Uprising

 

Vampire Federation: Uprising (1)

by Sean McCabe

Genre(s): Horror, Paranormal
Published:  Dec 2010
Pages: 480

 

 Summary:  A gruesome ritual murder has stained the Oxfordshire countryside. It's just the first incident in a chain of events awakening Detective Inspector Joel Solomon to his worst nightmare-and a dreadful omen of things to come. Because Joel has a secret: he believes in vampires.

Alex Bishop is an agent of the Vampire Intelligence Agency. She's tasked with enforcing the laws of the global Vampire Federation, and hunting rogue members of her race. A tough job made tougher when the Federation comes under attack by traditionalist vampires. They have a stake in old-school terror-and in an uprising as violent as it is widespread.

Now it's plunging Alex and Joel into a deadly war between the living and the unloving-and against a horrifying tradition given new life by the blood of the innocent.

Review:   An age old vampire tale with a modern twist. The vampires have officially blended in with society. By taking special pills, they can even join humans for an afternoon picnic in the sun. To keep humans oblivious to their existence, the Vampire Federation exists to keep the vampires in line. Those that break the rules will be shot with a special bullet that kills them. Naturally, not all vampires like these new rules and will do as the feel they must to ensure the Federation is properly dealt with.

So, along with these two vampire factions we have the humans. And one lone detective, Joel Solomon who knows vampires are real. When he was just a boy his family was slaughtered by them. He goes is search of the one object he knows of that can kill any vampire with ease, a very special cross. This cross is feared by all vampires due to the lore it has. But it has been lost for centuries. Joel teams up with Alex, who claims to also know about vampires but is actually one herself. Together they search for the cross as time runs short for the Federation.

This book is part political thriller, vampire and action all rolled in one. It reminded me a lot of the Blade movies. While the story was good, it jumped around a lot for me. Especially the first 100 pages. Every chapter introduced mew characters, and with each chapter being only a few pages long, that is a lot of people to keep track of. After awhile the characters do slim down or take smaller roles, but still. The beginning put me off the book on several attempts. Once I got past those early pages it was better. The plot picked up, the characters delved deeper, etc. Enough so, that it has me curious to check out the next book to see what will happen so select characters.

I won this book on Goodreads in their giveaway contests. Thank you Penguin Group publishing for this great opportunity!