Vaempires
Book One The Evolutionary War
By Thomas Winship
It is the morning of Princess Cassandra’s sixteenth birthday. Everyone’s attention is focused on the heir to the vampire throne. World leaders, the rich and famous, and VIPs from every corner of the globe have gathered in the nation’s capital to celebrate the momentous event.
Cassandra’s boyfriend, Daniel, is late for the party. He’s still outside the city when all hell breaks loose. What he believes is an act of terrorism proves to be a full-fledged revolution. Væmpires—former vampires who mutated into warm-blooded creatures with an insatiable hunger for cold blood—have launched coordinated attacks across the globe, with three goals: the eradication of humanity, the enslavement of vampires, and the ascension of væmpires as the dominant species on the planet.
The vampire and human leaders are killed. Cassandra is missing. Daniel is the acting king. Desperate to find the princess, Daniel and his friends fight their way across the besieged city. With the hopes of the free world resting on the shoulders of four vampire teenagers, væmpires unleash their secret weapons: a new breed of væmpire that is far deadlier than any ever seen before.
What can four teens do against an enemy that can shape-shift, fly, and walk through walls?
Review
Princess Cassandra (Cassie) is turning 16. Its the big important day she can officially be princess to her family. There is even a HUGE celebration in which many people have come to the royal estate, but things go terribly wrong and chaos erupts as her home is attacked by the væmpires. Cassie is wandering the halls where massive casualties have occurred, the guard is mostly dead and soon she discovers so are her parents in a most heinous way.
Daniel was out of town when the attack started, and heading back home he encounters numerous casualties in the streets as the væmpires are attacking and draining vampires at will. He is desperately trying to get back to Cassie's estate to check and see if she is there...when he tries to com her and can't reach her he panics. He tries his best friends and manages to get through temporarily as the væmpires have cut off com links across the world. Daniel finds out that this wasn't an isolated attack. His next thoughts race back to his own home where his family are, but he sees that many vampires outside of their homes need his help before he can reach his own home or Cassie's.
Daniel tries to reach his home and at first all he hears is static and then his father's voice which is flighty and he sounds very raspy... he has been attacked and Daniel's mother is already dead and his father is near death. His father tells him he must take his rightful place and think of the people first and man-up and be the king he is meant to be. Daniel is afraid to do so, but soon realizes he doesn't have a choice of the world will soon be taken over by the væmpires. As he returns home he runs into trouble with some væmpires preying on humans and others with powers noever before seen in their species. All the more frightening to vampire-kind and humans alike.
Meanwhile, Cassie is in her own battle as she was kidnapped by a væmpire, Vielyn, out to be the king. She struggles with his added strength, speed and second opposable thumb in order to free herself from being held captive in the capitols secret chamber cell. She finds a means to escape while Daniel fights his way back into the capitol in search of Cassie. Meanwhile only to be hunted down again by Vielyn and another væmpire with a power of her own. even when they are reunited, they are far from safe as this new væmpire's powers are unleashed leaving Daniel and Cassie fighting for their own and each other to survive.
This was a spellbinding novel and a gripping tale as the væmpires are almost superior to vampires in many ways - stronger, faster, and far more devious then anyone would have thought. I loved Cassie's determination not to give in and let the væmpires have their way with her and how she fought to be free and fight, even if just to see Daniel again. Daniel had to come into his rightful place as acting king and look at the bigger picture when he wanted nothing more than to be with Cassie. Seeing both of them fighting for each other was endearing and captivating as they would do whatever they could to end of the væmpires trying to kill them both. I give this a solid 4 stars.
It's almost Christmas. With the global holiday days away, the people of the world should be turning their attention toward celebrating peace and goodwill, but tension between humans, vampires, and væmpires is at an all-time high. Desperate for solutions, King Brant schedules a secret summit deep in North America's Northern Forest. Along with Queen Anne, Princess Cassandra, Daniel's family, and the human president and First Lady, the vampire leader seeks to reaffirm the ties between humans and vampires, while brainstorming ways to respond to the growing hostility among væmpires.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Cassie's relationship is at an all-time low. The princess is still reeling from her breakup with Vielyn, and Daniel doesn't know what he should or shouldn't do to help. Little does he know that the summit will be flooded with surprises--guests, allegations, accusations, proposals, and even Christmas Eve revelations--but not all of the surprises will be pleasant.
Review
NOTE: the events of White Christmas take place a full 6 months before the events of Revolutions, but is meant to be read AFTER revolutions...and for good reason!
Whit Christmas start with Daniel in slump, its right before Christmas and he's trekking to get to the secret location of the meeting of the Vampire King and Queen, the human president and some other select representatives to discuss the diminishing relationships that are occurring between races.
Daniel is nearing the location when he sees Cassie out in the woods, not sure how to broach her he keeps a distance so she doesn't see him watching her. When she returns inside Daniel comes in. and heads to his room to try and relax, knowing full well with the tension between him and Cassie at an all time high, even talking to her is an impossibility. Daniel dozes, off only to wake hours later to Cassie knocking. When they get to talking a little things begin to fall away and they start to talk again, but just as they start to get "cozy" trouble arrives at the compound...
Vaempires have arrived demanding to be let in and that they were intentionally left out of this meeting for a reason. (Obviously!) The arrive to cause trouble and in spades! Donrel the leder and only Vaempire on the council is ready to cause major trouble among the humans and vampires. Little do the King Queen and Human president know they already have their plans laid out...
Daniel knows their up to no good, but can't quite figure out what their strategy is, not to mention how they found out where the compound was. But whats worse, they have an insider with a power none of them knew about. But I digress, with the Vaempires now in on the meeting things get heated very quickly as accusation, allegations and rumors from past come to light and make the meetings very tense. The one rumor they claim will help bring about peace is one involving Cassie. That she broke off an engagement to a vaempire because of his mutation. Cassie vehemently denies this, but the council believe she should go through with it to help ease tensions. We all know Daniel gets his two cents in at this point, but gets in trouble in attempting to follow her as she leaves.
Later he decides to leave and clear his head, but didn't expect to run into Cassie doing the same thing as well. They start to talk about what happened at the meeting and their feelings for each other become sort of revealed. As they are together in the woods Daniel finds courage to give Cassie her Christmas gift....a sweet ending to a excellent pre-quel as it were. A great mid read between stories
The tale of The Evolutionary War resumes in Væmpires: Zombie Rising.
Væmpires have taken control of twelve major cities. Their leader, Vielyn, seeks the atomic weapons that will bring the rest of the world to its knees.
Vampire forces are reeling. As Linq and Ray race to the royal estate to rendezvous with Cassandra and Daniel, the princess is captured and Daniel falls.
With the fate of world shifting to their teenage shoulders, Linq and Ray must deal with tremendous losses while battling a most unexpected—and undeadly—new foe.
Review
This story by far is my favorite to date of this series. We get to see the events of Revolutions thru the perspective of Linq and Ray, Daniel's two best male friends, and his most trusted.
Ling and Ray are finally able to get through to Cassie, who got locked in a secure room by Daniel to keep her safe, but she doesn't like being locked away and so gets Ling to let her out, so she can go after Daniel who is after our major villain in the series, Vielyn. Can you say uber souped up creep-a-zoid? *shudders* They head into the fray in Orion and are heading toward the castle to find Cassie and Daniel. BUt they run into trouble, a group of Vaempires to deal with before they can get to far. They end up fighting the pair and are soon nearly outdone. When one decides to drain Linq nearly dry!
When Ry finally gets the one off Linq they quickly get him some synth-blood to help him heal and get back on his feet. The get back on track and to the palace, in the meantime Cassie is caught again by Vielyn this time...and things are worse then she fears as the events prior start to come back to her....Daniel is dead, killed by Vielyn right before her eyes.
Vielyn has Cassie and with Daniel dead the only hope lies on Linq and Ray. Cassie is trying to keep her head composed while dealing with Vielyn, but her actions only get her into hot water and Vielyn is ready to put her out of her misery...by removing her memories associated with Daniel that is. Then out of nowhere one of the nasty vamps from the compound appears....ready to kill Cassie since Vielyn won't do it.
Ray and Ling get in to the palace which is void of life, it even feels empty, almost haunted. As they get further in the sights of battle are everywhere, blood, overturned and damaged furniture, and everything is in shambles. As they head out toward the toer they catch the scent of their friends having been their and the carnage surrounding them gives them ample idea of what occurred. The continue to find scattered parts until they come to the the west ward and then it hits them...hard. Dead vamepire bodies and parts are everywhere, but one thing keeps them moving a beating heart... they stumble upon a body, and something about her seems off, but when they don't know...yet.
They end up dealing with a LOT for then they bargained for as they try to find Cassie and Daniel in the mess, but then the story takes off and I'm not going to ruin the rest as its too good to do to Tom's story. I know, evil aren't I. But those of you who love a good ending with a cliffhanger are going to DIE after you read the rest of what happens next. And to do that you need to read the book and see where it MIGHT take us next!
And there you have it. A review for each of the three stories thus far, I've loved what I've read to this point and I'm very anxious to see what Tom throws at us next. This last part gets a FIVE from me as it's got me hooked on his story. Thanks Tom for making me enjoy horror again and I'm eager to devour what you come up with next!
About the Author
Thomas Winship was born in Middletown, NY and still resides in Orange County. He holds an MBA in Management from St. Thomas Aquinas College, where he serves as an adjunct professor of courses in English Composition, Communications, and Business. He also spent fifteen years working for a global pharmaceutical company, specializing in organizational development, talent management, and training.
Tom writes in his spare time. His first novel, a mystery/legal thriller entitled Temporary Insanity (a.k.a. Case Closed), was a 2008 finalist in a national contest but failed to garner industry attention. His second novel, Væmpires: Revolution, was published in October and a follow-up novella, Væmpires: White Christmas, was published in December.
He is an avid collector of books, comic books, music, and movies. His interests are diverse: on any given day, Tom is likely to be found watching a horror movie, attending a hard rock concert, or enjoying a Broadway show.
He is currently working on the next installment of the “Væmpires” series, which is scheduled for an early 2013 release.
Thank you so much, Poison Rose, for once again being part of the vaempires world! Your reviews are amazing!
ReplyDelete