Long ago, homo nocturnus ruled the Earth, able to manipulate the forces of nature at their most basic level. Before the dawn of recorded history they were overthrown, leaving behind them only legends-our legends of shapeshifters and blood-drinkers, of cruel gods and evil magicians, of ogres and goblins, succubi and incubi. But a strain of their blood lives on in humanity, the genes themselves bending the forces of probability to reunite. Secret clans used their half-understood abilities to hide from the witch-finders and the normal humans; occasionally one would be detected, a Giles de Rais or an Elizabeth Bathory. Then, in the nineteenth century, the discoveries of Mendel and Darwin enabled them to understand what they were and to breed back the full range of their dark powers. Now, in the twenty-first century, they rule the world again in secret; only the Brotherhood fights them, in a clandestine war of terror and assassination, of Wreaking and silver-inlaid knives. Adrian Breze was born into that war, but he defected to the side of humanity, and for decades he was the Brotherhood's most effective fighter, just as his twin sister Adrienne is the Council of Shadow's strongest. Now he has retired, weary of the endless struggle, but Adrienne has her own purposes, and they don't include letting her brother live quietly in his mountaintop retreat near Santa Fe. To force him out, she kidnaps his human lover, Ellen Tarnowski, and the war is on again-with the future of humanity at stake. For the Council of Shadows is ready to emerge into the light, with a plan that will reduce humans once again to the harried prey of the creatures of darkness.
A Taint in the Blood: A Novel of the Shadowspawn
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Review
"[Stirling] begins a new urban fantasy series featuring a variant version of werewolves, bringing to it an extraordinary eye for detail and a feel for characterizations." ---Library Journal
About the Author
S. M. Stirling is the author of numerous science fiction and fantasy novels, including the popular Nantucket series that began with Island in the Sea of Time and, more recently, Dies the Fire and The Protector's War. A former lawyer and an amateur historian, he lives in the Southwest with his wife, Jan. Todd McLaren was involved in radio for more than twenty years in cities on both coasts, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He left broadcasting for a full-time career in voice-overs, where he has been heard on more than 5,000 TV and radio commercials, as well as TV promos; narrations for documentaries on such networks as A&E, Discovery, and the History Channel; and films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Vampires are hot right now, and some authors who previously didn't even dabble in the vampire genre are hopping on the bandwagon.
And though he doesn't actually use the word "vampire," S.M. Stirling is the latest to bounce on with "A Taint in the Blood," the first book of a new urban fantasy series. It's a series with plenty of promise, but the whole thing eventually crumbles into a very long, rather boring stew of exposition and a rather vague, cliched vampire mythos. Plus, I never could warm up to the whiny anti-hero.
Adrian is a Shadowspawn (aka Homo sapiens nocturnus), part of the bloodsucking subspecies that has quietly ruled the human race since prehistoric times (and is sort of interbred with them now). But he lives a peaceful "human" life, for the most part. Then his evil sister Adrienne appears in town and kidnaps his ex-girlfriend Ellen, and makes her into one of the sex/blood-donating "lucies" who serve her and the other Shadowspawn.
Unsurprisingly Adrian is determined to both rescue Ellen and kill his evil twin, so he sets out with his old buddy/mentor Harvey to find both women. But the Shadowspawn are launching a new scheme to dominate the human race, using a new disease to gain control of the entire human race.
"A Taint in the Blood" is a frustrating book -- it feels like S.M. Stirling had all sorts of awesome vampire concepts that strayed from the norm. Then he just slapped them together with a lot of shopping porn, architecture porn, clothing porn, S&M sex, and a plethora of vampire cliches that have already been done to death (example: Council of Shadows, bucketloads of money and sex/bloodletting).
In fact, Stirling seems rather bored with his own story, since most of the book revolves around Adrian and Harvey trekking.... very... slowly... towards Ellen, and Ellen getting used to life as a lucy. Only a small amount actually involves the Evil Vampire Plot Against Humanity. Stirling also heavily spatters the story with painfully awkward pop culture references (the "I drriiiinnnk yooouurrr miilllkshake!" thing wasn't funny the first time, let alone the second) and horribly cheesy EEEEEVIL dialogue ("It's not food unless it screams in despair when you bite it").
In fact, the best part of the novel is Ellen exploring the world of the lucies -- think a perfect little suburban town filled with pretty houses, children and friendly people. It's incredibly chilling, and Stirling is at his best when he explores how a subsociety revolving around vampires would work.
Adrian is pretty much a standard wangsty vampire -- he hates what he is, drinks "dead" blood from bags, and whines a lot about Oh The Woe Of Being A Hot Immortal With Immense Quantities of Money. And the female characters are a pretty lousy bunch. They tend to be passive trembling damsels, creepy half-crazy "lucies," or depraved lesbian rapist/murderers who apparently want to have incesty sex with their twin brothers. Or kill them. Whatever.
It has some brilliant ideas at the core, but "A Taint in the Blood" just ends up meandering into an aimless stew of cliches -- most notably the angsty vampire-who-hates-himself.
And though he doesn't actually use the word "vampire," S.M. Stirling is the latest to bounce on with "A Taint in the Blood," the first book of a new urban fantasy series. It's a series with plenty of promise, but the whole thing eventually crumbles into a very long, rather boring stew of exposition and a rather vague, cliched vampire mythos. Plus, I never could warm up to the whiny anti-hero.
Adrian is a Shadowspawn (aka Homo sapiens nocturnus), part of the bloodsucking subspecies that has quietly ruled the human race since prehistoric times (and is sort of interbred with them now). But he lives a peaceful "human" life, for the most part. Then his evil sister Adrienne appears in town and kidnaps his ex-girlfriend Ellen, and makes her into one of the sex/blood-donating "lucies" who serve her and the other Shadowspawn.
Unsurprisingly Adrian is determined to both rescue Ellen and kill his evil twin, so he sets out with his old buddy/mentor Harvey to find both women. But the Shadowspawn are launching a new scheme to dominate the human race, using a new disease to gain control of the entire human race.
"A Taint in the Blood" is a frustrating book -- it feels like S.M. Stirling had all sorts of awesome vampire concepts that strayed from the norm. Then he just slapped them together with a lot of shopping porn, architecture porn, clothing porn, S&M sex, and a plethora of vampire cliches that have already been done to death (example: Council of Shadows, bucketloads of money and sex/bloodletting).
In fact, Stirling seems rather bored with his own story, since most of the book revolves around Adrian and Harvey trekking.... very... slowly... towards Ellen, and Ellen getting used to life as a lucy. Only a small amount actually involves the Evil Vampire Plot Against Humanity. Stirling also heavily spatters the story with painfully awkward pop culture references (the "I drriiiinnnk yooouurrr miilllkshake!" thing wasn't funny the first time, let alone the second) and horribly cheesy EEEEEVIL dialogue ("It's not food unless it screams in despair when you bite it").
In fact, the best part of the novel is Ellen exploring the world of the lucies -- think a perfect little suburban town filled with pretty houses, children and friendly people. It's incredibly chilling, and Stirling is at his best when he explores how a subsociety revolving around vampires would work.
Adrian is pretty much a standard wangsty vampire -- he hates what he is, drinks "dead" blood from bags, and whines a lot about Oh The Woe Of Being A Hot Immortal With Immense Quantities of Money. And the female characters are a pretty lousy bunch. They tend to be passive trembling damsels, creepy half-crazy "lucies," or depraved lesbian rapist/murderers who apparently want to have incesty sex with their twin brothers. Or kill them. Whatever.
It has some brilliant ideas at the core, but "A Taint in the Blood" just ends up meandering into an aimless stew of cliches -- most notably the angsty vampire-who-hates-himself.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.2 out of 5 stars
48 reviews
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Homo sapiens nocturnus
May 6 2010
By Robert Rhodes
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
S M Sterling's great strength is the the depth of his world building. Here the premise is the existence of a human sub-species with special abilities. This sub-species was dominant until the genes disappeared into the general population with occasional sports appearing as monsters or tyrants. Then a couple of centuries ago a secret society started to breed back to the sub-species which has become the the secret masters of the world. Their abilities are great but balanced by an inability to play well with others of their kind, poor emotional control and nasty tempers. The theme of the series of which this is the first book is the vampires' plan to thin the human heard either by a plague or even more brutal EMP attack. The plot of this book is the seizure of the girlfriend of a anti-vampire vampire by his twin sister and struggle to recover her. Along the way there are lots of neat weapons, kinky sex, food and shopping porn.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hated the Sexual Sadism
Oct 2 2010
By Susan Medlin
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I own most of his books, and am a great fan of The Change series. However, I hated this book. The hero's girlfriend is kidnapped in the first 3 pages, then repeatedly raped and tortured for the remainder of the book. The graphic descriptions were unnecessary, and the whole book left me feeling slimy. What happened to S.M. Stirling? Please turn this series around, and focus on plot and character development. Leave the sadistic porn for lessor writers.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshing take on vampires.
May 21 2010
By R. Pelcak
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found this book to be a refreshing new take on the vampire novel.
The "Publisher's Weekly" writeup complains that
"Stirling hits just about every cliché, from the
grizzled vampire hunter and mentor
to Adrienne's pathologically devoted servants...".
The book includes these elements, but Mr. Stirling's approach to these
cliches is decidedly un-cliched.
None of it seems forced, and the plot lines seem very much
character- rather than plot-driven.
As his career has progressed, Stirling has gotten better and
better at writing *people*; this book does not disappoint in that
regard. There are no "why would someone do THAT?" moments that
seem typical of genre novels.
One of the real strengths of the book (and of Mr. Stirling's work
generally) is the depth to which the world and the bases for
the Shadowspawn's talents have been thought through.
This differentiates "Taint in the Blood" very strongly from
books like Laurell Hamilton's, where vampires just *are*, with the
world otherwise pretty much unchanged from the one we live in.
I think Mr. Stirling had fun writing this book;
I certainly had fun reading it, and look forward to the sequels.
The "Publisher's Weekly" writeup complains that
"Stirling hits just about every cliché, from the
grizzled vampire hunter and mentor
to Adrienne's pathologically devoted servants...".
The book includes these elements, but Mr. Stirling's approach to these
cliches is decidedly un-cliched.
None of it seems forced, and the plot lines seem very much
character- rather than plot-driven.
As his career has progressed, Stirling has gotten better and
better at writing *people*; this book does not disappoint in that
regard. There are no "why would someone do THAT?" moments that
seem typical of genre novels.
One of the real strengths of the book (and of Mr. Stirling's work
generally) is the depth to which the world and the bases for
the Shadowspawn's talents have been thought through.
This differentiates "Taint in the Blood" very strongly from
books like Laurell Hamilton's, where vampires just *are*, with the
world otherwise pretty much unchanged from the one we live in.
I think Mr. Stirling had fun writing this book;
I certainly had fun reading it, and look forward to the sequels.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 48 reviews
3.2 out of 5 stars
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