[Bastard]

I just read the debut from Christopher Farnsworth, Blood Oath, and I really enjoyed it... first of a series. Nothing groundbreaking here, but I thought the execution was good. It has quite a few interesting characters, the dialogue is good, the plot is fairly decent but promising, and the bad guys are completely psychotic. It also has a some instances of Horror.

I think the best way to describe this is that it's mixture of a mystery thriller and a political thriller with some horror and supernatural involved, and some terrorism threats.

In all it was a really fun ride, it opens up with a cool action scene, then it takes a couple of chapters to settle itself, then it really goes in a decent to fast pace throughout the rest. My favorite portions though were all the historical tidbits and the various historical contexts given throughout the book. I thought they made a good job in making the supernatural somewhat believable as far as historic events were concerned.

I thought Cade was an interesting vampire, particularly on the vampire vs. humanity front.

The book has already been picked up to be made into a movie, and I think the sequel which isn't out yet also is going to be made into a movie.

The book was a fast read for me, pretty much read it in the same day I started it.

Here's a review from FBC by Robert Thompson:
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2010/04/blood-oath-by-christopher-farnsworth.html

If there are any fans of the Hellsing manga/anime, then you'll probably enjoy this.

The book isn't without faults though... even though I liked the characters, I can see people finding them a bit bland, particularly since they can be quite predictable at times, and it's quite easy to spot bad guys so there's not much suspense on that account.

But if you're up for a pretty much straightforward entertaining read, then this is worth checking out. It should get more complex in the sequels I would imagine, but so far so good for me.

The book features multiple PoV's, and maybe that's the main reason why many of the motives and actions become predictable, but in the other hand it gives us interesting insights into some of the characters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This action-filled debut by scriptwriter Farnsworth reads like a cross between P.N. Elrod's historical vampire adventures and Thomas Greanias's conspiracy thrillers. Nathaniel Cade, the president's vampire, swore to fight on the side of President Andrew Jackson and all his successors. In the present day, Zach Barrows, a rising political star caught canoodling with the president's daughter, suddenly finds himself training to be Cade's handler after tough, wise special agent William Griffin retires. As they try to stop Cade's old nemesis, Dr. Johann Konrad, from creating an army of Frankensteinian monster soldiers, they uncover a deeper government conspiracy. Entertainingly plausible historical documents at the beginning of each chapter and a sense that this fight is just a skirmish in a larger war help elevate the book above its sometimes bland characters and their predictable motivations. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In his thrilling debut, Farnsworth combines the current trend of supernatural fiction with the always popular political thriller. The president’s most loyal secret agent is Cade, a 140-year-old vampire who is dedicated to protecting the U.S. from supernatural threats. Farnsworth posits an entire secret history behind the major events of the late nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries, even hinting at a supernatural cause behind the 9/11 attacks. Ambitious, young White House staffer Zach discovers Cade and his history after being assigned as Cade’s new handler. The job may come with top secret clearance, but no one can ever know what Zach is doing, a rather difficult pill to swallow for the power-hungry agent. In their first adventure, Zach and Cade learn each other’s histories and together struggle to save the country from some nearly unstoppable zombie soldiers whose only reason for existence is to kill humans. Sure to be a hit with thriller fans willing to go with the vampire premise. --Jessica Moyer
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Oath-Christopher-Farnsworth/dp/0399156356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275492346&sr=8-1

[Hobbit]

SFFWorld review's done and should be up in the next couple of days. Agreed though: a fun read.

Mark

[DurzoBlint]

I've been looking at this title for a while. I like the idea and since it is a series it may be worth it to get in on the ground floor and see what happens.

I look forward to the review.

[Hobbit]

Quick preview, though this isn't the finished article (yet) and there may be typos, errors etc:

As we’ve said before in these reviews, those vampires are everywhere at the moment. In public (Meyer’s Twilight series), in secret (Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files) and not so secret (Laurel K Hamilton's Anita Blake), vampires watching over us, (Jennifer Rardin’s CIA agent Jaz Parks), and a presence throughout history (Jasper Kent’s Twelve and Thirteen Years Later).

This one fits securely into the latter here. The book’s subtitle (The President’s Vampire) gives it away, and perhaps a little unfairly. Here we have a tale of contemporary guardianship – the fact that unbeknownst to most, a vampire has been part of the American political system for over a hundred years, serving democracy and defending America against opposition from things not usually noticed by your typical American citizen.

To this tale arrives Zach Barrows, up and coming political figure. In circumstances that are a little embarrassing (caught en flagrante with Candace, the President’s daughter) the result is a promotion of sorts, to being the political liaison officer to Nathaniel Cade. Cade is the vampire: blood-oathed for over 130 years to the President.

Much of the book then is spent assisting Cade in dealing with those supernatural issues that appear from time to time. The first of these wrestles with the bad guys that any contemporary thriller needs – jihadist terrorists. Here they are using dead US soldier body parts to create Unmenschsoldaten, undead soldiers adaptable to their bidding. Once Cade and Barrows are on the case... you can probably get the rest.

OK: so my glib summary may give the impression that the book’s a little incredulous. And there are places where my credulity was stretched – the bad guy is a cliché, a near-immortal ‘mad scientist’ on whom the novel Frankenstein was based, for example. But what the book lacks in originality (though there are some nice little twists along the way) it gains in pace and style. There’s a nice series of flashbacks to earlier events in Cade’s lengthy life – his signing of the blood oath that ties him to the president, where he was when 9/11 happened. Refreshingly, there is little romance, though there are hints of one earlier in Cade’s life. There’s a lot you could do here with events that are not contemporary and I could see a series of prequels, if the author felt like it.

Generally this book is well-written, has a definite film/TV style (perhaps not too far-fetched considering that Farnsworth is also a screenwriter) and if you can live with the impracticalities, a solid, fun read. To my mind, it’s a darn sight better than any other contemporary thriller that you might find on the airport shelves, or dare I say it, any vampire romance you might care to suggest. Dracula meets The West Wing – what is there not to like?


Mark

[Fresh8686]

Agreed with all here, im about 3/4" of the way through and its been a fun if shallow read reminiscent of the hell boy movies what the new to the job wet behind the ears handler for the anti-hero and fighting against German based malevolent mysticism.

[KatG]

I really like the idea of a President's vampire. You could do a lot with that -- do other heads of state have their own vampires? Is there a special U.N. council? Could the vampire cap the oil spill?

What happens very often with vampire stories is there is not a lot of sense of history, of all that time that the vampires have seen (if it's vampires as immortal.) So I think a story about a vampire guardian -- which is not all that common, actually, is a fun one. I may check this one out.

[Bastard]

Looks like the sequel is ready for pre-orders:
http://www.amazon.com/Presidents-Vampire-Christopher-Farnsworth/dp/0399157395/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287420056&sr=8-3

Seems to be titled The President's Vampire (which I think has also been used to reference the series). I had thought it was going to be called Black Site, seems I was mistaken.

Anyways, April 2011 it looks like.

[DurzoBlint]

Bought the book while I was back in the states, still need to actually read it. Where is the link to it becoming a movie? Anybody seen a trailer?

[Bastard]

Bought the book while I was back in the states, still need to actually read it. Where is the link to it becoming a movie? Anybody seen a trailer?

Don't think there's any trailer... it looks to be still quite early in the planning stages:
http://www.daemonsbooks.com/2010/05/23/blood-oath-by-christopher-farnsworth-made-into-a-movie/

[DurzoBlint]

Started Blood Oath, for some reason I confused this with Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and didn't realize it was more of a modern day telling and I am really enjoying it. Good characters and pacing. If it continues this way until the end I will be looking into staying with the series.

It does have a Hellboy feel to it as Cade breaks in a new recruit/chaperone. It moves fast and I read a good portion of it in an hour as I could not put it down. The only reason I did was because I had work in the morning.