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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Vampire Saga, July 1, 2003
The first of the three book series, Covenant With the Vampire, is one of the best Vampire Sagas ever written. From the very start, a dark mood is set and it continues to unfold throughout the rest of the book. The story unfolds as Arkady Tsepesh's father has died and he and his pregnant wife are on route to Transylvania to undertake his late fathers role, that as an aid to a great uncle, Vlad Dracula. Arkady and his wife do their best to remain optimistic, but as the days go by, Vlad's evil begins to encompass every part of their lives. The book is set as a prelude to Bram Stoker's Dracula and Jeanne Kalogridis does a magnificent job is setting the evil atmosphere you'd expect. The novel is filled with horror, suspense, tragedy, and despair, while always showing a ray of light and of hope that this evil can be overcome. This book is not to be passed up, whether you are a fan of Vampires or horror in general.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!, June 23, 2008
I'm not normally a fan of horror. Not that I don't like the genre, but I just never really found an author or horror novel that really made me want to find more books in the same genre. Then I read The Historian and found that horror can be about more than just shock moments and blood. That book melded historical fiction (one of my favorite types of fiction) with vampire lore and myths about Dracula and yeilded a book that's one of my favorite reads to date. Amazon recommended the Family Dracul books after I rated the Historian highly and reviewed it. And I'm glad I came across this book! Similar to the Historian in a way (which is primarily told through a bunch of letters that is found by the story's main character over the course of time), Covenant With The Vampire is told as a series of diary entries written by decendants of Vlad Dracula. Most everybody that's even remotely familiar with the Dracula legend knows some of his true history as well as the folklore: How he sold his soul in order to live beyond the grave, using the blood of the living to grant himself immortality and power. This book expands on an already rich and interesting subject. It delves deeper into that pact and how it would affect generations of Draculs for centuries. As it happens chronologically, this book takes place BEFORE Bram Stoker's Dracula The book is quite addicting. Reading the characters' experiences and horrors in the first person via a series of diary entries really sucks you in as a reader and makes the horrors, loss and experiences all the more powerful. I really couldn't put this book down after I started it. Definetly what I'd call a pleasant surprise and highly recommended.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece in mythological Vampiric Literature, May 17, 2004
The Diaries of the Family Dracul. This series is a priceless collection that should grace every Vampire's collection. Ms. Kalogridis seems to attain the sublime gift of literary omniscience. All the journals are masterfully written, full with prismic expression sublime. These books are a gateway to the Gothic World of the strigoi, wherer we become intimately acquainted with the Tsepesh {sic} Family, & all those around them. The text is highly addictive, for it is the most crystallized Vampire novel I have ever read. It is a masterpiece. There is passion, violence, blood, sensitivity, romance, tragedy, sensuality, cruelty, fear, & debauchery. All emotions are stimulated. The scenery, the sounds, the textures, the tastes, the emotions, are all dramatically tangable. Wolves, superstitious peasants, Vampires, storms, are all present here, all guided by the nefarious hand of Vlad Dracul, who are all powerless in His infernal game of pleasure & pain. The whole tale is an inspirational opus, depicting the World of Darkness to its most splenderous. This is the stuff beautiful nightmares are made from. Reading Covenant With The Vampire by candlelight is most appropriate, sipping on a glass of slivovitz to arm the bones on a cold rainy night, for it is always as such within... In the dark of the night, may the hypnotizing emerald eyes of Vlad watch over you. But whatever you do, do not break the covenant...
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