Customer Reviews

Minion (Vampire Huntress Legend)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

Minion By L.A. Banks is an excellent book!!!! When I read the first chapter I was hooked. It is so great to have a vampire huntress who is African American and who has a very diverse guardain team. The book is exciting from beginning to end and will have the reader begging for more.

I think that this book is better than the first editorial review would lead you to believe. Yes, it is a commercial book but then aren't almost all books written in the hopes that they will be "commercial?" That is the author and publisher want the book to sell well.

I have read lots of other vampire fiction and am a big Buffy fan but this book has an interesting take on vampires; stuff that I haven't seem before but that makes sense within the story.

Also the setting, the hip-hop music world, shouldn't turn anyone off.

There were scenes that I found scary enough that I told myself not to think about them when I went to sleep so I wouldn't have nightmares. :)

In addition there is a good helping of romance with the interaction of Damali and Carlos.

Yes, there are times when the writing seems a bit clunky but that is because I think Ms Banks is trying to set up the start of what is going to be a very involved story.

If I had to put the books in a list I'd say that they were more complex and "adult" than the usual Buffy book, not as light and romantic as Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse, and not as violent as Anita Blake.

I look forward to the next installment.

Minion is a delectable morsel that promises to be part of a much larger, tantalizing entree. Filled to the brim with genuine emotion, action around every corner, delicious characterization and an even, rapid pace -- this one's a definite addition to any vampire or horror addicts plate. When the ending came around I was drooling for more; my own bloodlust was so aroused I will personally hunt down the next addition just to sate my newfound hunger.

Minion kept me enthralled from the first chapter. Beginning with people from simpler times, it leaves the reader in a daze and a cliffhanger of sorts, only to lure us closer to the main course. I wasn't quite sure what to think at different moments; I went from having my questions about a certain person, to trying to unravel the plot in my head, to trying to figure out the outcome. To my delight I couldn't accomplish ANY of these things, and as a result this story ended up as my favorite type: unpredictable and knuckle-grinding.

The only complaint I could find about this one -- and it took plenty of searching to conjure up ANY negativity, believe you me -- was that I wanted more. The ending left me unsatisfied simply because I am not the biggest fan of cliffhangers. I was rabid with curiosity about what bloody mess Damali and her crew would drop into my lap next, and I have to wait to get it. But of course that technique IS the best way to draw in faithful fans for the next installments. It brings to mind what the main big bad vampire Nuit said (although not in these words) -- the newly turned will want to return to the master's cup.

Proper suspense was built at the right moments; there's plenty of violence to satisfy the graphic crowd. The atmosphere was tight, dark, gritty. But thankfully this book did not revolve around endless, pointless violence only for the sake of doing so -- it had a heart AND a soul. The style was all about realism in a fantasy we ourselves do not reside in.

Damali Richards is a character easy to identify with. The other characters all had their own personal magic, and while at time I had thoughts about whether I would have liked to slug the "mother" Marlene or not, in the end her personality shone through and it all made more sense.

Walk, run, hitchhike to the nearest bookstore to pick yourself up a copy. Or else take the lazy route like I do and just click onto the Internet.

If you can get over the use of Slang you will love this book. I love LA Banks world and her characters I fell in love with the story and the potential.

The story of Damali Richards is a bit cliche...the "chosen" guardian of humanity against the forces of evil...she's a girl who falls for the wrong guy...the guy is killed by vampires and becomes on of the walking dead...yadda yadda yadda. So, what makes L. A. Banks' story so interesting?

The most interesting twist to the general vampire fiction rule is the approach to the vampires themselves. As the most powerful "demonic" force in all of Hell, outside of Satan himself, the vampires are the undead elite...snobs, if you will. Their views toward other preternatural creatures can be seen as a vague social commentary of our world today.

Another interesting twist to the story is in the character of Carlos Riveria. What becomes of a man who willingly sells his soul to evil but dies with a prayer in his heart? The battle of good versus evil in the war for souls just got personal.

While the dialogue is a bit heavy handed at times...too much street slang and "hip hop" style references to be considered entirely credible...overall, I would have to say that Minion is a great read and a wonderful new take on an old fiction theme.

it takes a little while to get into this book, but once you do you wont want to put it down. L.A. Banks ends the book with you needing, wanting, and having to read the sequels.

Some of the issues others complained about-- the "multicultural Buffy the Vampire Slayer" issue in particular-- were exactly what I hoped to find here. I didn't have a problem with the use of a similar "world" to other vampire mythologies. What I didn't really care for in this book was an entirely different issue: the writing.

The novel reads like a screenplay that was badly adapted to novel form. There's lots of dialogue, and sometimes it can be a little irritating in its attempt to be "street cool." But even that I could handle if there was more about the characters that I was interested in, or even liked. I found it hard to be sympathetic or care about the major characters because I just didn't know enough about them, about their world, about their past. What description I did get was sometimes a bit trite-- the Latino drug dealer chock-full-of machismo, for example, was not really a new take on an old stereotype.

Long ago, in my fiction writing class, we discussed the concept of beginning a story "in medias reas" or "in the middle of things." The first section of the book starts this way-- right in the middle of an action scene, and this could be cool for, say, a movie where much of the "description" is obvious from set design, costuming, actor emotion, etc. But sometimes the descriptions here are so sketchy that I will miss an important action because I didn't "hear" that as happening, and have to read back to see what happened. (Like when one character gets "vamped" I still wasn't sure what was happening at first and had to skim back a page). Then, in other spots, the description goes on and on and rambles to the point where I skim to get to a part that hasn't been covered already, or gives me new info. As far as it being a scary book-- no. I didn't find it gripping or "horror" like at all.

This book, and the series, has a lot of potential. There were moments where I got interested, and if the whole series was in one novel, I would keep reading to see what happens. But I'm not interested enough in the story at this point to invest the money in more sequels. I might check the books out at a library, but I am not committed enough to the "world" of these slayers to buy the books yet.

If you're the type who needs to read everything there is related to vampires, or like your description kept to a bare minimum, this is an okay book. But I did end up feeling pretty disappointed in what could have been a great idea.

I've read all 5 of the novels in this series, but the Minion was the weakest story. Overall Minion was interesting, but a little wordy. Banks takes her time in all of the novels to provide background information on all of the main characters, which enriches the entire tale. It's an epic story and though I give Minion 3 stars, the other books are 4 and 5 stars & worth reading. Check out the author's website for further insight into the characters and the Vampire Huntress legend.

In the interest of accuracy, let me note that the edition of Minion that I have is the "Special Huntress Edition." This is a sort of "director's cut" that contains scenes not in the original edition of the novel. I have not read the first version and do not know which scenes are new.

Minion tells the story of Damali, a young African-American woman, and her friends, who together make up a rap band and, secretly, a vampire-hunting team. Damali has been chosen Buffy-style as the champion of Light against the forces of Darkness, and her friends are the Guardians sworn to protect her until she comes into her full powers. There is a second plot as well, dealing with Damali's ex-boyfriend, Carlos, who was once a Guardian candidate but has fallen into a life of organized crime.

L.A. Banks draws many parallels, throughout Minion, between vampires and those who prey upon the urban poor in real life: the gang leaders and drug kingpins. On one level, Banks's vampires are a metaphor for these human predators.

The characters speak in urban slang, and whether you like this aspect of the novel will likely depend on whether you like authors to write out their characters' accents.

Minion contains heavy Christian themes. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The bad news is that the novel feels a little preachy at times. The good news, though, is that it works well within the plot. The characters' deep Christian faith gives them motivation to fight evil, and also gives meaning to the cross-and-holy-water methods of warding off vampires. There are some vamp novels in which religion is never mentioned except when the characters are splattering holy water across the scenery. One might wonder whether it would even work if the wielder didn't actually believe in the deity and was just using the water because "everyone knows" it works against vampires.

What didn't work for me: First, the aforementioned preachiness. This tone isn't limited to religion, but also includes diet and music lyrics. On the positive side, much of the sermonizing comes from a single character and can just be chalked up to her personality.

More importantly, Minion is just too "talky" overall. It starts with some action and some tragedy, but sinks into a morass of endless talk among the characters. Much of this talk is preachy, filled with bickering, or worst of all, info-dumpy. Characters take up a lot of page space telling each other things they already know in order to convey that information to the reader. There was probably a less clumsy way to do this.

I also wish more had been done with the group's musical interests. They theoretically have a band, but we only see Damali perform once (briefly), and never see any of the other characters play music. There is talk about the power of music to help people save their souls, but while jamming together might have helped the group keep up their morale and reinforce their bond, we never see them so much as rehearse.

Finally, I had been told that Minion ended on a cliffhanger. It's more like it screeches to a halt about two miles back at the first sight of the "Caution: Cliff Ahead" sign. There is an event that the entire plot is building toward, and we never get there.

Banks shows promise in this first VAMPIRE HUNTRESS novel, but doesn't do enough with it. The plot may thicken later in the series; however, the first installment is the one that needs to hook the reader.

L.A. Banks laid it down on this book. This book stars the first multi-cultural vampire huntress series with a multi-ethnic, multi-religion cast of characters. I think that this book is better than the first editorial review would lead you to believe. Minion is a tale of the legend of the Vampire Huntress. Minion is defined as one who is highly favored, a darling. This correctly describes our main character, Damali. She is a 20-year old spoken word artist and one of the top acts for Warriors of the Light Records. But at night, she and her group of guardians hunt vampires. In this story, vampires and demons are not myths, they are reality. Without going into too much detail, the action and drama are well-balanced and the main and supporting casts are nicely introduced and fleshed out, making them quite believable.

Although the amount of "necessary" explanation of the Neteru and Guardian history may cause you to double back to make sure you've understood everything, I think the author did an excellent job of setting us up for her mini-series. There is an eroticism associated with vampires and Fallon Nuit is no exception. The author describes him with a sensuality of the most masculine of men, but the prettiness of a female. Nuit is sexy enough to make a straight man want him. It's this type characterization that makes this novel stand out.

The tone of the novel is dark, fast pace, and truly imaginative. The characters are very well developed. You can feel their pain, power and terror. The grotesque descriptions in the novel give it authenticity at that. If you like vampire stories, you will love this novel and if you don't like vampire stories, you will still love this novel.