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A review by adelaidemetzger_robotprophet
By Blood We Live by Glen Duncan
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.