A simple story, told well…

Updated on August 28, 2013 By Ken Begg 15 Comments

From the Publisher Weekly review of On Midnight Wings by Adrian Phoenix:

“Vampire/fallen angel hybrid and goth rock star Dante De Noir has been shot and kidnapped, while his human lover, FBI agent Heather Wallace, has been kidnapped by her father, rogue FBI agent and vampire hater James…both get tangled up in the machinations of the FBI’s Special Branch as well as in games being played by the recently revived Loki…Dante’s father, the fallen angel Lucien, enters Gehenna for help, while vampiric Ilygad (knowledge-keeper) Von works with assorted vamps and humans (including Heather’s pregnant sister, Annie)…”

To be fair, it’s the fifth book in a series, but yeesh.

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  • Eric Hinkle

    So, another Laurel Hamilton/Anita Blake knock-off?

  • Man, this story sounds like it was ripped straight from my life.

  • Gamera977

    “Listen, girls. I know you like that whole “bad-boy-but-I-can-change-him” thing, but real life vampires aren’t sensitive, they aren’t sparkly, and they don’t want to be your boyfriend. They want to EAT you. Sucking your blood is not an euphemism, they literally want to suck your blood… out of your body. You kind of need that to, oh, not DIE. With vampires, when someone says don’t forget to wear protection, we’re talking about body armor.”

    Julie Shackleford- ‘Monster Hunter International’ by Larry Corriea

  • The Rev.

    To be fair, Hamilton’s Blake stories were never that needlessly burdened with subplots. At least, not at first.

    But, yes, I’m guessing she was the “inspiration” for this series.

    And now I find myself once again mourning what happened to the Blake series. I liked those so much, and then Hamilton turned them into porno movies in print form. At least we’ve still got the run from “Guilty Pleasures” to “Obsidian Butterfly.”

  • Ken_Begg

    Oh, Hamilton kicked off a whole cottage industries. There are *dozens* of people treading this ground now. Maybe hundreds. No lie.

    I did laugh was she complained Twilight (!) ripped off her books. Oddly, she didn’t mention how much she herself ripped off Anne Rice (certainly by comparison.)

  • Ken_Begg

    Man, love those books. Just got his latest Grimnoir book from the library, probably start reading that this weekend.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Yeah, I’ve heard from some other folks that if I read her books to stick with the first few in the Blake series and ignore the rest.

  • Gamera977

    Awwwww, I haven’t picked up that one yet, looking forward to reading it.

    My first thought on the review you posted above is I’d love to see Agent Franks turned loose on this whole crew of circus freaks…

  • Ken_Begg

    She got Heinlein-itis so bad I only renamed it Hamilton-itis.

    Heinlein got there first, though.

  • The Rev.

    Yeah, start at the beginning with “Guilty Pleasures” and read the first nine books. End with “Obsidian Butterfly,” one of the best of the series (and not just because hitman Edward plays his largest part to date, although that’s a major reason). Do not read further; it’ll only make you sad and/or angry.

    To be fair, I only read the three books after “Obsidian Butterfly,” and maybe they picked back up, but frankly books 11 and 12 pissed me off so much that I’m not inclined to find out. And as the Saw series can attest, I rarely hold a grudge against a series, but when I do, game over.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Beg pardon, but: Heinlein-itis?

  • Ken_Begg

    It’s a disease that leads authors to start focusing more and more of their writing on their weird, extreme personal sexual fixations.

  • Sandy Petersen

    Count me as on the team of the “Vampire Haters”

  • sandra

    I’ve never been able to see the appeal of the whole ‘vampire romance’ genre. A vampire is a resuscitated corpse who er, ‘lives’ by killing people – he’s a serial killer ! And if you do ‘fall in love’ with him, you have a choice between turning into an old hag while he stays young and hot, or becoming a serial killer yourself.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I think that for some people the prospect of staying young and hot forever seems to outweigh the whole ‘become a revivified cannibalistic serial killer’ angle. That and they’re ‘cool’ for whatever reason.