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Radiant Shadows
Radiant Shadows
When vampires and humans try to work together, there are bound to be a few mishaps. This is the story of what comes through attempting to fix those wrongs.
84 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 28, 2014
About the author
Sarah Baethge
14 books122 followersSarah Baethge is a fan of Science-fiction and fantasy who lives and writes in central Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 14, 2018
I have read a lot of books and stories about vampires. Some were great, like some of the Anne Rice novels. With so many authors writing on this subject, it is easy to get bored with it unless the writer brings some new ingredients to stir into the stew. First and foremost a writer needs to have a new mythos or world view about vampires. Something that is based on the old and traditional, while at the same time bringing something new and exciting that can be used to give the vampire trope a whole new look. In Radiant Shadows, Sarah Baethge has created an entertaining new mythos, along with a few interesting characters. It is enough to add new life to an old subject. It is funny, tragic, and hopeful. I particularly liked the semi-comic tone. Anne Rice and Lestat burned me out on solemn, tragic, vampire demi-gods.
I liked the tone of Radiant Shadows. I liked that it didn’t take itself too seriously. I liked the writing too. It moved along at a fast pace. This is not a big book and you can easily get into it and finish it before you become restless or tired. The plot is simple but good. It is a good variation on the vampire trope. The characters are great and very likable. You want them to live, you want them be good, you want them to win. I liked the mixture of good and evil in Radiant Shadows. Sarah Baethge should make it into a series. I am sure it can go very far.
I liked the tone of Radiant Shadows. I liked that it didn’t take itself too seriously. I liked the writing too. It moved along at a fast pace. This is not a big book and you can easily get into it and finish it before you become restless or tired. The plot is simple but good. It is a good variation on the vampire trope. The characters are great and very likable. You want them to live, you want them be good, you want them to win. I liked the mixture of good and evil in Radiant Shadows. Sarah Baethge should make it into a series. I am sure it can go very far.
May 27, 2014
Nutshell: Vampires. And antivampires. And a Good/Evil dichotomy that's actually a Light/Dark dichotomy that's actually an Optimistic/Pessimistic dichotomy... I think? Well, there's a rogue vampire that has to be taken down and things happen and the plot makes sense, maybe, but little else does.
Atmosphere: 1 out of 5. It was... okay at first, but then the story tries to present itself as an in-universe document and it falls apart. We know that it's an in-universe document because that's how it's being described and talked about. And we know that the first part, at least, because the narrator is talking about certain concepts not just as if the reader doesn't know what they are, but explicitly because the reader doesn't know and the narrator wants xem to understand. It's this next thing that's the trouble: The supernatural world is not in the open. It is a secret. So this story is being written as an in-universe document directed, apparently, at people who don't know about vampires and witches and things, despite there being an organization, which this narrator works for, which wants to keep that stuff secret.
Characters: 2 out of 5. The only character that I remotely cared about was Caroline. I don't even know why, it was just something about her bubbliness. Still, that didn't even last until the end of the first part (let's just say she's not very smart).
Plot: 2 out of 5. What it says in the nutshell. There's a rogue vampire! And stuff happens! And half of it could be avoided with the common sense that God gave to one of Michael Myers' victims.
Writing Style: The story opens poorly. There are more technical problems than I can shake a twig at: formatting (I say as I keep hitting "Preview" and find myself still unable to fix That One Problem), typos, issues of tense, quote marks being handled badly, missing dashes, the works. I also don't like how the parentheses are inserted into the story or how some words are emphasized with italics and others with bold type without any apparent rhyme or reason. There is also no consistency in any narrative voice.
Worldbuilding: The only strong point of the story, honestly. There are some neat ideas here. The explanation for why vampires need to feed on humans is passable and there are a couple of clever needles in the haystack. There's this dream dimension stuff that was pulled from out of freaking nowhere, but don't worry because we get an infodump to tell us everything we're going to need to know in just a few minutes. I like how vampires have wings there, though, even if the bat wings thing is silly.
I'll be frank: I simply cannot believe that a good editor was employed for this story.
Details, details: [here there be spoilers]
As I mention in the nutshell, I'm a little unsure of what to make of the alignments described in the story. At first they're Good and Evil, and then they're Light and Dark (except that there's apparently nothing to distinguish this system from the first), and while the story vacillates between these two it seems at times that the author is confusing morality with outlook. At least I hope so, because I don't want to read a story where people are "Evil" or "Dark" because they're pessimists. Oh, and this seems to be an inborn condition, which I doubly don't like.
I like how vampires are common in the paralegal profession. It's a good place for them, and I'm not making a joke about lawyers. It really does make sense, up to and including why they're just paralegals.
Why do vampires consider it a punishment to turn someone into a vampire? They seem to like being vampires. That's like if I said "You'd better watch out, or I'm gonna give you some free books." Maybe you don't like books, but I certainly don't know that and it's certainly not widespread enough of an opinion for me to make "give them free books if they're bad" a general policy.
The Count's accent is stupid and cliche. Do we really need a vampire, called "the Count" no less, who sounds like Bela Lugosi? And why, if this is a private nickname made on the spot and shared with one other person before the namer dies, is it being used by somebody who has a close, familiar relationship with the vampire?
Why can't the narrator in Part Two believe that the "two" Stephen Browns are the same person when one of them is undeniably Weird and the narrator himself is a vampire?
"Ultimate Battleground of the Nightmare Dimension." I can't even...
Good things, good things... Like I said, there were some good needles in the haystack. The author should get some more needles like this, melt them down, and forge them into a Sword of +2 Interesting World. The fat needs to be trimmed, though. This is a fantasy kitchen sink as assembled with parts from eight different manufacturers, one of whom may not really exist.
(this, incidentally, is what I thought of when I read "Ultimate Battleground of the Nightmare Dimension")
Atmosphere: 1 out of 5. It was... okay at first, but then the story tries to present itself as an in-universe document and it falls apart. We know that it's an in-universe document because that's how it's being described and talked about. And we know that the first part, at least, because the narrator is talking about certain concepts not just as if the reader doesn't know what they are, but explicitly because the reader doesn't know and the narrator wants xem to understand. It's this next thing that's the trouble: The supernatural world is not in the open. It is a secret. So this story is being written as an in-universe document directed, apparently, at people who don't know about vampires and witches and things, despite there being an organization, which this narrator works for, which wants to keep that stuff secret.
Characters: 2 out of 5. The only character that I remotely cared about was Caroline. I don't even know why, it was just something about her bubbliness. Still, that didn't even last until the end of the first part (let's just say she's not very smart).
Plot: 2 out of 5. What it says in the nutshell. There's a rogue vampire! And stuff happens! And half of it could be avoided with the common sense that God gave to one of Michael Myers' victims.
Writing Style: The story opens poorly. There are more technical problems than I can shake a twig at: formatting (I say as I keep hitting "Preview" and find myself still unable to fix That One Problem), typos, issues of tense, quote marks being handled badly, missing dashes, the works. I also don't like how the parentheses are inserted into the story or how some words are emphasized with italics and others with bold type without any apparent rhyme or reason. There is also no consistency in any narrative voice.
Worldbuilding: The only strong point of the story, honestly. There are some neat ideas here. The explanation for why vampires need to feed on humans is passable and there are a couple of clever needles in the haystack. There's this dream dimension stuff that was pulled from out of freaking nowhere, but don't worry because we get an infodump to tell us everything we're going to need to know in just a few minutes. I like how vampires have wings there, though, even if the bat wings thing is silly.
I'll be frank: I simply cannot believe that a good editor was employed for this story.
Details, details: [here there be spoilers]
As I mention in the nutshell, I'm a little unsure of what to make of the alignments described in the story. At first they're Good and Evil, and then they're Light and Dark (except that there's apparently nothing to distinguish this system from the first), and while the story vacillates between these two it seems at times that the author is confusing morality with outlook. At least I hope so, because I don't want to read a story where people are "Evil" or "Dark" because they're pessimists. Oh, and this seems to be an inborn condition, which I doubly don't like.
I like how vampires are common in the paralegal profession. It's a good place for them, and I'm not making a joke about lawyers. It really does make sense, up to and including why they're just paralegals.
Why do vampires consider it a punishment to turn someone into a vampire? They seem to like being vampires. That's like if I said "You'd better watch out, or I'm gonna give you some free books." Maybe you don't like books, but I certainly don't know that and it's certainly not widespread enough of an opinion for me to make "give them free books if they're bad" a general policy.
The Count's accent is stupid and cliche. Do we really need a vampire, called "the Count" no less, who sounds like Bela Lugosi? And why, if this is a private nickname made on the spot and shared with one other person before the namer dies, is it being used by somebody who has a close, familiar relationship with the vampire?
Why can't the narrator in Part Two believe that the "two" Stephen Browns are the same person when one of them is undeniably Weird and the narrator himself is a vampire?
"Ultimate Battleground of the Nightmare Dimension." I can't even...
Good things, good things... Like I said, there were some good needles in the haystack. The author should get some more needles like this, melt them down, and forge them into a Sword of +2 Interesting World. The fat needs to be trimmed, though. This is a fantasy kitchen sink as assembled with parts from eight different manufacturers, one of whom may not really exist.
(this, incidentally, is what I thought of when I read "Ultimate Battleground of the Nightmare Dimension")
April 6, 2014
I love a good vampire novel and Sarah had some interesting ideas in this novella. The scene is told from three points of view in three separate chapters. While there is naturally some duplication, each chapter offers new insights into the stories and characters.
Caroline works for the Human Vampire Alliance as a huntress. Her friend Stephen takes a seraphic infusion brewed by one of the shadow people to make him an anti-vampire. This results in Caroline and Stephens minds being linked together as they hunt a vampire named Randy. Caroline is also hampered by her boyfriend, Marshall joining them in the vampire hunt.
I like the magical powers such as sparking coming from the fingertips too. This and the magical ideas could use some more development in future writing.
There are a few areas for the author to work on including: increased used of emotions, having a hook at the beginning and refining the writing technique. An example of this would be 'You see, I'm pretty sure that was the moment I died." Such a dramatic statement requires an equal emotive response such as shock, terror, panic or confusion.
I received a copy of the story in exchange for an honest review.
Caroline works for the Human Vampire Alliance as a huntress. Her friend Stephen takes a seraphic infusion brewed by one of the shadow people to make him an anti-vampire. This results in Caroline and Stephens minds being linked together as they hunt a vampire named Randy. Caroline is also hampered by her boyfriend, Marshall joining them in the vampire hunt.
I like the magical powers such as sparking coming from the fingertips too. This and the magical ideas could use some more development in future writing.
There are a few areas for the author to work on including: increased used of emotions, having a hook at the beginning and refining the writing technique. An example of this would be 'You see, I'm pretty sure that was the moment I died." Such a dramatic statement requires an equal emotive response such as shock, terror, panic or confusion.
I received a copy of the story in exchange for an honest review.
April 16, 2018
Interesting
The premise was very interesting, but it probably could have been set up differently. It was divided into three parts, which make for different perspectives. I like that, and gave the reader almost a 360 view of the story. The story is about vampires, and hunters. The characters needed a little bit more development and maybe a connection between the three parts, or more of a backstory. At times I had to reread a few paragraphs as some plot points were a bit confusing. The story brought the reader in at the beginning, and it was worth the read. I think Baethge will continue to grow as an author. I look forward to reading more of her work.
The premise was very interesting, but it probably could have been set up differently. It was divided into three parts, which make for different perspectives. I like that, and gave the reader almost a 360 view of the story. The story is about vampires, and hunters. The characters needed a little bit more development and maybe a connection between the three parts, or more of a backstory. At times I had to reread a few paragraphs as some plot points were a bit confusing. The story brought the reader in at the beginning, and it was worth the read. I think Baethge will continue to grow as an author. I look forward to reading more of her work.
December 29, 2017
Goes down as another off my 2017 Bookworm Bingo Challenge – A book by an author with your first name. Another quick read to get through within the hour, which is a nice break from the all day reads.
A story of three parts with three different POVs to cope with, so something that may have made this easier to go from one part to the next would have been to put the characters name at the top of each part. That way you know whose head you are meant to be in, otherwise you may be reading straight in to the next part and not get what’s going on. Because it is in first person you almost feel like they are telling the story to you while reading, or that they are writing it down to read again later. Part one is Stephen – a human, part two is Marshall – Caroline’s clueless boyfriend who walks right into trouble and part three is Phyllis – the Counts would be daughter, protected by a lot of powerful vampires. They all kind of ‘sound’ the same though so there is not much distinction between them.
Vampires are alive and kicking – well as alive as they can be anyway – but the powers that be on both sides don’t think it is a great idea for everyone to know about them yet. This is how the Human-Vampire Alliance group was formed. A group created for the protection of both kinds. They can hold trials for the other but matters within races need to be dealt with by their own kind. Well unless you have a hunter that is. Someone called in the deal with vampires who have stepped out of line and drawn attention to their kind with their kills. This is what psycho vampire Randy has done and he is who must be stopped.
The Human-Vampire Alliance is called to discuss a way to handle the situation and it is decided that Stephen and Caroline, the huntress who quite frankly should know better, will go to Madame Olivia, a witch. They need her to cast a spell with Angel Blood using its light to make Caroline stronger so she can take on Randy. To pull all the light into her all her darkness would need to be pulled out and given to someone else or a battle will start. Think you can guess who that person is meant to be but in doing so they will have but a few hours before the darkness claims them fully and they die. Well unless they can get a willing vampire to turn them within that time that is. Best-laid plans don’t always go the way you hoped. Seems the Angel Blood calls to some more than others and the moment it does the course of events changes for everyone soon to be involved. Darkness is coming so you need to look to the light.
A few grammar issues throughout so could have done with another cleaner edit. Also calling a group ‘peoples’ didn’t really make sense in relation to what was around it. Instead could have used term like ‘groups’ or ‘kind’ when referencing the difference between humans and vampires, but that’s just me.
I received a copy of this book from the author for my honest review.
https://readingnook84.wordpress.com/2...
A story of three parts with three different POVs to cope with, so something that may have made this easier to go from one part to the next would have been to put the characters name at the top of each part. That way you know whose head you are meant to be in, otherwise you may be reading straight in to the next part and not get what’s going on. Because it is in first person you almost feel like they are telling the story to you while reading, or that they are writing it down to read again later. Part one is Stephen – a human, part two is Marshall – Caroline’s clueless boyfriend who walks right into trouble and part three is Phyllis – the Counts would be daughter, protected by a lot of powerful vampires. They all kind of ‘sound’ the same though so there is not much distinction between them.
Vampires are alive and kicking – well as alive as they can be anyway – but the powers that be on both sides don’t think it is a great idea for everyone to know about them yet. This is how the Human-Vampire Alliance group was formed. A group created for the protection of both kinds. They can hold trials for the other but matters within races need to be dealt with by their own kind. Well unless you have a hunter that is. Someone called in the deal with vampires who have stepped out of line and drawn attention to their kind with their kills. This is what psycho vampire Randy has done and he is who must be stopped.
The Human-Vampire Alliance is called to discuss a way to handle the situation and it is decided that Stephen and Caroline, the huntress who quite frankly should know better, will go to Madame Olivia, a witch. They need her to cast a spell with Angel Blood using its light to make Caroline stronger so she can take on Randy. To pull all the light into her all her darkness would need to be pulled out and given to someone else or a battle will start. Think you can guess who that person is meant to be but in doing so they will have but a few hours before the darkness claims them fully and they die. Well unless they can get a willing vampire to turn them within that time that is. Best-laid plans don’t always go the way you hoped. Seems the Angel Blood calls to some more than others and the moment it does the course of events changes for everyone soon to be involved. Darkness is coming so you need to look to the light.
A few grammar issues throughout so could have done with another cleaner edit. Also calling a group ‘peoples’ didn’t really make sense in relation to what was around it. Instead could have used term like ‘groups’ or ‘kind’ when referencing the difference between humans and vampires, but that’s just me.
I received a copy of this book from the author for my honest review.
https://readingnook84.wordpress.com/2...
June 18, 2018
Needs better editing
Basic story idea is good but my ecopy was hard to read because of bad editing of grammar and spelling.
Basic story idea is good but my ecopy was hard to read because of bad editing of grammar and spelling.
October 28, 2014
I would like to say that there were parts of this novella that I enjoyed, there is a basis of a story in there, but it needs a bit of work before being considered ready for publishing. Overall I was slightly confused where the story was actually going, and it basically ends without giving many answers.
The book need some serious format editing, missing words and strange sentence structures. Even the font changes in colour, words in very pale colours so they almost disappear on the screen?
The Characters were under developed, and sometimes the sentence structure was so overflowing you loose track of whats actually happening.
The book is told in 3 parts, each part going over the plot via their POV, this means there is a certain repetitiveness, but you do gain more information via each Characters POV.
The first part is told in the POV of Stephen Brown who is a diplomat for the HVA (Human Vampire Alliance) - this was the part that I most enjoyed.
The Second part is told in the POV of Caroline Ace - Vampire Huntress, Part 2 - well lets just say that I am not sure if the Vampire hunter was having an off day, but she wasn't really thinking it through and pays the price for her lack of planning.
And finally the Third part is told in Phyllis's POV who is the Human ward of the 'Count' - Yes there is a Vampire Count, who comes with a cliched 'Dracula' accent! and Phyllis has some hidden agenda in wanting Stephen's help - but I did get a bit lost and never really worked out what she wants with him.
The premise of the plotline is that a rogue vampire named Randy, (I think there was some form of humor in giving this Evil Vamp a silly name) who is running amuck and killing humans in a quite 'Notable' Vampire way - bite marks and drained of blood! The story starts off in some sort of meeting to arrange his capture and kill order as the Vamp's are getting antsy at his lack of discreteness.
Stephen (who is also called Steve in the third section - this switching of the spelling of the name Stephen was a bit random too)
I don't really want to say much more about the plot as it would give too much away, and this is a very short read, I read it in under 2 hours. 104 pages according to the First Edition section on the extras part. - This would have been handy if it had been at the beginning of the book and not at the end.
What makes this book different from all others? Well I liked the idea of the Vampires needing the 'Life Essence' rather than just blood, it reminded me of an old Sci-fi movie I watched as a teenager where an Alien came to earth, walking naked and she sucked out the lifeforce LifeForce
There are some good ideas as I said before, but these need to be plucked out and expanded, the story is just a short collection of witness accounts to a 'vampire Hunt' and not much more is really developed.
I would have given the book 3 stars as I am interested to see if this books actually leading somewhere - It really ends quite quickly and is obviously leading into another chapter of the story.
I knocked off half a point due to the formatting and underdevelopment, you may wish to read it and see what your conclusions are - I would be interested to know what others thought too.
While writing this review I was re-checking the e-book to clarify something and I noticed a section of 'Book Extras'
and basically this extras section gives you the outline of the book - characters Themes Notes for parents?
Maybe this book is aimed at teenagers, oh no... it just says reading level is for Adults So I will be saying - not suitable for children now.
The book need some serious format editing, missing words and strange sentence structures. Even the font changes in colour, words in very pale colours so they almost disappear on the screen?
The Characters were under developed, and sometimes the sentence structure was so overflowing you loose track of whats actually happening.
The book is told in 3 parts, each part going over the plot via their POV, this means there is a certain repetitiveness, but you do gain more information via each Characters POV.
The first part is told in the POV of Stephen Brown who is a diplomat for the HVA (Human Vampire Alliance) - this was the part that I most enjoyed.
The Second part is told in the POV of Caroline Ace - Vampire Huntress, Part 2 - well lets just say that I am not sure if the Vampire hunter was having an off day, but she wasn't really thinking it through and pays the price for her lack of planning.
And finally the Third part is told in Phyllis's POV who is the Human ward of the 'Count' - Yes there is a Vampire Count, who comes with a cliched 'Dracula' accent! and Phyllis has some hidden agenda in wanting Stephen's help - but I did get a bit lost and never really worked out what she wants with him.
The premise of the plotline is that a rogue vampire named Randy, (I think there was some form of humor in giving this Evil Vamp a silly name) who is running amuck and killing humans in a quite 'Notable' Vampire way - bite marks and drained of blood! The story starts off in some sort of meeting to arrange his capture and kill order as the Vamp's are getting antsy at his lack of discreteness.
Stephen (who is also called Steve in the third section - this switching of the spelling of the name Stephen was a bit random too)
I don't really want to say much more about the plot as it would give too much away, and this is a very short read, I read it in under 2 hours. 104 pages according to the First Edition section on the extras part. - This would have been handy if it had been at the beginning of the book and not at the end.
What makes this book different from all others? Well I liked the idea of the Vampires needing the 'Life Essence' rather than just blood, it reminded me of an old Sci-fi movie I watched as a teenager where an Alien came to earth, walking naked and she sucked out the lifeforce LifeForce
There are some good ideas as I said before, but these need to be plucked out and expanded, the story is just a short collection of witness accounts to a 'vampire Hunt' and not much more is really developed.
I would have given the book 3 stars as I am interested to see if this books actually leading somewhere - It really ends quite quickly and is obviously leading into another chapter of the story.
I knocked off half a point due to the formatting and underdevelopment, you may wish to read it and see what your conclusions are - I would be interested to know what others thought too.
While writing this review I was re-checking the e-book to clarify something and I noticed a section of 'Book Extras'
and basically this extras section gives you the outline of the book - characters Themes Notes for parents?
Maybe this book is aimed at teenagers, oh no... it just says reading level is for Adults So I will be saying - not suitable for children now.
February 2, 2014
Radiant Shadows is broken down into three parts. They all follow the same story, the only difference is that they are told by different points of view.
Part one is told by Stephen who appears to be the main character. He meets with his vampire-hunter friend Caroline as she sets out to hunt a dangerous vampire, Randy.
They end up meeting up with a witch who decides it would be a good idea to make Stephen into an anti-vampire. Doing so cripples Caroline in her hunt of Randy as it puts her in a state between becoming a vampire and dying. Stephen and Caroline’s minds are linked in this adventure and he is not in his physical body, but in Caroline’s mind.
On her way to hunt Randy, Caroline runs into her boyfriend Marshall and he insists on sticking with her.
This eventually ends in him being transformed into a vampire and Caroline ending up dead at the hands of Marshall.
Part two is written in letter form by Marshall. He is writing to Phyllis. She is a friend of Stephen’s. Marshall is writing to her to explain what happened as she ends up in the house with them, but she cannot see him because she is a human and he will lust for her blood.
Part three is written in the point of view of Phyllis. She decided to take killing Randy into her own hands.
She runs into a bit of trouble with the vampires, but they let it go after hearing about the pain Randy had caused.
It ends with Phyllis coming up with a way to help Stephen take care of Marshall, and that is where it ends.
While the writing was okay, there were some grammar and spelling mistakes. There were times in the book where Stephen turned into Steven, then it corrected itself again.
The beginning of the book puts you right into the action with no real introduction. It makes you try to catch up in your head while you are reading. It is pretty confusing at first. It begins to shape up as the story goes along, but the beginning really throws it off a bit.
I don’t feel that I learned very much about the characters. Maybe that is because this seems to be a series, but in that case, I feel a book one should lay down some background on the characters so that they are more familiar and understood moving forward.
2.5/5 stars
Part one is told by Stephen who appears to be the main character. He meets with his vampire-hunter friend Caroline as she sets out to hunt a dangerous vampire, Randy.
They end up meeting up with a witch who decides it would be a good idea to make Stephen into an anti-vampire. Doing so cripples Caroline in her hunt of Randy as it puts her in a state between becoming a vampire and dying. Stephen and Caroline’s minds are linked in this adventure and he is not in his physical body, but in Caroline’s mind.
On her way to hunt Randy, Caroline runs into her boyfriend Marshall and he insists on sticking with her.
This eventually ends in him being transformed into a vampire and Caroline ending up dead at the hands of Marshall.
Part two is written in letter form by Marshall. He is writing to Phyllis. She is a friend of Stephen’s. Marshall is writing to her to explain what happened as she ends up in the house with them, but she cannot see him because she is a human and he will lust for her blood.
Part three is written in the point of view of Phyllis. She decided to take killing Randy into her own hands.
She runs into a bit of trouble with the vampires, but they let it go after hearing about the pain Randy had caused.
It ends with Phyllis coming up with a way to help Stephen take care of Marshall, and that is where it ends.
While the writing was okay, there were some grammar and spelling mistakes. There were times in the book where Stephen turned into Steven, then it corrected itself again.
The beginning of the book puts you right into the action with no real introduction. It makes you try to catch up in your head while you are reading. It is pretty confusing at first. It begins to shape up as the story goes along, but the beginning really throws it off a bit.
I don’t feel that I learned very much about the characters. Maybe that is because this seems to be a series, but in that case, I feel a book one should lay down some background on the characters so that they are more familiar and understood moving forward.
2.5/5 stars
February 27, 2014
Radiant Shadows: Beginnings (Parts 1-3) by Sarah Baethge
2.5 Stars
I have to say I found this book a little confusing. In part one the story is narrated by a human diplomat with the HVA (Human Vampire Alliance) which is an organization that exists to basically keep vampires inline (I think!). We are given a little history of vampires and how, although they drink blood, it is actually ‘life force’ they feed off and not the blood, therefore blood banks wouldn’t be an option for vampires. We have a rogue vampire who is consistent throughout the three parts named Randy, and I think his capture is the basis for the whole story. Unfortunately I couldn’t understand this book at all so I can’t be sure. I really tried though. Part two seems to be narrated by someone who might be dead, but again I am unsure.
I become totally frustrated with myself when I don’t grasp a book, I wonder if the plot is just poorly executed or if the problem is that my mind works in a totally opposite way to the author and I will never ‘get it’. It makes it difficult for me to rate works like this. I have myself a list of points to look at, eg character development, editing, originality etc and because I don’t know what’s going on, how can I even judge these things?
So, anyway, I decided to mark on what I can be sure of. The editing, needs work, there are some missing words and strange sentence structures. I didn’t enjoy or lose myself in the story. The characters, well I wasn’t sure who was who so I’m gonna say they were underdeveloped and I don’t think I’d recommend this book to a friend, although it would be interesting to see if they ‘get it’. As for everything else I look out for and use to form my rating value, I don’t know, so I’m giving the book the benefit of the doubt and handing it 2.5 stars. People really need to judge this book for themselves.
Copy supplied for review
2.5 Stars
I have to say I found this book a little confusing. In part one the story is narrated by a human diplomat with the HVA (Human Vampire Alliance) which is an organization that exists to basically keep vampires inline (I think!). We are given a little history of vampires and how, although they drink blood, it is actually ‘life force’ they feed off and not the blood, therefore blood banks wouldn’t be an option for vampires. We have a rogue vampire who is consistent throughout the three parts named Randy, and I think his capture is the basis for the whole story. Unfortunately I couldn’t understand this book at all so I can’t be sure. I really tried though. Part two seems to be narrated by someone who might be dead, but again I am unsure.
I become totally frustrated with myself when I don’t grasp a book, I wonder if the plot is just poorly executed or if the problem is that my mind works in a totally opposite way to the author and I will never ‘get it’. It makes it difficult for me to rate works like this. I have myself a list of points to look at, eg character development, editing, originality etc and because I don’t know what’s going on, how can I even judge these things?
So, anyway, I decided to mark on what I can be sure of. The editing, needs work, there are some missing words and strange sentence structures. I didn’t enjoy or lose myself in the story. The characters, well I wasn’t sure who was who so I’m gonna say they were underdeveloped and I don’t think I’d recommend this book to a friend, although it would be interesting to see if they ‘get it’. As for everything else I look out for and use to form my rating value, I don’t know, so I’m giving the book the benefit of the doubt and handing it 2.5 stars. People really need to judge this book for themselves.
Copy supplied for review
September 2, 2014
Radiant Shadows introduces an interesting concept that differs from what most of us believe about vampires. We learn that vampires, contrary to popular belief, don't actually drink blood but the life forces of their victims. This life force gives them the strength to go on.
Told in three parts from three different perspectives readers are given a glimpse into to this fascinating world. First we meet Stephen, a human within the vampire alliance, but a spell gone wrong turns him into an angel. Soon Stephen's fate has him protecting a newly turned vampire named Marshall. Even though Stephen would rather not protect a vampire, a promise to a friend leaves him no other choice. Lastly, Phyllis reveals her role. She is a human with a link to the vampire world and to Stephen. She vows to help Stephen fulfill his promise.
The story line is thought-provoking and I liked the idea of vampires stealing the life force of humans rather than blood. There were a few times when the character narrating the story changed and I felt confused. I had to re-read previous paragraphs to be certain who was talking.
If you are a fan of vampire stories and are looking for something new to read check out Radiant Shadows.
Told in three parts from three different perspectives readers are given a glimpse into to this fascinating world. First we meet Stephen, a human within the vampire alliance, but a spell gone wrong turns him into an angel. Soon Stephen's fate has him protecting a newly turned vampire named Marshall. Even though Stephen would rather not protect a vampire, a promise to a friend leaves him no other choice. Lastly, Phyllis reveals her role. She is a human with a link to the vampire world and to Stephen. She vows to help Stephen fulfill his promise.
The story line is thought-provoking and I liked the idea of vampires stealing the life force of humans rather than blood. There were a few times when the character narrating the story changed and I felt confused. I had to re-read previous paragraphs to be certain who was talking.
If you are a fan of vampire stories and are looking for something new to read check out Radiant Shadows.
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April 9, 2018DNF
Just couldn't get into it. Felt like I was dropped into the middle of the story with not enough info on what the world was supposed to be like. Had no idea who the main character was or even looked like. Didn't realize it was a dude until someone said his name.
Just couldn't get into it. Felt like I was dropped into the middle of the story with not enough info on what the world was supposed to be like. Had no idea who the main character was or even looked like. Didn't realize it was a dude until someone said his name.
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