angrybookworm's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
What was this? This was insane. I've been telling everyone about it. I don't know if it's good but I can't stop thinking about it so it's getting points for being original and also true to history. I might recommend it.
marlinwebster's review against another edition
3.0
This is not for the religiously squeamish christian, but as Vampire stories go a very good read. It's the type of book that gets you towards the middle bit and insists that you to push through to the end. Anyone reading this can't help but root for the bad guy!! All in all a satisfying read!
M
M
mscoutj's review
1.0
OK, I wasn't expecting great literature, but it wasn't even good porn. This is another bookm like Dr. Mary's Monkey, that I picked up, read the back, and said to myself "this is too bad not to read!". Basically gay, christian vampire lit...
billydoubledown's review
3.0
I liked this book. Victor was portrayed as having a grudge against God. It reminds me a lot of The Vampire Chronicles. I will continue reading the series to see where it goes.
foxwrapped's review
2.0
Ooo this book is naughty! It has a roman soldier/vampire in love (lust really, heavy lust, with heavy breathing and heavy hands) with Jesus Christ. And then he kills like everyone, blah blah blah. But I still didn't think it was all the good, to be honest, despite sounds OMG so awesome.
theodenreads's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Antisemitism, and Fatphobia
marlinwebster's review
3.0
This is not for the religiously squeamish christian, but as Vampire stories go a very good read. It's the type of book that gets you towards the middle bit and insists that you to push through to the end. Anyone reading this can't help but root for the bad guy!! All in all a satisfying read!
M
M
gerhard's review
1.0
This is a salutary example of a great idea being hamstrung by ineffectual execution. Schiefelbein tries gamely to be provocative: a Roman soldier falls in love with the young Jesus.
When his advances are rebuffed, he gives in to his darker impulses, and rapes and kills an innocent Jewish boy. Before Pontius Pilate can have him jailed for his unnatural crimes, Victor flees to a mysterious woman called Tiresius, who promises him the keys to the Dark Kingdom.
We then shift a couple of centuries later to find Victor in a monastery, haunted by the memory of his love for the young Joshu. He is called that instead of Jesus throughout the rest of the book because it is closer to the original Hebrew, apparently; I suspect Schiefelbein just wanted to avoid charges of blasphemy in what is ostensibly a M2M bodice (and throat) ripper.
The book then cheerfully descends into a rather lurid potboiler, interspersed with scenes of sex and violence (both equally badly written), as Victor broods (which is a rather generous term; sulks is more like it) over his lost love, and plots to make his own companion to take to the Dark Kingdom.
(Schiefelbein’s particular take on vampire mythology is a tad confused: we have little sense of the exact mechanics of Victor’s conversion, and it seems he has to find and convert his own equal in order to become human again, but this is unclear. Also, the novel’s great leaps in time and setting are clumsily executed, with little historical significance or context).
When Michael rejects his offer of eternal life, which mirrors Joshu’s rejection of two centuries ago, it unhinges Victor, with suitably tragic and Grand Guignol consequences.
Vampire Vow would have been far more effective if Schiefelbein had not written it like a soft-core porn novel. There is no humour or sense of irony, but a lot of it is unintentionally funny. When I read out certain passages aloud to my flatmate, she was quite aghast, and wanted to know why I was reading such rubbish.
The book has an interesting coda, in that it takes Victor into what is essentially Anne Rice territory (literally, as he buys an ‘antebellum mansion’ in New Orleans, and almost in the same breath picks up, and picks over, a male hooker). Given that there are two volumes left in the sequence, I am curious as to how Schiefelbein takes his story forward.
Well, let us just say that trash has its own place in the literary pantheon, even if it is at the bottom of the slushpile. If you are in the mood for something lurid and preposterous, Schiefelbein beckons from a darkened alleyway.
When his advances are rebuffed, he gives in to his darker impulses, and rapes and kills an innocent Jewish boy. Before Pontius Pilate can have him jailed for his unnatural crimes, Victor flees to a mysterious woman called Tiresius, who promises him the keys to the Dark Kingdom.
We then shift a couple of centuries later to find Victor in a monastery, haunted by the memory of his love for the young Joshu. He is called that instead of Jesus throughout the rest of the book because it is closer to the original Hebrew, apparently; I suspect Schiefelbein just wanted to avoid charges of blasphemy in what is ostensibly a M2M bodice (and throat) ripper.
The book then cheerfully descends into a rather lurid potboiler, interspersed with scenes of sex and violence (both equally badly written), as Victor broods (which is a rather generous term; sulks is more like it) over his lost love, and plots to make his own companion to take to the Dark Kingdom.
(Schiefelbein’s particular take on vampire mythology is a tad confused: we have little sense of the exact mechanics of Victor’s conversion, and it seems he has to find and convert his own equal in order to become human again, but this is unclear. Also, the novel’s great leaps in time and setting are clumsily executed, with little historical significance or context).
When Michael rejects his offer of eternal life, which mirrors Joshu’s rejection of two centuries ago, it unhinges Victor, with suitably tragic and Grand Guignol consequences.
Vampire Vow would have been far more effective if Schiefelbein had not written it like a soft-core porn novel. There is no humour or sense of irony, but a lot of it is unintentionally funny. When I read out certain passages aloud to my flatmate, she was quite aghast, and wanted to know why I was reading such rubbish.
The book has an interesting coda, in that it takes Victor into what is essentially Anne Rice territory (literally, as he buys an ‘antebellum mansion’ in New Orleans, and almost in the same breath picks up, and picks over, a male hooker). Given that there are two volumes left in the sequence, I am curious as to how Schiefelbein takes his story forward.
Well, let us just say that trash has its own place in the literary pantheon, even if it is at the bottom of the slushpile. If you are in the mood for something lurid and preposterous, Schiefelbein beckons from a darkened alleyway.
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