Blood Price

A playful, paranormal detective novel about a Canadian ex-police officer turned PI who must work with a vampire to catch a demon. Of course, the vampire angle lured me to Tanya Huff's series, and Henry Fitzroy does not disappoint, but I soon found myself drawn into the story too. Private investigator Vicki Nelson, who left the police force because of a degenerative eyesight condition, was slightly too 'Kinsey Milhone by numbers' to begin with, all fierce independence and friends with benefits relationships, but I eventually warmed to her reckless behaviour and one-sided conversations. She could do with finding a pair of glasses that fit her face, so she doesn't have to keep pushing them back up her nose - we get that she wears them show more already! - and the Moonlighting-esque sexual tension with her former colleague and partner Mike Celucci is wearisome rather than winning, but there are worse fictional detectives.

Henry, the five hundred year old bastard son of Hen-ery the Eighth, is a pure joy for a novice vampire afficianado, however. He ticks all the right boxes - aristocratic, powerful, attractive, dark and brooding but also cultured and restrained, etc. - and Huff respectfully defers to the traditional vampire legends: Henry is a solitary vampire, not part of some archaic hierarchy (I hope), who is stronger, faster, more sensitive than humans, but must feed by night and does not kill for blood. I love that Henry also gets a potted backstory, told in flashback, revisiting his 'death' and various experiences and conquests over the centuries, which adds to the mystique. Bloodsucking and nightstalking aside, vampires fascinate me because they have lived through many different eras, gathering a cynical view of humanity while learning a few tricks along the way, and Henry is a thoroughly modern vampire with the benefit of history. He also writes historical romance novels as a sideline, which tickles me no end.

The plot is not really a 'whodunit', and the how and why are never fully explained either, but the final showdown is impressive enough. Pure evil is allowed to be melodramatic, and I was amused by the verbal duel between good, bad and undead: 'Go back to the pit, spawn of Satan! This world is not yours!' The whole narrative is told with tongue firmly in cheek, and the characters are always aware of how ridiculous and unbelievable they sound, which helps with the suspension of disbelief. Although demons, shapeshifters and mummies don't stir my imagination quite as fervently as vampires, Tanya Huff's funny and fast-paced style, not to mention the debonair Henry Fitzroy, might just tempt me to investigate the next books in the series. show less

I love the premise of this! Henry, a 450 year old vampire who writes romance novels for a living, and Vicki, an ex-cop who quit her job due to her progressive vision loss, team up to fight the supernatural horrors plaguing their city. This book also features a gross incel villain who is foul beyond all measure. Tanya Huff was doing so much in this book way before other authors were doing it, so it was cool to see how innovative she was with this series.

However, with boring dialogue that isn’t relevant to moving the plot along, and scenes that start to drag in some parts, the writing was too mediocre to rate this higher than 3 stars. The strength of the premise itself kept the entertainment factor alive for me. While I might try show more reading the next book in the series, I’m not super eager to get to it right away because of those weaknesses. show less

Fast paced urban fantasy without sexual coyness. For me, the stakes were too high for an initial outing in this genre, in fact I'd prefer if armageddon was never on the tables. While the term INCEL predates this book its current meaning didn't settle until well after this was first published and Norman in his rage and violence anticipates INCEL to a tee.

I picked this up as something lighter to read than a science book. Blood Price is a humorous an entertaining urban fantasy novel that somehow manages to be different despite the vampires and demons. The characters are well written with strong personalities and the plot is decent. It's nice to read an urban fantasy novel that doesn't revolve around sex and love triangles.

Apparently there is a TV series based on this set of books as well. I might have to track it down.

Huff, Tanya. Blood Price. 1991. Introduction by Tanya Huff. Vickie Nelson No. 1. DAW, 2013.
Tanya Huff says in her introduction to Blood Price that she began writing the Vickie Nelson books after Anne Rice wrote Interview with a Vampire but before the vampire became the “go-to bad boy” of contemporary fantasy. She warns readers that the book sticks to the detective and fantasy elements of the story and downplays its hints of paranormal romance. The series is elevated by the originality of its two lead characters. Vickie herself is not a cookie-cutter 20-something heroine. Instead, she is in her late thirties and has had to retire from her career as a Toronto homicide detective because she has developed retinitis pigmentosa. The show more disease has destroyed her depth perception and rendered her night-blind. Henry Fitzroy is a vampire, but he is not the villain or the novel or Vickie’s chief romantic interest, though she is not immune to his erotic allure. He is based on a historical character, the bastard son of Henry VIII, who died young from a wasting disease that was probably TB but could have been a vampire bite. In the twentieth century, Henry writes bodice ripping romances and lives a quiet middleclass life, carefully controlling his blood dependency and sun allergy. Bram Stoker got details about vampire life wrong, because Henry is a “good Catholic” and has no problem with garlic. 4 stars. show less

This was truly an oddball. I am somewhat at a loss for words on how to describe this book but I'll try anyway.

The first immediately obvious oddity is how this book handles POV.
It's always first-person but it constantly jumps to the person currently acting.
There are quite a few murders all of which we see from the perspective of the victim and sometimes the perpetrator as well.
I felt constantly bombarded with various insignificant POVs of characters that only show up for a single scene. Initially, this was very tiring and hurt the pacing badly, but I got used to it over time.
The book does a pretty good job conveying which perspective we are currently in, considering the ridiculous amount of head jumping, but unannounced POV switches show more still took me by surprise repeatedly, especially in the beginning. I kind of subconsciously learned where to expect a POV shift over the course of the book, so it wasn't as big of a problem anymore towards the end.

The book manages to create a very immersive gloomy atmosphere most UF books can only dream of.
This is partly due to this unconventional POV-style which brings us very close to everything that happens and doesn't allow us to perceive it from a withdrawn distance.
Furthermore, it doesn't shy away from describing violence and death in gruesome detail I usually only see in grimdark.
It manages to almost entirely avoid the somewhat tacky atmosphere almost all UF/PNR is subject to.
A lot of this probably is due to the age of the book. At the time of writing, most of the clichées and stereotypes for UF/PNR weren't even established yet so this is more of an experiment than catering to an existing audience.

Now to the problems. First, this remarkable atmosphere comes with the downside of a very surreal feeling to it all. At times it all feels far more like a fever dream than an actual story which isn't helped by the repeatedly untelegraphed dreaming or daydreaming sequences.
As the book invests so much into building this gritty atmosphere it almost entirely loses sight of proper pacing. 70% of this book is entirely dedicated to atmosphere building and neither does it further the romance nor does it the plot.
I repeatedly took short breaks because my attention wandered which usually only happens to me if I am very tired.

I am somewhat confused about the romance as well. Honestly, I wish this would end in an MFM relationship but it very much looks like a building love triangle. It's not one yet, but I see it coming. I almost always hate those with a passion because they usually boil down to the FMC not being able to decide and her keeping both guys in orbit instead. This makes her look selfish and weak-willed and makes me lose respect for the person rather quickly.

My final issue is more of a personal preference thing.
In this book the reader knows everything there is to know. We experience everything relevant as it happens. This is something I dislike in general. I don't want to know more than the protagonist(s) do.
I just don't enjoy the kind of tension that comes from knowing more about the situation than the MC does regardless of it being intentional or not.

I will check out the second book as I already have access to it but I honestly expect I will drop it rather quickly. show less

Like the books by Hamilton and Harris and Harrison, these are urban fantasies featuring smexy vampires and featuring a female protagonist. (Although in this case the story is told through rotating third person, not first person narration.)

In this case it's Vicky Nelson--former Toronto police officer turned private detective--and going blind. I liked Vicky's partners in her investigations very much: Her former police detective partner, Mike Celluci and Henry Fitzroy, 450 year old vampire, illegitimate son of Henry VIII--oh, and a writer of bodice-ripper historical romance novels. The three of them play off each other well.

I have a friend who put this book down from the first scene. She thought Vicky acted recklessly and stupidly. I show more frankly didn't notice, even though I can understand that reaction--and Vicky definitely has issues. I liked this book though. The Blood books are not particularly innovative or imaginative--these are traditional vampires. The villain in this book was one-dimensional. The prose is clean and readable though even if not extraordinary. But as urban fantasy comfort food, I found the books in this five-book series enjoyable. (There is a related trilogy focused on Tony Foster, a character in this novel, but I just didn't find him a compelling enough character to hold me.) show less