Archive for new vampire books in 2011
Best Fantasy Books: Blood Rock by Anthony Francis
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Title: Blood Rock
Author: Anthony Francis
Release: July 2011
Pages: 298
Genre: Urban Vampire
Dakota Frost is a skindancer- meaning she is someone who can make her magical tattoos dance out of her body to act and protect her. It is a handy ability to have in the Atlanta that she inhabits, filled with vampires, werekin of all kinds and so much more. She needs it sometimes just to stay alive and in this second installment in the series we find she has to get pretty creative with those magical tattoos. I jumped into this book without reading the first in the series and had no trouble but I have to admit that now I want to go back and read the first one. His world is just that good.
Dakota is one tough cookie, she can do all kinds of martial arts and kills when she has to without much regret. But I love the fact that we also see the soft side to her when she decides to adopt a little weretiger that is a foundling. The love between the two is obvious and Anthony Francis handles this part of the story with such grace that it makes the character all the more fascinating. When you add in that Atlanta seems to be having problems with magical graffiti that is killing vampires, that Dakota’s relationship with the law in the form of the local police seems to be getting rocky despite her family history of both a Dad and Uncle on the force and she is finding herself dating a vampire – well life is complicated for this gal.
The scenes of her and vampire Calaphase on a date are like nothing I have ever read. Her protective instincts when little Cinnamon is threatened are amazing. But the best scenes by far are when she needs to pull out those tattoos to protect either herself or someone else. Anthony Frances is careful to make his explanations seem within the realm of possibility without going into so much detail we lose the thread of the story. It is just plain intelligent writing of a carefully thought-out world with a dynamic and intelligent woman at the center it.
How she manages to find out who and what exactly is creating these deadly living pieces of graffiti – so like her own tattoos and yet so much more deadly – and why they are killing the vampires of Atlanta is just one part of a great story that will have you sitting up late at night to just read a little further. I know that is what I did, and couldn’t stop reading even if it was 3AM. The story telling in Blood Rock is addictive and the characters are all fascinating.
New Vampire Books in 2012: King’s Blood: Musings of a Postmodern Vampire by P.J. Day
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Title: King’s Blood: Musings of a Postmodern Vampire
Author: P.J. Day
Release: January 2012
Pages: Kindle
Genre: Urban Vampire
From the start King’s Blood is one of the New Vampire Books in 2012 with a story like very few you have ever read. It has a hip feel to it, one that draws you in and keeps you there. The story of Jack King is the tale of a vampire who is living in today’s world of lack of privacy, social networks and romance where the first thing you do after a date is “google” your date to be sure he isn’t a mass murderer. It is not the world Jack King was born into, but it is the one he lives in now.
Jack is just a vampire with needs like anyone else, he would like to have friends he can trust and a mate he can be in love with without having to look over his shoulder. There was a time, he tells us, when people were basically ignorant and being a vampire was an easier thing to maintain. But today, with the proliferation of vampires in books and magazines, he finds it is getting harder to maintain his cover.
In this, the first part of a series, Jack introduces himself and chats with us about how someone who has been around as long as he has (and he doesn’t really tell you just how long that is) deals with the modern world. Along the way we get to know those handful of people he has come to trust, and meet the gal he hopes will be more than a friend.
A fun departure from the usual vampire tale, with King’s Blood author P.J. Day has introduced a whole new kind of vampire. He may not be the suave vampire of Anne Rice’s world, nor does he sparkle like the latest movie vampires. But Day’s vampire holds his own; and out of all the New Vampire Books in 2012 he brings us a new way to appreciate our dark brethren.
Dorian Gray’s Killing Time a New Kind of Vampire
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Normally when someone is made into a vampire in today’s books, you know what will happen next. They will go on a killing spree or some other horribly violent venture that is the signature of vampires these days. But what if that isn’t what happens? What if your vampire had a conscience?
That is the idea behind Killing Time, a new vampire book by first time author Dorian Gray. Although the vampire legend is strong in literature today, he felt there was something missing in the various versions of True Blood, Twilight and company that he saw. And what he felt was missing was a vampire on a mission.
When Alister Black awakens from a strange swoon that resulted from a bite, he knows that his life has changed. Before he was someone who from the outside had it all – the heir to a family fortune and all that it entitled him to. But when he awakens from this bite he finds himself slowly coming to realize he has been given a chance to right some wrongs. With his new found abilities he sets out on a kind of one person crusade to fight for justice- as a vampire.
Killing Time is a book that is certainly taking the current vampire craze in a whole new bearing. Gray gives his vampire direction and purpose, as he continues to search for the one who made the change in his life. Where the two quests will take him, only those who read this tale will know.
