My Immortal - The Vampires of Berlin [Paperback]

Lee Rudnicki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2012

She was beautiful. Her high cheekbones and burgundy hair gave her a distinctive Eastern European look. Her face gave away no secrets; her distant stare made it seem as if nothing else in the universe existed. Her clothing was minimal; she wore a white ankle-length nightgown and was barefoot, despite the fact that most of the ground in Berlin was covered with broken glass and other dangers. Somehow, her feet were uninjured. The German soldiers remained still, their weapons trained on their unannounced guest. "They are coming for me," she whispered. The young vampire was clearly afraid of something...

Product Details

• Paperback: 306 pages
• Publisher: 23 House (March 9, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984645810
• ISBN-13: 978-0984645817
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,750,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lee Rudnicki is an entertainment lawyer, producer, and writer in Los Angeles. Lee has a law degree from the University of San Francisco, a music degree from San Jose State, a Certificate in Screenwriting from UCLA and studied international law at Trinity College, Ireland and Charles University, Prague. Before law school, Lee was a world-class rudimental drummer and drum line instructor.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting debut novel from a very talented writer... January 12, 2011

By Trevor Pyle

Format:Paperback

I want to start this review off with a warning: These are not the vampires you find in "Twilight" or "The Vampire Diaries".
This novel is intense! Rudnicki takes the traditional vampire story and turns it on its ear. The main story is set in Berlin during the closing hours of World War Two. It's main characters are a squad of German soldiers who encounter a beautiful vampire and those who would control her destiny. On one hand, her survival will ensure the victory of Nazi Germany, but on the other hand her death would be a great tragedy to Vampire society. More importantly, it would be a tragedy to the young German soldier who discovers her in the rubble of war-torn Berlin.

This book was a lot of fun to read, and although a bloody romp through the streets of Berlin in April 1945, it is often thought-provoking. The ending will surprise you and is a perfect setup for future novels in this series. I have become a fan of Mr. Rudnicki, and I eagerly await more from this promising young author.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent and bloodcurdling thriller December 1, 2010

By Maria Kabanova

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a unique novel - it is likely to satisfy the palette of fast-paced thriller fans, vampire fiction aficionados and history geeks all at once. I loved the relationship between the Germans, the Russians and the sexy female vampires - surprising, chilling yet sensual. I also enjoyed the way Mr. Rudnicki creates the ambiance of 1945 Berlin - ravaged by war and yet with people struggling to preserve their humanity. He aptly illustrates that history is not black and white but much more complex than that.

To sum up - a captivating supernatural thriller that makes you think.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ January 12, 2011

By E.Johnson

Format:Hardcover

This book was fantastic, set during WWII with characters of great wickedness and heroic man of noble deeds. From beginning to end, a nail biting on the edge of your seat kind of book. I could not get to the next page fast enough.The Vampires of Berlin will hold your attention even after you have read the last page. As I never wanted to see the story end. Do I see a sequel in the works from this remarkable author? I would have to hope so, so I"am left with hope of reading more from Lee Rudnicki. But my biggest wish is this . Somebody make this book into a MOVIE. I give this book 10 stars

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You're going to read tonight..... January 4, 2011

By Glen Hazelwood

Format:Paperback

I like this story a lot. I actually like the "story" more than I like the "book", which perhaps doesn't make sense now, but might before I'm done. This is not to say that the book isn't good. It is. But ultimately, I believe having a great story is WAY more important. Example.....everyone's heard of "Forrest Gump", right? How many of you have heard of the sequel, "Gump & Company"? No one? Exactly!
Same author....same characters.....Academy Award winning premise......crappy story.....and there ya go. It's ALL about the story, in my opinion

There are a few things that I didn't like about this book, and they're all "technical" for lack of a better word.

I didn't like that the author sort of apologized for the heroes in the foreword without giving me a chance to decide for myself if they offended me. Obviously, using German WW2 soldiers as your heroes is a risk. But they were GOOD characters and they were the RIGHT characters, and quite honestly I was distracted during my first reading almost TRYING to find them offensive. Your characters are your art. Toss them out there and let them breath, and let the reader decide. Some folks wont like it. Some folks dont like asparagus, but Green Giant doesn't apologize on the can.

I found the dialogue falling out of "period" in a few spots. The one that jumps out at me was when one of the characters referred to another as having "anger management" issues. That phrase certainly wasn't coined until well after WW2, and while it isn't a horrible error, it was enough to make me stop and say, "Hey...wait a minute....".

I'd have taken another fifty pages of character development. That's actually sort of a backhanded compliment, because I liked the characters enough to want to know more about them.... If this were a movie (which is SO needs to be!), I'd see the characters and "know" them that way. As a book, it doesnt allow me the visual aspect and I have to work harder to know the characters. More character development would've made that easier and possibly made this a better book.

Ok....all that's out of the way.....

I really, really enjoyed reading this book. I got it for Christmas and read it three times since. Each time I read it, I liked it more. It's funny because the separate aspects of the story have all been done on a big stage before. Vampires have been done (Anne Rice, Twilight), supernatural Nazi weapons have been done (Indiana Jones) and World War II has been done to smithereens. But Mr. Rudnicki has taken all these things and synergistically combined them in a way that is suprisingly refreshing.

Going back to the fact that the protagonists are Wehrmacht soldiers......you actually forget that, for the most part, during the course of the story. Maybe that's not correct. It's not that you forget it...it's that it's just not relevant to the story in that way. They really become just a bunch of guys, scared and trying to make it through the night. It's maybe also balanced out by the fact that there are some Nazis in the story for you to genuinely hate. Hitler and his inner circle are as creepy and despicable as you've always thought, and the author paints them well.

I pointed out the few technical things I didn't like, so in all fairness I should touch on the good things. The story flows beautifully. The timeline is spot on and the transitions from one scene to the next are, as well. It's written in a way that makes you want to keep reading. I wont go all cheesy and say "I couldn't put it down...", but I did want to see what happened next throughout the whole read. At first, I thought the human characters accepted the existence of vampires a little too easily, but it didnt bother me after that. It really was a good read and a compelling story.

The biggest thing I took away from this, and again...it goes back to the whole "good book/great story" thing......this story is just SCREAMING out to be made into a movie! Seriously...I had scenes happening in my head throughout the whole read. I dont want to give anything away, but there's one scene where one of the human characters is in an escalating confrontation with one of the vampires and I could see in my head where they're going back and forth verbally, then there's a pause...then the human tells the vampire, "Bite me!"....then another pause and then chaos breaks out. I had instant visuals like that throughout the story. I almost want to say the book reads more like a screenplay and maybe that's why I liked it better as a story than as a book, and maybe that makes sense now. Honestly, though...given the right treatment and the right cast, this could be a serious blockbuster of a movie.

I have one final note, and this may be the coolest thing I have to say about this book. There's a song that goes along with this story that is presumably going to be part of a soundtrack. This is going to sound weird, but I knew exactly what the song was going to sound like before I even listened to it, because it had to sound like that because thats what the story sounded like. This is the song I'd have written to go with this story if I could've. I think that's a huge testament to the author and to how strong the story is.

When all is said and done, My Immortal, the book, isn't going to change the face of classic literature. Look...it ain't "The Catcher in the Rye", and I don't see it being on the required reading list for our children in high school....but I can absolutely, 100% see them renting the DVD.
Is it worthy of your time and your money? I believe it is.
Give it a shot....you can never have too many sexy vampires. :)
I give the book a 3.9. I give the story a 6.1. That comes out to 5 stars.
Well done, Mr. Rudnicki. Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars My immortal January 2, 2013

By Carla

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I finished this book in only a couple of days. I was transfixed with the history of the time most of the story unfolded. I loved and hated the ending and I really hope there will be another book.

5.0 out of 5 stars From The Beginning September 3, 2012

By T. Kiesche

Format:Paperback

I can very happily say that I saw this story from when it was being built to after it was published... It was extremely well crafted and completely exciting from the very first time I read the words on the page. No doubt this awesome read will become a block buster movie some day!

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical thriller with Vampires! August 24, 2012

By Breathe In BooKs

Format:Kindle Edition

I have been dying (no pun intended) to get my hands on My Immortal for a long time so I jumped at the chance to be a part of this tour. I have to say, it was not what I expected...in a good way. I expected the book to be about vampires - but it was so much more. My Immortal crosses many genres from Historical WWII Fiction to Horror to Fantasy to Mystery. Vampires are a part of the book no doubt, but I would say that it is a book about war with vampires as opposed to a vampire book set during the war.

We start in present day Berlin with a "Professor" known for his books on conspiracy theories. However, what he has in his brief case is so much more than what the pyramids represent or UFOs. What he carries is a dossier on Operation Tristan; Hitler's secret weapon. When a fan of the professor's hacks into his computer to find what he is working on, he is shocked by what he finds and alerts the United States government to the situation. No one can know what is inside the briefcase; in fact, the president doesn't even know what it entails. The CIA attempts to thwart the professor's plan to release the information publicly and a set of events occurs that has you wondering what is so important. What is Operation Tristan? The scene then changes to Berlin, 1945. The German army is losing the war and Hitler will do anything -anything- to stop the Red Army from taking over.

Lee's writing is superb. He details the atrocities of the war in horrific detail without being overly gory. The interaction between the soldiers was realistic and reminds the reader that not everyone was an automaton; that people did what they had to in order to survive. Hitler is portrayed as a manic, unstable man who wants nothing more than to see the world burn. The glimpse into his mind is frightening.... The vampires were created in the traditional form: they had fangs, no reflection, and incredible speed and strength. And even though they looked human, they were anything but. The story is told from many points of view, which I am generally not a fan of, but Lee's transitions were clearer than some.

Overall, My Immortal was a suspenseful, thrilling read that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and if you are like me biting off all your fingernails in the process! Through war ravaged Germany, the story unfolds and you will find yourself immersed in Sebastian and Eva's plight. I recommend to history buffs, conspiracy theorists and horror fans alike.

4.5 Stars

FTC Advisory: I received this book from BBT in exchange for an honest review. I am never paid or compensated in any way for my reviews. No backroom deals or whispered promises are made. Read more ›