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Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better than Ann Rice's Vampire Series.
Review: Ms. Yarbro's Germain Series is the best vampire stories I have ever read. It is due to her that I started reading this type of series. I could not put the book down, I was so intruiged.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Yarboro is a master storyteller
Review: Stealth Press specializes in publishing out-of-print and back list titles in high quality hardcover editions. A superb example of their publishing agenda is Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Hotel Transylvania, originally published in 1978 and introducing the very popular Saint-Germain Cycle of vampire novels that has strongly influenced this horror fiction literary subgenre ever since. Yarboro is a master storyteller and this new, collector-grade hardcover edition features an original cover painting by Miran Kim. Long out of print, this newly published edition will admirably serve to reintroduce an impressive fantasy writing talent and a compelling character to a whole new generation of readers. Yarbro fans can look forward to other highly recommended titles with planned and forthcoming Stealth Press editions of The Palace, Tempting Fate, and Path Of The Eclipse.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Novel of Boredom and [forced love]
Review: Sure the book has some interesting parts to it, however, the book drags on and on and on... This is not in any sense an erotic novel, unless the two [forced love] scenes described in this book (in much more detail than the few romantic scenes) just happen to be up your alley. Really, don't purchase this book. There are so many really interesting novels out there. Try Laurell K. Hamilton. She has some very interesting novels with a heroine that can take care of herself. Also, try P. N. Elrod. Both of these writers have much better character development and style than was demonstrated in this novel.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bland and tasteless...
Review: The author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro took a interesting man, Comte de Saint-Germain, out of history and made a novel, making him into a vampire. Why not? He never did eat in public and he was always telling stories of events that happened centuries earlier. His character in the book is just as amazing as his character in real history.
THAT is the good point. The rest of the book is not as good. The characters have no life. They are either 2-dimensional or sterotypes. The strong willed, free thinking woman who is ahead of her time. The ruthless and powerful bad guy. The henchman who turns to the good side by the acts of kindness carried out by the good guy.
The book is like a stew made with one carrot and a hand full of pebbles. The only good thing about reading this book is that you will find out about Saint-Germain and can look for books about the REAL man.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bland and tasteless...
Review: The author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro took a interesting man, Comte de Saint-Germain, out of history and made a novel, making him into a vampire. Why not? He never did eat in public and he was always telling stories of events that happened centuries earlier. His character in the book is just as amazing as his character in real history.
THAT is the good point. The rest of the book is not as good. The characters have no life. They are either 2-dimensional or sterotypes. The strong willed, free thinking woman who is ahead of her time. The ruthless and powerful bad guy. The henchman who turns to the good side by the acts of kindness carried out by the good guy.
The book is like a stew made with one carrot and a hand full of pebbles. The only good thing about reading this book is that you will find out about Saint-Germain and can look for books about the REAL man.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: St. Germain-- the best of a bad lot!
Review: This first St. Germain novel was not the first I read and that is not problem, as it is with some series. With these books there is no beginning and ending point and I like that.

However, the Count in this story is more eager to tell about himself in this novel than he is in the others. The St. Germaine books are not vampire books, so much as they are historical fiction with a verrrrry long lived character. I tired of Anne Rice decades ago, Hamilton's Jean-Claude enjoys life more, but St. Germaine (and Olivia) I return to for the farmiliar characters in an unfarmiliar setting.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: First Impressions really 'Count'
Review: This is the first in the Yarbro Saint-Germain series and as my header suggests, first impressions really do 'Count'.

After a friend of mine recommended the series to me, I began reading this one first, not really expecting to like it or the series and seriously doubted I'd get hooked.

Boy, was I wrong!

Captivating, engrossing and very romantic, this is the one to start with. Saint-Germain, though IMHO, not really at his best here, is still fascinating and sexy enough to hold the reader's interest. And Madelaine is a throughly enjoyable character.

The ending is a luscious combination of action and romance.

There are other books in the series I like better, but this one will not disappoint. None of Yarbro's books ever could.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good start
Review: This looks like a good start to another excellent vampire series...she put a lot of work into the historic scene. It didn't really seem like a vampire story. I'm waiting to see how the rest of the series goes...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The original novel of St. Germain.
Review: This novel is the first in a growing and very successful series about the vampire le Comte de St. Germain, known also as Prinz Ragoczy of Transylvania, among other lesser aliases. So if you've encountered any of the other books in the series, you doubtless know yourself whether you want to read this one or not: if you've enjoyed the others, you no doubt want to read the original; if you haven't, you probably don't.

But for those of you who are not familiar with the series, I can honestly say that I highly recommend this book, it may not seem it, based on the three star rating I've given it, but I truly do enjoy it. It is well-written, well-researched, (it's set in mid-18th century France) has a compelling plot and exquisite characters.

So why do I only rate it three stars? Three reasons, really; one is that in spite of my visceral liking for the book, my head insists on pointing out that the style is rather too close to a Gothic romance for my taste (if you enjoy both Gothic romance and horror, ignore this quibble; you'll definitely like this book) the second is that I find a stylistic affectation of the author's annoying: every "section" of the book begins with an excerpt from some sort of correspondence between the characters, and every chapter ends the same way. Now, I have nothing against using correspondence between characters as needed to further the plot, but to do it so formulaically seems to me, as I say, an affectation. It seems forced. The third reason is that I find the ending, if not unsatisfying, a bit baffling. I can't say more without revealing more of the plot than would be fair, but suffice it to say that I felt that a very major point in the "Epilogue" went unexplained and unjustified.

Other than that, however, I find little to object to. This is for the most part a very well-written book, and certainly an enjoyable one.


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