Blood Oath - Here's Nathaniel Cade; the President's Vampire

First of all, anyone and everyone who knows me know that when it comes to Vampires, I just gravitate towards them like a moth to a flame. It started with Anne Rice and went on further than that.

Now seeing a book like this with the by-line and touted as the Vampire thriller that Dan Brown would have written, if in case he ever did, was enough to make me take notice. Although at first, I dismissed it quickly thinking of whatever angles would they think of next when it comes to our fanged brethren, as it it seemed like a desperate idea to forcefully graft an iconic creature such as this in our present world. Others have done so and have done wonders with it. While others, although lambasted for their efforts, were still met with the same form of success and scorn. While other throwaway Vampire novels, feel like they have not been well thought out.

But a well thought out novel is what this book really is a product of.

Enter Nathaniel Cade. He is a Vampire that has no time to deal with your crap and gets the job done when needed. Of course he should, for he is bound by duty to do whatever the US President asks of him. Unlike the brooding Vampires of late, he is decisive, quick, and very much the epitome of an efficient secret agent, except daylight can still incapacitate him to a degree.

Enter Zack Barrows, a young whiny man that gets the promotion of a lifetime. But in this case, working for the White House under covert and unconventional terms.

Put these two together and enmesh it with a new villain whom I won't be surprised if he surfaces again in future Cade titles, as well as a thought out streamlined plot, then you have for yourself a wonderful good read that is both light, fast-paced and hard to let go.

The only reason that it is one star short of 5, is because I felt the author could have given us more of Cade as well as the surprise allegiances and twists that Dan Brown himself has seemingly made a trademark of his own writing with. But nonetheless, it is still a good read and a breakthrough effort of a debut novel.

With that said, I sooo need to find my 2nd book, underneath the tons of books in my very own Book Box. :)


ps. The Author responds to my tweets on Twitter...consider me star strucked. Wouldn't you be? :)

Zombies are the New Vampires

Yes....forget Twilight...forget Vampires and other supernatural creatures of that norm as an old favorite has taken the populace by storm, in books and in television as well as the comic book world. And now its beginning its renewed assault on the big screen. Yes, Zombies are the new Vampires these days.

From the comic book and now hit TV series, Walking Dead, to books like The Forrest of Hands and Teeth, its time for another hit book written by Max Brooks to hit the big screen in a big way. And what bigger way to do it than with Brad Pitt.

And although filmmakers chose to not do much close up shots on the zombies for the trailer, as I surmise this, you get more than your fill of the blonde superstar as he balances his duty to his family and to his country.

World War Z opens next year in June 2013.

It's gonna be a gory summer for sure!

Trese- Book 1 - Filipino Urban Fantasy Graphic Novel

Kept seeing this at National Bookstore then and admittedly when another author spoke extensively about this did I try picking it up and loved it!

Combining urban fantasy and Philippine folklore, this graphic novel is a series of stories about Alexandra Trese, our Philippine equivalent, to Kolchak and Fox Mulder. But the cool thing about her is that she's got two magical twins as her right hand men and doesn't bat an eyelash at the different magical creatures and circumstances that she gets herself involved in whenever the police call in on her for help on things, paranormal.

So far Book 4 has been released and it's no surprise why I already have Book 2 on stanby for my weekend reading.

Celebrate our being Filipino. Remember our own folklore and mythology and read this. :)

Venturing into The Forest of Hands and Teeth

 Admittedly the title and the cover drew me to the book. A crimson sea shell surrounded by a grey marble background was striking enough for me to pick it up. And anyone who knows me knows that red will always catch my attention; with it being my favorite color. Reading the summary, my curiosity got piqued further as I thought I was being introduced to another supernatural being. I mean there are only so much vampires and werewolves can a reader take, right? 

 For this debut book by Carrie Ryan, the beings are referred to as The Unconsecrated, and they have been around for a century or so. People have barred themselves behind iron fences hoping to live out their lives as normal as they can and keeping these flesh craving beings at bay. 

This is the part that I find out that this is the Walking Dead. 

In spite of all the bleak and cordoned off existence as depicted in the book and smack dead center of it all is the books heroine, Mary, who yearns for a life outside the Forest before her. She takes hope from her mother’s story of life before the dawning of the Unconsecrated and dreams of one day seeing it. Not bad, right? 

Enter the twists. After tragic events involving family, she is faced with the prospect of being a spinster and entering the Service of the Sisterhood. But with a keen mind and a curious will all to herself, we find Mary becoming the victim of her own choices. For a character who says she doesn’t believe in pre-destination and divine intervention, Mary, as the novel progresses after her isolated community is breached, becomes too selfish for her own good. From desiring another man when she has been promised to another to wilfully digging for clues that would support her growing suspicion of the Sisterhoods secrets, Mary is like a child with a loaded gun and still knowing that it is fires in direct consequence and result of her whim apologizes after and expects clemency for her actions, was just really pushing it for me. 

Clearly, not a good quality for a lead character to embody but it is the writing that propels me to read further and hope for some redemptive maturity for Mary as the novel progresses. 

At one point in the novel when Mary refers to her life as a series of complications, I wonder if it’s an excuse she makes to justify the choices she made; that her torn responsibility for love and duty drove her to be who she was. That the driving force behind each and every action stemming from each and every decision she made was because she was doing the best she can, regardless of the cost, even if these resulted in lives being compromised. 


There was also a line in the book, page 207, to be exact that says, “Who we are if not the stories we pass down.” And if that statement were to be applied to her, what would people say about the decisions that she made. Would she be considered naïve and foolish to think that one should pursue a vision of a dream regardless of the effect it has on others, especially when their lives are in jeopardy. And at the same time deferring the same dire consequence as a direct result of other people’s choices and not her own? Or is she vindicated at the end? 

With that statement, it was clearly also a choice for me whether to finish the book or not, considering that the third instalment will be released sometime this year. And my choice in spite of the mixed feelings I had about Mary and her life choices, was still to go further on into the book because Carrie Ryan’s writing simply draws you in with her simplicity and honesty. It wouldn’t be too much for a reader as well to admit acquiescing to Mary’s choices and her sentiments because Ryan writes it a matter of factly and doesn’t require Mary to apologize for her actions, but merely to acknowledge that her actions were not not-thought of, but were true to who she is and what she wanted out of the remaining years of her life. 

So venture into the forest for your own reason of checking out a new writer and what is it about her style that drew praises from critics or pans from readers alike. Either that or for the reason of discovering for yourself if Mary really was selfish or if her blind pursuit of her dream and being true to it came at too high a price. And once you have ventured into it, let’s see what you find at the edge of the forest. Let’s compare findings, once you’re done, ok?