Customer Reviews

Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 13: Twin-Shadowed Knight, Parts 1 & 2

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many of the books, lately, have not been very good. I thought that maybe Hideyuki Kikuchi might be running out of steam. But this book is brilliant. The idea of having two Ds! So many ways to deal with the subject of having two Ds. Where did they come from? Why did it take this long for them to come together? Why IS there two Ds?
Swift action, with lots of layers of mystery and dark secrets. Ghosts, vampires, and a mad monk. Oh my!
Get it used or get it new. Just get it.

So reading into youd think its typical stuff and though it seems like we are getting somewhere with D's past you dont want to get your hopes up. However, this book delivers till the end. I dont want to spoil anything but it felt like we came close to the end of the series with this novel. So take your time with this one and soak up as much as you can. Enjoy!

I have enjoyed all the Vampire Hunter D books with varying degrees of appreciation. This one, though, is my favourite! The book starts out pretty much like usual: D is going some place and has something to do. As soon as the second D is introduced, the story takes a whole new life! The second D, as a polar opposite to the D that we know, is by nature a comedic surprise. However, the true D's reactions to his other self are what really make this book a comedy. It's not side-splitting humour by any means, though I did laugh out loud while reading a time or two. It's more the kind of humour that hits you after you stop reading and finally process exactly what just happened. Absurd, bizarre. I've used both terms before. Even Kikuchi admits that the characters and story went places that he did not originally intend.

~D~

If you're reading a review for Volume 13 of the Vampire Hunter D series, you probably know what to expect -- a mash-up of Gothic horror, post-apocalyptic SF, and spaghetti western, starring a haunted stoic hero (D), a comic sidekick (Left Hand), plus an assortment of eccentric villains, a wisecracking but deadly rival, a beautiful frontier girl, and various locals. Sword fights, supernatural confrontations, and the ongoing confrontation between D and his father (or maybe his destiny).

Volume 13, "Twin Shadowed Knight" is a good continuation of the formula. Following a compulsion to visit a place he can't quite remember, D comes in contact with a beautiful fortune teller, a mad monk, an army of the dead, and what appears to be an exact copy of himself, albiet with a freer, more swashbuckling attitude. D, Mia (the fortune teller) and the other D find themselves on a quest to a lost fortress and the secrets it contains. D meets the usual assortment of wild characters and threats, and handles them in his usual way. By the end, he has learned some secrets about his past, and maybe about his future.

Some D fans will love this, but I could only give it four stars. First, I was a little disappointed by the other D. The idea of a less stoic, more expressive D is awesome, but by the end, I felt like D was pretty much the same as the rivals from most of the books - wisecracking, a little bad, a little good, etc. Second, this is the second time in a row that Kikuchi has introduced a mirror character for D, following Byron Balazs from Volumes 11 and 12. Your mileage may vary, but it felt repetitive to me to pull so similar an idea out so quickly. (If it turns out that Kikuchi is going somewhere with this, then I take it back.) I also felt that Balazs was a more realized character than the other D. As I said, though, that's just my opinion.

New readers curious about D should start at the beginning, either at the first novel, Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 1, or at the movies, Vampire Hunter D (which roughly follows the plot of Volume 1) and Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust (which somewhat follows the plot of Volume 3).

Oh this was awsome read d gets a brother so speak. you have read this one for sure i never thought of D in such a aspect. i could not put this volume down until i finished and then went on got the second part to right away because i wanted to know what happened next. I really like this series.