OK, this one wavered between two and three stars as I read it. And I have to say it is a bad indictment for a book when I am thinking about it’s rating while reading it rather than being totally absorbed in the book itself.This book is about a powerful vampire (though they call themselves nosferatu) who is induced by three vampire females to become involved in an excavation which unearths a very old, prototype creature of a similar creation to their own ‘race’.This book is a bit of a victim of the serial novel, many of the recommendations on the cover are not about this book at all; they are about previous books by the same author, which contain (we assume) the same main character. The author does do a very good characterisation of this leading character; Victor. Too often ‘serial’ books do not bother to introduce the characters properly and they leave no impression this does not happen here, the characterisation in this book is in general very good. I also liked the hints about nosferatu society, the Scottish contingent and many of the location descriptions were vivid and memorable.I did not like the ‘serial’ way in which constant references to books I had not read kept cropping up. In one point there is a mention to the main character confronting cuthulu. “interesting’ I thought and waited for more – it was not forthcoming and left me wondering why it was ever mentioned; as a sop to long term readers? As an enticement to read more of his books? Unimpressed. The constant name dropping and roll call about how everyone who ever achieved anything in human society was actually nosferatu (except apparently Einstein) was a major yawn.The plot in general flowed nicely however there were also long sections where the characters/ plot were patchy, as though it was a part that had to be written/read to bring the plot along but which I imagine did not engage the author. They certainly did not engage me and that was when I debated the ratings.
Real Rating 1.5 StarsThis merging of sci-fi paranormal horror fantasy just didn't work for me. The author seemed to self-indulge in using a plethora of "big words" that left a rather ostentatious feel. Seriously though, the amount of large words per paragraph was completely not necessary. There could have been about 100 pages worth of wordage edited out of this book that would have merited a full star more in rating for me. Lengthy descriptions and too much back story lead to not enough of the steak that I wanted to desperately eat. I don't think the story really gave anything worth chewing on until around page 200. I didn't hate it, but I certainly did not like this book either.
