Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A variation of the vampire legend-quite fascinating, February 7, 2001
There exists a rare blood disease that is fatal to most humans. The illness turns a person into a monster with distorted facial features and leaves the victims in excruciating pain. Thankfully their life span is short. In a statistically insignificant part of the population, a gene turns some individuals into vampires upon their death. That particular gene is dominant leading to whole families of vampires, but each clan differs on their approach to human contact. One clan, the Predators sees mankind as a food source while another The Craven prefers to hide in the depressing darkness away from people. The Naturals live among humans drinking their blood sold to them by Predators who own a blood bank.High school senior Dell Cambien falls for Ryan just before she undergoes the change. Ryan struggles to control her new abilities as she chooses the path her life will take, which might include Dell shaking the foundation of vampirism to its core. This novel provides a new fascinating twist to the vampire legend. Billie Sue Mosiman is excellent at creating characters that appear genuine even those who are supernatural because she makes her supporting evidence sound believable and scientific. Although the obvious inclination is to categorize RED MOON RISING as horror or perhaps urban fantasy, the novel contains a coming of age plot that deals with choices, morality, and honor. Genre fans and some mainstream readers will toast Ms. Mosiman for her creative novel. Harriet Klausner
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Threads, February 22, 2001
A teenager succumbs to a disease that turns people into vampires, a disease most of her relatives have fallen prey to.An ancient vampire spends his days helping other vampires withstand the curse of their own lives, instruct the newly changed into the ways of their kind, protects some humans from themselves, and generally tries to keep peace among all. A magnate in the terminal stage of a fatal and cruel disease becomes convinced vampires do exist, and hires someone to find them, in his last attempt to escape death. A pair of doctors, long-time lovers, get in the wrong place, at the wrong time. We watch as these various stories combine to make Red Moon Rising. The general idea is interesting, but the pace is completely off. There is no build-up, no sense of things falling into place. Which is all the more curious because everything falls *exactly* into place, with such a precision that "coincidence" just doesn't cover it. Looks to me like a good author with a good story to tell, but still lacking in experience. It's not a bad book, though.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A refreshingly different type of vampire novel, February 1, 2004
Billie Sue Mosiman, in Red Moon Rising, presents the reader with a promising new vision of vampirism. The author's basic premise is a good one, and it bodes well for the future of this book's sequels, but the storyline here begins to unravel a bit by the end, somewhat weakened by a lack of closure. There also seem to be a couple of inconsistencies over the course of the novel, but these do little harm. Red Moon Rising is a fast and enjoyable read, possessing a spirit of novelty that few vampire novels manage to attain these days, but it comes up a little short due largely to a few rushed spots and a few weaknesses in characterization.In the world of Mosiman's creation, vampirism is caused by a mutated form of the blood disease porphyria (although vampires can be "made" on rare occasions); crossing the threshold from life to undeath involves a spiritual journey. There are three types of vampires - Predators, Naturals, and Cravens - and the afflicted Soul is transported to a dark and frightening world in which he/she must choose what type of vampire he/she wants to be. It is easy to give in to the Predators; these are the more stereotypical vampires, holding some disdain for mankind and partaking of fresh meals any time they want to. The Cravens also hold some allure to journeyman souls in this confusing new world, but Cravens are looked down upon by their brethren for their cowardly inability to cope with the change and take care of themselves in their new "lives." The Naturals reject the animal-like blood lust of the Predators and seek to live their lives in the guise of normal human beings, relying on the Predators' supply of bagged blood for their sustenance. As the novel opens, eighteen-year-old Dell Cambian is forced to make her choice. She is a typical teenager who just happens to come from a family of vampires, but she had desperately hoped the disease would pass her by. An ancient vampire named Mentor is called upon to help Dell through her transition, and in a sense both of these characters compete for the role of protagonist as the book rolls along. Mentor has more to worry about that Dell's rebelliousness and growing love for a human boy, though. The Predator in charge of the area's blood supply business is poised to take drastic action when a pair of humans finds evidence of the vampires' existence, and an even bigger potential threat looms in the form of a filthy rich old man dying of the normal form of porphyria and seeking out a vampire to give him eternal life. The novel starts off really well, especially in terms of Dell's troubles adjusting to her new "life." The reader also gets valuable insight into Mentor, a most unusual vampire who has undertaken the job of guiding all of his young charges in the area. The novel loses cohesion toward the end, however, and certain key elements simply come about without much explanation. Clearly, Mosiman was setting the stage for a sequel, and this results in a definite lack of closure to this particular novel. All in all, though, Red Moon Rising is an original and quite enjoyable vampire novel. The medical rather than supernatural source of vampirism serves the author well, and the means by which vampires consume human blood is particularly interesting (albeit somewhat silly). The minor flaws in storyline progression and characterization are typical of a writer still developing his/her mastery of the craft. There is much to be excited about here, though, and I for one expect to see big things from Billie Sue Mosiman in the near future.
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