Customer Reviews

The Hunt (Laws of the Blood, Book 1)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Finally, after reading Partners and Companions in the Laws of Blood series by Susan Sizemore, I managed to get my hands on The Hunt, the first book. I wasn't disappointed. It was all I thought it would be and I still find myself fascinated by the series.

Los Angeles Enforcer Selim finds himself in the position of having to give his approval for a hunt. It seems that every so often the vampires of the city need to taste fresh blood. Each nest (small community of vampires) is given the ok to hunt for x amounts of humans. Now this has to be handled very carefully. You see a vampire in need of a hunt is apparently in the same state of someone who needs a fix. You know what I mean, someone desperate for drugs, alcohol, chocolate (just thought I would throw that in there to see if you were paying attention) and will do anything to get what they need. The trick is maintaining control and not letting the hunt turn into a blood bath.

Since Selim is the Enforcer, it is his job to take control, organize the hunt, select the victims, and everyone is supposed to accept his decision and abide by it. Things don't quite work out that way. Some of the other vampire leaders resent his authority and try to undermine him. Meanwhile his mortal love, Siri, isn't afraid to question his decisions and has a few secrets of her own to hide. Selim soon finds himself with bigger problems than controlling the hunt and Siri when he hears someone is about to commit an act of betrayal that could destroy the their existence.

While I enjoyed The Hunt and found it worth the read, it was almost too much. There are so many subplots that it got to the point it became distracting keep up with what characters where involved in what plot and why they were involved. There were some cool moments in the book. I particularly liked the young vampire Sterling and how Selim has to explain the difference between stalking and courting. It was almost in a comical sense how Sterling kept showing up (hero worship?) when Selim needed backup.

While I don't consider this story up to par with the two that come after it, it is still a worthwhile read. It has all the elements, which make up what I expect from this series: blood, gore, violence, sex, and fascinating characters. Susan Sizemore has an interesting series going and I hope it expands past the five books, which I understand are supposed to make up this series.

The Los Angeles community of Vampires is hungry. They are ready to go on a hunt for fresh blood, but they must await the leadership of their Enforcer, Selim. Selim has the job of controlling the vampires' hunger, which is met with resistance from a group ready to take over Selim's position.

Selim's mortal companion, Siri, is shocked when she learns one of the their victims will be an innocent celebrity. She tries to make Selim remember that the innocent should not die, only the evil should suffer. Siri's actions lead her into a dangerous plight that only Selim can save her from.

Meanwhile, a documentary about vampires is about to be made and the Vampire community is in an uproar. How could the producers possibly know the truth about real vampires? Selim must discover who is really behind this movie and stop them before disaster strikes.

Susan Sizemore gives us an exciting story in this first book of her new series about Vampires. Her characters are fiendishly clever and vividly portrayed in the book. The drama level is high on each and every page. Readers will be "enthralled" with this book and will not be able to put it down until the final page is read.

I became a big fan of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series (after reading Anne Rice's series of vampire books) and reading "The Hunt" helped make the wait for the new Blake book in January much more than just tolerable. Sizemore's created a great new universe. I was willing to pick it up in the first place because I loved her romances, but she's hooked me on this new series. Now I'm trying to wait patiently for her new Selim book....

Laws of the Blood: The Hunt is the first book in a series. Selim is the law enforcer to a bunch of hungry vampires who resent his authority. He tells them when, where, and if they can hunt humans. Most of them are in the clutches of a bloodburn, which is the compulsion to hunt, and their reason is all but gone. Susan Sizemore has created a vampire world with its own mythology. I almost wish this book had been thicker and gone into more detail instead of being the first book of a series. I have so many questions and would like to read in more detail of Selim's youth and metamorphose into the enforcer. There are so many possible stories in the book that I know will problably be explored in future books. I really liked the book and will definitely buy the next one.

This is the first book in a new series with the interesting premise that vampires have "enforcers" to keep an eye on the various nests and make sure that no vampire laws are broken. Sort of like vampire cops.

I liked the characters, and the tension between the nests was good, but for some reason this book didn't grab me the way the Anita Blake stories do.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and will read the next book in the series. I especially liked the humorous references to pop culture, such as having the enforcer be a Lakers fan and wondering where Buffy was when he needed a night off. Worth reading, but not a classic.

"The Hunt" is the first in a new vampire series, "Laws of the Blood," written by Susan Sizemore. While the series appears to have some similarities with the vampire tales of the Masquerade, Sizemore has put together a vampire milieu that has its own subtle nuances and flavor. This is an impressive accomplishment in a genre which is perpetually searching for yet another new plot device. This first volume takes place in Los Angeles.

Sizemore's vampires are the strigoi, who follow the dictates of a hidden council, and strigs, who live on their own. The Strigoi Council sets the rules for public display, the making of new vampires, the hunt for victims, and anything else that effects vampire survival. Sizemore's vampires rarely need to hunt, since they feed on many human emotions in addition to human blood. But sometimes the Hunt is a needful thing. And for the making of vampires, it is required.

On the top of the vampire food chain are the enforcers, loners who make sure that the dictates of the council are followed and protect the vampires in their areas of control. Enforcers don't need to feed on humans at all. Indeed, they prefer their own kind when they need a snack. Selim is the Enforcer for Los Angeles. He is relatively young for a vampire (200 years or so) and must control the city as much by unerring diplomacy as by violence if he is to survive. The nests he is responsible for contain a fractious and argumentative group of vampires that chafe under the rule of the council and yearn for a more modern and enlightened form of government.

Now is come a time when the vampires of Los Angeles need to hunt, and it is up to Selim to provide what is needed. Hungry vampires are more than usually irritable, and Selim has to balance the need of the strigoi against the need for secrecy, which means that he is at odds with the heads of all the major nests. In Los Angeles there is another special danger; someone is trying to make a film about the vampire subculture, outing vampires everywhere. Selim must remove this threat or the hunt will be impossible.

Beautiful Siri has been Selim's human companion for almost a decade, her skill at clairvoyance having helped him many times. But, for the past year, Selim has been avoiding sex and blood sharing with her because he loves her, and is afraid he will need to change her too soon if he isn't careful. By law, the newly changed must leave their maker. This might work for Selim, but Siri is badly torn over his apparent rejection. Torn enough so that she is vulnerable to manipulation who seek the death of Sebastian, dhamphir child of Don Thomas, one of the most powerful of the city's vampires.

Half vampire and half human, little Sebastian is the stuff of vampire nightmares. Istvan, the only other Dhamphir born in the last 500 years, is a legendary enforcer who is the terror of every vampire who has heard of him. Sebastian is under Selim's protection, but the Strigoi Council expressly forbids the turning of dhamphirs and many vampires would just as soon see Sebastian dead first.

Sizemore shows considerable facility in weaving these subplots together into a tight whole. Selim's quandaries are engaging. He and his fellow denizens of the dark are believable and sympathetic without losing the horror of what they are. In a single volume the author lays all of the groundwork for the rest of the series and produces an imaginative dark adventure tale which will leave the reader looking forward to more.

Susan Sizemore does an excellent job at a new viewpoint of the vampire genre. They have their own problems including a movie script that just might let the human population know the truth about vampires! As a student of Islamic history particularly of the Ottoman Empire, it was good to read about the main character, Selim. An Enforcer who must get the other vampires to control the 'bloodburn'. It is he who gives permission for and whom they will hunt. I wish that I could have learned more about how he became an Enforcer. It was hinted at(ah, well). I cannot wait to read the next one. Hopefully, in the future, there will be a book about Selim and how he came to be an Enforcer.

This is a world where vampires exist, side-by-side with the humans they sometimes take as companions--or prey. Only the Enforcers can kill another vampire--and only the Enforcers can pick what humans can be Hunted. This is the story of one such Enforcer, named Selim.

I loved the world that was described, and can't wait to read the second book! However...the reader is very much dropped into the middle of things, and left scrambling to figure out what is going on. Also, some of the concepts seem to need more developing. For example, the concept of the Hunt is that this is when the vampires can hunt down and kill a number of humans, slaking their blood lust. Is this the only time they drink from humans? Or is the process more to feed the animal need to hunt that exists within them all? And what about the fact that they also feed on emotions, and the blood and flesh of their own kind? It seems that there were lots of ideas thrown together--a little more polish would have been nice.

Also, you are introduced to a lot of interesting characters--but there is very little character development. Everyone stays pretty much the same throughout, and for the most part all you see is a small slice of who these people are. It was a tease, and I wanted more!

Overall, however, I enjoyed the book (read it in one day, actually). I just wanted it to be a bit more defined.

I was looking for more vampire books after I exhausted the Anita Blake series. I gave this one a try. I wish I hadn't. I still am so confused about strigs, strigoi, companions, enforcers, the hunt, you name it.

Basically, the book is a tease. You get a quick introduction to a character or concept and then you're whisked away to the next thing. I purchased the 1st four in this series. The second book helps explain a bit more. I still have so many questions.

I recommend reading the other books in the series first, and then, if you have time to kill, try this one. Prepare for the response of "huhhhhh???"

The Hunt is the first novel in Susan Sizemore's notably unusual Laws of the Blood series, and she melds romance alongside horror to create what some might be called a work of sensuous dark fantasy. Sizemore has published novels in a wide range of genres, and I have to admit I had some doubts about this series going on; it's not often you encounter a romance writer treading the darker paths of literature. Sizemore obviously knows what she is doing, though, and the end result in this case is a refreshingly different take on the subject of vampires.

Vampires do have rules to live by, embodied in the Laws of the Blood. The laws are for the vampires' protection as much as the teeming millions of humans who unknowingly occupy the vampires' world. If word of the vampires' real-life existence got out, mankind would not rest until these "monsters" of the night were destroyed. Of course, vampires roiling in the overpowering desire of bloodlust can't really be depended upon to play it cool in all situations, and that is why there are Enforcers in each area. The word of the Enforcer vampire is law and must be obeyed. This is especially important during periods of the Hunt. Vampires are not permitted to kill humans according to their whims, but they must hunt and sate their bloodthirst periodically. It is up to the Enforcer to name the number of victims, identify them, and set everything up for the Hunt. In the Los Angeles area, the Enforcer is named Selim. His job is not an easy one. A couple of the local vampires resent his power over them and seek a means to overturn the ancient Laws and feed when and where they choose. He also has a five-year-old dhampir, the first dhampir born in many, many years, to worry about and protect - vampires do not like dhampirs as a rule, generally viewing them as huge threats to their kind. Then there is Siri, Selim's Companion. Virtually all vampires have one or more companions, human beings who love and serve their undead masters until such time as they become vampires themselves. Cut a Companion loose too early or keep them close for too long out of your own love and need, and you risk creating a strigoi, a loner vampire who usually turns out pretty messed up in the head.

Selim has all of these problems weighing on him, distracting him. His complex relationship with Siri is gravely threatened by Siri's disapproval of Selim's recent behavior and orders as an Enforcer - she finds the killing of innocents horrifying. In a larger sense, though, it is a lack of communication and sharing that threatens to irreparably harm this relationship Despite all of these concerns and worries, though, Selim is not even aware of his biggest problem of all. Somewhere out there, an ancient vampire is scripting a movie called If Truth Be Told, a film which will tell the true story of vampires - in fact, it will tell Selim's own story, for the unknown vampire is secretly riding Selim's dreams during the day and basing her script on his very life.

The Hunt is quite an impressive novel, one which turns several vampire myths on their heads and brings to life a new and fascinating type kind of vampire, one never really seen before in the literature. As always seems to happen, the struggles of the vampire, particularly an Enforcer such as Selim who must control as well as defend the nests living and operating under his jurisdiction, speaks to very human qualities that all readers can relate to: doing what is right; putting the interests of the many over the personal interests of the one; staying within the limits of the law at all times, when passion, justice, or a thirst for revenge impels you to act rashly and aggressively; figuring out how to love the person you are with and to overcome all manner of romantic obstacles in the process, etc. The vampire has always served as a mirror of the human soul, and it seems clear to me that Susan Sizemore understands that fact very well.