Afbeelding van de auteur.

Michael F. Haspil

Auteur van Graveyard Shift

3+ Werken 54 Leden 5 Besprekingen

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Fotografie: Michael F. Haspil

Werken van Michael F. Haspil

Graveyard Shift (2017) 51 exemplaren
Amor Fati - The Horus Heresy (2021) 2 exemplaren
To the Last - The Horus Heresy (2022) 1 exemplaar

Gerelateerde werken

Cthonia's Reckoning (The Horus Heresy) (2022) — Medewerker — 17 exemplaren
Gunfight on Europa Station (2021) — Medewerker — 8 exemplaren
Black Library Celebration 2023 (2023) — Medewerker — 5 exemplaren
The Horus Heresy Starter Collection 2 (2023) — Medewerker — 1 exemplaar

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First I want to say that I tend to stay away from vampire books nowadays, it's just a book motif that has been done so many times now that I feel it's been overdone and I prefer other paranormal creatures. As long as it's not zombies, I feel the same way about zombies. However, the main characters in this book, Alex Menkaure, is a former pharaoh and mummy. That sold me, and I thought "what the heck, let's hope the vampire storyline works!"

And, yes and no, it was not that bad, I liked the book, but I felt that the whole vampire conspiracy plot didn't totally rock my boat. But, at the same time, I really liked both Alex and his vampire partner Marcus who was born in ancient Rome. This is the kind of book that, despite the storyline not completely enthralled me still was enjoyable thanks to awesome characters actually made me enjoy the book and want more. This book really has the feeling of being the first in a series since we only gotten to know some tidbits about Alex, that some woman has made him the way he is today, but not why or who she really was. And, I want to know more about both Alex and Marcus pasts. How they met, the years the work together for UMBRA, etc.

Now, I know I was a bit negative when it came to the plot of the book. I did find part of the book quite good, it was more that I didn't truly love the story. It's definitely an OK book and I guess I just wanted it to get to me more than it did. I did like the vampire aspects of the book, them being known to the humans. And, it was refreshing to find a vampire book that actually worked for me. I just hope that the next book will have a stronger story, one that will captivate me. Because I truly loved the idea of reading a book about a main male character who is a mummy.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!
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Gemarkeerd
MaraBlaise | 4 andere besprekingen | Jul 23, 2022 |
Vampires are out to human thanks to a synthetic blood and they even have their own division in the police force to deal with crimes that revolve around them. Alex is a mummy that works in this dept. Most people don’t realize he is one and some assume he is a vampire. He has a vampire partner that was made back in the Roman heydays. Poisoned synthetic blood is hitting the market causing vampires the go into a killing rage. Alex and Marcus work at finding out who is behind it along with trying to find a vigilante vampire killer. A third plot string is an Ancient vampire has come to town and Marcus needs to find out who it is since he wasn’t notified as custom. A lot of story jammed in here and it all works out in the end. There is backstory built into this first book so you know there is more going on and it seems it will be revealed as the stories come out.

A good enjoyable urban fantasy police procedural even if they did some things off the books. I look forward to more books in this setting.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

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Gemarkeerd
Glennis.LeBlanc | 4 andere besprekingen | Jan 6, 2020 |
Vampires are out in the open now and UMBRA, a top secret group of government-funded vampire hunters, has been dismantled. Now Alex, a former UMBRA agent, has to navigate a new world of bloody drinks at every corner store and a good chunk of the world that operates at night instead of the day. Instantly, I was captivated by this main character. Alex isn’t your typical vampire hunter. He’s got some supernatural secrets of his own. And a cat.

The former Pharaoh, Alex Menkaure, now lives in Miami working as Detective Alex Romero. A murder mystery needs to be solved fast before more civilians and Nocturnes (as vampires like to be called) die. When it became apparent that someone has been tampering with commercially available blood drinks (Hemo-Synth), I did flash to True Blood briefly. While this central plot point may not be original, the story still worked really well.

Marcus, Alex’s partner, is also a vampire, one who once was a Roman Imperator. So the two do most of their work at night. They eventually team up with some unlikely allies to solve this murder mystery and bring down the criminal mastermind going by the name Abraham. Marcus and Alex have great banter between them. I often enjoyed a dark chuckle.

Betrayal and dangerous enemies make life hard for Alex. I enjoyed all the action. There was never a dull moment. I really hope for a sequel. 4.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Michael Kramer has long been a favorite voice to listen to. I was quite pleased to hear him give life to this story. He had distinct voices for all the characters, including a variety of accents. His female voices were believable. All around, it was a great performance. 5/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book.
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Gemarkeerd
DabOfDarkness | 4 andere besprekingen | Aug 6, 2018 |
Graveyard Shift was a mishmash of tried-and-true urban fantasy tropes with a few unique twists thrown in.

The plot of the story, although slow to pick up, was action-packed and increasingly fast-paced toward the end--which I liked. However, I thought the conclusion was a bit too open-ended, even for a series starter, and everything wrapped up a bit prematurely for my taste.

The main characters, Alex and Marcus, were interesting and fun to follow, but I felt that too much of Alex's backstory was withheld, considering how many times it was referenced. I assume the author held it back to explore in a sequel, but I think we could have be given a few more key details without it completely unraveling a subsequent plotline.

One of my biggest issues with the story was undoubtedly the writing style combined with the structure. Frankly, I think there were too many POV characters in the book. (The story jumps around to a lot of different people, most noticeably in the first half.)

When you take into account that the overall writing style was heavy with exposition, and then add a higher-than-average number of POVs, you inevitably wind up with a story that feels much slower than it should. If the POV usage and style had been more streamlined, the pacing would have felt much less bogged down.

Overall, this was a fine read, but I do think it could have better.

[ I received an ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. ]
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Gemarkeerd
TherinKnite | 4 andere besprekingen | Jul 20, 2017 |

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Statistieken

Werken
3
Ook door
4
Leden
54
Populariteit
#299,230
Waardering
½ 3.5
Besprekingen
5
ISBNs
4

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