The Last Vampire: Phantom No. 4 (Paperback)

by Christopher Pike (Author)
Key Phrases: last vampire, Las Vegas, Eddie Fender, Middle Ages (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
After five thousand years, Alisa is finally human again. And pregnant. But will it be an angel or a demon?

About the Author
Christopher Pike was born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Los Angeles, where he lives to this day. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked in a factory, painted houses, and programmed computers. His hobbies include astronomy, meditating, running, playing with his nieces and nephews, and making sure his books are prominently displayed in local bookstores. He is the author of Last Act, Spellbound, Gimme a Kiss, Remember Me, Scavenger Hunt, Final Friends 1, 2 and 3, Fall into Darkness, See You Later, Witch, Die Softly, Bury Me Deep, Whisper of Death, Chain Letter 2: The Ancient Evil, Master of Murder, Monster, Road to Nowhere, The Eternal Enemy, The Immortal, The Wicked Heart, The Midnight Club, The Last Vampire, The Last Vampire 2: Black Blood, The Last Vampire 3: Red Dice, Remember Me 2: The Return, Remember Me 3: The Last Story, The Lost Mind, The Visitor and The Last Vampire 4: Phantom, all available from the Archway Paperbacks. Slumber Party, Weekend, Chain Letter, and Sati -- an adult novel about a very unusual lady -- are also by Mr. Pike. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 179 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Children's Books (October 7, 1996)
• ISBN-10: 0340619155
• ISBN-13: 978-0340619155
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,774,656 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessarily complicated., February 23, 2007

By	Julia (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The PHANTOM (LAST VAMPIRE 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book and all his others when I was growing up, probably beginning around age eleven. And that was also around the time I began writing my own stories, which until recently have been pretty strictly literary fiction. I went to college, then grad school at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and now have an MFA in fiction and am making a tentative living off my writing. But lately I've found myself turning inward, and I've thought about Mr. Pike's books a lot in the past months, possibily because I've decided to write about what interests me, rather than writing what I've been taught is "good". That may seem obvious, but for me at least, it has been difficult to distinguish the difference, because above all else, I'm interested in finely crafted stories, stories that mean something, that cannot be deflated with the pinprick of logic, etc. Which brings me to my point. I found in a storage building a big box of Pike's books and took them to my house and have begun reading them again. They have stood the tests of time and education in most ways.

Yes, they are "young adult" books, if that matters, but they are also smart in a way not much I've read is, and I've read a lot. More than that, they are wise -- a strange thing to say about books for teens, but that wisdom comes across not as a "lesson" but as an essential truth, something so obvious you can't believe you never thought of it. And also, as I re-read, I realized that a huge part of my worldview had somehow been shaped by these books. Now, that's not to say I haven't changed my mind or worked through things in different ways, but just that revelation -- that I read these and they stuck -- speaks volumes for them in my mind, because I know how much I've read that hasn't stuck. Perhaps it's the undercurrent of Eastern philosphy, the paradoxical dualism he presents in nearly every story. Because in Pike's world, the situation often (at least at the outset) seems to be one of good versus bad, just like most children's stories. But this is soon shattered by the complicated truth that situations and people aren't usually good "versus" bad. It's that the good IS the bad, and the bad is the good, which cancels them both out and thus we see grey -- an important thing, I think, for teenagers to be able to understand and carry with them into adulthood.

In this book, Sita's daughter may be evil, or she may be something else entirely, something almost approaching transcendent. What is the functional difference? Normal humans can truly understand neither. Sita has to kill for this daughter, and what of the innocent people she sacrifices? Is it terrible they should die? Especially if it's for a higher purpose? Difficult questions that Pike does not answer, but which seem more than relevent in today's charged atmosphere, when we won't or can't understand our "enemies" in a war fought in the name of God on both sides. Thus, a story about paradoxes and dualistic natures (expecially one also dealing with violence) might not be so bad for teenagers today.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, November 5, 2001

By	K. Howl "Avid Book Fan" (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The PHANTOM (LAST VAMPIRE 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is book #4 in the vampire series. I own all of them as well as the collectors editions. I would highly recommend these to all readers of Christoper Pike as well as readers who have any fascination with the supernatural. Christopher Pike has really written a keeper here.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER GREAT ONE!, January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The PHANTOM (LAST VAMPIRE 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

Definately intresting book,although it gets kind of boring in places. Still,it was really cool the way Sita becomes human again. This,though,was probably what made the book boring. Her daughter adds lots of action,though.