Dhampir

Ignore the back of the book. And the tagline on the cover. And the title of the book, if possible. They will give you entirely the wrong impression. Let me try again.

Magiere doesn't know what she is. (Necessary because of the title of the book.) She's been traveling for years with her half-elf partner Leesil, rescuing superstitious villages from the monsters lurking in the night, and now she's ready to find a home and settle down. But their newfound peace will not last. (Part of this shamelessly stolen from the back of the book.) Magiere has come to the attention of a trio of powerful and dangerous vampires, and their machinations will force her and her partner to recall their events from their pasts, events that might be better off show more forgotten...

There, that's fairly good. I loved the book. A good, rollicking story about vampires and hunters and people trying to make a life. Definitely a pageturner. I liked that it reinvents no complex mythology, just sticks to what we all know and love about vampires already. It shows you can write a good story without having to create tons of background. show less

a woman and a half elf scam villagers by pretending to kill some imaginary vampire threat. They settle down to run an inn and have their old business come back to haunt them, only this time there are real vampires. The woman turns out to be the daughter of a vampire and is consequently a dhampir, a human with some vampiric powers.

This was a very simple book, with many details glossed over or left out, but it was a good entertaining read. I would call it trash fantasy, but not in a bad way, more of a disposable way. I'll probably read more of this series.

Dhampir is a very dark book. Even when Magiere and Leesil play at destroying vampires, the fear of the villagers is so real that the act of destroying the creature must be done in the expected manner. I was instantly caught up in the secrets kept by the characters and how their pasts influenced their current actions. One of the things that I loved about this story was that the reader not only gets to know Magiere and Leesil but the trio of vampires as well. The vampires have such strong personalities and histories, making them much more sympathetic than generic monsters would have been.

4.5 stars

Dhampir was quite good. It starts off a little slow, but quickly picked up and became hard to put down. Magiere is a "vampire" hunter. What she is really doing is swindling villages out of their hard-earned cash. She, along with her half-elf partner, Leesil, set up schemes to make is seem as though these villages are being plagued by vampires and she is the only one qualified to rid them of these abominations. The vampire is really Leesil in disguise. After four years of playing this game, Magiere decides she had enough and wants to retire. Leesil is not too thrilled with this at first, but eventually agrees. She purchases a tavern in a town called Miiska and wishes to live out a peaceful existence. Little does she know that show more vampires do exist and some currently reside in Miiska.

What follows is a tale full of action, suspense, intrigue and some behind the scenes machinations. Magiere comes to find out that she is a Dhampir, half mortal, half vampire. She has the natural skills and talents to kill vampires, but it's not something she truly wishes to do. There's a man in the village who seems to know quite a bit about Dhampirs, but is not very forthcoming with the information. I felt for Magiere struggling to figure out what was going on with her, even though it was difficult for me to like her at first because she was a con artist. The vampires did not really appear evil and we do get to learn quite a bit about them. I liked them almost as much as Magiere and Leesil. This is a story that I would recommend. show less

Magiere and her partner Leesil have been providing a valuable service: allaying the fears of superstitious peasants who are afraid of the legends of vampires. They put on a show to convince the locals that the vampire they've been imagining is dead, collect a fee, and move on. They've finally saved up enough money to buy an inn... and now life gets complicated.

Magiere discovers she's half vampire. Leesil just happens to have training as a spy and assassin. His dog Chap appears to have supernatural powers. And they're being dragged into real vampire hunting for once, a nasty and lethal business, and they're not happy about it...

The series begins with a well-imagined world that tweaks some of the classic vampire tropes and sets up the show more longer-term elements of the story. Some of the coincidences of the background look rather conveniently like the game master needed to put the player characters together in the same party, but as the series unfolds they turn out not to be coincidences at all. show less

I actually quite enjoyed this. The characters were varied and interesting and the vampire genre was done well, I even felt sympathy for the vampire's Rashed and Teesha.
The pace was decent and I felt the story wrapped up well enough to satisfy you yet also eager to read the next installment.

Unforgettable; one of the fantasy series that has become a personal yardstick for measuring others by. Actually hesitated to get into series based on excerpts and plot descriptions friends were giving me; first couple of pages did not reassure me and then *bam* book took off and then the rest of series was bated-breath, nonstop engrossingly good. Hard to come up with words to paint a real picture for you. Leesil and Mag characters stay with you and years later you still want more.

Started pre- ereader days and was one of few series/authors I bought in hardcover as soon as I could get my hot little hands on; no waiting for it to show up used and cheaper.