Customer Reviews

The Last Vampire (Annals of Alchemy and Blood)

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

 

 

Scott Boulder Captain of a Secret Military Squad, enhanced through the use of Genetic Splicing of a Corpse onto Highly trained military squad. From page 1 the book starts with the use of these abilities in a real life situation, then moves onto a highly charged, action rollercoaster. Told from the point of view from 4 main characters, this book keeps you interested no matter whose eyes you are viewing through. If you like vampire novels or action movies, then you will like this book. Hopefully there will be more

A pretty good Urban Fantasy/Horror Light/Paranormal Romance. In this book Vampires are not your typical "sexy, misunderstood" characters but are vile and evil creatures who love to kill. The heroine, Leah, is a sort of "anthopoligist/good witch" who is kinda a female Van Helsing. She's devoted her life's work to fighting against Vampires after a creature she believes to be a Vampire kills several of her family members as a child. The hero, Scott, is part of a Government military "Special Ops" type unit that is experimenting with creating a group of "supermen" from the DNA of a mummy the Government found in a Texas cave. Really bad idea as the mummy is actually a unawakened super powerful Vampire that by taking him from the cave, they now awaken him.

The action was a B+, the characters about a C+ (Leah was a little weak but she will hopefully improve in book 2) and the Romance was a C-. Don't read The Last Vampire if your looking for typical Paranormal Romance, as the romance is only a secondary issue. Do read this book is you like action and horror with a little romance thrown in.

The book's write up seemed interesting. However, this book was a chore to finish. The main characters were flat and unbelievable, with interactions relegated to awkward sex scenes and being "unexplainably drawn towards each other," "never felt like this towards another," "instant trust" and other trite phrases. I read it to the end, in the hopes that maybe the ending would salvage the story line. It didn't.

I think this novel deserves one read. It manages to mix many different elements of horror together and while the main premise of the novel is'nt very believable, it still manages to keep you hooked onto the very end. I liked the theme of bringing middle aged gothic styled horror to the modern era. Somehow it worked for me.

Definitely not the best book ever and certainly not the worst.

The storyline is interesting and well thought out but the characters were lacking which let the book fall flat, IMO.

I've read about a LOT of too stupid to live heroines, I think this is the first too stupid to live hero I've ever read about. The author seems to have wonderful ideas, for the author's sake lets hope her next book is better thought out. But I won't most likely won't be reading it.

This book is really 3 1/2 stars. The storyline is interesting and well thought out. The heroine started out rather bland but became suprisingly involving. But I had a huge problem with the hero, Scott. Scott is captain of an elite Black Ops team so you would think he would be professional and focused and not take any crap. He starts out fine but then quickly lacks a backbone, concerning his brother.
If you are a romance reader that enjoys strong alpha males you will probably feel somewhat cheated like me. If everyone one on your team tells you not to do something and your commander warns you and you still do it over and over again...resulting in more problems (which I just knew were going to happen) because he wouldn't listen... Well, instead of making Scott look compassionate it just made him look dumb, not what you would expect in a no-nonsense military leader. Most of the book I was really frustrated with his character and wanted to smack him on the head and say,"Wake up, smell the coffee." I did enjoy the rest of the book, eventhough some things are left unresolved (probably for the next book) but because Scott was pretty much the main character I could not give the book a higher rating.

The discovery of an ancient mummy is what begins what could turn Earth into Hell. At first, it seemed the only effect would be to create a new breed of super soldiers, but then, the mummy roused by accident and by voodoo. Now, the evil being is in pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone to gain true immortality and then to bring his own race into the dominant position in the world, to create a new race of vampires. It falls to Scott Boulder, the leader of the Black Ops corp created from the vampire's DNA, and archeologist Leah Maguire to stop him and save humanity, or risk losing their souls.

**** Fast paced action, an intriguing and unique take on the vampire legend, and a respect for the holy make this a thriller that is guaranteed to satisfy anyone in search of an exciting, dramatic read. What's even better is that it is just the start of a new series for readers to discover and explore. The authors' voices blend well; you cannot tell two people are writing. Seeing how they continue will be worthwhile for their lucky audience. ****

Amanda Killgore

They found the five century old mummy buried deep in a Texas cave and they learned that the mummy's ancient flesh somehow bestowed super powers on humans. When the former was discovered, the Feds did not care; when the latter occurred the military took over and turned the mummy into a top secret weapon.

However the egotistical generals and their even more pompous know it all civilian leaders ignore the science as the facts get in the way. They do not comprehend that the mummy is dormant, but alive; held in stasis by an insane priest's incantations. They soon learn it's alive when a voodoo priestess purposely and Leah Maguire accidentally awakened it.

In New Mexico Special Ops Captain super soldier (from the mummy's touch) Scott Boulder and Team Ultra are assigned to stop the amoral last vampire; as now everyone knows the mummy is a blood sucking shark. Leah joins his team.

THE LAST VAMPIRE is a dark somewhat gory supernatural thriller. The vampire is humanized by his life over five hundred years ago although in the present he is an amoral feeding machine who hungers for blood and is not per say an evil creature; thus he is even more dangerous to humanity. The key to the tale is the romantic subplot between Scott and Leah provides a flicker of hope in a gloomy situation, but the authors cleverly keep that low keyed and muted as the war against THE LAST VAMPIRE takes precedence.

Harriet Klausner

The Last Vampire (Annals of Alchemy and Blood)

I have to say I think the other reviewers must be members of the authors family to have rated this so highly.
I have never given a bad review on a book before, but this one was so awful I figured I better warn the next unsuspecting vampire enthusiast.
First off, if you like movies of the type like the Evil Dead, or that Paris Hilton movie House of Wax, then perhaps you will like this book. It contains every cliche and gratuitous sex scene that your grade double Z horror flick does. It has no plot, every character has a back story you must read in detail concerning their troubled past, and there is a cliff hanger at the end so you need to buy the next book in the series.
I love vampire novels, I love horror novels, and I am not above reading a campy one when it doesn't take itself too seriously. This is none of those. It is a military special ops-witch craft-romance-dysfunctional family so I turned into the evil church fighting vampire, novel. It was so bad that if it was a movie people would be throwing stuff at the screen( and not in a good Rocky Horror way either).
It was a waste of $7.99 and it will be a waste of a dollar when it is on the $1.00 book table.