A little slow getting into this world and connecting to the characters, but once it gets going, it is pretty good. Different take on vampires. ( )

Gavril, a poor love-struck artist, is visited one night by a dream of a murdered man. He learns that he is the estranged son of a lord of a distant land, and that his father was the man murdered in his dreams. He has, however, inherited far more than a castle and an icy realm, for the secret to his family's long reign is a baleful spirit that offers unimaginable destructive powers, but at a ghastly price...

The problem with this book is the pace. There's so many events crammed in that everything is rushed, and we jump from place to place, milestone to milestone, viewpoint to viewpoint, without any thoughtful pause for significant events. Travel seemed entirely too quick -- taking a couple of days to get from a sunny, tropical climate to an icy taiga doesn't seem feasible in an age of horse-drawn carriages. Abilities that supposedly take years to learn are mastered overnight. Profound relationships are formed between people who exchange scarcely a few sentences. Any other author, with this much material, would have written 3 books instead of 1.

With so much happening, and with the viewpoint switching between at least half a dozen people, it was impossible to get attached to any of the (many) characters. They were all distinct, had clear motivations and salient characteristics, but I never felt like I actually got to know them, so I never cared about them. They needed more time to develop, to interact, to reveal themselves and stamp themselves as individuals, not custom-made cogs inserted into the plot machine.

Despite all this, I rate the book highly because it is so competently written. Aside from a few gaffes like "fruitily alcoholic", the author's prose was clear, brisk, and full of detail, if a bit stiff. I liked the unusual setting inspired by Russia and featuring 18th century technology, like gunpowder and alchemy. It's nice to see a fantasy that isn't stuck in the Dark Ages. I was pleased by the presence of ghosts, and intrigued by the role of the guslyars. The Drakhaoul himself is an interesting idea. Several of the plot twists surprised even me, something that does not happen often.

This book contains no references to sex, but it does contain violence, descriptions of charred corpses and such. While it would be scary for children, I doubt any parent could object to their teenagers reading it. ( )

Start of a new series. This establishes the world with its quirks and twists and turns beautifully. The story is interesting in and of itself, with the various characters nicely rendered and given quirks of their own that remain consistent.

What would you do if you could turn into a dragon at the risk of having to drink the blood of virgin girls... from the neck, draining their life? It might not be a dilemma we face every day, but it's an interesting one and well played. ( )