Dhampir
First book in The Noble Dead Saga
by Barb and J.C. Hendee

Too bad the story wasn’t quite as exciting as the summary leads us to believe.

The book has a promising start, in the prologue we see the story set off from an unknown creature’s POV (later we assume it is Parko) as it slips lizard-like into an old woman’s bedroom, tricks her into giving it permission to enter and then kills her. Later the creature sees Magiere entering the village and whispers “hunter” before slithering off into the night.

Begin chapter one, Magiere has been called to a village in order to do what she does best, rid it of menacing vampires. Magiere comes off as a strong, world-weary and hardened female who has dealt with so many villages before now that she as them figured out with a glance. Once she’s set her ridiculously high fee, which may cause the village to starve next year, she is all set to catch the vampire and invites some of the town to watch. Magiere creates an elaborate show and after getting knocked on her rear and tossed in the mud manages to stake the vampire and carry his body off for disposal.

The shock, it’s not a vampire she just staked it is her half-elf partner in the scam Leesil. Reading the book’s summary you don’t really get the impression right off that they’re working a scam but then it hits you and you’re hooked. A few pages later we come to find out that while Magiere, Leesil and their dog Chap are asleep in camp they’re being watched by none other than the real vampire that was attacking the village.

The book has an exciting quick pace that sucks the reader into it immediately however the writers don’t seem capable of holding their reader’s attention nor do they seem capable of keeping up the pace as the story begins to lag towards the middle and the story line becomes unbelievably predictable. Girl finds out there is something more to her, that she has a destiny to fulfill, a calling; girl runs away from her duty; girl’s friends seriously injured; girl continues to run away from her duty; mentor gives girl cryptic advice; girl tries to accept her duty to a degree; many innocent lives caught in the crossfire; mentor orders girl to do something against her nature; girl wins the final battle, a few lives lost and mentor turns out to have instigated everything from the get go.

Does the plot sound familiar? It should, it is a rather popular plot idea that can be plopped down on a piece of paper and just about every single kind of world imaginable can work around it. One of the more well known examples of this theme would be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy is the Chosen One and must slay the vampires on her own with the aid of her watcher. Magiere is the Dhampir, child born of vampire and human to slay the vampires on her own with Welstiel her mentor to guide/goad her into fighting the vampires. It isn’t even a surprise at the end of the book in the epilogue when we find out Welstiel was the one who actually killed the inn’s previous owner, not the vampires, and assisted the banker who sold Magiere the deed to the inn. It isn’t even surprising to note that he knew how to goad the vampire Rashed into attacking Magiere and starting the fight.

Our only real surprises come when Welstiel acts vehemently to the notion of Magiere enlisting the villagers to assist in eliminating the vampires, but then this is ruined when Welstiel goes on about how she is the Dhampir and must fight the vampires alone. And of course the beginning of the book is also a bit of a surprise as well as parts of Leesil’s past.

One thing I did like was how the authors fleshed out the villains and made them seem more believable. We learn how each of the trio of vampires: Ratboy, Rashed, Teesha, the late Parko and even Teesha’s late husband Edwan the ghost come to be as well as wonderful insight into their psyches. The characters are much more real and we are able to picture them and fall in love with them as well as the protagonists causing us to mourn their demise. Laurell K Hamilton would do well to seek the Hendees out and get tips on fleshing out your characters more instead of just tossing in one good looking guy or girl after another. One downfall though is Teesha’s past and how she becomes a vampire. Her history up until her rebelling against her maker Corische is wonderfully written and created yet when Teesha begins her rebellion against Corische readers will be strongly reminded of Anne Rice’s character Claudia from Interview with a Vampire. Teesha begins a subtle rebelling by insulting her maker when she can, taking digs at him and then slowly begins to turn one of the other vampires, the one most loyal to Corische, against him. Then one night, Teesha goads Corische into attacking her tricking another of her maker’s vampires (Rashed) into killing their maker and then fleeing to another part of the world in order to make a new life, and the only reason this plan worked is because Rashed is absolutely besotted with Teesha and wants to protect her from everything. Doesn’t this just sound like Louis and Claudia all over again? I just noticed, on the cover of the novel the author of Hidden Empire is quoted as saying: “A Mix of The Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. How ironic is that?

Dhampir has wonderfully written and believable characters, snappy wit and humor, a smooth writing style; but the less than original plot and backgrounds of some of the characters detracts from what could have been an awesome read. This is the first book in their series and I am seriously considering whether or not I want to go ahead and purchase the next one. Despite the less than stellar plot line the characters and their development, not to mention the possible budding romance between Leesil and Magiere, is enough to keep the reader coming back for more.

Joana’s Rating: