Robert Zimmermann

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a book with vampires. I don’t always find much exciting about the genre, but Parkerson was able to write the mythology of these vampires, werewolves, and other creatures in an interesting way.

I liked the idea behind how the creatures came to be, and how/why The Society of Sinners itself was set up. It adds a better depth to the story than just having all these characters with abilities and leaving it simply as that. This also helped in the development of the characters and their histories.

I also found it interesting that the novel was split into 5 separate, but connected, stories. At the heart of it, these are 5 stories about the pairing off of various characters, as well as way to introduce bits of the ongoing plot for the next stories to build on. This worked well, though I found that it allowed some events to become predictable, as the stories had obvious similarities with the romance. But all in all, the first four stories were great and built up a nice story. I didn’t feel the same way about the 5th story though. It takes place about 25 years after the others (which occurred in a much shorter time frame, all together). This alone sets it apart from the rest of the book. It also doesn’t really build off of the rest of the book directly; it’s a side story in a way. Though, I can see how it’s possible that the conflict could lead to the next book in the series, I felt this was a self-contained, unrelated occurrence.

Looking back at the characters, I do feel that they were developed nicely, even if there was too much insta-romance for me. It still fit in with the idea of fate/destiny/a bigger picture that is a factor in their world.

Now that the characters have been set up, their relationships established, and some hints at a bigger conflict thrown at me, I’m anxious to see where the other books of the series take the story. It was nice to read a novel from this author, while in the past I’ve really only read short stories.