F/SF

Jander Sunstar es un elfo dorado, un nativo de las tierras mágicas de Bienhallada, en uno de los Reinos Olvidados. Pero también es un vampiro...
Desgarrado por la pena y la ira, la plegaria de venganza de Jander es escuchada por la magia de Ravenloft y el elfo es transportado a ese reino de pesadilla donde conoce al conde Strahd von Zarovich, el amo del plano dimensional de Ravenloft. Poco a poco, Jander va descubriendo que ni siquiera el conde, también vampiro, es digno de la confianza de un elfo, ya que sus deseos de revancha están directamente ligados a la oscura herencia de Ravenloft.

DNF'd
UGH. I was hopeful. I really wanted to read a book set in Ravenloft/Barovia, which is my favorite D&D setting, but when this started in Waterdeep/Forgotten Realms, I knew I was in trouble. I hate generic fantasy, and the Forgotten Realms is as generic as it comes: it lacks personality and "feel" because it takes the "kitchen sink" approach to content. On top of this, the book is just poorly written. Maybe I was expecting too much from 90s tie-in fiction, but I had my hopes. Unfortunately, at every turn this thing was cringe inducing or took the approach of tell-don't-show. But the WORST part (this is a very, very mild spoiler) is how the main character is a vampire who is more experienced as a vampire than Strahd himself.

Strahd is meant to be a dark force to be reckoned with, a Dracula-like, super-genius monster in human form, but in this book the author takes every opportunity to undermine Strahd's presence and character. It's utterly bizarre since "I am the land" is a major theme of Strahd's character. It's just a terrible book and I'll admit that I didn't finish it, but I read 1/3rd of it, which, I think, is giving more than its fair shot. Also, if you're at all familiar with the Ravenloft setting or Strahd, the twist will be visible from a thousand miles away. I'd avoid this one. One of the worst books I've ever picked up. ( )

This one pretty much fit in my mood to read a decent vampire tale, and I mean real vampires, not the b.s. sparkling variety. This is as "old school" as it gets: the garlic, the vampire has to be invited to walk into a house, so on. You know, the way vampires are supposed to be. I had read this book a years ago, and I had forgotten about it. It was kind of neat getting to reread it now.

Jander Sunstar is a gold elf; he also happens to be a 500 year old vampire who finds himself in the horror realm of Ravenloft. He ends up the unwilling guest of the local lord, Count Strahd, who is also a vampire. Jander fell in love with a mad woman, and he eventually discovers there is a link between her and Strahd. Personally, the elf as a vampire angle was one that I found interesting, since it is rare to have vampires in literature who are not humans. I noticed some reviewers here complain that time passes, or that Jander needs a lot of time (about 50 years) to figure out the link to Strahd, but they are vampires. As the author writes at the end, what is time to a vampire? I found that made the novel seem a bit more "authentic." Decades are nothing to a vampire. Strahd and Jander are different vampires; Strahd embraces his evil nature while Jander is tormented by it.

The story is a bit lengthy, but this is the first book in the Ravenloft series. So you are getting a lot of the background of the realm as well. The good news for readers is that the novels stand on their own. You can pick them up in any order. Overall, this is a light escapist novel. It is gothic horror, which means it is not heavy on the gore. The story moves along pretty well, and it is overall an entertaining read. Some readers may complain of cliches, for example, the gypsies, but that is part of what makes a novel like this fun to read. And it may make you want to go back and read a classic like Dracula. It certainly is better than a lot of the dreck that passes for vampire and horror fiction these days.
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Title: Vampire of the Mists
Series: Ravenloft #1
Author: Christie Golden
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 320
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Jander Sunstar was a gold elf that was turned into a vampire 500 years ago. He's been at the city of Waterdeep living off the insane asylums to slake his blood thirst. He meets a woman named Ana there and tries to make her life better. Something is off though as she doesn't age in 100 years. Somehow she dies and Jander goes nuts and kills everyone in the asylum. He wanders away moaning and bitching like only a vampire elf could and goes through a mysterious fog bank and ends up in the land of Barovia.

Barovia is a land enshrouded by deadly mist that kills humans who try to wander through it. It is ruled by a Baron Strahd who is also a vampire. Jander has dreams of Ana urging him on to revenge her death and begins his search for her with the Baron's help. Time passes, Jander gets nowhere and the Baron learns lots and lots from Jander.

Eventually a human gets sick of the vampires running around and with the help of Jander tries to destroy them all, including the Baron. Jander ends up dying, the human fails and Strahd continues his reign in the strangely removed Land of Barovia where the normal rules don't seem to apply. Strahd is seriously hurt though and is out of commission for years, if not hundreds of years.

My Thoughts:

Even though I stopped reading the Forgotten Realms book last year, I had a relapse and figured I'd try this Ravenloft sub-series. It's all gothic'y horroresque at the level of FR and not Lovecraft or Stoker. A decent time filler that I could poke a boat through the holes in it if I felt like. But I'm feeling rather magnanimous at the moment so I gave it a whole 3 stars. Now no one can ever say Bookstooge wasn't generous, benevolent and merciful.

I believe that Strahd is a recurring character throughout this series and I thought he was going to be the main character. He is a main character but more of a villain than anything. He is a relatively young vampire and as such doesn't have the wisdom to make the most of the situation he's in. Nor does he seem overly concerned about Barovia ever returning to whereever it came from.

Jander Sunstar is also a vampire, but an elven vampire. I was expecting him to either be totally corrupted by his 500 years of being a vampire or to just get more and more bad ass and kick Strahd's butt. I mean come on, a Vampire Elf? That just sounds cool. Sadly, Jander is a whiner and really isn't much of a man. He just bends before Strahd like a reed in the wind until he learns that his Ana was a woman Strahd had sought in Barovia and destroyed. Then he gets all angry and whatnot but it doesn't ring true. And Jander fails. I have a feeling most of these books are going to be adventures about various people/groups who go up against Strahd, and fail. Guess I need to psyche myself up for that.

This was Christie's first book. However, from what I've read of her other stuff, in Star Wars, she hasn't significantly changer her style or anything, from this one. A solid B-list author who writes well enough for Franchise books.

★★★☆☆ ( )