Reviews of Vampire Origins - The Strigoi Book 1 - Project Ichorous

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, so in general I really liked this story - a group of vampires, werewolves, and other creatures living together in their centuries old traditional hierarchy, until a group of humans is moved in by their demeaning leader, and all hell breaks loose. I also like the idea of the series in general, weaving vampire myth into centuries of world history is genius, and I think Banks handled those aspects really well.

However, the story itself left me we lots of questions, and in many places was let down by poor planning. There were a lot of points where I was simply confused, or had questions, and even thought most things were explained/discovered by the end of the story, I felt they would have been better explained earlier on. Like why did everyone hate Lachlan? (aside from the obvious fact he was an ass) And what was so wrong with him in particular turning humans, when Vlad appeared to be running around doing it all the time? (because he was a Cambion, as it turns out) How were Vlad and Lachlan so powerful - just because they were old, or were there other reasons (that remained mostly unanswered).

The second difficulty I had was with connecting with the characters - any of them. Whilst I felt for Alex, Anna & Rose at the beginning, that quickly ran out, and I was soon frustrated with them. Even the humans I gather I was supposed to feel for seemed to contribute too much to their own issues - especial Scarlett (I get that vampires have a certain effect on people, but even on her own she couldn't think anything through, and she was way too emotional/hot-headed for me to sympathise with what was happening to her). Even Ruby, whilst cute and innocent, just didn't connect with me.

And finally, the ending irked me. I can see the point in ending the first book in a series with a cliff-hanger, but I felt it was poorly done - it just ended mid-scene, making me wonder if I was missing the last few pages. Sure, it's suspenseful, and despite all the issues I want to read the next one to learn what happens, but I think it could have been executed a lot better, so that it felt like an ending as well as leaving us wondering what will happen next, rather then just seeming like half a scene.

Would have been 2.5 stars if that were possible.