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liedora's review
5.0
Let me get this out there right from the start of my review, I absolutely hated this book! It wasn’t the book itself I despised; it was what it turned me into. As an online gamer, and a casual one at that, I hold no love for those that crow about their access to areas of the game I can only dream about; they like to call themselves the L33T! This book turned me into one of these people, but in the book world, and I loved it. In the pages of this book I was able to experience content that I KNOW there are a few out there will not be able to access, and it made me feel like a God.
Urban Fantasy novels are really not my usual thing, but I was so glad I read this book. The characters are realistic and full of humour, sadness, secrets and guts. They are written in such a way that you feel as if you know them, or may have even grouped up with them in your online game of choice. The Author invested a lot of time into making sure the characters in this novel were true to life representations of the gaming community, and made sure they did not fall into the stereotypical portrait most people have of gamers, that they are loners with no lives living in their parent’s basements. With a skilful use of words the characters show that a wide variety of people game, and without overloading the reader with technical terms and phrases, he painted these characters as intelligent and likeable people that the reader would want to socialize with. The main protagonist of the novel is a strong, smart woman; however she is also extremely loyal and once she gets her teeth into something sticks with it to the end. On the flip side of her personality is a woman who is also a little unsure of herself, especially when it comes to the area of romance, and one who is determined to confront the fears she has of the main driving tool behind the project she is working on.
This is a very imaginative novel, full of strategy and clues that span not just the online role playing game in the book, but also the real world lives of the characters. I was delighted at how well the Author brought the vividness of these games to life and managed to get across to the reader just how many people are involved in the playing of them. They also managed to convey that for some people this is not just a game, but a form of connecting with others around the globe; a kind of social media tool with quests thrown in. Blending well together the book has just enough humour its pages to stop the horror aspect of it from becoming overwhelming; the humour is laugh out loud funny and the horror is blood chilling made even more so as at some points in the action you are not sure if you are in the virtual world or the real world.
This book creates its own world and mythology, but uses well known creatures of the supernatural to do so, and this serves to make the reader feel they are experiencing something new that has a familiar feel. The real novelty in its pages though was the inclusion of the ‘quick mark’ tags, this enables the reader with a smart phone access to hidden ‘Easter eggs’ which include additional pages of the novel and numerous other hidden goodies on the book’s website; this was the part that made me L33T! Flawlessly bringing fantasy, horror, humour and action together the Author has done an outstanding job of putting together a highly absorbing and entertaining read.
I would highly recommend this book to readers of all genres and lovers of epic series as I am sure this is going to be among the greats. I will definitely be reading the remainder of this series as it is published.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/02/05/review-exsanguinate-world-of-blood-book-1-killion-slade/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Urban Fantasy novels are really not my usual thing, but I was so glad I read this book. The characters are realistic and full of humour, sadness, secrets and guts. They are written in such a way that you feel as if you know them, or may have even grouped up with them in your online game of choice. The Author invested a lot of time into making sure the characters in this novel were true to life representations of the gaming community, and made sure they did not fall into the stereotypical portrait most people have of gamers, that they are loners with no lives living in their parent’s basements. With a skilful use of words the characters show that a wide variety of people game, and without overloading the reader with technical terms and phrases, he painted these characters as intelligent and likeable people that the reader would want to socialize with. The main protagonist of the novel is a strong, smart woman; however she is also extremely loyal and once she gets her teeth into something sticks with it to the end. On the flip side of her personality is a woman who is also a little unsure of herself, especially when it comes to the area of romance, and one who is determined to confront the fears she has of the main driving tool behind the project she is working on.
This is a very imaginative novel, full of strategy and clues that span not just the online role playing game in the book, but also the real world lives of the characters. I was delighted at how well the Author brought the vividness of these games to life and managed to get across to the reader just how many people are involved in the playing of them. They also managed to convey that for some people this is not just a game, but a form of connecting with others around the globe; a kind of social media tool with quests thrown in. Blending well together the book has just enough humour its pages to stop the horror aspect of it from becoming overwhelming; the humour is laugh out loud funny and the horror is blood chilling made even more so as at some points in the action you are not sure if you are in the virtual world or the real world.
This book creates its own world and mythology, but uses well known creatures of the supernatural to do so, and this serves to make the reader feel they are experiencing something new that has a familiar feel. The real novelty in its pages though was the inclusion of the ‘quick mark’ tags, this enables the reader with a smart phone access to hidden ‘Easter eggs’ which include additional pages of the novel and numerous other hidden goodies on the book’s website; this was the part that made me L33T! Flawlessly bringing fantasy, horror, humour and action together the Author has done an outstanding job of putting together a highly absorbing and entertaining read.
I would highly recommend this book to readers of all genres and lovers of epic series as I am sure this is going to be among the greats. I will definitely be reading the remainder of this series as it is published.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/02/05/review-exsanguinate-world-of-blood-book-1-killion-slade/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
booksuperpower's review
5.0
Exsanguinate by Killion Slade is December 2013 Spirit release, a division of Draconian publishing. I was provided a copy of this book by the authors in exchange for an honest review.
I think most people are familiar with the Halloween festivals in theme parks, such as Six Flags. Haunted houses are the biggest draw. Cheyenne O'Cuinn, is a software gaming developer. She and her sisters plan on going to the theme park haunted house. The terror for Cheyenne and her sisters is very real when they are attacked viciously. Cheyenne survives the attack, but her sisters are missing. When Cheyenne recovers enough to leave the hospital it seems that she didn't get out the attack unscathed after all. Now, she finds she must deal with what has happened to her, find her sisters, and deal with a love affair that has mainly taken place online in a role playing game, which is also where she finds clues to her sister's whereabouts and why they were kidnapped.
It seems there is a plot among vampires to mate with humans to form a species named dhampirs. This may be the reason her sisters have been taken... to become breeders.
In a race against time, Cheyenne will encounter vampires, werewolves, and dragons. But, who will she be able to trust?
I haven't read an Urban Fantasy novel in awhile. When it comes to this genre, I can be hard to please, so this one was good choice. A very imaginative novel unlike anything I have read previously. I loved the character of Cheyenne. She is strong but fragile, loyal and tenacious, and smart.
I also liked the clues and strategy being included in the online role playing game. This is really clever and not as far fetched as you may think. Gamers of course know this, but some readers may not realize just how vivid these games are and how many people are involved. Information could easily be communicated to key people through the game and people have done this, some who were using the game for this purpose entirely.
The horror being enslaved for the purpose of creating a vicious race to become warmongers is terrifying.
The romance is fragile. Cheyenne discovers her long time online lover has a pretty big secret. Now, however, there could be hope for them, but can he be trusted?
The only problem I had with the book was that it ended. I can't wait for the next book! This book will appeal to those that enjoy horror novels, but mostly to the Urban Fantasy fans out there.
This one is an A+
I think most people are familiar with the Halloween festivals in theme parks, such as Six Flags. Haunted houses are the biggest draw. Cheyenne O'Cuinn, is a software gaming developer. She and her sisters plan on going to the theme park haunted house. The terror for Cheyenne and her sisters is very real when they are attacked viciously. Cheyenne survives the attack, but her sisters are missing. When Cheyenne recovers enough to leave the hospital it seems that she didn't get out the attack unscathed after all. Now, she finds she must deal with what has happened to her, find her sisters, and deal with a love affair that has mainly taken place online in a role playing game, which is also where she finds clues to her sister's whereabouts and why they were kidnapped.
It seems there is a plot among vampires to mate with humans to form a species named dhampirs. This may be the reason her sisters have been taken... to become breeders.
In a race against time, Cheyenne will encounter vampires, werewolves, and dragons. But, who will she be able to trust?
I haven't read an Urban Fantasy novel in awhile. When it comes to this genre, I can be hard to please, so this one was good choice. A very imaginative novel unlike anything I have read previously. I loved the character of Cheyenne. She is strong but fragile, loyal and tenacious, and smart.
I also liked the clues and strategy being included in the online role playing game. This is really clever and not as far fetched as you may think. Gamers of course know this, but some readers may not realize just how vivid these games are and how many people are involved. Information could easily be communicated to key people through the game and people have done this, some who were using the game for this purpose entirely.
The horror being enslaved for the purpose of creating a vicious race to become warmongers is terrifying.
The romance is fragile. Cheyenne discovers her long time online lover has a pretty big secret. Now, however, there could be hope for them, but can he be trusted?
The only problem I had with the book was that it ended. I can't wait for the next book! This book will appeal to those that enjoy horror novels, but mostly to the Urban Fantasy fans out there.
This one is an A+
loram's review
4.0
This one will appeal to gamers, and especially to people interested in creating virtual reality games.
The story starts out with a spine chilling, horrific situation. We meet Cheyenne, one of three sisters with those distinctively American names like Dakota and Savannah (okay, the third sister is called Sheridan, like the hotel), named after places and generally only found in novels *rolls eyes*.
Cheyenne works in the gaming industry in what looks like a not too far off future and making virtual worlds is normal life to her. One particular game has given the users a lot of autonomy and aspects of the virtual world surprise her, as do the supernatural creatures who increasingly inhabit this developing cyberworld. Cheyenne is surprised by the popularity of zombies, vampires, werewolves and other mythological beings from the Horror end of imaginative fiction.
They go to a real life Scream House event with everyone dressed up in costume in an amusement park. Cheyenne worries about security at the event, foreshadowing that something has to go wrong. There are some funny episodes involving Sheridan's costume and I now know what a Ghillie suit is, something meant for hunters to hide out in bushes that could be very fun for such events!
Things take a horrific turn and there is a fair bit of graphic violence so people sensitive to gore and later on rape issues will want to consider this a trigger warning.
Basically this is a Paranormal story which is not a go to genre for me, yet it held my attention. Sometimes the writing seemed amateurish, but the grammar was reasonably good bar a couple of typos and I kept wanting to see where the plot would go.
It ends with a few things unresolved, so the story continues in the next book, but overall most things came to a tidy conclusion and I did enjoy the read enough that I'm considering getting the second book. Not a deep, intellectual read, but plenty of action and some interesting ideas about supernaturals.
The story starts out with a spine chilling, horrific situation. We meet Cheyenne, one of three sisters with those distinctively American names like Dakota and Savannah (okay, the third sister is called Sheridan, like the hotel), named after places and generally only found in novels *rolls eyes*.
Cheyenne works in the gaming industry in what looks like a not too far off future and making virtual worlds is normal life to her. One particular game has given the users a lot of autonomy and aspects of the virtual world surprise her, as do the supernatural creatures who increasingly inhabit this developing cyberworld. Cheyenne is surprised by the popularity of zombies, vampires, werewolves and other mythological beings from the Horror end of imaginative fiction.
They go to a real life Scream House event with everyone dressed up in costume in an amusement park. Cheyenne worries about security at the event, foreshadowing that something has to go wrong. There are some funny episodes involving Sheridan's costume and I now know what a Ghillie suit is, something meant for hunters to hide out in bushes that could be very fun for such events!
Things take a horrific turn and there is a fair bit of graphic violence so people sensitive to gore and later on rape issues will want to consider this a trigger warning.
Basically this is a Paranormal story which is not a go to genre for me, yet it held my attention. Sometimes the writing seemed amateurish, but the grammar was reasonably good bar a couple of typos and I kept wanting to see where the plot would go.
It ends with a few things unresolved, so the story continues in the next book, but overall most things came to a tidy conclusion and I did enjoy the read enough that I'm considering getting the second book. Not a deep, intellectual read, but plenty of action and some interesting ideas about supernaturals.
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