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klparmley's review against another edition
3.0
These vampires are actually monsters. They don't glitter. They don't beat themselves up over their monstrosity. And Bledsoe does a good job of writing them so that you have some understanding of that monstrosity even though you don't buy into it.
There are a couple that aren't as bad as the others. But, that doesn't make them nice people.
There are a couple that aren't as bad as the others. But, that doesn't make them nice people.
git_r_read's review against another edition
4.0
A little harsh, definitely not for those who dig their vampires sparkly.
seanpatricklittle's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not a fan of vampires. I liked them when I was a kid, when they were the villains and not the heroes--and definitely when they weren't 100-year-old sparkly-skinned pedos hanging out in high schools.
However, I am a fan of great prose. Having read all of Alex Bledsoe's other series (the fun swordplay romps of Eddie LaCrosse, and the tremendous Tufa novels), it was either read about vampires, or suffer through a drought waiting for whatever he brings us next. I chose to go with reading about vampires.
And I'm glad I did.
Sent in Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-70's, a European vampire, the charming and intelligent Rudolfo Zginski, finds himself in unfamiliar waters. Brought back to life after decades spent as a corpse after being staked, he finds himself falling in with a coven of young vampires who don't fully understand what they are and what they can do, and battling a new drug whose sole intent seems to be to destroy vampires.
Frankly, the plot grooves, the descriptions and prose feel like something best-suited for the big screen of a late-night, 1970's drive-in. Everything about this book is so delightfully 1970's that it made me feel like I needed bell-bottoms and a wide collar just to fit in while reading it. And, while I'm generally not a fan of vampires, I liked this book a lot. Bledsoe can flat-out write. His background in journalism gives him that strong, move-it-along prose that sings. He's not bogged down in thick metaphors or marveling at his own genius--the man has a story to tell, and by god he's gonna tell it.
This book grooves like some old fuzzy-bass funk. I'll get around to reading the second book in the series, The Girls with Games of Blood, before too long, I'm sure.
If you're up for some 70's nostalgia, some righteous prose, and a blood-sucking good time, check this one out.
However, I am a fan of great prose. Having read all of Alex Bledsoe's other series (the fun swordplay romps of Eddie LaCrosse, and the tremendous Tufa novels), it was either read about vampires, or suffer through a drought waiting for whatever he brings us next. I chose to go with reading about vampires.
And I'm glad I did.
Sent in Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-70's, a European vampire, the charming and intelligent Rudolfo Zginski, finds himself in unfamiliar waters. Brought back to life after decades spent as a corpse after being staked, he finds himself falling in with a coven of young vampires who don't fully understand what they are and what they can do, and battling a new drug whose sole intent seems to be to destroy vampires.
Frankly, the plot grooves, the descriptions and prose feel like something best-suited for the big screen of a late-night, 1970's drive-in. Everything about this book is so delightfully 1970's that it made me feel like I needed bell-bottoms and a wide collar just to fit in while reading it. And, while I'm generally not a fan of vampires, I liked this book a lot. Bledsoe can flat-out write. His background in journalism gives him that strong, move-it-along prose that sings. He's not bogged down in thick metaphors or marveling at his own genius--the man has a story to tell, and by god he's gonna tell it.
This book grooves like some old fuzzy-bass funk. I'll get around to reading the second book in the series, The Girls with Games of Blood, before too long, I'm sure.
If you're up for some 70's nostalgia, some righteous prose, and a blood-sucking good time, check this one out.
craftingrama's review against another edition
3.0
it was different not sure if I liked it or not as its verges on stuff I don't really care for
verkisto's review against another edition
2.0
For the first time, I get to review a book that was written by someone I know! There’s something really cool about that, partly because I once entertained the idea of being a writer, and partly because I want Alex to be successful as a writer. Am I attempting to live vicariously through his success? Maybe. This might be as close as I get to living that dream myself.
Anyway, this book was a good one for me to start with, since it’s horror-related. It’s set in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1970s, and the story centers on a vampire who revives after having been killed near the turn of the 20th century. The theme that orbits the story involves the racial tensions of the times, and it’s illustrated well by contrasting the vampire, a nobleman with very old ways of thinking, with the modern, street-savvy vampires of the 1970s, some of whom are black. I can appreciate a genre novel that tries to give itself some gravity, so I was looking forward to reading the book for a number of different reasons.
I was easily hooked, and the story flowed well enough to allow me to finish the book in a day. I found a few spots that didn’t ring true with me, but overall it was a decent read, and the perfect sort of book for reading on vacation. I had some issues with the dialog right at the start, but the opening scene focused on Zginsky, the vampire from 1915, and I figured it was supposed to be a product of its time. Later, though, the jive-talking black vampires took me out of the story too often, just because it seemed so stereotypical. Is that really how folks like that talked in Memphis in the 1970s? And even if it was, is that how the readers expect them to talk?
I also found it hard to sympathize with any of the characters. At first, it seemed to be a case of rooting for the vampires. Then, the sympathies shifted and it seemed to be about rooting for the humans. Nope, that didn’t work, either, because the main human character goes and does something terribly vile, and the sympathies shift again. Whoops, hold on, now the vampires are the bad guys again … no, now the humans? After all the back-and-forth, it was hard to keep track of who I was supposed to be rooting for, and it caused confusion and, ultimately, frustration. I’m all for playing around with a reader’s expectations and catching them off guard, but this seemed to be a little too much.
Overall, though, the story was readable and compelling, enough so that I’m willing to forgive what I didn’t like about the book in the hopes that the author’s future books will get better; as near as I can tell, this was his first published novel, and those tend to be a little clunky. Plus, I doubt anyone picking up the book is looking for something akin to War and Peace, and the book is still a decent way to kill an afternoon in the sun.
Anyway, this book was a good one for me to start with, since it’s horror-related. It’s set in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1970s, and the story centers on a vampire who revives after having been killed near the turn of the 20th century. The theme that orbits the story involves the racial tensions of the times, and it’s illustrated well by contrasting the vampire, a nobleman with very old ways of thinking, with the modern, street-savvy vampires of the 1970s, some of whom are black. I can appreciate a genre novel that tries to give itself some gravity, so I was looking forward to reading the book for a number of different reasons.
I was easily hooked, and the story flowed well enough to allow me to finish the book in a day. I found a few spots that didn’t ring true with me, but overall it was a decent read, and the perfect sort of book for reading on vacation. I had some issues with the dialog right at the start, but the opening scene focused on Zginsky, the vampire from 1915, and I figured it was supposed to be a product of its time. Later, though, the jive-talking black vampires took me out of the story too often, just because it seemed so stereotypical. Is that really how folks like that talked in Memphis in the 1970s? And even if it was, is that how the readers expect them to talk?
I also found it hard to sympathize with any of the characters. At first, it seemed to be a case of rooting for the vampires. Then, the sympathies shifted and it seemed to be about rooting for the humans. Nope, that didn’t work, either, because the main human character goes and does something terribly vile, and the sympathies shift again. Whoops, hold on, now the vampires are the bad guys again … no, now the humans? After all the back-and-forth, it was hard to keep track of who I was supposed to be rooting for, and it caused confusion and, ultimately, frustration. I’m all for playing around with a reader’s expectations and catching them off guard, but this seemed to be a little too much.
Overall, though, the story was readable and compelling, enough so that I’m willing to forgive what I didn’t like about the book in the hopes that the author’s future books will get better; as near as I can tell, this was his first published novel, and those tend to be a little clunky. Plus, I doubt anyone picking up the book is looking for something akin to War and Peace, and the book is still a decent way to kill an afternoon in the sun.
rachelteresacrawshaw's review against another edition
2.0
This book started well and the storyline was an interesting idea but it ended up being too full of gratuitous violence and sex for my tastes. There were quite a few scences of sexual violence which are to be expected in vampire novels but I think this book took it too far and the scences did not really enhance the text in anyway. The book also insinuated underage sex on regular occasions which was uncalled for and should not be promoted in my opinion in any litereature, even for pure fantasy. It was an easy read, not too mentally taxing but not the most intelligent or interesting of vampire stories.
clambook's review
1.0
Bledsoe is a man of many parts, but the urban vampire shouldn't be one of them. Stick to the Tufas.
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