Customer Reviews

I, Vampire: The Confessions of a Vampire - His Life, His Loves, His Strangest Desires ... (Fawcett Gold Medal)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After being referred to Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, I bought every vampire book I could find. I was sorely disappointed; most of them were garbage, and not worth the paper upon which they were printed.

NOT SO with I VAMPIRE. Romkey's characters bear similarities to Rice's, in that they are super-human but not supernatural, and that they are drawn to the arts. However, each author offers delightfully different characters to the genre.

If one is looking for a well-written vampire story geared towards the intelligent mind (and does not find this to be an oxymoron!), then I strongly recommend I VAMPIRE - to start. I plan to read all his books.

Although I have never read a Michael Romkey book before I am looking forward to reading more of his books. A friend gave me the book to read and I couldn't put it down. I like the fact that it was in a journal style of writing. Mr. Romkey made if very believeable that some of the historical figures that was in this book could in turn truelly be vampires. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.

Its not really fair to compare I, Vampire with Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. The latter pretty much redefined and (pardon the pun) brought back from the dead the Vampire mythos; the former by comparison seems bland.

Buying I, Vampire I was hoping for a story similar to the Vampire Lestat - spanning the ages with rich sceneries/cities as a backdrop. What I got instead was a 'Sam Spade' type novel where boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy prevails against all and gets girl again.

Aside from being so formulaic, I found nearly all the characters including the protagonist to be incredibly shallow - this was a pity since one of the novel's 'twists' was to use famous historical characters (Mozart, Rasputin, Hitler etc) as vampires.

While Rasputin does get a background history, most everyone else just gets a name and a 'side' that they are fighting on.

The novel also uses a sequence similar to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, where the reader is usually left hanging at the end of a chapter and forced to catch up with a separate event/time in the next chapter. While this is supposed to evoke tension/excitement, I found it merely annoying.

Bottomline, an average story, with a fairly poor conclusion and fairly average characters. If not for the fact that this is a 'Vampire' book it'd hardly be worth reading.

I, Vampire has all the elements to be a solid novel but at just about every turn fails to hit the mark. The storyline, the characters, the twists and turns, and even the historical aspects all have the feel of a low-budget B rated movie.

In a diary format, we learn about the facinating, yet barely believable life of David Parker. His path takes us from Chicago to Las Vegas to Paris and Germany. We get an interesting history of Russia from the Middle Ages to modern times. We're introduced to several famous historical characters, all of whom are Vampires that help David along the way.

It's almost like the author tried 'too hard' to make the story work, and in the process did an injustice to it. The choice of Mozart and the other historical characters takes away from the dark atmosphere and suspense and turns the book into an unintentional parody and in some cases a comedy, neither of which I believe was the attempt.

The book however, does stand on it's own and does lay the foundation for many sequels. I think the author has great potential to develop the character of David. I wouldn't put it at the top of the list of Vamp reads but definately take the time to read it when you can.

I, Vampire has all the elements to be a solid novel but at just about every turn fails to hit the mark. The storyline, the characters, the twists and turns, and even the historical aspects all have the feel of a low-budget B rated movie.

In a diary format, we learn about the facinating, yet barely believable life of David Parker. His path takes us from Chicago to Las Vegas to Paris and Germany. We get an interesting history of Russia from the Middle Ages to modern times. We're introduced to several famous historical characters, all of whom are Vampires that help David along the way.

It's almost like the author tried 'too hard' to make the story work, and in the process did an injustice to it. The choice of Mozart and the other historical characters takes away from the dark atmosphere and suspense and turns the book into an unintentional parody and in some cases a comedy, neither of which I believe was the attempt.

The book however, does stand on it's own and does lay the foundation for many sequels. I think the author has great potential to develop the character of David. I wouldn't put it at the top of the list of Vamp reads but definately take the time to read it when you can.

I thought that this book was entertaning but also hard to like.It was difficult for me to imagin historical figuers such as Wolfgon Amadaus Mozart as a vampire!
The writing it self and the descrptions where great.It had excelent dialog and was quite a page turner.However I couldn't really get pass the thought of Mozart being an imortal vampire though.Not my thing I guess.

I can usually tell how much I like a book by how much I can't wait to read it. In this case, I sometimes went days without picking it up. A good book, I can't go hours without reading. This story definately had potential. Even as I started it, I was interested in the characters & anxious to see how it progressed. Unfortunately, it just fell flat. It was a mixture of a rather boring vampire's life mixed with some gore here & there. It's not a "bad" book but there definately wasn't any desire to recommend this to friends.

I'm probably one of the few people who would rank this book up there with the best ever written. I might be the only person. But it is a great book, one I've read several times. Romkey takes the vampire tale and gives it a new twist. The first half of the novel, when David Parker first becomes a vampire, is a very lyrical novel. And the second half turns into more of an action sequence. And the two halves work well together. Romkey brings back just about every important historical figure, but it does keep it interesting. I've read most of what Romkey has written, including the other books in this 'series' and nothing else he has written reaches this level (that's not to say that his other book aren't enjoyable, most of them are good). I can't recommend this novel enough. It's great, and I think it should be one of those few books that everyone should read.

I read this book for the first time last year and have since read it twice more. It's just that good. I love the idea of historical figures being vampires (i.e. Mozart, Jack the Ripper, Rasputin). David Parker is a wonderful character who uses poetry and classical music to keep him alive, who is caught in the classic battle between good and evil. This is a great read and should be read by anyone who likes children of the night...

My God, what a great book! I liked the idea on how vampires aren't justa creature of the night, but a creature of the mind. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the characters that Romkey came up with. The story was incredible, it was able to hook me from page 1. If you were even thinking maybe you should give this book a try, please do. You will be hooked and won't be sorry that you read this book. If you have the slightest interest in vampireic fiction, this is your book. Find out what historic people were vampires. *S*