The Awakening [Paperback]

L. A. Banks (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (January 1, 2005)
• ASIN: B001DXBLD8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Me, I'm a bit out there, I guess you can tell by the books:) I like keeping some things close to the vest--my favorite things to do among them... guess it's that whole mysterious author groove, LOL... but I like the good guys to win in the end.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new reality., January 17, 2004

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Awakening: A Vampire Huntress Legend (Paperback)

Fast on the heels of MINION, the predecessor to the vampire huntress
series, is THE AWAKENING...the tale continues. Every one thousand years
a Neteru is born, divinely created and specially anointed, a female
vampire slayer with all the powers of the world of light. And should
she willingly host a vampire seed during her entrance into womanhood,
she will produce a 'day walker', a master vampire who can dwell
topside as a human, with the power to also transform other undead into

day walkers.

Carlos Rivera, a third generation vampire, has been summoned by the
Vampire Council and escorted to the sixth realm of hell. He is elevated
to a master vampire because the Council needs him to bring them the
huntress. Carlos is tormented, Damali Richards is the huntress and he
has had an attraction for her long before any vampire madness occurred.
When they were teenagers he promised to be her protector; now he is
destined to deliver to the world of darkness, the one woman he vowed to
protect.

Everyone's awaiting Damali's twenty-first birthday, the day of her
ovulation when she enters fully into womanhood, and the night of
reckoning for the darkside. There is dissention in the vampire ranks,
both The Vampire Council and a master vampire turned rogue, Fallon Nuit
want Damali. Ready and waiting to do battle with both powers is
The Covenant, the guardians sent to protect her. Whichever is victorious
will rule; and Carlos is the catalyst. Because of her love for him,
Damali openly welcomes him across her threshold, into her fortress. And
because of his love for her Carlos compromises himself and reveals that
he too is a master vampire, but he has a plan. He becomes a vampire
double agent and strikes deals with the Council, with Fallon Nuit whom
he now hates, and also with The Covenant. And so the battle begins.
Damali knows that the fate of the world rests on her shoulders and that
Carlos, although she feels in her soul, is the nemesis, or is he? Time
is running out, Carlos and Damali have choices to make.

THE AWAKENING is a masterful tale of hybrids: half demons, half vampires
and half humans, graced with guardian angels. The battle is still the age
old battle of good versus evil, but the players are caught somewhere
between the old world and the new millennium. L.A. Banks creates an
intriguing world of probability, one that invokes eerie inhuman interest
with all the possibilities she ignites.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best of Banks' Series!, June 19, 2005

By 

Kelly Houser (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Awakening: A Vampire Huntress Legend (Paperback)

I take back what I said about "Minion." "The Awakening" was excellent and definitely the best of this series. I had some struggles with the first novel in this series, "Minion," but "The Awakening" blew me away. I would strongly recommend a familiarity with African American literature before you attempt to read L.A. Banks. Her use of dialect could be hindering for the reader who is not used to it. Other than that, the novel is dynamic. Excellent character development and delivery. The protagonist is very sympathetic, thus the reader can easily relate to her. I would highly recommend this novel and its precursor to anyone who enjoys fantasy and vampire fiction.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Someone please find an editor, July 24, 2004

By 

horizon_233 (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Awakening: A Vampire Huntress Legend (Paperback)

Overall, this book lacked plot depth. It relied too heavily on the tried and true vampire cliches without developing the real character tension I'd like to have seen.

What destroyed all enjoyment of this book for me was the constant stream of typos, grammatical errors, and shifts in Point of View. If it weren't for the generally above average character development, I would have given this book a single star and thrown it at the wall.

As it was, Carlos thoroughly intrigued me throughout the book. His internal conflicts kept me reading to the end. Damali is at least somewhat different than the usual vampire novel heroine and I appreciated that. It was the overall lack of development of tension between them and the bad guys and the lack of development of a coherent trilogy length story arc that never really turned me on.