Customer Reviews

Minion

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

this book was definatly different then i expected. When i first started reading this book i thought it was horrible, i didnt like the writing style or even the plot. i thought it was boring and was missing something. as i continued to read on it started to pick up and after you get use to how the characters talk it wasnt so bad. i am going to give the second book in the series a chance and see from there.
my opinion is that if you buy the book then read it until the end before you judge it. its different but not bad.

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.

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.

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.

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, this book sits in the dredges of humanity and revels in stereotypical characters and poor writing. Don't waist your time.

An utter disappointment. The writing was atrocious, the dialogue was horrible and the plot was a cliché done too many times. I didn't get past page 27. I tried to enjoy it, but I realized it was not only a waste of my money, time but also paper.

Some of the issues others complained about-- the "multicultural Buffy the Vampire Slayer" issue in particular-- were exactly what I hoped to find here. I didn't have a problem with the use of a similar "world" to other vampire mythologies. What I didn't really care for in this book was an entirely different issue: the writing.

The novel reads like a screenplay that was badly adapted to novel form. There's lots of dialogue, and sometimes it can be a little irritating in its attempt to be "street cool." But even that I could handle if there was more about the characters that I was interested in, or even liked. I found it hard to be sympathetic or care about the major characters because I just didn't know enough about them, about their world, about their past. What description I did get was sometimes a bit trite-- the Latino drug dealer chock-full-of machismo, for example, was not really a new take on an old stereotype.

Long ago, in my fiction writing class, we discussed the concept of beginning a story "in medias reas" or "in the middle of things." The first section of the book starts this way-- right in the middle of an action scene, and this could be cool for, say, a movie where much of the "description" is obvious from set design, costuming, actor emotion, etc. But sometimes the descriptions here are so sketchy that I will miss an important action because I didn't "hear" that as happening, and have to read back to see what happened. (Like when one character gets "vamped" I still wasn't sure what was happening at first and had to skim back a page). Then, in other spots, the description goes on and on and rambles to the point where I skim to get to a part that hasn't been covered already, or gives me new info. As far as it being a scary book-- no. I didn't find it gripping or "horror" like at all.

This book, and the series, has a lot of potential. There were moments where I got interested, and if the whole series was in one novel, I would keep reading to see what happens. But I'm not interested enough in the story at this point to invest the money in more sequels. I might check the books out at a library, but I am not committed enough to the "world" of these slayers to buy the books yet.

If you're the type who needs to read everything there is related to vampires, or like your description kept to a bare minimum, this is an okay book. But I did end up feeling pretty disappointed in what could have been a great idea.

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. Glad that I only bought the first book.

I am disappointed to see some negative reviews, because I thought this story ROCKED! I like how all of the characters are developed with distinct personalities. She is such a vivid writer I could actually see the action. My only compliant is the cliff hanger ending. I like it when a sotry is contained within itself. This first novel did not have resolution. I think it was a cheap way to ensure people read the second novel. I would have read it anyway.
If you like vampire novels, you'll like this one. Damilia is a kick-butt huntress, and much edger than Buffy or Anita Blake. Try it and you'll get hooked. There are two more novels after this one.

I love horror! I've probably read most of the Vampire books out there. So imagine my glee when I found a new writer. That changed quickly. I tried so hard to really like the lead character and her litle band , but it was too hard. I struggled three quarters thru the book when I threw in the towel and the book into the nearest trashcan. A real letdown.