I was really hesitant to read the first book in the series ("Minion") and found it to be really slow and uninteresting in the beginning but it picked up in the end. This book did not have the same problem. I was hooked from the start. I like how Banks provided a little bit of a reminder of what happened in the first book (not that I needed it). But even that had me hooked.

In "The Awakening", Banks continues to build on the world that she has created, and it is very complex. Which is good and bad. It is good because it keeps the story moving forward and allows the reader to see the rules and guidelines that govern almost everything, good and evil. It is bad because it causes her to sit up situations that explain what is going on and why, that takes sometimes and subtracts from the action vibe that the story has.

I find most of Banks character to be captivating, even the bad guys. You want to know their story and what is going to happen to them. She gives you little glimpses of pieces throughout the novel (probably so that you will read the next one), but just enough to keep the story rolling and your curiosity perked.

I enjoy Banks witting and don't find that it is very difficult to read. It doesn't take much thought, its like watching an very good action more. You don't think you just absorbed the sences that she is sitting up for you. The only problem with her writing that I have is her use of slang not only in dialog but also in her sentence structure. It service the purpose of keeping with the stories settings but it also not only dates the story but her. I find some of the terms and actions of the characters to be out of date. ( )

More Blade than Buffy.

Or, the Vampire Huntress series is a lot less whitebread than the overwhelming majority of the o ther 'headless chick and arse' book cover type series.

Not as good as the first book, however.

This revolves around the fact that the 'chosen one' Neteru has a vampire 'ponn farr' every seven years, where, if she gets pregnant to the right father she can produce either another nifty powerful vampire hunter, or a daywalker vampire (speaking of Blade).

Her hunter-group friends and their Knights Templar with Ninjas cannon fodder assistants prefer the former, to the latter.

Her vampire master gangster ex-boyfriend and Vampire Council, and a large number of denizens of Hell have other ideas.

Discussions of wandering around through the levels of hell are one of the amusing bits of this book, certainly.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2008/0... ( )

Plot slow and detailed--action comes much, much later. I like the diverse characters, the hierarchies and governing laws of this world but it was a bit slow for my taste. I'm still pleased to see a fantasy series with ethnic characters. ( )

Picks up where the previous book leaves off, almost to the minute.

It's a tighter book than the first, although there are still some little bits that grate (Knight of Templar rather than Knight Templar for example). Oddly I find the anti-heroes story more compelling. We more or less know what the heroine will do, otherwise it would be a short and very dark series. Of course dark series aren't a bad thing, but it would be a shock here. Juggling offers of power and possible eventual reward make a more compelling story though, and one that is played to the hilt, nicely. ( )

#73, 2006

The second in the Vampire Huntress series (the first was “Minion”). I felt very much the same about this book as I did about the first – interesting story, enough to make me keep reading, but I find the dialogue distracting and difficult to read (excessive slang, IMO). I really think the author would have been better off using far fewer colloquialisms – she could have still gotten the flavour across with just a few words here and there, without making it difficult to wade through. Still, I’m going to see about getting the third one from the library (this was a library book, as well). ( )