Branded

Unturned #1

by Rob Cornell

Sorcerer Sebastian Light has long used his powerful magic to corner the market on demon hunting in Detroit. With control over the elements, he can burn through bounties almost as fast as the Ministry can issue them—much to the chagrin of the Motor City’s other hunters. But after a group of vampires taints him with their blood in an effort to turn him, collecting bounties is the least of his worries.

News of Sebastian’s vampire infection spreads through the city like Hellfire. Now he has a contract on his own head, and his rivals see an opportunity to take out their biggest competition. He can expend magical energy to keep the infection from blazing through him, but fending off constant attacks at the same time requires more power than even he can muster. Weakening daily and hunted wherever he goes, Sebastian scrambles to find a cure—before this fight for his life leaves him undead.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

178 pages, ebook

First published June 20, 2016

About the author

Whether it’s a covert-ops team of vampire assassins or a greedy dragon who lives under Detroit’s MGM Grand Casino, most of Rob Cornell’s stories feature some element of the dark and fantastic. He has written over a dozen published novels, including two dark fantasy sagas—The Lockman Chronicles and the Unturned series. A native of the Detroit area, he spent a handful of years living in both Los Angeles and Chicago before returning to the Midwest, and currently lives with his family in Southeast Michigan.

Reviews

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I definitely thought the idea of an un-turned (of being vampire) sorcerer to be interesting. This gave Sebastian both an edge (who knows what the 'power' of vampire virus in his body could do to him!) as well as a curse because of what he must do to keep the virus at bay (it involved 'separating' his power, which made Sebastian not as strong a sorcerer he previously was).

I was also curious on why the vamps wanted to turn Sebastian. There must be more to it than just a revenge plan because Sebastian hunted the vampires under order of the Ministry.

As for Sebastian himself, well, one thing for sure, he loved his Mom :). It is needed to be highlighted for me because often, heroes in this genre have family issues! So it was refreshing to have one hero that truly will do anything for his mother. On another hand, Sebastian also needed to learn about everyone else's problem with him. He was not exactly an asshole, but Sebastian never did try to understand why other hunters hated his guts.

All in all, this was a nice start of an urban fantasy series...

[L.K.Mirza · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast moving enjoyable read

I was caught up from the first and am looking forward to the next installment in the demon hunting sorcerer"s life. I'm sure there's a bigger story waiting to be revealed.

[CJ Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up on the strength of "Darker Things", the first of another series the author had written. This largely comes off for me as a weaker version of Harry Dresden, transplanted from Chicago to Detroit. Our main character starts off as a hugely powerful sorcerer bounty hunter, but within the first chapter or two his effective power level is dropped due to a vampiric infection. This was a promising turn, and sounded less boring than a guy who just steps in and trounces all his opponents. I don't know if our character is supposed to be dim, but he does several frustratingly dim things. (He pretty much uses his amazing range of magic to throw fire balls and pick things up and throw them with wind. And then, in a situation where he decides fire won't work, he can only remember that he throws fire balls.) The writing is occasionally frustrating, as well. It is established that he has some things he needs in a gun safe in his bedroom, and over the course of three sentences he (a) goes to his bedroom (b) punches in his code using the keypad on the door of the safe and then (c) opens the safe.

[Felix · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know how this book got a 4-star rating average.
Don't touch it if you have read books like Harry Dresden or

A mage turned half vampire and on the run sounds awesome but this book makes it look boring and simply bland.
It starts off with a chasing scene and of course, Sebastian has a six-pack and bulges in all the right places. Why not but this is a marker for me that there will be very little development regarding the body in this book.
Meets his enemy for this book not 1 page later. Well, why not simply let the book finish here because it is going downhill from here on.

In this book, Sebastian is a young sorcerer for sorcerer's standards, his mother got him while being 110 years old "a teenage pregnancy for sorcerers", and he seems to know nothing. For everything, he has to go to someone and acquire some kind of knowledge. And o course he meets the girl an she is perfect for him.

Honestly, this book read like a Harry Dresden story that you washed everything that made it good out.

[Matthew Angelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok book

It was a decent read. Nothing to spectacular about it. Predictable and the magic in the book was weak. Main character had no personality. It has potential for more.

[J A prime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

Fantastic book - I can't wait to read the next one so I'm getting it now. Who needs sleep when you can read?

[Darla Stokes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the start to a new urban fantasy series. Our hero is a sorcerer, and the world is peopled with vampires, trolls, shapeshifters, witches, ghosts, and in-the-know mortals. Since nobody wants to read a first book that's written like an encyclopedia, there are a lot of details about how magic works and what it means to be different creatures in this world that we don't know yet, but given the amount and type of information we discover in this first book, I have hopes that those questions will be answered eventually.

Sebastian Light is no Harry Dresden, but he's got an appeal of his own, and this is a good read to fill the time while you're waiting for Peace Talks.

[Zoe Tasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Cornell’s Lockman Chronicles and looked forward to reading this novel. I was not disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the flawed, main character and the entire premise. I look forward to reading the next in the series.