By Adrienne Monson
Jolly Fish Press, 2013
B+
I just finished reading Dissension, by Adrienne Monson, previously featured in this post.
The Basics: Leisha is an unwilling vampire, bound to the laws of vampire society, who still hopes to make peace with her estranged husband, one of the magically endowed Immortals sworn to eradicate all vampire kind. Samantha is the teenage human girl who stands by her through her balancing act between the two forces, rather than return to her father, who wants nothing more than to test the limits of supernatural creatures in his shadowy government lab.
The Downside: Dissension reads a lot like a summer action flick in book form, and it runs into a lot of the same problems. Our heroes are usually motivated through the non-stop series of action scenes by little more than an improbable blend of nobility and extremely poor impulse control, and they tend to lose consciousness with little provocation when they become inconvenient to said scenes.
The Upside: Did I mention non-stop action? If vampire action flick in book form is what you’re looking for, Dissension delivers. The first few chapters alone offer vampire feedings, breaking into top secret government facilities, and a helicopter chase, and it doesn’t slow down from there. There’s no skipping over the darkness, violence, and sexuality that are supposed to come with vampires. Noble as Leisha and the others heroes are, she doesn’t get to keep her hands clean, and there’s no shortage of fully twisted villainy for her to oppose. These are vampires with all the lovely nasty bits left deliciously intact.
Jolly Fish Press, 2013
B+
I just finished reading Dissension, by Adrienne Monson, previously featured in this post.
The Basics: Leisha is an unwilling vampire, bound to the laws of vampire society, who still hopes to make peace with her estranged husband, one of the magically endowed Immortals sworn to eradicate all vampire kind. Samantha is the teenage human girl who stands by her through her balancing act between the two forces, rather than return to her father, who wants nothing more than to test the limits of supernatural creatures in his shadowy government lab.
The Downside: Dissension reads a lot like a summer action flick in book form, and it runs into a lot of the same problems. Our heroes are usually motivated through the non-stop series of action scenes by little more than an improbable blend of nobility and extremely poor impulse control, and they tend to lose consciousness with little provocation when they become inconvenient to said scenes.
The Upside: Did I mention non-stop action? If vampire action flick in book form is what you’re looking for, Dissension delivers. The first few chapters alone offer vampire feedings, breaking into top secret government facilities, and a helicopter chase, and it doesn’t slow down from there. There’s no skipping over the darkness, violence, and sexuality that are supposed to come with vampires. Noble as Leisha and the others heroes are, she doesn’t get to keep her hands clean, and there’s no shortage of fully twisted villainy for her to oppose. These are vampires with all the lovely nasty bits left deliciously intact.
