Well, another vampire book it is. *cracks knuckles and repositions self in rolly chair*
I must say that Christopher Pike has exceptional talent for writing vampire stories with twists. Yes, it is somewhat far fetched, and yes -I *have* looked up the ending to the next compilation of this series on wikipedia and despise the ending. But this matters not.
Thirst is a series written in the 90's but republished/printed due to the vamp hype cycling back around. Twihards and Draculovers alike will find this a page turner like few others. 'Thirst #1' contains the first three books in the 'Last Vampire' series. In it we find Sita, a 5,000yr old vamp, and an unknown enemy. Action galore awaits you, my friend, if you can get past the occasional weirdness thrown in. It's hard to define, but some words, or trains of thought, don't seem to fit. Oh well, moving on.
Sita enrolls in high school to meet Ray, the son-of-a-*detective* who has just been orphaned...but doesn't know it yet. While this does complicate matters slightly, Sita meets Seymour (who is dying of HIV from a blood transfusion) in archery class and finds him special. He dreams about what happens to her, and has a semi-psychic link to her. This book has it's own 'debunking old vampire myths' segment, which I will spare you, but needless to say : NO ONE SPARKLES. Which is good enough for me.
Also, confusingly, these 'immortal' evils can be killed with a bullet to the head or decapitation.....so what happened to being immortal again? That would suck to find out accidentally.
"Psh, go ahead and shoot dude. I'm a vampire, I'm *immortal*. I don't die from a stupid bullet like you silly humans."
Bang. Pause. Confused look, *plop*.
"Oh thank god Thelma, I thought that psycho was gunna violate us or something, getting his spit all over my neck. Disgusting. I sure am glad I keep that rifle under the seat even though you said it would get me arrested one day."
"Well Earl, I wasn't exactly considering the possibility of -WAIT, IT TWITCHED! Shoot it again!- (bang, bang) *sighs*. I just didn't think a crazy convict or something was going to attack you any time soon..."
(Links provided for background info and the like)
Sita falls in love with Ray because she can see Krishna in him. When she was still young apparently she met Krishna when Yaksha challenged him to a duel and they sat in a snake pit while playing the flute. This story takes quite a bit from legends and mythical creatures (as well as historical religions), and has a narrative style similar to 'The Gargoyle', which switches effortlessly from past and present in it's story telling segments. If you have a bee in your bonnet about reincarnation, and other religious themes, then you might not appreciate their frequent mentions, but you were forewarned.
Ray is easily persuaded to be the boytoy lover for vampire Sita, but is eventually turned later when Yaksha and Sita have their 'lets die then, shall we?' show down. Lots of fun things happen, Yaksha is supposedly killed, and Ray becomes a vamp too. He is unhappy though, because he really doesn't enjoy killing people or drinking their blood. Dude, your a vampire now, get over yourself.
Book two enters about here with a new challenge: Eddie. So Eddie works at a morgue and steals Yaksha's body, which is not totally dead for some strange reason. He turns himself into a vamp and takes lots of power from Yaksha, then starts making a whole bunch of little baby vampires. They kill lots of people, Sita and Ray eventually both come and fight him. Sita meets the FBI guy, Joel, and he saves her from getting killed in the explosion that kills Ray and should have killed Eddie. Ed has a weird pervy mom, Sita kills Eddie, Joel gets turned into a vampire because he almost dies, and Sita gets yet another problem. Government! Wait, why no cheering? You think the government overreacts too!? Wow, imagine that...
Simply because the last book had way too many twists for normal people with ADHD to think of, I will leave that to your imagination.
At first I thought this was a little retarded. Whoop, whoop, a vampire. Wow, she drinks blood. She thinks she's bada**? Congrats, so does Rambo. Blond? Why not sign up for Miss America now and save yourself the trouble? But oh how my words only half haunt me. I still think this is too dramay for its own good, but I still really like the constant "Bond, James Bond" feel for action and adventure this has. Sure, it might dwell a little on the whole "I'm a vamp and I'm really strong and I kill people." bit, but hey, its worth sticking around to see the ending. I love Seymour, God bless him, but the ending I read about makes me want to punch him in the face....if he existed that is. Anywho, please don't go read the ending ahead of time, like muah (French people glare at me while sharpening the utensils they eat snails with...), because I'm probably going to go ahead and track down the second half of these things to read.
ENDING POINTS:
+ Action.
+NO SPARKLES!!!!! and pretty original/not-but-better-than-twilight abilities
+ The randomness of His stories and plot twists
+ Realistic feelings from Sita, if not from other characters (but even Sita annoys me at the end of this book)
- ohmigead how often do I have to hear people talking about how cool they are when they can wear leather, have blond hair, and never age while carrying trunkloads of ammo in their pockets?
- Why turn Joel? I don't get it.....
- Dear lord please don't do it!!!!! (For context please read the last three pages of Red Dice)
- Why did you do it? (Just read the last two pages then...fine....)
Showing posts with label vampires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vampires. Show all posts
Monday, November 30, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Blood Promise (Vampire Academy Book #4) - Yay! A modern title : )
Ok. I personally *love* Richelle Mead's VA series. It's so much amazingly better than, say, Twilight, or most other vamp stories, for one big reason -This story has action. Sword fights, beheadings, true love, rebellion, magical powers that don't suck (or say "I'm totally gay. Watch me sparkle and be amazed!"), staking, death, etc. etc. etc.
Technically this *is* book four, so I can't spill too many beans here or the story is basically ruined, but oh well. VA (Vampire Academy) follows Rose, a guardian, who is 'half' vampire. She is shadow kissed (awesome right?) which basically means she died and her friend brought her back. That is soooo much better than sparkling, am I right? If all my friends could heal me I would probably hurt myself much more though, so maybe it's good that they all content themselves to get roll-on body glitter and stay out of the sun : ) Sorry, can't let that one go...
Rose's friend Lisa, also called Vasilisa, but that's too freaky for everyday conversation, is a 'real' vampire. There are three kinds is this series: Moroi (good [not evil in most ways] vampires), Strigoi (evil, dead, murdering, awesome vampires), and Dhampirs (the half-breeds who become guardians because of their strength). They kind of had a falling out, but I'll expalin that in a second, so half of the story is about Rose, and the other half is seen when Rose looks through the 'shadow kissed bond thing' and checks in on Lisa. Confusing? Not really, it's introduced early on in the story line and takes very little time to get used to.
Quick Catch Up: Rose and Lisa had run away from school awhile back to protect Lisa, but they get stopped by the school guardians and are forced to return after two (?) years on their own. Lisa is slightly caught up in typical school drama ("That's *my* boyfriend!" "Well, then *your* boyfriend just asked me to dance and I really like dancing..." "Oh, we are SO not friends anymore!!"), but Rose is more badass. I imagine her punching people in her dreams more often then not. She gets into fights, yada yada, basic truant stuff. Dimitri, the guard that caught her and lisa, starts training her again for guardianship when she graduates, but in about the first book or so you can easily see a 'my true love!' thing will happen. Sure enough, Dimitri and Rose have a whole big romance going on, but for the sake of pedophilia charges they usually try to call it off. (he's about 6/7 years older than her...don't judge) So Lisa is more into the whole 'Royal Vamp' scene, while Rose is training to be her guardian while trying to manage her feelings for Dimitri. Oh the drama. Lisa is kidnapped and tortured to heal an old and diseased Moroi Royal, but Rose (thanks to Mr. Shadow Kiss Bond) and Dimitri save that day and end it with a Kumbayah around the camp fire...presumably with S'mores and guitars. Lisa eventually falls for Christan (a fire using Moroi...told you these things were awesome, he could cook for hours when camping! No stove needed! Not even a match!!! Talk about a useful ability.), but Strigoi attack the school and turn Dimitri into one of them. Apparently they do that -if you've ever watched 'Interview with the Vampire' than you know how this is done- so Rose decides to leave Lisa and go on a journey to kill Dimitri. (In the first book she and Dimitri had talked about what they wanted if this ever occured and both agreed to kill the other if such a monstrocity ever really did happen)
Which is where this book picks up. Rose has left on her quest to find and kill her 'one true love, destined to be but never can be' Dimitri, and goes to Russia, as he was Russian. The scary person 'Abe' or Zmey (fun nickname) tries to convince her to leave for America, but she only goes to a different city after angering one of Dimitri's sisters and basically getting semi-kicked out. She leaves with Strigoi hunters who don't do anything but randomly stalk and kill the evil vamps, and forces her leadership on them to find Dimitri. Eventually she indeed finds him but, "forgot my first lesson. Never hesitate", as he put it before knocking her unconscious.
She wakes up in a human-proof (^_^) room (human proof? lol...rofl...*sighs* ah, that shouldn't really be that funny but it is...) and tries to fight Dimitri off, but after awhile ends up high off his bite -long story made short: vamp bites are like drugs...just with bite marks- and making her few remaining friends (adrian and lisa) mad at her. Before this, and yes I know I'm backtracking, she met another Shadow Kissed bond friendship/marraige/whatever and learns quite a bit from them. Among these good things gleaned from the other shadow kissed people is a ring 'infused with spirit' -another long story...just read the books- that might just hold the key to our next installment of VA! *happy dancing while ticking off months till its release* For about a month she is continuously asked to, in effect, join the dark side (Light sabres humm in the distance and mechanic breathing echoes through the staticy air), but never says yes. After finally breaking away from Dimitri by stabbing him with a chair leg...brutal right?...she escapes from the Strigoi hideout. He easily survives and chases her for a mile or so where she stabs him with a stolen stake and is deemed dead as he falls from the side of a bridge. Pretty final I would say. Rose gets back to the school, everything is buddy buddy again with Lisa after some big showdowny scene earlier, when she gets a package. In it is the stake she supposedly killed Dimitri with, and a note "You forgot my other lesson: Never turn your back until your sure your enermy is dead.". So friendly, don't you think?
So after being kidnapped, drinking Russian vodka that she suggests be used for jet fuel, meeting her father, and killing (for a few days) Dimitri, Rose had a reprieve from action. Thankfully for fans everywhere Richelle destroyed the irony of a sad ending by giving hope that A) Dimitri might be saved from his evil ways or B) That he'll come back and pwn Rose like he did before. Oh well, it says that after the next book there's another one, so I must assume nothing *too* dramatic and life changing happens there either. I can dream though.
For some reason Richelle Mead makes VA the one vamp series I can get completely into without feeling stupid for reading it. A few 'questionable' scenes are about the only thing between me and shouting to everyone passing by to read the book, but even those are mild and spaced out. Like I said, no whimps allowed in this one, because everyone fight for what they believe in, people actually die (except apparently Dimitri), and twists are usually surprising. When I was done I just turned to my friend and said, "Wow, I would never think of *half* that stuff! God, I'm really not that creative compared to *that*!". Take my word for it, or don't, THIS IS AWESOME! If you like or hate vampires and don't mind the teeny drama plaguing some chapters, then you will thoroughly enjoy this series.
ENDING POINTS:
+ Interesting new characters inroduced
+ Really random plot twists...that I probably just ruined by telling the whole story...but oh well
+ *love* the action
+ Realistic characters that rarely infuriate you
- Sometimes it all seems to revolve around Dimitri, but at least it keeps the story going
- The cliffhanger endings may have some throwing books against the wall. To prevent serious danger to your budget I suggest wall insurance. Just in case.
Technically this *is* book four, so I can't spill too many beans here or the story is basically ruined, but oh well. VA (Vampire Academy) follows Rose, a guardian, who is 'half' vampire. She is shadow kissed (awesome right?) which basically means she died and her friend brought her back. That is soooo much better than sparkling, am I right? If all my friends could heal me I would probably hurt myself much more though, so maybe it's good that they all content themselves to get roll-on body glitter and stay out of the sun : ) Sorry, can't let that one go...
Rose's friend Lisa, also called Vasilisa, but that's too freaky for everyday conversation, is a 'real' vampire. There are three kinds is this series: Moroi (good [not evil in most ways] vampires), Strigoi (evil, dead, murdering, awesome vampires), and Dhampirs (the half-breeds who become guardians because of their strength). They kind of had a falling out, but I'll expalin that in a second, so half of the story is about Rose, and the other half is seen when Rose looks through the 'shadow kissed bond thing' and checks in on Lisa. Confusing? Not really, it's introduced early on in the story line and takes very little time to get used to.
Quick Catch Up: Rose and Lisa had run away from school awhile back to protect Lisa, but they get stopped by the school guardians and are forced to return after two (?) years on their own. Lisa is slightly caught up in typical school drama ("That's *my* boyfriend!" "Well, then *your* boyfriend just asked me to dance and I really like dancing..." "Oh, we are SO not friends anymore!!"), but Rose is more badass. I imagine her punching people in her dreams more often then not. She gets into fights, yada yada, basic truant stuff. Dimitri, the guard that caught her and lisa, starts training her again for guardianship when she graduates, but in about the first book or so you can easily see a 'my true love!' thing will happen. Sure enough, Dimitri and Rose have a whole big romance going on, but for the sake of pedophilia charges they usually try to call it off. (he's about 6/7 years older than her...don't judge) So Lisa is more into the whole 'Royal Vamp' scene, while Rose is training to be her guardian while trying to manage her feelings for Dimitri. Oh the drama. Lisa is kidnapped and tortured to heal an old and diseased Moroi Royal, but Rose (thanks to Mr. Shadow Kiss Bond) and Dimitri save that day and end it with a Kumbayah around the camp fire...presumably with S'mores and guitars. Lisa eventually falls for Christan (a fire using Moroi...told you these things were awesome, he could cook for hours when camping! No stove needed! Not even a match!!! Talk about a useful ability.), but Strigoi attack the school and turn Dimitri into one of them. Apparently they do that -if you've ever watched 'Interview with the Vampire' than you know how this is done- so Rose decides to leave Lisa and go on a journey to kill Dimitri. (In the first book she and Dimitri had talked about what they wanted if this ever occured and both agreed to kill the other if such a monstrocity ever really did happen)
Which is where this book picks up. Rose has left on her quest to find and kill her 'one true love, destined to be but never can be' Dimitri, and goes to Russia, as he was Russian. The scary person 'Abe' or Zmey (fun nickname) tries to convince her to leave for America, but she only goes to a different city after angering one of Dimitri's sisters and basically getting semi-kicked out. She leaves with Strigoi hunters who don't do anything but randomly stalk and kill the evil vamps, and forces her leadership on them to find Dimitri. Eventually she indeed finds him but, "forgot my first lesson. Never hesitate", as he put it before knocking her unconscious.
She wakes up in a human-proof (^_^) room (human proof? lol...rofl...*sighs* ah, that shouldn't really be that funny but it is...) and tries to fight Dimitri off, but after awhile ends up high off his bite -long story made short: vamp bites are like drugs...just with bite marks- and making her few remaining friends (adrian and lisa) mad at her. Before this, and yes I know I'm backtracking, she met another Shadow Kissed bond friendship/marraige/whatever and learns quite a bit from them. Among these good things gleaned from the other shadow kissed people is a ring 'infused with spirit' -another long story...just read the books- that might just hold the key to our next installment of VA! *happy dancing while ticking off months till its release* For about a month she is continuously asked to, in effect, join the dark side (Light sabres humm in the distance and mechanic breathing echoes through the staticy air), but never says yes. After finally breaking away from Dimitri by stabbing him with a chair leg...brutal right?...she escapes from the Strigoi hideout. He easily survives and chases her for a mile or so where she stabs him with a stolen stake and is deemed dead as he falls from the side of a bridge. Pretty final I would say. Rose gets back to the school, everything is buddy buddy again with Lisa after some big showdowny scene earlier, when she gets a package. In it is the stake she supposedly killed Dimitri with, and a note "You forgot my other lesson: Never turn your back until your sure your enermy is dead.". So friendly, don't you think?
So after being kidnapped, drinking Russian vodka that she suggests be used for jet fuel, meeting her father, and killing (for a few days) Dimitri, Rose had a reprieve from action. Thankfully for fans everywhere Richelle destroyed the irony of a sad ending by giving hope that A) Dimitri might be saved from his evil ways or B) That he'll come back and pwn Rose like he did before. Oh well, it says that after the next book there's another one, so I must assume nothing *too* dramatic and life changing happens there either. I can dream though.
For some reason Richelle Mead makes VA the one vamp series I can get completely into without feeling stupid for reading it. A few 'questionable' scenes are about the only thing between me and shouting to everyone passing by to read the book, but even those are mild and spaced out. Like I said, no whimps allowed in this one, because everyone fight for what they believe in, people actually die (except apparently Dimitri), and twists are usually surprising. When I was done I just turned to my friend and said, "Wow, I would never think of *half* that stuff! God, I'm really not that creative compared to *that*!". Take my word for it, or don't, THIS IS AWESOME! If you like or hate vampires and don't mind the teeny drama plaguing some chapters, then you will thoroughly enjoy this series.
ENDING POINTS:
+ Interesting new characters inroduced
+ Really random plot twists...that I probably just ruined by telling the whole story...but oh well
+ *love* the action
+ Realistic characters that rarely infuriate you
- Sometimes it all seems to revolve around Dimitri, but at least it keeps the story going
- The cliffhanger endings may have some throwing books against the wall. To prevent serious danger to your budget I suggest wall insurance. Just in case.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
