Dhampir (A novel of the Noble Dead), by Barb and J.C. Hendee
June 25, 2007 at 2:44 pm (Authors, Hendee, Barb and J.C., High Fantasy, Review - Fantasy)
I’ve been looking at these books forever, but never purchased them. For some reason they never triggered a desire to purchase them, despite my love of “urban fantasy” (i.e. vampires/werewolves). Jeanine purchased the 4th book in the series, “Traitor to the Blood”, for my birthday–so I had to get the first 3 books. In traditional fashion, I attempted to read the 4th book first. Normally, this strategy works out well for me. This time, however, I was unable to really get into it, without the missing background.
So, B&N online was able to supply me with the missing books–Dhampir is the first in the series (followed by Thief of Lives, and Sister of the Dead).
All in all, good stuff. I’m still reading the series, so that tells you something. And I’m reading it fairly quickly, which is also significant–I tend to read stuff I don’t like at a glacial pace.
Dhampir revolves around 3 main characters–Magiere, Leesil, and Chap. Magiere is a female “dhampir”, which means she’s half undead. Huh? I know, weird. Her father was a newly turned vampire, and her mother was human. In this world, vampires, right after they become vampires, can still conceive. Leesil is half-elf, which is incredibly rare in this world. Chap is a fay-hound. You learn more about him in the 2nd book–in the first, he’s mostly just a very smart dog that can smell undead.
The books are very much “episodic” in their reading style. What I mean by that is they are very similar to watching an episodic TV show like Grey’s Anatomy. Each chapter has plot movement, but also a lot of character movement/revelation. The story is as much about the characters, their emotions, and their interaction with each other, as it is about their pursuit of vampires. In some ways, the storyline between the characters is the main driver, and not the “hunt of undead”.
In Dhampir, Magiere and Leesil start the story running con games on small villages–they pretend to be undead hunters, purging the villages of unwanted vampires, etc. However, they are just conning the villagers. As the story progresses, they accidentally stumble across REAL vampires–and discover they’re adept at killing them.
Unlike many novels, the Hendees try very hard to make the villains “friendly”, or at least standing characters in their own right. They want you to understand the motivation of the villains, which goes beyond the standard “I want more power” option that many authors tend to pursue.
While the handling of characters is intriguing, and worthwhile, it does make the books a bit dense sometime. It certainly leads to “skim reading”, where I tend to skip a lot of the non-quoted paragraphs, or only lightly skim them, while focusing mainly on the dialogue between characters.
All in all, I’d recommend these books. If you like character stories, or if you like your heroes to be very “Buffy-like”, this is for you.
