Review: a good read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2013
I generally liked the book. Siaak's genuine desire to do good in the face of evil was wonderful, while his willingness to also kill mercilessly when needed provided a well rounded understanding of his motivations. Melissa was a little fire cracker. She was smart, witty, and fearless. Much like Siaak, I found her endless chatter annoying at times, not always though. I often thought she had insightful questions and could relate to her constant desire for more information, but there were times when lives were on the line  (often her own) and I thought, 'Jesus woman, shut the hell up.'I really wanted to see the two of them complete each other. There was very little sex in the book, which is fine. But it seemed like, though Siaak could talk a good game (some of the things he says/describes are toe curling, in a good way), they never seemed to smoulder. They didn't seem particularly impassioned. While his whole fangy thing was smexy, there wasn't a lot of information (beyond his adamant denials) about the difference between his Sandwalker breed and the vampiric Bloodseeker breed. I kind of got it, but you just have to pick tid-bits up along the way and I never understood where the second breed came from. Was it a mutation, a divine inventions, always been there?The side characters were fun too. Siaak's brothers were each good in their own way. They filled the obligatory laid-back jester with unexpected wisdom and brooding, emotionally damaged, hostile roles. I look forward to each of their books, 'cause you know that they'll eventually be one for each of them. Then there was Mark and Elizabeth and the baddies...all good.I did have a little trouble anchoring myself in time. The book started in Ancient Egypt, but one of the characters can time-travel so there were a number of modern references that threw me for a loop. Plus, when two of them reenter the storyline after what I think was thousands of year, they leapt right into life (they knew people, one had a job, they had homes, etc.) I couldn't figure out how that worked, even if time-travel was involved.There were a lot of brand references (Kindle fire hd, iphone, iPod, tic tacs, Ray Bans, and that's before even getting to the clothing & shoes) that felt really forced. Why not just an ereader (or even just a kindle) or sun glasses? I did appreciate all of the pop culture references though. Some of them really made me laugh.In the end I'd be happy to read another one should it be published. And for the record, I've seen a number of covers for this book and this one (the one with three stacked guys on the front) is by far my favourite. Honestly, it's the reason I picked the book up in the first place. Yummy.