Blood Books Omnibus Two: Blood Lines / Blood Pact [Mass Market Paperback]

The Blood Books, Vol. 2 (Blood Lines / Blood Pact) by Tanya Huff, Blood Lines, has one of the most disturbing scenes in it. I read the first two books without cringing, but there is one section in this book that had me cringing even after the section was gone.

Vicki Nelson, Henry Fitzroy, and Mike Celluci return in this book to fight an ancient Egyptian mummy. Yes, not only are werewolves and demons in the same book as a vampire, but now a walking mummy. This mummy isn't just wandering around in ancient rags terrorizing the city, he has a purpose, and that purpose is to feed on souls and resurrect a god.

***Spoiler Alert***

Henry's ka, or soul, attracts the mummy because it burns brightly, and Henry is almost tempted to take the mummy up on his offer of companionship, until he finally realizes that he is not the one in need of companionship. This book also sheds further light on the triangle created by Vicki, Henry, and Celluci. Vicki is very torn between the two, and the men are very aware of how each feels for her, which raises the tensions between them even further--especially when they work together to corral the mummy.

***End Spoiler Alert***

I will not go into detail about the disturbing section of the book, but I will say Vicki is a much stronger woman or better at hiding her pain than I would ever be. After her ordeal, she does not curl into a ball or dissolve into a puddle when it ends. If anything, she fortifies an even stiffer protective wall around herself, which I'm sure plays into her overall character development throughout the series.

Tanya Huff's Blood Pact in The Blood Books, Vol. 2 (Blood Lines / Blood Pact) is the best of the books thus far. I read through this book quickly, and though I knew the inevitability of the series, I was unprepared for the final outcome. Throughout the series, there have been werewolves, mummies, vampires, and now Frankenstein monsters. When you deal in the unknown, mad scientists are bound to come out of the woodwork. I guess I never expected the mad scientist to be so young. Though Catherine is a genius, she is utterly naive about her work and why the administrator, Dr. Burke is interested in her work. While many of us like to think we are smart and on the verge of discovery or just great work, we often fail to recognize our own motivations or those of our colleagues and bosses. Even now, this may be the case.

****Spoiler Alert*****

Vickie Nelson's mother is in trouble, worse than a life or death situation can be. Marjory, who has driven her daughter crazy with her questions and advice, becomes a scientific experiment of a young graduate student at the Life Sciences unit. The conspiracy to create Frankenstein-like creatures goes beyond the graduate student's ideas and genius to reach up into the upper ranks of the University's bureaucracy.

Vicki finds her mother's body has been stolen and she buries the pain of loss to search for her mother's "kidnappers." The struggle to keep the loss inside and remain removed from the situation enough to find her mother's body and the criminals who took her is apparent in all of her actions and interactions with Henry and Celluci.

The love triangle also rears its ugly head in this book, though both men agree to be civil to one another and put Vicki first. It's admirable, but in the end, one of them has to choose to let her go and leave her forever.

****End Spoiler Alert****

Now, in this series, there is one particular tidbit of the Vampire reality that I do not find very conducive to love stories per se, but I can see why it was written into the story because the love triangle would never have ended. For all of Vicki's strength, she has this uncanny ability at being unable to commit. She cannot commit in her personal life and she is inevitably forced to commit because of circumstances within and yet beyond her control.

There is a great deal of inner turmoil in this book. Vicki, Celluci, Henry, and even Dr. Burke. It also highlights some of the most interesting problems in graduate schools among naive yet intelligent students and faculty.

Reprint of books 3 and 4 of Tanya Huff's vampire urban fantasy series. Blood Lines continues the story of former detective Vicki Nelson who is loosing her sight and offers Huff's take on mummies. Blood Pact introduces golems.

These two books are not as good as the first 2 in the series, but the ending of the last book shows some interesting promise for future books.

Given the number of vampire related books in the last few years, these books may seem derivative and not quite up to the originality of more recent books, but when they were originally published (both in 1993) the urban fantasy genre was relatively new and not as popular as it is today, and I think Tanya Huff inspired many later writers.

THE BLOOD BOOKS VOLUME TWO contains books 3 and 4 from the Blood series. First written in 1993 this fantastic series was reissued in 2006 with the omnibus edition. The stories hold up well and except for the absence of cell phones and computers you'll never notice the age of the writing. Many (like myself) discovered this series through the sometimes cheesy Blood Ties TV show. Which isn't a bad thing because now we have visual references for the 3 main characters, in particular Henry Fitzroy the yummy vampire and Detective Mike Celluci, his rival in winning Private Investigator Vickie Nelsons love. With books 3 and 4 the series comes full circle and the ongoing love triangle finally comes to its shocking conclusion. All the characters grow closer and I particularly liked the forged friendship and understanding found between Henry and Mike. Highly recommended for paranormal/fantasy junkies.

The first story BLOOD LINES gives us a modern day mummy tale. With regenerated Egyptian priest Anwar Tarfic wondering around Toronto absorbing Ka's (souls) and hypnotizing city official in his quest for Canadian and eventually world domination. Meanwhile Bisexual vampire Henry is being haunted by dreams of the sun (which is not a good thing for a vampire to be dreaming about) and fears that that he may be driven to suicide. Throughout blue collar cop Mike Celluci just tries to keep up with the events taking place in his ever broadening paranormal world and hopefully get the girl.

The second story BLOOD PACT takes Vickie to Kingston following the death of her mother. Of course Henry and Mike follow, worried about Vicki's fragile mental state and each still competing to win her love. The situation quickly goes from bad to unthinkable when Vicki's mothers body goes missing from the funeral home and later shows up outside the living room window, dead yet somehow still horribly alive. This one creeped me out big time with its moral issues, mad doctors and modern day Frankenstein/Zombie story. It also brings an end of sorts to the series with its controversial ending.

Each book seemed to stall out for me in the middle section and as much as I enjoyed this series I always struggled to get through to the exciting closing chapters. Another unfortunate factor is that the love scenes remain fade-to-black. This is a damn shame because with Henry and Tony's continued relationship and Vicki bouncing beds with both Henry and Mike (sometimes in the same day) I wanted details. And lastly you gotta love the fact that this takes place in the real Canadian world. How much fun is it hearing Yonge street, the Leafs and the CN tower mentioned in a paranormal. Cheers.

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