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Vampire Gene #3
Demon Dance
Lilly has been thrown into another dimension at the whim of an unnamed, undefined entity. To return to her life with Gabriele, she must find a new door, prevent a paradox and seek the truth from the past. The youngest vampire in existence, she will travel the world and centuries of vampire history to become the oldest of her kind with talents that humanize and terrorize those that would manipulate her for their ends. In the end, she must return to where she began and make choices between her first love, the tales of someone she’s had no reason to doubt, and an Über-vampire who reeks of evil and illness yet holds her heart. What is truth? What is instinct? Which acts will she commit that can preserve or will end those of her line?
297 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2011
3 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Sam Stone
57 books96 followers'Mistress of the grisly and the glutinous' - GRAHAM MASTERTON
'A deceptively readable date with darkness – watch your step! This book is lit for the much more discerning chick (and cock) who likes to walk in the shadows. Relax with it, but be prepared for sudden jewels and little masterpieces – and the rug to be pulled from under your feet.’ - TANITH LEE on Killing Kiss.
GENRE AUTHOR.
Award winning genre writer Sam Stone began writing aged 11 after reading her first adult fiction book, The Collector by John Fowles.
Sam's writing has appeared in many anthologies for poetry and prose. Like all good authors she drew on her own knowledge and passions to write her first novel which the Silver Award for Best Horror Novel in ForeWord Magazine's book of the year awards in 2007.
In September 2008 the novel was re-edited and republished by The House of Murky Depths as KILLING KISS. Sequels, FUTILE FLAME and DEMON DANCE went on to become finalists in the same awards for 2009/2010. Both novels were later Shortlisted for The British Fantasy Society Awards for Best Novel and DEMON DANCE won the award for Best Novel in 2011. Sam also won Best Short Fiction for her story FOOL'S GOLD which first appeared in the NewCon Press Anthology THE BITTEN WORD.
In 2011 Sam was commissioned by Reeltime Pictures to write a monologue for their talking heads style DOCTOR WHO spin-off, WHITE WITCH OF DEVIL'S END. She was also co-script editor with David J Howe. The six part drama, starring Damaris Hayman, was released on DVD to much critical acclaim in Nov 2017 by Koch Media as part of boxset called THE DAEMONS OF DEVIL'S END. Sam also edited and wrote a story in the novelisation inspired by the drama for Telos Publishing also called THE DAEMONS OF DEVIL'S END.
Other works include official Sherlock Holmes stories for Constable and Robinson and Titan. Sam also wrote a Dorian Gray story for Big Finish’s successful series THE CONFESSIONS OF DORIAN GRAY.
Sam was commissioned by Telos to write several sequels to her hugely successful Steampunk Novella ZOMBIE'S AT TIFFANY'S. The audio rights were subsequently bought by Spokenworld Audio and were made available for download in Halloween 2013. In January 2015 the first novel of her new post-apocalyptic trilogy, JINX TOWN - Book 1˗ THE JINX CHRONICLES, was published by Telos and was been followed by Book 2: JINX MAGIC in 2016. The final part JINX BOUND was published in July 2018.
The rights for Sam’s supernatural thriller, POSING FOR PICASSO were acquired by Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta’s publishing house, Wordfire Press, in 2016. Peter James said that it was ‘A powerful mix of the supernatural and police investigation’.
An eclectic and skilled writer Sam also has a BA (Hons) in English and Writing for Performance and an MA in Creative Writing, which means that she is often invited to talk about writing in schools, colleges and universities in the UK. Sam is also frequently invited to appear as a guest at literary events, conventions and Comic Cons in the UK, USA and Canada.
'A deceptively readable date with darkness – watch your step! This book is lit for the much more discerning chick (and cock) who likes to walk in the shadows. Relax with it, but be prepared for sudden jewels and little masterpieces – and the rug to be pulled from under your feet.’ - TANITH LEE on Killing Kiss.
GENRE AUTHOR.
Award winning genre writer Sam Stone began writing aged 11 after reading her first adult fiction book, The Collector by John Fowles.
Sam's writing has appeared in many anthologies for poetry and prose. Like all good authors she drew on her own knowledge and passions to write her first novel which the Silver Award for Best Horror Novel in ForeWord Magazine's book of the year awards in 2007.
In September 2008 the novel was re-edited and republished by The House of Murky Depths as KILLING KISS. Sequels, FUTILE FLAME and DEMON DANCE went on to become finalists in the same awards for 2009/2010. Both novels were later Shortlisted for The British Fantasy Society Awards for Best Novel and DEMON DANCE won the award for Best Novel in 2011. Sam also won Best Short Fiction for her story FOOL'S GOLD which first appeared in the NewCon Press Anthology THE BITTEN WORD.
In 2011 Sam was commissioned by Reeltime Pictures to write a monologue for their talking heads style DOCTOR WHO spin-off, WHITE WITCH OF DEVIL'S END. She was also co-script editor with David J Howe. The six part drama, starring Damaris Hayman, was released on DVD to much critical acclaim in Nov 2017 by Koch Media as part of boxset called THE DAEMONS OF DEVIL'S END. Sam also edited and wrote a story in the novelisation inspired by the drama for Telos Publishing also called THE DAEMONS OF DEVIL'S END.
Other works include official Sherlock Holmes stories for Constable and Robinson and Titan. Sam also wrote a Dorian Gray story for Big Finish’s successful series THE CONFESSIONS OF DORIAN GRAY.
Sam was commissioned by Telos to write several sequels to her hugely successful Steampunk Novella ZOMBIE'S AT TIFFANY'S. The audio rights were subsequently bought by Spokenworld Audio and were made available for download in Halloween 2013. In January 2015 the first novel of her new post-apocalyptic trilogy, JINX TOWN - Book 1˗ THE JINX CHRONICLES, was published by Telos and was been followed by Book 2: JINX MAGIC in 2016. The final part JINX BOUND was published in July 2018.
The rights for Sam’s supernatural thriller, POSING FOR PICASSO were acquired by Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta’s publishing house, Wordfire Press, in 2016. Peter James said that it was ‘A powerful mix of the supernatural and police investigation’.
An eclectic and skilled writer Sam also has a BA (Hons) in English and Writing for Performance and an MA in Creative Writing, which means that she is often invited to talk about writing in schools, colleges and universities in the UK. Sam is also frequently invited to appear as a guest at literary events, conventions and Comic Cons in the UK, USA and Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 22, 2010
This is the first book I have read by Sam Stone and it is the third in a series about Vampires with a difference.
Not my usual choice of reading matter but I thoroughly enjoyed it and read it swiftly from cover to cover over a couple of days.
I found I was swallowed up by the world/s she created and the characters were well drawn and didn't strain credibility at all once I was inside the story - which took a paragraph at most.
No boring bits. I usually find myself skin reading a book on first parse - but this one kept me gripped enough to read properly from the start.
The best compliment I can pay this book is that it has made me want to read all the others by the same author now. I can recommend this unreservedly. Glad I stepped outside my comfort zone and expanded my horizons.
Not my usual choice of reading matter but I thoroughly enjoyed it and read it swiftly from cover to cover over a couple of days.
I found I was swallowed up by the world/s she created and the characters were well drawn and didn't strain credibility at all once I was inside the story - which took a paragraph at most.
No boring bits. I usually find myself skin reading a book on first parse - but this one kept me gripped enough to read properly from the start.
The best compliment I can pay this book is that it has made me want to read all the others by the same author now. I can recommend this unreservedly. Glad I stepped outside my comfort zone and expanded my horizons.
December 6, 2010
Sam Stone , that most intelligent and sensuous of authors of vampire literature has done it again with the third in the Vampire Gene trilogy. Demon Dance continues the reading equivalent of treating yourself to a divinely decadent night lounging on a velvet-draped sofa, drinking vintage blood red wine and being fed luxury chocolates by a handsome or beautiful lover... Demon Dance is sometimes shocking, always intruiging and never predicatable...What more could any lover of beautifully written gothic literature desire?
October 11, 2011
Reviewed for www.bookchickcity.com (7 out of 10 on the blog)
"Demon Dance" takes quite a different turn to the first two books in the series. In previous books we read Gabriele and Lucrezia's stories, which with the exception of the end sequence in 'Futile Flame', were appealing to me as they were vampires and stalkers living amidst the real world. Lilly's story was a lot more fantastical.
It requires the reader to make a few more leaps or faith, with the magical and manipulative Allucian species playing a very important part in the story. At first I felt a little like a duck out of water, and found it hard to grasp that Lilly ended up in what I perceived to be the Garden of Eden. You have to ride through these pages until you become submerged into her story.
Once again, we're taken on a fascinating journey through time as Lilly's story begins to unfold. A wickedly dark life outside of the rules and regulations of normal society. The narrative jumps from century to century as we see Lilly's life in different times and on different lives. And what struck me the most was just how clever it was. How all the different strands in the earlier books all led to this one, and how everything begins and ends with Lilly. There were several big twists I really did not see coming.
I'm not sure I liked Lilly as much as a lead character as I did Gabriele and Lucrezia, while beautiful, I don't think she was as darkly seductive as the other two. Although she is perhaps the one I'd be more likely to be friends with. She also made some choices with regard to her love life that I disagreed with. And, despite being the most magically adept and knowledgable of the three, ironically at times, she did come across occasionally as the least worldly. Never the less I did still very much enjoy her novel.
This book is gothic and macabre and once again I found myself being seduced by the darkness of Stone's vampires. Her characters are sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, but very compelling. The novel continues once more with strong themes of sex, violence, rape. The relationships between each of the characters are complicated to say the least, but this aside you cannot help by becoming hooked by their stories. These are vampires that very much sit in the horror genre, but are still darkly appealing as lead characters.
VERDICT:
This books nicely pulls together all of the threads of the series. If you're looking to return to dark and gothic vampires, then Stone gives you a chance to escape from the sparkly and romantic. I'd thought this book was the end of the trilogy, but Stone could very easily pick the story up again, it will be interesting to see if she does.
"Demon Dance" takes quite a different turn to the first two books in the series. In previous books we read Gabriele and Lucrezia's stories, which with the exception of the end sequence in 'Futile Flame', were appealing to me as they were vampires and stalkers living amidst the real world. Lilly's story was a lot more fantastical.
It requires the reader to make a few more leaps or faith, with the magical and manipulative Allucian species playing a very important part in the story. At first I felt a little like a duck out of water, and found it hard to grasp that Lilly ended up in what I perceived to be the Garden of Eden. You have to ride through these pages until you become submerged into her story.
Once again, we're taken on a fascinating journey through time as Lilly's story begins to unfold. A wickedly dark life outside of the rules and regulations of normal society. The narrative jumps from century to century as we see Lilly's life in different times and on different lives. And what struck me the most was just how clever it was. How all the different strands in the earlier books all led to this one, and how everything begins and ends with Lilly. There were several big twists I really did not see coming.
I'm not sure I liked Lilly as much as a lead character as I did Gabriele and Lucrezia, while beautiful, I don't think she was as darkly seductive as the other two. Although she is perhaps the one I'd be more likely to be friends with. She also made some choices with regard to her love life that I disagreed with. And, despite being the most magically adept and knowledgable of the three, ironically at times, she did come across occasionally as the least worldly. Never the less I did still very much enjoy her novel.
This book is gothic and macabre and once again I found myself being seduced by the darkness of Stone's vampires. Her characters are sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, but very compelling. The novel continues once more with strong themes of sex, violence, rape. The relationships between each of the characters are complicated to say the least, but this aside you cannot help by becoming hooked by their stories. These are vampires that very much sit in the horror genre, but are still darkly appealing as lead characters.
VERDICT:
This books nicely pulls together all of the threads of the series. If you're looking to return to dark and gothic vampires, then Stone gives you a chance to escape from the sparkly and romantic. I'd thought this book was the end of the trilogy, but Stone could very easily pick the story up again, it will be interesting to see if she does.
June 20, 2011
Sam Stone is without a doubt the heir apparent to the legacy abandoned by Anne Rice. Demon Dance is the third book in her Vampire Gene trilogy, which spans across two millennium while remaining intimately tied to four primary characters. In this volume new vampire Lilly has stepped through a mysterious door in time and space and finds herself on a journey though history to protect her own vampiric legacy.
Stone's prose is richly textured, vividly detailed and her vampires are the super-powered, fickle-emotioned monster horror fans have grown up on. One of the better small press offerings out there, and more affordable than limited editions to boot, Stone's Vampire Gene trilogy (Killing Kiss, Futile Flame, Demon Dance) really shouldn't be overlooked by curators looking to build and excellent horror collection.
Contains: Violence, language
Stone's prose is richly textured, vividly detailed and her vampires are the super-powered, fickle-emotioned monster horror fans have grown up on. One of the better small press offerings out there, and more affordable than limited editions to boot, Stone's Vampire Gene trilogy (Killing Kiss, Futile Flame, Demon Dance) really shouldn't be overlooked by curators looking to build and excellent horror collection.
Contains: Violence, language
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June 15, 2011Sam Stone is without a doubt the heir apparent to the legacy abandoned by Anne Rice. Demon Dance is the third book in her Vampire Gene trilogy, which spans across two millennia while remaining intimately tied to four primary characters. In this volume, new vampire Lilly has stepped through a mysterious door in time and space and finds herself on a journey though history to protect her own vampiric legacy.
Stone's prose is richly textured and vividly detailed, and her vampires are the super-powered, fickle, and chaotic monsters horror fans have grown up on. One of the better small press offerings out there, and more affordable than limited editions to boot, Stone's Vampire Gene trilogy (Killing Kiss, Futile Flame, Demon Dance) really shouldn't be overlooked by librarians looking to build and excellent horror collection.
Contains: Violence, language
Reviewed by: Michele Lee
Stone's prose is richly textured and vividly detailed, and her vampires are the super-powered, fickle, and chaotic monsters horror fans have grown up on. One of the better small press offerings out there, and more affordable than limited editions to boot, Stone's Vampire Gene trilogy (Killing Kiss, Futile Flame, Demon Dance) really shouldn't be overlooked by librarians looking to build and excellent horror collection.
Contains: Violence, language
Reviewed by: Michele Lee
February 1, 2015
I met Sam Stone at the SFX conference and although this is not my normal type of reading, I liked her so much I bought the first three in this series. This was my clear favourite so far - and readers should be pre-armed with the knowledge that this is definitely not Twilight.
I quote: "Licking my lips I felt glutted on blood and not the least bit happy with my loss of control. But I don't make excuses for myself. I don't sparkle in the sunlight. I'm the real deal. I'm a vampire. I drink blood. I kill. And sometimes I really get off on it".
I quote: "Licking my lips I felt glutted on blood and not the least bit happy with my loss of control. But I don't make excuses for myself. I don't sparkle in the sunlight. I'm the real deal. I'm a vampire. I drink blood. I kill. And sometimes I really get off on it".
September 26, 2010
Well, I have to give this five stars as I had a hand in editing it. I'd be a fool not to. It's the third in the Vampire Gene series and ties up most of the ends nicely - yet also leaves it open for more. . .
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews