Dhampir

Rating:
Summary: Dhampir
Review: I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, novels and show. I was skimming through the bookcase for an unread one when a book fell on me. yes, fell on me. It happened to be a book that I had never before heard of, Dhampir, by Barb and J.C. Hendee. I picked it up, thinking, oh, something to read in the car on the way.
Once I started to read this book, I could literally not put it down! This book will keep you turning pages, rooting for the chars, and finding yourself imagining the scenes. You have a vampire slayer, alias hunter, who comes into towns and "rids" them of the undead. Magiere, playing the heroe slayer, and her companion, the half elf Leesil playing the "undead spirit". They scam a town, just like a lot of others, and make camp. Magiere reveals her plan of settling down, and Leesil gets drunk. Chap, the large "dog", spots something and attacks during the night, which disturbs Magiere, so she tracks him. she ends up fighting and killing the intruder, whom we learn to be as "Parko", and undead on the feral path. not to be all boring and stuff, but that night changed their lives forever.
The adventure continues, and through it we get the villans, and unimaginably, their past & present lives.
We get a glimpse of something between Leesil and Magiere, more than friendship. Hopefully, this will be a large, exciting, and thrilling series!
Chap is called a majay-hi by the strange, but wise Westiel, which Leesil roughly translates as "magic-hound", or "fay hound".
I personally haven't decided if Welstiel is crazy, a vamp, just plan odd, or maybe some kind of "watcher", like Giles in Buffyverse.

Rating:
Summary: A surprise!
Review: I am not sure why I picked up a vampire book but am glad I did. I very much enjoyed the characters and the plot and look forward to a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Another book where I'm waiting for the sequel.
Review: I bought this book to read on an airplane... Enjoyed it so much I didn't even get upset with the delays I encountered in transit.
A strong start in a new series.

Rating:
Summary: Easy reading
Review: I bought this book to read on the plane and at hotel, a few days before an out of state trip. Unfortunately, I finished it the next day. Great story. Even the vampires have some character, I felt sad for a couple of them. Poor little vampires.

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Summary: Wonderful new series.
Review: I came into this book with some low expectations and boy was i suprised when it turned into one of the best books ive read all year.

The best part about this book was not the plotting, heroes, or setting. While those were great the villains were what stole the show.

The villains each had their own personality, background history and were all sympathetic characters. I really fell in love with them and the main 'villain', if he can be called that, was my favorite character in the whole book.

If you want something truly unique then dont look here.
But if you want a wonderful, enjoyable, and well paced book, with outstanding villains, then look no further.

Rating:
Summary: I Really Tried...
Review: I did, I really made a game attempt to read this book. But I got sixty pages in, set it down, and now I can't bring myself to pick it up again. And that's sad, because you can tell the authors put their hearts and souls into the writing effort.

A cover blurb by author Kevin J Anderson says, "A mix of The Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer." While it has the humor and playful attitude of Buffy, LOTR it ain't.

When Tolkein wrote, he knew everything there was to know about his characters and his setting. Every character had an elaborate personal history, every nation had a folklore and a language, every artifact a mythology. One doesn't get that feeling with this book. There's very little detail of the phycisal space. There's no sense of deeper identity in the characters. It feels like a world willed into existence.

Part of what gets me is the lack of historical grounding. When you read LOTR, you can tell it belongs to a specific time and place: early Iron Age Europe. This book mixes that period with the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Neoclassical period. On top of that, several very recent words, like "adolescent" and "adrenaline," creep in, lending a disharmonious note. LOTR exists in a place that never existed. This book exists in a place that never could or would have existed.

To the authors' credit, the vampire motif is well integrated. A vampire fantasy could easily lapse into some sort of epic battle between Bram Stoker and Conan the Barbarian, but it doesn't in this book. It is in this combination of styles that don't often mix that the authors' love of what they're doing is given away. And they deserve applause for that.

However, there's an attempt to set up some kind of mystery regarding the origin of the protagonist. Who is she, what is her lineage, where did she come from? Then they title the book Dhampir, giving the game away. Was that the wisest thing possible?

The authors care about their product, and that's what's most refreshing. I look forward to great and meaningful things from them in the future. However, this book, with its wild jumble of content and influences, isn't it. Well, time will tell.

Rating:
Summary: Book with Bite
Review: I didn't expect much out of this book when I started it. It had good cover art and looked interesting enough for me to pick it up, but I didn't expect much. I was very surprised when I couldn't put it down and am now eagerly awaiting more books in what is obviously going to be a series.

The book starts with a woman and her half-elf partner unscupulously fleecing villagers by pretending to rid their towns of vampires. Unfortunately, Magiere accidentally kills a real vampire and then unknowingly settles in the same town that the vampire's "family" lives in. What results is a conflict between the Noble Dead and Magiere, who turns out to be a half vampire herself. Allied with her is her partner, Leesil, and his trusty dog.

As characters, Leesil is actually more developed than Magiere is, which is surprising considering she's the main focus. It's hard not to like Leesil, with his extreme good looks and good humored personality. Under all that he's really an ex-assassin who can take care of himself, even if he's not part immortal. Magiere is tough, but little more in this book. There is also a very slight hint of romance between the two that will be interesting to see develop considering how different they are.

All in all it's a good series and I can't wait for more.

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining.
Review: I found reading this book to be a very fun experience. The storyline is entertaining and the characters rather interesting. The only reason the book wasn't given 5 stars is because I found some aspects of the storyline to be predictable. But still, I definitely recommend this book to any fan of vampire stories.

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Summary: New and exciting!!! Please make this a into a series.
Review: I have been searching for something new and exciting with regards to vampires. I was beginning to believe that everyone that is writing about vampires had fallen into the Anne Rice quagmire of the genre. When I read the first chapter of "Dhampir", I realized that this tale of a dhampir, half-elf, and supernatural dog was a refreshing take on the legend of vampires. The book is a literal roller coaster ride that grabs the reader and takes them on the adventures with Magiere and Leesil. You feel like you are right by their side as they fight their way through the countryside and city of Miiska. Please allow Barb & J.C. Hendee to captivate and titilate your inner most vampire or dhampir.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!!!!!!!!
Review: I loved this book!!! So did my roommates!! I had this book on my shelf for a couple of weeks without reading it but I am now glad that I did. This is not like the stories of Anne Rice but it holds its own ground well.