About this title: Professor James Asher is trying to find who is killing the vampires of London, but with his wife held hostage, they could all be doomed.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Spine is well creased. Covers show wear at the edges and corners. Good Grade C average reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Edition: First Mass Market Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780345361325ISBN:0345361326
Description: Good. Spine creasing, average cover & edge wear, marker line on outside edge of pages, clean inside, page yellowing. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780345361325ISBN:0345361326
Description: Grade: C. Catalog: Fiction Fantasy Synopsis: 340 pages. The vampires had been living in London since the time of Elizabeth I, but now they were being ruthlessly murdered by someone who ripped the... read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey; Ballantine Books, New York
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780345361325ISBN:0345361326
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. 340pp. 1st prtg. Cover art by Edwin Herder. Covs rubbed; edges & corners worn w/a couple small chips at bottom frnt cov edge. Sp creased; edges & ends worn. Location: London. Time: The period of Sherlock Holmes. Subject: Vampires. The vampires had been living in London since the time of Elizabeth I, but now they were being ruthlessly murdered by someone who ripped their coffins open for the light of day to burn them to ashes. No vampire could endure the daylight to ... read more
Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC)
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Del Rey, N. Y.
Date Published: 1988
Description: Cover Art. Very Good in Very Good jacket. Hard Back. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. The hard cover and the jacket has very little wear. Some foxing to the top outer edges of the pages. -----We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by...... read more
Edition: book club edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1988
Description: Very Good. Good jacket. Book club edition. d/j has some edge wear and light chipping at the spine. Cover has one slightly bumped corner. No other faults to book. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1988
Description: Very Good. Save some $$$. Perfectly Good Reading Copy. Shelfwear from storage in box with other books. Hardcover without jacket. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Del Rey / Ballantine (1989).
ISBN-13:9780345361325ISBN:0345361326
Description: ISBN 0345361326. [Fantasy, Vampires]. cover art by Edwin Herder. 1st edition: July 1989. [paperback]. 4x7 inches. Clean interior. **faults: Light edge and corner wear. Barely visible crease on spine. VG+ to Near Fine. [Fantasy, Vampires]. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Del Rey, New York
Date Published: 1988
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. Hard Back. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. The hard cover and the jacket has very light shelf wear.....-----We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by...... read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780345361325ISBN:0345361326
Description: Very Good- 0345361326. Smooth spine. Hinge crease. Scrape on top edge of cover.; 1.1 x 6.7 x 4.1 Inches; 341 pages; From cover: "Location: London. Time: The period of Sherlock Holmes Subject: Vampires. Vampires had been living in London since the time of Elizabeth I, but now they were being ruthlessly murdered by someone who ripped their coffins open for the light of day to burn them to ashes. No vampire could endure the daylight to destroy the murderer. They had to turn to a mortal human for ... read more
Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC)
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 1988
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Hardcover / book looks new, jacket has a very small tear at top edge of front cover taped inside. very minor corner scuffs. read more
"Someone is killing vampires in Victorian England, so the vampires decide to hire a detective to find out who. Only problem is the detective is human and has to worry that even if he catches the killer, will his clients let him live after learning about them?
Good mystery, two strong leads and a well thought out vampire society. The reveal of the killer is pretty cool. Good book. I hear she did a sequel. I'll have to try and track it down, as thee characters were worthy of a series."
"Being a vampire is hard! Hambly has created some of the most interesting vampire mythology and characterization I've ever experienced. It was worth reading (only just) for a complex take on the hard realities facing vampires, without a silly romance angle. There's also a neat backstory on how a vampire physically changes through the centuries.
However, the language and construction were killing me throughout the book, particularly in the first 2/3 before the action took over. The story gets drug through the mud by the endless descriptions and asides right in the middle of the dialogue. Every line of conversation, or even half a sentence of dialogue is interrupted with a paragraph of some remembrance of things past, or need to describe the scene even further. Luckily at the end as the action picks up, the dialogue is much smoother.
Oh, the never ending similes stand out like wretched piles of horse dung on top of your precious blood-red velvet fainting couch! They are horrendous, and yank you right out of the mood and story. To play at Hambly's game: she uses similes like a 7th grade schoolboy who having just learned about similes, fancies himself a great writer every time he uses one. Not to mention that many of the comparisons really make no sense in an Edwardian-era story.
Don't take my word for it! Here's my list of odd, useless, silly, and otherwise unfortunate similes quoted from the book:
* Pearls [on a pair of gloves] gleamed like maggots in meat. * His body twisted and fought like a salmon on a line. * Her high heels tapping like a deer's tiny hooves on the pavement. * Their horses breathing steam like dragons. * The cheap black bowler floated over the general crowd like a roach in a cesspool. * He knew this area of Bloomsbury the way a jack hare knew its burrows. * He knew [the vampires] were watching and listening... like so many suave and mocking sharks lying just beneath the surface of the water, whose shore he could never hope to reach in time. * Thousands of smooth organic curves [of wall], like some perverted variety of orchid. * Asher caught glimpses of sheaves of ribs, like frozen wheat in the wind. * Beautiful, like a baroque pearl set in Renaissance gold. * The wind drove a swirl of of dead beech leaves over [the gravel], like the whirling souls of Dante's damned, who could not forgo the pleasures of the living. * Blood spattered...like gouts of hot syrup.
These are just the ones that stood out to me as being particularly egregious. There are oh so many more just waiting for you in the pages of this book!"
"There's a serial vampire killer in London, but the killings are unusual. They are not known to humans, as if a human killed a vampire it would be all over the news. There is evidence that the vampires are killed as well as exposed to the sunlight to dispose of their bodies, the evidence.
Don Simon Xavier Christian Morado de la Cadena-Ysidro (referred to as Don Simon, Simon, or Ysidro throughout the book) is one of the older vampires in this city. He decides to hire a mortal, Dr. James Claudius Asher, to investigate this serial killing.
It was an interesting story. The ending was quite interesting, and the ending was more fast-paced than the rest of the book, of course. I didn't guess about how the last killing in the book would go down.
Here are some quotes I like from the book:
"...the core of a vampire's being is the hunger to live, to devour life--the will not to die."
"Why was it...that qualities deemed laudable in anyone else were nothing but a damned nuisance in servants?"
"A drowning man seldom pushes a plank away, no matter who holds the other end."
"It's surprising how ignorant the right hand can be when it would really rather not know what the left hand is doing."
"He was the only...who valued the redemption of his soul above the continuation of his existence.""
"Loved this book. Exactly the correct mix of fantasy and science, it's the story of an attempt to literally build vampires. Takes place in Victorian England. Great book, enjoyed it very much."
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