The Gloaming, Rise of the Stealth Vampire Elder
by ML Worthingham (Author)
Reviewed by Parus Haider
This book is about glamour, secrets, history, and a twisted concept of love here and there. The exotic Valentin Von Hahn, the vampire who created the shell of life that all vampires live in. “Stealth Elder” as he is called behind his back, is the financial wizard of the vampire family. He is everything a man should be, and he is more than he looks due to the years he has lived.
The hints, subtleties and a bit of history throughout the book is incorporated so well that it just fuels my desire to travel far and wide. With starting first chapter I felt like the writing is too damn hasty and the book is crammed up with too much details. Now details are good, but to manage those details and sync them perfectly is a very difficult job. I had my doubts, and I was almost sure that micro-mangement will be poor, but with every passing chapter, I was proven wrong.
The characters, no matter how small a part they play, have their own backstory. The author has invested too much and the result is just brilliant. The character development is absolutely refreshing. After the first few chapters, the story-line has been paced very carefully. Throughout the book, it feels like the story is emerging from too many nodes, but the way they converge and merge proves how fine an author ML Worthingham really is.
The scenarios at some places feel like they needed more work. The way the author drops the hints here and there, bringing up one thing after another, is something that author should be admired for. But at the same time you do get a vibe of De ja Vu, as the whole book is feeding frenzied, expensive shopping or driven by high end parties.
At some places, the story gets hazy and a bit techy here and there. The characters aren’t surprised at the things that should freak an ordinary person, under normal circumstances, but then again it is fantasy we are reading, right? The way the author has created a protagonist out of an ordinary Van Meer, in death, and set a pace for some more exciting series of events is something I am looking forward to. I really wish there is more to follow.
Read the book and decide for yourself and do let me know what you think of it.
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Set in present day Amsterdam, it chronicles the perilous struggles of European vampires, fighting to survive amidst the harsh reality they’re faced with following the slaughtering of their ancestors in the eighteenth century. Despite innovative technology at their fingertips and every modern luxury available, their contemporary lifestyle still comes with every bit of violence and danger endured by their predecessors.
After dealing with a vampire hunter in Amsterdam, Valentin, Karolina, and Steve travel to the primal vampire nest in tunnels beneath the Mother of Cities to attend the annual council of elders ruled by Lord Makru. Things go horribly wrong though when a newly turned American girl on summer break tells a mortal everything about the vampires, but fails to feed on him, spurring yet another descendant of vampire hunters into action.
Karolina’s plans to start throwing feeding parties on unsuspecting mortals again after two and half centuries are put on hold as unrest in the four London nests spills over to Amsterdam, resulting in violence and the true death for some. When she and Viona finally start throwing feeding parties at the mansion in Amsterdam and the palace in the Mother of Cities another summer concludes with shocking developments and heart breaking loss.
The Gloaming is available on AMAZON
ML Worthingham is a dark fantasy writer and author of The Gloaming. He began thinking about the first book during a trip with friends to Amsterdam in the spring of 2002. Originating out of his dissatisfaction with the current artistic imaginings of the vampire myth he envisioned a dark alternate reality interlacing known history with the unique violent history of the continental vampires of Europe. Work on the first book The Gloaming, Rise of the Stealth Vampire Elder began in Amsterdam during the summer of 2014.
ML Worthingham grew up in Mill Valley, California where he started writing fiction as a teenager; spent time traveling all over the US for work, in Europe mostly for pleasure, and currently lives in Silicon Valley. When he isn’t writing or delivering innovative new technology he can be found traveling the world, mountain biking, or just getting another cup of coffee.
https://www.facebook.com/mlworthingham/
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