· The Vampire Federation – Uprising
· Sean McCabe (Scott Mariani writing as Sean McCabe)
· Paperback: 480 pages
· Publisher: Avon (10 Jun 2010)
· ISBN-10: 1847562124
· ISBN-13: 978-1847562128
The Three Laws of the Vampire Federation:
1. A vampire must never harm a human
2. A vampire must never turn a human
3. A vampire must never love a human
With a system of bylaws like that you just know they’re all going to get broken…
If you are looking for two-hundred year old vampires full of angst pretending to be teenagers or glowing, angelic creatures who want to better mankind, or romantic walkers of the night pining for their human lovers then I suggest you take your reading proclivities elsewhere. You’ll find none of that here. In fact, what you will discover in Uprising are vampires on both sides of the law (those who abide by the three laws and those who don’t) who’ll stop at nothing to get what they want. And when they meet you know it’s going to get damn bloody. As a result, a war that could jeopardize the peaceful co-existence between the vampires of the Federation and humans by those who wish to cultivate human-kind as a food supply becomes more and more of a reality.
In my opinion the beginning of The Vampire Federation – Uprising suffers from the introduction of too many characters too quickly in too many too short chapters. (Yes, that’s exactly how I felt [at first].) However, after the swift introductions are over the story develops rather well into a fast paced urban fantasy thriller that just happens to contain vampires. Mr. McCabe manages to deliver an adventure story that reads like a Hollywood blockbuster. As a matter of fact, it took very little imagination to visualize the all-to-vivid scenes being played out on the big screen in my head as I read this. There are a lot of surprises, some unconventional vampire thinking (drugs to walk in daylight, etc.), and lengthy scenes of heartless, plot-provoking violence. Finally, here be vampires with bite (pardon the pun.)
I rather enjoyed the character development, interaction, and dialogue that McCabe created in this story but was absolutely fascinated and captivated by his descriptive, action-packed scenes of violence. (I’m a guy – what can I say! And McCabe certainly knows his audience.) Gabriel Stone, the main antagonist in this story is, to me, quite the evil character and while Joel, the human detective and Alex, the vampire agent, struggle with their own emotional baggage we find that their problems are those many of us struggle with ourselves. There’s plenty of page-turning action here and more then a few thrilling exploits that make up for some of the obvious plot twists and re-cycled devices but there are some surprises thrown in for good measure, as well. One of the more interesting scenarios involves a sleazy politician who more-or-less sells his soul to a vampire and then, realizing the price he’ll have to pay, attempts to redeem himself in an unconventional manner.
Fast-paced and fun.
3 ½ out of 5 stars
The Alternative
Southeast Wisconsin
Additional Reading:
(Note: Sample Chapters can be downloaded from this site.)
Author's website (Scott Mariani)
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3 comments:
I just finished this book and I have to say it is one of the best books that I have read. I can't wait for the next book to come out so that I can get it and read it. I really hope that Sean McCabe keeps writing books like this because it was awsome.
I love reading this book. My friends says me it's an old school stuff, but I honestly enjoyed reading. Whatever they say.
I loaded this book some time ago. It was free so I got it. When I started reading it I was disappointed to find it was a vampire story. This is not really my scene and I cannot quite understand the current craze for this gendre. I almost deleted it but decided to read another page or two. I read some more, and as I read, the more I wanted to read. I have to say I rarely find a book 'unputdownable' but this book came close. It was a thrilling read from start to finish and as I got towards the last page, I was still chewing fingernails. I shall certainly read more of Mr Mariani. I suggest you try him too!
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