Book review:

Orpheus: A Vampire's Rise
by VMK Fewings

Award-winning author, Vanessa Fewings's latest book Orpheus: A Vampire's Rise, is published by Lachesis Publishing. It is the follow up book to Fewing's StoneMaster's: A Vampire's Reckoning. In the first book, the characters Jadeon and Orpheus are introduced. Jadeon is the heir to St. Michael's Mount, the estate of his father's, Lord William Artimas. Although he may be somewhat distant, Lord Artimas seems the protective and loving father, but how far will he go to protect his family, his estate, his land? Lord Artimas belongs to the Stone Masters, a group of brave men whose sole, sacred duty is to hunt down and kill the mythical creatures of the night, known as vampires. What he has been called to do is what invites danger into the very walls of his own castle.

As young boys, Alex (Jadeon's younger brother) and Jadeon sneak out to take a night swim with their childhood friend, Catherine. The boys witness something far darker than they could have ever imagined. It would change their lives forever. It is the beginning of mysteries, of secrets told and secrets kept. How far will their desires drive them all? Jadeon's loyalty to his family is challenged, as well as his loyalty to himself. He must journey into the innermost part of himself to prove where his loyalty lies. This is a story of love, of human necrosis, and the rise there from: desire versus the true-self.

Fewings gives Orpheus the chance to tell his side of the story, much like Rice's Lestat. Though Fewings and Rice write about the psychological side of the vampire, that is basically where the similarities stop. Much like any human, Orpheus didn't start off as some cold blooded killer, his circumstance changed him into something he never intended. His story started (or ended, however you may see it), in the bullfighting arenas in 15th century Spain. He awakes to find himself in a mausoleum and then later learns that his brother has been murdered. In the mausoleums he meets Sunaria, the love that was taken from him by The Stone Masters, headed by Jadeon's father. This is a story of revenge. This book is true to its predecessors: Carl Jacobi, Sheridan Le Fanu, Clark Ashton Smith, Anne Rice, Poppy Z Brite. Vanessa Fewings takes her place among the writers of Vampire Literature rather than those that mishandle the myth of vampires. What about revenge fuels us? Who is it that really hurts? “Therein lies the defect of revenge: it's all in the anticipation; the thing itself is a pain, not a pleasure; at least the pain is the biggest end of it.” -Mark Twain

Orpheus: A Vampire's Rise is available at: BookStrand