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apersonfromflorida's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Sexual content, Trafficking, Terminal illness, Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Stalking, Addiction, Body horror, Religious bigotry, and Medical content
Minor: Confinement and Grief
xaphriel's review against another edition
4.0
An enjoyable end to the series. The thing I love about Duncan's writing is that he doesn't always end his stories. The story goes on, even though he's not writing any more. A bit disappointing in places, just samey stuff from the first two, but the past sequences were especially enjoyable, and I enjoyed Remshi's perspective. Read the damn thing, and everything else the man has written.
kristinmc's review against another edition
2.0
This story was not nearly as interesting as the first. I think it takes itself too seriously, and the characters are not my faves.
tomislav_d's review against another edition
2.0
Dear Reader, it was Destiny all along. And bad sex. Who would have thought?
vaderspetpug's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
flosmith's review
3.0
Overall, 3.5 starts. I considered rounding up but after thinking about it I decided that I didn't enjoy it well enough for 4 stars.
This is supposedly the last I the Last Werewolf trilogy, although the ending leaves me in doubt of that. I love the style of Duncan's writing. It usually always keeps me interested, hanging on every word. Despite this, By Blood We Live, left me a bit disappointed. I loved this trilogy from the very beginning and maybe I just had too high of expectations for the ending.
By Blood We Live is told from many different points of view. Duncan seemed to want to make all of his characters equally important, and while a worthy goal it just left it all a bit jumbled. There seems to be a lot going on and at the same time a whole lot of nothing. We are drawn into the lives of vampires and werewolves alike and with that comes lots of blood, lots of killing and eating, and lots of bestiality/sex. But at the same time, there just doesn't seem to be much of a point to it all (maybe that's the point of real life, there really is no point.) We hear a lot about this important prophecy and the life of a 20,000 year old vampire. The whole story seems to culminate with Remshi and Talulla coming together. (This isn't a spoiler cuz its listed in the blurb) Then its like and ...... now what?
Overall, I love this series. Its not for everyone but if you like werewolves this is the series to read. But having said that, I had much higher expectations for the ending.
This is supposedly the last I the Last Werewolf trilogy, although the ending leaves me in doubt of that. I love the style of Duncan's writing. It usually always keeps me interested, hanging on every word. Despite this, By Blood We Live, left me a bit disappointed. I loved this trilogy from the very beginning and maybe I just had too high of expectations for the ending.
By Blood We Live is told from many different points of view. Duncan seemed to want to make all of his characters equally important, and while a worthy goal it just left it all a bit jumbled. There seems to be a lot going on and at the same time a whole lot of nothing. We are drawn into the lives of vampires and werewolves alike and with that comes lots of blood, lots of killing and eating, and lots of bestiality/sex. But at the same time, there just doesn't seem to be much of a point to it all (maybe that's the point of real life, there really is no point.) We hear a lot about this important prophecy and the life of a 20,000 year old vampire. The whole story seems to culminate with Remshi and Talulla coming together. (This isn't a spoiler cuz its listed in the blurb) Then its like and ...... now what?
Overall, I love this series. Its not for everyone but if you like werewolves this is the series to read. But having said that, I had much higher expectations for the ending.
jsberzon's review
4.0
not quite as good as the others...but ended with a bang and i'm excited for what's coming next. maybe more like a 3.75 but rounding up cause i like his style and i love all the characters.
adelaidemetzger_robotprophet's review
3.0
Well, this trilogy didn’t go out with a bang, but at least it wasn’t cliché—even if I didn’t quite understand it.
Glen Duncan got me hooked with the end of The Last Werewolfwith Jake dying and leaving Tellula pregnant and that made me excited about Tellula Rising which contained everything I wanted that wasn’t in the first book. With Tellula Rising ending so hunky-dory, I was completely satisfied with the trilogy ending there (even without explaining who Remshi was despite his appearance in the climax). What got me interested in By Blood We Live was the fact that this was in the point of view of a vampire—the oldest vampire—instead of a werewolf like the first two books. However, about 1 quarter into it I lost interest quickly.
This book started strong and fresh with Remshi being the focal point. As usual, Duncan’s take on the lore has to be my favorite part of this whole trilogy. I always like to see how different authors put a different take on werewolf/vampire lore and Glen Duncan has to be my favorite so far. How the werewolves came to be, why vampires and werewolves can’t stand each other, vampire quirks and behavior, werewolf quirks and behavior, so much greatness on these subjects here and I love every bit of it.What got me really excited was finding out that Tellula and Remshi are long lost lovers and actually meant for each other. But that interest left when we got back into Tellula’s POV and had to deal with her problems with a mysterious vampire who needs her for curing paranormal curses—and that’s probably because I felt I was done with her side of the story.
As I said the end of this book is anti-climatic without much of a kick, but it isn’t cliché—just confusing. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on with Tellula walking away safe and okay,at first I thought it was the cure to lycanthropy, but then she said something about immunity to silver, but even Tellula repeated that she didn’t know what it was. One thing Duncan is known for is trying to come off as realistic and original. He doesn’t play by the rules of literature and forms a world within our own so that we can believe it all the more, so I think that’s what he was trying to do with this ending. In reality we seldom understand things that would make our life story more meaningful, so having the main character not understand what just happened to her is reasonable. But my brain hard-wired with starving for patterns in literature naturally disagreed with what happened and so I’m still fidgeting in my skin about it.
But after a day or two of sitting on it, I accept this conclusion with open arms, but still give it three stars with what this book had to offer as a whole. Loved the backstory and lore stuff, everything else was alright.
Glen Duncan got me hooked with the end of The Last Werewolf
This book started strong and fresh with Remshi being the focal point. As usual, Duncan’s take on the lore has to be my favorite part of this whole trilogy. I always like to see how different authors put a different take on werewolf/vampire lore and Glen Duncan has to be my favorite so far. How the werewolves came to be, why vampires and werewolves can’t stand each other, vampire quirks and behavior, werewolf quirks and behavior, so much greatness on these subjects here and I love every bit of it.
As I said the end of this book is anti-climatic without much of a kick, but it isn’t cliché—just confusing. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on with Tellula walking away safe and okay,
But after a day or two of sitting on it, I accept this conclusion with open arms, but still give it three stars with what this book had to offer as a whole. Loved the backstory and lore stuff, everything else was alright.