Blood Oath

Zach Barrows, ambitious White House staffer, made the mistake of sleeping with the President's daughter and now he's been reassigned as partner and handler of secret agent Nathaniel Cade. Cade's mission, given to him by President Andrew Johnson as part of a pardon for vampirism, is to protect the Union from supernatural horrors that the daylight world, and Zach, are not prepared to cope with.

Blood Oath is the first in the Nathaniel Cade series by Christopher Famsworth. Nathaniel Cade is the vampire version of Jack Reacher with a little bit of The West Wing thrown in. In this mission someone has been shipping dismembered American soldiers back to the States with the intention of reassembling them in a kind of frankensoldier based on old show more Nazi experiments.

Cade is more of what I'd consider a "classic" vampire. Ultra strong and fast, drinking blood helps him regenerate from wounds, severe sunlight allergy. He has a strong moral compass for a vampire that could make for some interesting situations in the future. Basically everything but the supernatural seduction because:

"Humans are our food. Do you want to have sex with a cow?”

Did I mention there's some humor too? On the flip side, Zach Barrows starts off highly unlikable and obnoxious. I believe this is by design so we can see his character grow as he adjusts to the full reality of his new job situation. I ended up with how well Zach handles himself by the end of the book.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Bronson Pinchot. It took me a bit to get used to the narration as he was more monotone than I prefer. It made more sense as the story went along and more characters were added which upped the variety of voices.

Famsworth had fun drawing inspiration from popular horror legends and weaving them together into an entertaining horror/thriller. Fair warning, there are a couple gory parts and one in particular that made me cringe. That said, I enjoyed the set up and I'm looking forward to continuing the series. show less

With all the fluff, cutesy, sweet romance vampires out there it's nice to see authors like Christopher Farnsworth writing a vampire novel you can really sink your teeth into. This book has it all: action, mystery, secret agents, scary vampires, damsels in distress (Well, sort of), villains that would do any James Bond movie proud, even a new sidekick. Nathaniel Cade is a scary man, of course he's not a man at all but a vampire and not just any vampire but the Presidents Vampire.. He is our last line of defense against all of the things that go bump in the night. Sworn to a blood oath over a century ago Mr. Cade protects our country from not only terrorists and other man made evils but also the horrors that must remain invisible to the show more common man.

I had a great time with this book. It was action packed and was a very fast read. The book had a nice flow and doesn't ever get bogged down in pointless details or fluff to extend the pages. I've seen some reviewers saying it read's more like a movie and maybe it's because Mr. Farnsworth write screenplay's but I think his writing fits his characters perfectly. Mr. Cade is not a deep person (at least on the outside). He doesn't bemoan his situation, doesn't sit and whine oh why me, poor me. He only does one thing and he does it well but at the same time I feel that we haven't even scratched the surface with him and belive Mr. Farnsworth has left so much more of his past for later. This was a great debut novel. It's very James Bond meets ... well Vampires. The villians are top notch. They are mean, ruthless yet at no time do they feel fake or too over the top. There are so many things going on with the villians and shadowy organizations that you just know you'll be hearing more from them in the future. The action sequences are good and you get these brief looks into Mr. Cade's mind here and there. I for one can't wait to read more. The next book is already in the mail. show less

Every time I walk past a book store I just have to take a wander through and see what is on the shelf. The last time I saw two books that caught my eye, Luther: The Calling and Red White and Blood. I'd never heard of the latter, never heard of the author, Christopher Farnsworth, and this was the most recent in a three book series.

Sadly I've been burnt before, so I only walked out of the store with Luther. No matter how interesting this book looked, it was about vampires, politics and secrets, this could have been Twilight in the Whitehouse for all I knew. So instead I contacted my trusty local librarian and asked if they had any of the books on the shelves, they had all three. I'm glad they had them all.

Chris's writing is witty, fast show more paced and well crafted. Essentially he has written a supernatural thriller in direct opposition to the sparkly lameness that has infected the supernatural genre. Despite the themes, the line isn't crossed into horror territory, remaining firmly enjoyable to thriller fans who don't like the gore aspect.

In short, I won't be getting to Luther: The Calling, until after I finish all three of Chris' Nathaniel Cade novels. show less

Blood Oath is the story of vampire Nathaniel Cade, pardoned for vampirism by President Andrew Johnson, and now required to loyally serve each subsequent president of the United States. Cade is an interesting character who seems closer to James Bond and Jack Reacher than Dracula. He takes pride in his patriotism and professionalism. He's absolutely fascinating but the secondary characters are also well developed. We have Zach Barrows, an arrogant young Washington insider assigned to work with Cade after being caught with the president's daughter. In their first assignment together they must work together to stop terrorists who are shipping dismembered American soldiers into the U.S., intending to create Unmenschsoldat, undead killing show more machines, better known as Frankenstein monsters. Cade and Zach are sent to find the one man who can create those monsters, but are unable to prove anything. Even worse, they have attracted hostile attention from several different areas, including the evil Dr. Konrad, a beautiful vampire named Tania, and a terrifying Shadow Company which knows no mercy. Cade is a very compelling sort of anti-hero, a vampire who doesn't really like the humans he's sworn to protect. He's arrogant, brooding and vicious, and knows both the intelligence game as well as the supernatural realm.

I'm not a fan of vampire novels but this one is much more than that. It's part vampire, part thriller and loads of fun to read. The plot moves along quickly and there's a perfect blend of Black Ops thriller combined with vampires, werewolves and the undead. The concept is a good one and it works well. If you like political thrillers and vampires you are in for a real treat. I immediately picked up the second and third books in this fascinating series. show less

All most people remember about President Andrew Johnson was that he became President only because Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated and he missed being impeached by one vote. Apparently he also gave a secret Presidential pardon to a young vampire and got a Voodoo priestess to bind the vampire to whoever was currently President. It seems that there is a whole legion of other worldly threats to humanity, other vampires, zombies and of course mad scientists that the public is kept blissfully unaware of.

I don't much care for vampire books but I could not stop reading this. Nathaniel Cade is a wonderful, and actually lovable character...as much as you can love a vampire. The action is quite fast paced, the outrageous plot elements are show more presented in such a way as to sound plausible and the characters are written well enough to come to life. Can't wait to read the next in the series, the president's Vampire show less

If you've purchased a book with the words "The President's Vampire" at the top of the cover, you're probably interested in reading a book about a vampire that works for the president. I have great news for you. You've bought the right book. This thing is very much about a vampire that works for the president. Feel free to check that off your to-read list that you clearly pulled directly out of Satan's asshole.

I did not purchase this. I received it as a result of a horrendously unhealthy gift-giving relationship with a friend that I love and respect less and less every day. I buy a book that I think he'll hate, I read it, the vibrant colors of the world become permanently dimmer in my eyes, I give him the book, I receive one in turn, and show more I wish for oblivion to engulf me. Needless to say I was not optimistic about what Blood Oath had to offer me.

But lo and fucking behold, I didn't hate it. It obviously wasn't good, but we can't forget that this is a book about a vampire that works for the president, so asking too much would be silly.

I have a lot of sympathy for writers who come up with mediocre ideas. Any thoughts I have, voluntary or otherwise, stick in my awful head until I push them out in some form or another. I've been completely unable to write for the past six months because I can't stop thinking about a middle-aged man with Gary Coleman disease being conscripted as a child soldier into Joseph Kony's LRA. This guy clearly woke up in the middle of the night thinking, "Hm... what if a vampire worked for the president? Oh god, no, now that I've thought of this stupid shit I can't escape it." We unquestionably have a tortured soul on our hands. Here's a sentence from his acknowledgements:

I should also thank my daughter, Caroline, who tolerated her father typing at the keyboard while she waited with wet diapers.

Think about that. His baby is in the corner of the room coated in its own shit wailing like crazy and the guy is like, "I'm so sorry honey, my brain is so fucked right now that I can only think about a vampire that works for the president. I don't get to be a person again until I finish this."

Christopher Farnsworth, I know your pain.

I've gotten a lot of joy out of reading people in other reviews talk about parts of the book that were "unrealistic." How perfectly smooth must your brain be to pick up a book based entirely on the idea that the president has a vampire working for him and then say, "It was way too easy for the Islamic terrorists to get a severed head through the TSA." Not to nit pick, fellow sad person who read this book, but around 20 pages later, that severed head gets attached to other hacked-to-bits parts of dead American soldiers and then brought to life by a 500-year-old German man who figured out eternal life and eternal youth by working for both the Nazis in Auschwitz and the Nigerian Army in Biafra in the 1970s (???) and then got out of jail by BRINGING RONALD REAGAN BACK TO LIFE AFTER HE WAS ASSASSINATED BUT YEAH FOR SURE THIS AUTHOR IS REALLY UNDERESTIMATING THE DILIGENCE OF THE TSA.

That being said, I'm willing to admit that it was a little ridiculous for the final battle to end with a John-The-Baptist's-Severed-Hand ex machina. In case you were curious, there are 390 pages in this book. We find out about John the Baptist's hand on page 370. It is used on page 376. That's fucking despicable.

We also need to have a quick word about vampire sex. I'm finally willing to admit publicly that I'm not a fan. It's gross and stupid. Also, the way it went down in the novel contradicts its own "Most Popular" goodreads quote:

“Couldn’t you hypnotize her or something?"
"It doesn’t work like that."
"I thought vampires were all sex gods with the ladies."
Cade looked at him. "What gave you that idea?"
"Uh ... late-night TV, mostly ..."
"Humans are our food. Do you want to have sex with a cow?”

You might think that's fine. Let the vampire have his waka waka moment, right? No, bitch. During vampire sex, they bite each other so they're covered in blood, which is what they're consuming out of the humans. Now, I don't want to know if there are people that cover themselves in ground beef before having sex, and (I know I say stuff like this a lot but I mean it this time) just thinking about the existence of such people has forever diminished my maximum capacity for happiness. But your average couple sure as shit isn't doing it, so I demand that from here on out vampires be more consistent when speaking about these matters.

This is probably as good as a book about a vampire that works for the president could be. I think it would be a much better movie. Benedict Cumberbatch can be the vampire. Miles Teller can be his bitch sidekick. Bill Hemmer, the guy on Fox News who looks like a guy that plays the president on a soap opera, can be the president. I don't know what the vice president was supposed to look like, but I always imagined him as Yosemite Sam, so maybe check on what Sam Elliott's doing? I don't know. I'm not a casting director. I'm just a guy who reads stupid books. show less

Blood Oath is the story of vampire Nathaniel Cade, pardoned for vampirism by President Andrew Johnson, and now required to loyally serve each subsequent president of the United States. Cade is an interesting character who seems closer to James Bond and Jack Reacher than Dracula. He takes pride in his patriotism and professionalism. He's absolutely fascinating but the secondary characters are also well developed. We have Zach Barrows, an arrogant young Washington insider assigned to work with Cade after being caught with the president's daughter. In their first assignment together they must work together to stop terrorists who are shipping dismembered American soldiers into the U.S., intending to create Unmenschsoldat, undead killing show more machines, better known as Frankenstein monsters. Cade and Zach are sent to find the one man who can create those monsters, but are unable to prove anything. Even worse, they have attracted hostile attention from several different areas, including the evil Dr. Konrad, a beautiful vampire named Tania, and a terrifying Shadow Company which knows no mercy. Cade is a very compelling sort of anti-hero, a vampire who doesn't really like the humans he's sworn to protect. He's arrogant, brooding and vicious, and knows both the intelligence game as well as the supernatural realm.

I'm not a fan of vampire novels but this one is much more than that. It's part vampire, part thriller and loads of fun to read. The plot moves along quickly and there's a perfect blend of Black Ops thriller combined with vampires, werewolves and the undead. The concept is a good one and it works well. If you like political thrillers and vampires you are in for a real treat. I immediately picked up the second and third books in this fascinating series. show less