Demon Gene

The Vampire Revelation #1

by Sam Stafford

What would you do to protect your family? Ethan Baxter must decide whether to forfeit his life to save his loved ones or to die fighting those who wish to enslave him. A corrupt corporation, whose scientists have unlocked the genetic code of the vampire, holds the key to Ethan's fate. Many in the organization, like molecular biologist Harley Mason, see vampire DNA as cure to many of the world's medical and social problems, but quickly she realizes the sinister motives behind discovering the secret origin of vampirism. Harley's world soon collides with the world of the vampire and she must race against time and her employer in order to save her loved ones.

Genres: Vampires

394 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2014

Reviews

[Felita Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in what the author expects to be a trilogy. His fiction novel approaches the topic of vampires from a scientific background. This author shows great promise. Let me explain. There aren’t horrible grammar mistakes, but the assistance of an editor would improve this work. There are many places the author repeats himself and/or uses the same phrases only a couple of sentences apart, ‘Deep down Ethan knew…’ and ‘deep down Ethan hoped...’ for example. Another instance was a sentence telling us a character doesn’t have any friends, then a whole paragraph saying the same thing, then a few pages later the same thought.
A good editor would have shared, “You’ve said the same thing three times in the span of 2 pages. Let’s keep this one, where you’ve expressed it best, and drop the others.” As a reader, repetition of the same idea makes me feel impatient. When will we get to something new? Does the author think I can’t remember what he said one page ago? If these duplications were taken out, it would be a much ‘tighter’ novel.
Now for the good stuff. Sam Stafford was excellent at introducing characters so that we weren’t bombarded at the start. This dovetailed nicely with how he laid out the plot. We get to experience a character’s conflicts and obstacles in two or three chapters and are given somewhat of a cliffhanger. The next chapter would let us in on what was happening with a different mini-plot and character. You suspect at some place in time these characters are going to crash into each other. This played really well to give you anticipation of each new section and build suspense.
My favorite character was Brian, a man that was a professional at hunting and killing or capturing vampires (depending upon the contract). By favorite I mean that after he was put in play, I kept wanting to know what was going on with him and where he was. I’m sure that the author considers Ethan and Harley the lead characters. I was conflicted about Ethan. He was between a rock and a hard place most of the time. There was a section of the book where I really didn’t like how he was thinking about another character. But this goes to show that Ethan’s character was complex and well-drawn. If you enjoy books that feature vampires, you will enjoy this. But I also think folks that like mysteries and spy-like thrillers would also enjoy this book because of the plot and structure.
I was given a copy of the novel free in order to read and write an honest review.

[Tony-Paul Vissage · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an ambitious project which succeeds to a certain extent. Told with many flashbacks in the characters’ lives leading up to the present, it chronicles how they become involved in the conspiracy and then how they are drawn to help each other in the fight to survive. It might be characterized as a leisurely-paced, slightly rambling tale, but, considering the scope of the story, it has to be. Gathering all the story-threads together and bringing everyone into focus could very easily become a monumental task and since this is the first entry in a series, there’s definitely more to come.

I’ve few complaints with the storyline itself—the flashbacks and present-day narratives are precise and documented so there’s no confusion in the timeline. There are quite a number of characters introduced and just as many dispatched rather gruesomely, but not enough that you need a scoresheet to keep count. There are a number of typos (“scar” is continually misspelled as “scare,”) as well as some mis-use of homonyms and grammatical and punctuation errors which an editor should have caught. These by no means detract from the story but they do provide a dissonance for the perceptive reader.

All in all, The Vampire Revelation: Demon Gene is a story with a precise X-Files tinge and a definite page-turner. It’s going to be interesting to see how it turns out. My assessment? Ignore the errors, and check it out!

This novel was supplied by the author and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Vampire Revelation: Demon Gene held my curiosity and interest throughout. The multiple story lines wove together nicely, and kept me captivated. Moments nearly left me breathless. I definitely want to know how the series continues.

[Julius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The book kept me in suspense and wondering what the next moves would be. The flow of the book was interesting and kept me wanting to keep on reading. I would recommend the book.