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Minion: A Vampire Huntress Legend (Paperback)

by L. A Banks (Author) "DAMALI RICHARDS could still feel the electricity of the crowd and the adrenaline rush of her spoken-word performance pulsing through her veins as she entered..." (more)

3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition edition (May 13 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312316801
ISBN-13: 978-0312316808
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.7 x 2.8 cm
Shipping Weight: 250 g

Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #186,818 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#41 in Books > Romance > Multicultural

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

In fiction, film, and TV, vampires are a dominant trend of the young millennium. Is it is because the blood-suckers are a perfect metaphor for corrupt politicians and corporate executives? Because alternative sexualities are gaining acceptance? Because the idea of living forever (even if undead) is so alluring? The reasons are unclear. What is clear is that the hottest subgenre (in both popularity and sensuality) is the vampire-huntress subgenre, thanks to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter and Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With L.A. Banks's debut novel, Minion, a tough, sexy new vampire huntress challenges the dominance of Anita Blake and Buffy.

Damali Richards is a rising star of Warriors of Light Records--but her fans would never guess that she is also the most important vampire hunter in a millennium. However, unfortunately for the inexperienced young huntress, the vampires and demons have both discovered her existence. An age-old war escalates to unprecedented heights of violence as the dark forces strive to slay Damali before she comes of age and gains her full powers.

Damali is an appealing heroine, the concept is intriguing, and the series is promising. However, the first novel is rocky. Damali is a vampire-killing martial artist, and Minion presents an epic struggle between good and evil, yet the novel neglects to include a climactic battle between Damali and the bad guys (or much of a climax at all; a sequel is obviously forthcoming). Another problem is that Damali's teacher withholds crucial information from not only the huntress, but also her guardians, who should have learned everything many years ago. In contrast, the characters frequently tell each other things they already know. Readers craving the twisted erotic charge of the Anita Blake novels or the Buffy-Spike relationship may be dissatisfied that sexual tension is less important to Minion; and readers seeking Hamiltonian melodrama may also be disappointed. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Lovely African-American Damali Richards is a "spoken word" performer with a complement of musicians and technicians in this first of a projected horror trilogy from Banks. As if this weren't fantasy enough, Damali is also a "vampire slayer." The entourage of this black "Buffy" is a politically correct rainbow of seven guardians, who disguise their weapons as musical instruments to get through airport security and on to the next gig. When the guardian team faces action, they tend to stand around jive-talking their adrenaline up for pages before they go after the vamps. But they aren't just vampires: master vampire Fallon Nuit uses his recording label as a front for gangsters, drugs and a multinational corporate empire that controls most of the world's economy. He's hooked up with a demon and has created "the Minion" of rogue hybrid-vampires. Nuit's so bad even the Vampire Council wants him gone. Damali's not just a slayer either. She's "ripening" as she hits age 21 into a superhuman who emits an aphrodisiacal scent that makes male vampires "go nuts"-they must "choose to kill her or take her." Overheated prose ("massive incisors ripped through her gums like they were giving hideous birth") and a complicated "legend" backstory (a hodgepodge of New Wave, paranormal, astrologic, Judeo-Christian, pseudo-African and mystical mythology) weigh down a story more calculated marketing idea than original literary concept. FYI: The author has written romances as Leslie Esdaile and TV tie-ins as Leslie E. Banks.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
DAMALI RICHARDS could still feel the electricity of the crowd and the adrenaline rush of her spoken-word performance pulsing through her veins as she entered the backstage dressing room. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

47 Reviews

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (47 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A good start to a fantastic series, Jun 27 2007

By	Jenny J.J.I. "A New Yorker" (That Lives in Northern Nevada) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

L.A. Banks laid it down on this book. This book stars the first multi-cultural vampire huntress series with a multi-ethnic, multi-religion cast of characters. I think that this book is better than the first editorial review would lead you to believe. Minion is a tale of the legend of the Vampire Huntress. Minion is defined as one who is highly favored, a darling. This correctly describes our main character, Damali. She is a 20-year old spoken word artist and one of the top acts for Warriors of the Light Records. But at night, she and her group of guardians hunt vampires. In this story, vampires and demons are not myths, they are reality. Without going into too much detail, the action and drama are well-balanced and the main and supporting casts are nicely introduced and fleshed out, making them quite believable.

Although the amount of "necessary" explanation of the Neteru and Guardian history may cause you to double back to make sure you've understood everything, I think the author did an excellent job of setting us up for her mini-series. There is an eroticism associated with vampires and Fallon Nuit is no exception. The author describes him with a sensuality of the most masculine of men, but the prettiness of a female. Nuit is sexy enough to make a straight man want him. It's this type characterization that makes this novel stand out.

The tone of the novel is dark, fast pace, and truly imaginative. The characters are very well developed. You can feel their pain, power and terror. The grotesque descriptions in the novel give it authenticity at that. If you like vampire stories, you will love this novel and if you don't like vampire stories, you will still love this novel.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Promising Beginning or Prelude to Disaster?, Jul 19 2004

By	L. J Lewis "Miss Amii" (Collierville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Minion: A Vampire Huntress Legend (Mass Market Paperback)

The version of Minion that I am reviewing is the paperback special edition which boastes to be a slightly rewritten from the tradesized version. Minion is the uneven first book in series that tells the story of the Millenium Neteru Damali Richards, whose destined to be an uber Vampire Huntress. The Vampire Huntress Legend is a series in every sense of the word, because this book is not a complete story arc but a set-up for the rest of the series.
I don't think I've ever changed my feelings about a book as much as I have this one. After reading the prologue and first few chapters, I thought the book sucked but I was going to read it anyways since it was less than 300 pages long. The book would plod along and every know and again I would come across a scene that was just mesmerizing. Then it would plod along again. The only reason I'm giving the book 3 stars is because the last 40 or so pages were when the story finally seemed ready to take off.
The major problem with Minion is that it trying so hard to set the scene for the rest of the story that it forgets to give us readers a real pay-off. As the story ends, most of the characters in Damali's band/slayer group are still sketchily developed, Damali herself is only *just* coming into her awsome powers, and the forces of darkness are just getting ready to act on their plans. Aside from the first chapter and a scene were Damali's Neteru powers compell her to chase after a vampire there is very little action on that front. Most of the time the hunters are holed up in their hide-out waiting for Damali to awaken to her powers. Lots of talking about the mystical mechanics that this world runs on too. Banks definitely could have introduced those elements in a better way than endless chunks of dialogue.
Another thing I wondered about was how wise is it to give these vampire hunters such a visable day job? When the forces of evil want to kill off man-kinds last and best hope, I don't think I'd want our last hope up on a stage for all the world to see.
I don't really think that Damali has a very strong personality or is that compelling a character to carry a whole series. The evil characters like Fallon Nuit and Carlos are much more interesting. Given that Carlos, Damali's ex-boyfriend turned vampire, is slated to play a big part in the series, this could easily turn into a series where the love-interest steals the thunder of the supposedly powerful and strong heroine.
Perhaps, the most troubling plot-turn is the revealation about how the various factions of evil want to impregnate out virginal yet lustful vampire slayer. This plot turn would be quite hokey and silly if Banks hadn't vividly laid out how the stakes were. What has me uneasy is that I'v seen good series go to the dogs when the plot demands that people have sex. Case in point is Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series which Minion will inevitably be compared to. Hamilton put in a plot device that demanded the heroine of that series do all kinds of kinky activities effectively reducing Anita Blake into an avatar for the author to vicariously play out her blood and guts S&M fantasies. Hamilton's work has gotten so ludicrous and distasteful that it would be more merciful for everyone if she just sent her publisher a headless decomposing cat instead of her manuscript. What path Banks will take with this plot element will determine for me if this series tanks or succeeds.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible, Jul 10 2004

By A Customer

This book was so bad that I couldn't get past the first couple of pages. I tried to give it a shot, but the writing is terrible. I can see where the ideas of the book are wondeful, and even though there are blatant rips off from different vampire myths, this book should be good. It isn't. Within four pages of reading the book, I wanted to put myself out of my misery. It's a great idea to have a more ethnic version of vampire stories, but this one sucks. Sorry.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Dont waste your time!!!!
This book is nothing more than a rip off of Buffy and Anita Blake, only set in the ghetto. While I thought it would be refreshing to read a vampire novel with a more ethnic feal,... Read more

Published on Jul 9 2004 by L. Camacho

1.0 out of 5 stars letdown
An utter disappointment. The writing was atrocious, the dialogue was horrible and the plot was a clich� done too many times. I didn't get past page 27. Read more

Published on Jul 6 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars has potential, needs more character development
Some of the issues others complained about-- the "multicultural Buffy the Vampire Slayer" issue in particular-- were exactly what I hoped to find here. Read more

Published on Jul 5 2004 by Kimberly Wells

1.0 out of 5 stars couldn't read it
I was terribly disappointed in this book. I couldn't read it due to the very poor writing style. The back cover was about the only thing that was understandable. Read more

Published on Jul 2 2004