Summer

30 January 2011

THE GREYFRIAR: Vampire Empire Book One - Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith

From the back of the book: In the year 1870, a horrible plague of vampires swept over the northern regions of the world. Millions of humans were killed outright. Millions more were died of disease and famine due to the havoc that followed. Within two years, once-great cities were shrouded by the grey empire of the vampire clans. Human refugees fled south to the tropics because vampires could not tolerate the constant heat there. They brought technology and a feverish drive to reestablish their shattered societies of steam and iron amid the mosques of Alexandria, the torrid quietude of Panama, or the green temples of Malaya.
It is now 2020 and a bloody reckoning is coming.
Princess Adele is heir to the Empire Equatoria, a remnant of the old tropical British Empire. She is quick with her wit aswell as with sword or gun. She is eager for an adventure before she settles inot a life of duty and political marriage to a man she does not know. But her quest turns black when she becomes the target of a merciless vampire clan. Her only protector is the Greyfriar, a mysterious hero who fights the vampires from deep within their territory. Their dangerous relationship plays out against an approaching war to the death between humankind and the vampire clans.
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I cannot get over how much I luh-huvved this book!! I've read many reviews for it, all glowing
raves, not a stink-a-roo in the bunch. Not many books can claim that as far as I know.
Strong lead characters, intriguing story, highly excellent eeee-vil vampires, and the Greyfriar conflicted hero. And the steampunk...gotta love it. I know I do.
Anything else I'd say would likely be spoilerific, so I'll stop.
I hope the Griffiths hurry and get the second book in the trilogy written and out on the shelves. It will be a must buy ASAP for me.
Five sparkly steampunk diamonds...

3 comments:

Becky LeJeune said...

Excellent! I've been waiting to see what you thought of this one since I saw it on your read list. I've got it in the TBR and am just waiting for a chance to get to ti.

Aurian said...

I really don't like steampunk, but you sure are enthousiastic about it!

Vickie said...

Becky: Oh, you will enjoy the heck out of it!

Aurian: The neat thing about this book is it isn't steampunk in total. It's alternate history more than anything I think. The steampunk aspects are the use of steam, iron, airships like zepplins for long distance transport. It's just that the outing of the vampires and their takeover kind of stunted the growth of technology by humankind.