|
American Blood: A Vampire's Story |  | Author: Gregory Holden
Publisher: Orion's Belt Press
Buy New: $11.95
as of 11/23/2009 12:56 CST details
New (1) Used (1) from $11.95
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 1155129
Media: Paperback
Edition: Trade Paperback
Pages: 390
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0615320147
EAN: 9780615320144
ASIN: 0615320147
Publication Date: September 8, 2009
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Also Available In:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
She was born human, became a leper, and while a mining slave of the Roman Empire she touched a strange stone that transformed her into the world's first vampire. That was over nineteen hundred years ago and the American government is tracking her. Here is the story of an administration during its eighth and final year in office looking for a way to salvage its legacy by finding and killing the world's most wanted terrorist. For seven years America has failed to accomplish this mission and now, desperate and beset by scandal, the government hatches a covert plan to capture, and then coerce, the world's first vampire into locating and killing the Sheikh. The government's lead researcher, a competent molecular biologist, begins to uncover the secrets of this remarkable and deadly creature. But as his research moves forward he discovers that instead of finding a remorseless killer driven to feed on humankind, the female vampire is a being who desires companionship and love. It is when they are sent to the Pashtun Belt on the mission to find and assassinate the Sheikh that the researcher and the vampire, facing death, make the ultimate sacrifice for each other. Print Length: 380 pages The author is a chemist with seventeen years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. With this novel he has created a fresh and compelling take on the vampire mythos. The origin of vampires in this novel is unique and lays the foundation for the next volume in the series.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Great take on the vamp genre November 18, 2009
F. Beauchamp
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I won't write out a summary for the book as its already been done but I will say that the book is definitely original in a genre rife with predictability. I must admit I'm not a fan of books filled with science but I found it an intriguing read nonetheless.
American Blood is the story of a vampire who is captured and who is studied by scientists who believe she was captured for the purpose of study but soon learn it the situation is not completely what it seems. There is some romance thrown in but not enough to qualify this book as a straight out romance. It also moves quickly enough to keep you engaged and for such a reasonable price, I'd definitely say it's worth while!
If your interested in a scientific take on the vampire phenomenon, make sure you read American Blood!
What a surprise! September 17, 2009
adanaz (Pennsylvania)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
And I mean surprise in a good way. I've read so many vampire and paranormal books recently that I was becoming a little bored with them. And then I read this. I can't say I've read every vamp book ever written, but of the one's I have this is the most creative and interesting slant I've read on how vampires became, well, became vampires. I won't give anything away but how this Calida is turned into a vampire in the distant past is so skillfully done by the author that I would like to warn any cave enthusiasts to be careful about what stones or rocks they touch while exploring.
There's a lot of science wrapped around this story but even for a lay person such as myself I thought the author did an excellent job at keeping it understandable. Perhaps there is a little more detail then the average reader needs but for a hardcore sci-fi fanboy this would be perfect. The plotting overall is well done and kept me turning the pages. I read this on a kindle and would guess that in novel form it would be 350-400 pages. I finished the entire novel in a single afternoon (there was a short break to eat in there) but I found the story and the two main characters to be so intriguing that I just had to keep reading.
The dialogue has a natural feeling to it when its between the two main protags. The other characters fill their roles and the Director not only does so, but is a truly evil and memorable character. The ending was fun in a disturbing yet satisfying way.
This (at least for me) was a terrific read and I hope there is more from this author in a sequal or series. I strongly recommend this to anyone who likes vampire/paranormal books but also to anyone who enjoys a good read.
 Interesting point of view September 17, 2009
turtlefon (San Francisco)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although the characters were weakly developed, I thought it was a great take on Vampire mythology. The author showed a fresh point-of-view, making it quite captivating. I will definitely read the sequel.
I liked it! August 23, 2009
BkRdr50
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book and the authors interesting spin on how Calida became a vampire. There was just a bit to much politics in the story for my taste but then I usually read the paranormal or romantic suspense genre. I am looking forward to this authors next book.
The devil is in the details... August 22, 2009
Victoria J. Knoll (Where I hang my hat.)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
And the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.
That's what Dr. Allen Ryan is beginning to truly understand as he starts unmasking the genetic code of a creature, nearly 2,000 years in the making, and calls herself Calida Villena. To everyone else, vampire. Ryan, an academic who has been tapped to work for a secret agency on covert projects, has used his molecular biology skills in developing hardware and apparatus to interface with or facilitate biological processes for vampire physiology. But when his first close encounter during the capture of the only known vampire goes wrong, he comes face-to-face with that vampire called Calida.
And so it begins, this passing of knowledge and learning. After Ryan is brought in to lead the team and learn all they can about her, Calida is far from what he expected. His fascination and wonder are bred of both simple but driven scientific curiosity (and really, decoding someone's genome is pretty damn intimate) and the fact that the subject in study, while not human, was, once. And as a lab rat that can talk back, that has emotions, a history and a past, and has an interest in the scientist staring back, Ryan soon acknowledges that, in his carelessness in past actions, he has inadvertently brought Calida into her new prison. As he delves deeper still, he must resist a growing attraction that he doesn't entirely trust, but cannot deny. Through her genetics, he learns what she is; and through mutual respect and curiosity, he learns who she is.
But the die has been cast, and vampire assassin is the order of the day. Behind the scenes is the sinister but calmly-spoken Director, a man who runs the Agency, a covert facility under the purview of the Vice President of the United States, both who are merely political machines with no qualms of leaving a trail of bodies to accomplish an objective. The second half of the book focuses on Calida's mission, the politics behind it and eliminating the elusive Sheikh, which sends her to Afghanistan; and Ryan too, who acts as both a direct link to Calida and to the government that controls them both. As real danger looms, both internal and external and the real possibility of failure, both realize a stronger link that goes beyond the science or the politics that intertwined their fates, and to the most important thing of all: love. Love that might end before it's even begun. More chilling, the Director himself, a man who can threaten an expert and immortal killer and can make even her heel, is a man more terrifying than the actual 'monster' that is now forced to work for the US government. But like any good monster, it takes one to know one--but it takes the monster with heart, to know when to fight, and when to make the right choice, that could truly change the world.
When I first read the description, I thought, 'Uh-huh, another vampire story...in a political thriller? Hmm, oh-kay then.' Then I read the first six chapters with my jaw hanging open. Let me tell you, I hate reading books on a screen, but I did it anyway because I had to. In a genre overfilled with campy, fluffy, often times underdeveloped plots and bad character development, with the usual mythos/origin tales that lack any depth or originality, Holden blows them away with his own take on the beginnings of the first vampire and what a powerful government could do with such a weapon. The psychology of a vampire and the humans studying Calida is well balanced and believable, not to mention the science. He does it by the letters--AGCT--and biologically (and coherently) gives a genetic basis for the existence of vampires. While the science is very intense (and is about ten chapters of it), Holden manages to explain most of it in layman's terms. I warn you in advance, for those of you expecting a light romp (merely filled with overdone sex or violent scenes or over-dramatized political mumbo-jumbo) with no interest or willingness to understand basic genetics and biology, this book is not for you. Though you have no idea what you are letting slip by. While some will inevitably find the science tedious, hard to get through, or merely skim over those passages, you'll be missing out on the subtle interplay of what Ryan's discoveries and revelations reveal about him, and his feelings for Calida.
AB is an wonderfully rich, intelligent and well written fantasy/political thriller (a sort of Tom Clancy meets Lee Child meets Anne Rice and a genetics/biology textbook), with a vampire element both front and center but complementary to the political machinations that propel the characters forward, and evolves as the book progresses. Ryan is endearing as the awkward and at times thick-headed scientist in search of truth. And Calida, a powerful visual of a strong woman, and as a vampire, driven by pure instinct, and always, the hunger for blood and the inherent loneliness of her existence. You don't learn a whole lot about them other than the general and basic circumstances which have led them to their first meeting in the here and now (you find out a little backstory, piecemeal, in Ryan's case; but not for Calida, just a little bit about her past and on how she thinks she became a vampire). But Holden somehow managed to imprint them into my mind by creating realistic, relatable and well-woven archs for both Ryan and Calida. I cared about what happened to them, beginning to end. Secondary players are familiar stock characters with ghostly reminders and allusions of the previous administration (and of 9/11 and its political aftermath with Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden) though no names or direct personae are completely fleshed out. While characters surrounding Calida and Ryan are rendered woodenly and somewhat vaguely (though for the darkly ominous Director, it worked--I really did love to hate him), overall, I didn't mind it so much this time since the plot of the origins of the vampire, Calida and Ryan's relationship and her mission, demand so much from the reader from the git-go.
While AB is a dialogue heavy, it has excellent dialogue with wit and humor. I found myself chuckling at several points and appreciating the subtle touches. The only thing that I found a tad difficult was the lack of much context (description of environment/surroundings, what things and people look, how characters react, their internal turmoils, etc) and read very much like a script for a movie. That is, you have to supply your own interpretation, both visual and emotional, and infer what the characters are saying to get a sense of what emotion is being conveyed or what little sensory information is provided. There were several grammatical errors, and a few unanswered and left opened parts, and some foreshadowing that gave away too much and reduced the impact somewhat when it finally came along. There was also this sense of feeling, that during the editing process, things got cut out. So some scenes feel unfinished or put together a bit oddly, or that you're just missing the real meaning of a scene or a run of dialogue is making references beyond what's there, or when the characters realize something, it can seem like out of nowhere. None of the above observances were enough to disrupt by any means and I'm extremely picky, but it did give me pause and a re-read. The ending was good, but a bit patch-work here and there, and not as satisfying as I would have liked, but since I already know there'll be a followup, in series form or not, I'll just have to learn that thing called patience in the meantime.
Besides the science, Holden never goes overboard and never gets contrived, be it mild horror to political or action scenes to the romance between Ryan and Calida. The romance element may not be enough for some, because it is subtle, but it's taught and sensual--in the classical style that so few have a knack for. But a refreshing take on the vampire lore? Yeah, I didn't think it possible. But I say again that this book, even for lovers of vampire and fantasy genre, will not be for everyone. But if you take the time and invest (and maybe a dummies guide to genetics/biology), you'll find a book that's worth more than a one-time read, and something more permanent in your bookshelf.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
|
|
|
|
Return to Math.com | |
