5 stars.

Amazon      Barnes and Noble

Luca’s Magic Embrace Giveaway

Note: This giveaway is being hosted by Mark of The Masquerade Crew and will be open until November 4.  It’s definitely not the sort of book I would normally read, but hey, each to their own.

Publication Date: October 18, 2012

Series: Immortals of New Orleans #2

Genre: Paranormal Romance

An erotic, paranormal romance…Sexy vampire, Luca Macquarie doesn’t do love; especially not with humans. Yet, ever since he rescued Samantha Irving, he can’t deny the enigmatic attraction he’s developed for the alluring mortal woman. Concerned for her safety, he’s determined to bring Samantha back to her coven. His mission is to go find the novice witch and bring her home, nothing more, nothing less; falling for her is not supposed to be part of the plan.Samantha doesn’t want to be a witch, yet that’s exactly what she is. After failing to elicit her magic, she escapes to the mountains in an attempt to resume a semblance of her previous human life. When an arsonist torches her cabin, Samantha’s worst fears are realized. Aware that her life is on the line, she reluctantly agrees to return to New Orleans with Luca.

In the Big Easy, Samantha and Luca embark on a spellbinding journey, searching for a mystical amulet that promises to release her obligation from an ancient, lethal vampire who’s been threatening her life. With cryptic clues and clandestine allies, will Luca and Samantha destroy the dangerous amulet before others acquire it, setting forth a chain of catastrophic consequences? And will Luca give into his erotic desire for the witch who magically captures heart?


CHECK OUT Diantha’s Review on DJ’S Book Corner!

To celebrate her new release, the author has agreed to giveaway TWO eBooks of “Luca’s Magic Embrace!” Enter below! Giveaway ends November 4th, 2012!

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

Pandora by Anne Rice

(Cover picture courtesy of Books are a Garden.)

Anne Rice, creator of the Vampire Lestat, the Mayfair witches and the amazing worlds they inhabit, now gives us the first in a new series of novels linked together by the fledgling vampire David Talbot, who has set out to become a chronicler of his fellow Undead.

The novel opens in present-day Paris in a crowded café, where David meets Pandora. She is two thousand years old, a Child of the Millennia, the first vampire ever made by the great Marius. David persuades her to tell the story of her life.

Pandora begins, reluctantly at first and then with increasing passion, to recount her mesmerizing tale, which takes us through the ages, from Imperial Rome to eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Paris and New Orleans. She carries us back to her mortal girlhood in the world of Caesar Augustus, a world chronicled by Ovid and Petronius. This is where Pandora meets and falls in love with the handsome, charismatic, lighthearted, still-mortal Marius. This is the Rome she is forced to flee in fear of assassination by conspirators plotting to take over the city. And we follow her to the exotic port of Antioch, where she is destined to be reunited with Marius, now immortal and haunted by his vampire nature, who will bestow on her the Dark Gift as they set out on the fraught and fantastic adventure of their two turbulent centuries together.

[Summary courtesy of Goodreads.]

Pandora is part of Anne Rice’s New Tales of the Vampires (although they’re not that new anymore) and there is virtually no difference in writing quality or style from her more popular The Vampire Chronicles.  What is different, though, is that we finally see the stories of formerly minor characters who aren’t really connected to Lestat.  Lestat, although he is a very interesting character, does get annoying after a couple of books, so a book from the point of view of Pandora was perfect for me.

Pandora is a woman during Pax Romana, or the golden age of Rome during the later years of Augustus.  Anne Rice paints a picture of a strong-willed woman very much in control of her own life and doted on by a loving father who is far from the average pater familias.  She is a free spirit, a dreamer and when she falls in love with Marius, the logical, cold Roman man, it makes for an interesting relationship.  The dynamics are definitely not that of a traditional one!

As with all of her novels, Anne Rice has done the research and paints a believable picture of ancient Rome in its glory and during its fall.  From the reign of terror of Sejanus to the murderous paranoia and sadism of Tiberius all the way to the spread and eventual acceptance of Christianity, Anne Rice takes readers on an amazing introspective adventure.  Pandora is actually my favourite book about Anne Rice’s vampires not just because I love Roman history, but because Pandora herself is one amazing three dimensional character.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

Amazon*    Barnes and Noble

*Unfortunately, Amazon only has Pandora available in a double book with Vittorio the Vampire unless you want to purchase a used novel.

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.

Amazon      Barnes and Noble