Book Review- Vampire Doll Guilt Na Zan vol 1 by Erika Kari

Title: Vampire Doll Guilt-Na-Zan vol 1

 Author: Erika Kari

Series:  Vampire Doll #1

Published: 12 September 2006 by Tokyopop

Length: 200 pages

Warnings: vampires, violence, fanservice,

Source:  Library

Other info: There are six volumes  in the series. 

Summary : Guilt-Na-Zan is a vampire aristocrat who was sealed into a cross by Kyouji's ancestor more than 100 years ago. Now Kyouji has revived him - although he was resurrected as a doll and can only transform into his real figure when he sucks blood from Kyouji's sister Tonae..

Review:  Parajunkee's Vampire Challenge #11 
100 years ago, an exorcist locked vampire lord Guilt-Na-Zan into a cross. Today, exorcist Kyoji, a descendent of the first one, releases Guilt-na. And puts him into a female wax doll, with the intention of using Guilt-na as a maid. It is possible for Guilt-na to attain his original form; if he drinks the blood of Kyoji's sister Tonae, he becomes the lord of the night once more. Add in a bat/human, a stupid younger brother,  a little action and a lot of laughs, and there you have Vampire Doll.

This has suprisingly, a lot of plot, for 200 pages of first volume. There's a fight between Kyoji and his idiotic younger brother Kyoichi, we meet batman Vincent who turns out to be the friend of Guilt-Na-Zan, we meet a creature who sucks the evilness from others and leaves them civil and nice to others, and we get the insanity of life in Kyoji's house.

The storyline isn't your normal vampire story. There's elements of one, such as something to defeat them (the original exorcist) and requiring  human blood for something (Guilt-na an Tonae), but there's also some original stuff too.

It's rare to have character intros in a first volume. This book does. And they're pretty fun too: the name, one of their characteristics and then a plea to read this book to find out x. Funny from the first page.

The actual manga starts with a flashback to when Guilt-na-zan was first trapped. It then goes to his resurrection, his discovery he is in a female body and then his realisation his magical powers now only stretch to flowers and cakes. And then the aforementioned things happen and so does some more stuff until we reach a fitting conclusion that can still make you want to read volume 2.

Tokyopop classed this as a horror and comedy. The horror part wasn't that accurate-just because it has vampires and other dark creatures, it doesn't necessarily make it a horror story. The comedy on the other hand is a very large part of this. From the first page it was funny, and this continued throughout the entire book. In addition to the humour throughout the main story, we also get bonus strip at the end of each chapter and about 12 more at the back.

The characters were different to your normal stock cast  of a vampire tale. They're all very likeable,  but there's very little in the way of character development.

The art is detailed and realistic. The costumes are drawn well, as are all the little things. However in a couple of places it's hard making out what's happening because the lines blend so much into the shadows.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a vampire story that will make you laugh if not much else.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | 

Book Hop #14

Hello. Thank you for getting to Death Books and Tea. Here we review horror, dystopian, fantasy, manga and the like. You'll get a better idea if you settle down and have a look. Hope you like us!

For this week's question...
“Let’s talk crazy book titles! Highlight one or two (or as many as you like!) titles in your personal collection that have the most interesting titles! If you can’t find any, feel free to find one on the internet!”


I went through my goodreads list and chose my favourite. I'm saying Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto. This is because when you see Kamikaze, you think of WW2 and suicide missions. However Kamikaze Girls is pretty much the opposite: friendship, two girls, and awesomeness. I suggest you read it. If not just for the title.]#


That's my choice. I'm sure there's many other books with awesome titles.
Comment, look around,  follow, link back?

Book Review- Black Swan Rising

Title: Black Swan Rising

 Author:  Lee Carroll

Series:  Black Swan Rising #1

Published:  3^rd August 2010 by Tor Books

Length: 400 pages

Warnings:  one non-graphic two paragraph sex scene, vampires, fairies.

Source: Library

Other info: Lee Carroll is actually two people-Carol Goodman and her husband Lee Slonimsky. Book 2, the Watchtower, was published earlier in the year

Summary : New York jeweller Garet James has her fair share of problems: money, an elderly father, a struggling business. One day she comes across an antiques shop she’d never noticed before. The owner possesses an old silver box that’s been sealed shut. Would she help an old man and open it, perhaps? She does...and that night strange things begin to happen. It’s as if her world – our world – has shifted slightly, revealing another, parallel place that co-exists without our knowledge: the world of the Fey…

Garet learns that one of her ancestors was 'the Watchtower': an immortal chosen to stand guard over the human and the fey worlds – a role that she has, it seems, inherited from her mother. But the equilibrium between these two existences is under threat. The 16th-century magician and necromancer Dr John Dee has returned, the box has been opened and the demons of Despair and Discord released. In a race against time and impending apocalypse, it is Garet who must find Dee...and close the box.

Review: Garet James opens a box that had been soldered shut for an old man. She doesn't think anything of it. Why should she? But then her gallery is broken into, her father is shot,  she meets Oberon, King of the fairies, and is told that that old man is John Dee, opening the box in order to summon Despair and Discord to the world. As well as this, she meets vampire Will Hughes, and falls in love with him.

It all starts very quickly. We don't get much introduction to Garet-we learn more about her and her history as we progress through the story.

I like the many twists and turns throughout the story. The action doesn't seem to slow down, it kept going on and on.

 I liked the huge range of characters in this-vampires, fairies, dragons, demons, mermaids and gnomes. I especially liked the little fire fairy Lol. However I didn't like the fact that after some of the characters had been introduced, they didn't seem to come up again. Hopefully the things they did will be relevant and they themselves will crop up again in the sequel.

The romance in itwas your typical vampire human relatoinship with the added bonus that quite a bit of blood was shared (it's annoying when a vampire falls in love with a human but doesn't drink his/her blood.) It got a bit confusing though when towards the end Madame Dufray was brought in. It was suggested that, in a past life, Garet wasMadame Dufray. However this wasn't properly explored or explained, and I'd like to read more about Will and his past interactions inthe sequel, The Watchtower.

It's in first person, Garet's POV, and we got a good idea of how she feels.

My favourite thing about this is how everything cleverly fits together regarding the relationships, even if it wasn't very well explained.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a book that mixes up various different fantasy elements in an interesting way.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Carol's website which includes a bit about Black Swan Rising| 

Waiting on Wednesday #19 Flame of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where we show off books that we want to read but have not been published yet. 

Title:  Flame of Surrender
Author: Rhiannon Paille
Series: The Ferryman and the Flame #1
Release Date: 1 November 2011
Link to / Summary from Goodreads: The boy who follows death meets the girl who could cause the apocalypse. 
Krishani thinks he’s doomed until he meets Kaliel, the one girl on the island of Avristar who isn’t afraid of him. She’s unlike the other girls, she swims with merfolk, talks to trees and blooms flowers with her touch. What he doesn’t know is that she’s a flame, one of nine individually hand crafted weapons, hidden in the body of a seemingly harmless girl. 
Nobody has fallen in love with a flame until now. She becomes Krishani’s refuge from the dreams of death and the weather abilities he can’t control. Striking down thousand year old trees with lightning isn’t something he tries to do, it just happens. When the Ferryman dies, Krishani knows that he’s the next and that a lifetime of following death is his destiny. 
And Kaliel can’t come with him. The Valtanyana are hunting the flames, the safest place for her is Avristar. Krishani can’t bear to leave her, and one innocent mistake grants the Valtanyana access to their mystical island. They’re coming for Kaliel, and they won’t stop until every last living creature on Avristar is dead. She has to choose, hide, face them, or awaken the flame and potentially destroy herself.

Why I want it: The first line of the summary. The characters implied. Yes yes yes.  ((And on a complete sidenote, it’s released on my birthday.)

What are YOU waiting on this week?

Book review: TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Title: TimeRiders

Author: Alex Scarrow

Source: Library

Publisher and Published: Various, various times (according to goodreads. The book is downstairs

at the moment and I'm too lazy to get it)

Warnings: Blood, cannibalist mutants, violence, mild profanity

Summary from goodreads: Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, 'Take my hand ...' But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren't rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose - to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That's why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world...

Review: Right when they were about to die, three teenagers were asked if they to go with an old man, called Foster, or die. The first one is Liam who is aboard the sinking Titanic and has 90 seconds left to live (according the same old man). So he follows the him and wakes up in New York, 2001. But of course he doesn't know that. Then we get Maddy on a plane. Which will blow up in 90 seconds. Foster really pressurises these people doesn't he? She follows too. Sadly, we aren't told about Sal's experience. They are introduced to each other etc. and we discover that Foster is from "Never-neverland". How enigmatic. They also meet their team mate, Bob, an artificial human. They assigned roles, Sal the observer, Maddy the analyst, Liam the guy who

actually gets to time travel and Bob the support unit. I think that's the end of the basic character introductions.

I like how the team are based during 9/11 to distract the attention away from themselves. It's quite an interesting concept and it's probably true, people in the local shops would be more focused on the mass destruction around them. Other aspects of the book that many people believe don't make sense actually do. Depending on what theory you use. To make sure I don't give out any spoilers, I'm going to use the concept of autoinfanticide (if you don't understand, think of the child self as the information that the antagonist needs to know to change history: what he needs to change). If you went back in time and killed yourself as a baby you would no longer exist and "you" that existed at the time you killed your child self would not exist and you would not have been able to kill yourself. The Novikov self-consistency principle agrees with this statement and says this can't possibly happen. The parallel universe/alternate timelines says you can do this, great for you. The nonexistance theory doesn't work with this book. The destruction resolution I don't think would work and temporal modification negation theory does work. The delayed effect of the shifts if a form of the delayed ripple effect.

The characters don't change much (apart from Bob. He changed a lot). I found that really disappointing as the characters need to progress in sci-fi to make it more realistic. The "Tuesdays" weren't described much which is a shame because they would have made the book more interesting. I wish that Sal had written more in her diary and the Maddy's feelings were shown a bit more. I love the idea of an alternative future (though in this case, it's the past).

Rating: 4 Really good but you need to do some research to understand some things.

Book Review- The Vampire Blog by Pete Johnson

Title: The Vampire Blog

 Author: Pete Johnson

Series:  N/A

Published:  7 June 2010

Length: 240 pages

Warnings: vampires, gore, kissing,

Source: Library

Summary : Marcus was convinced that vampires don't exist—he was very wrong. On the night of his 13th birthday, he is faced with a bombshell when his parents tell him that he is actually half-vampire and is about to go through his vampire changeover period. As Marcus secretly blogs about the horrors of his new fangs, bad breath, and cravings for blood, he is unaware that his life is in serious danger

Review: On his thirteenth birthday, Marcus is told that his parents are half vampires and that, joy of joys, he'll become one too. He really doesn't want to be one, and spends part of his time denying that he is one. And then strange things happen, yes, even stranger than discovering you.re about to be a half vampire, and Marcus ends up in even more danger than he first thought. 

The writing in this is ok. I liked the way that Marcus responded with witty remarks to everything. His personality change from disbelieving and denying to accepting is interesting to watch, if not the most original. The way he handles everything with sarcasm and cutting remarks add to  his personality. However, I can't really connect with Marcus, possibly because I'm not a thirteen year old boy turning into a half vampire.  

The supporting characters are interesting  with individual, if extremely odd, personalities. Joel is really your average friend to have a laugh with, and the parents are your standard I'll try and do what's best for you ones. Even if they are guiding their son through transformation into a half vampire. Tallulah, the weird girl, while I started off hating her, as the story progressed she seemed less insane and more likeable and I feel really bad for how she ended.

Like I said, I couldn't reall feel that much connection to Marcus, or indeed any of the characters. This book was a bit predictable and I guessed what would happen at the end about 2/3 of the way through. However, it's an original take on traditional vampire myth, and done well.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book more for the boys looking for something they can relate to, rather than the standard brooding romantic vampire boys of today.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Mini review- Sample Chapters- Princosa by B. M. Donnelly

 Title: Princosa
Author: B.M.Donnelly (her other writings and art here)
Summary of book: Cresenda is a perfectly normal farm girl until an accident with an enchanted wand leaves her magically gifted, on the run from assassins and battling desperately to save her world. Left with a companion who hates her and government plotting to destroy her will she ever be able to rid herself of her powers and return to normal life?
What I reviewed: First three chapters
Source: Author
Review: It begins in a cave, with what is obviously the villain of the series speaking to her pet snake about a wand that she wants to get hold of. This actually reminded me a lot of Harry Potter,  whether this is good or bad is up to you. The scene then changes to a town, with a group of girls, one of which then harrasses a stranger, called Villiam, until he goes home with her. He agrees, but says he can't stay long, saying that it's dangerous. The three chapters I read ends there.
In that short amount of time, we get a clear view of the characters and personality, and the situation, because of the amount of detail in the writing. Cresenda is a girl full of sass, who seems to be a strong heroine. Villiam is an okish character, not really my kind of man, but an interesting character with a bit of mystery surrounding him.
The writing style is very descriptive, in third person like most fantasy books, which does a great job of world building. However like you get with very detailed prose, sometimes it slows the story down a bit. From the dialogue you get a good sense of the characters, all of which seem real people, with full personalities, even the ones who I think will turn out to be fairly minor in the grand scheme of the book.
On a side note, Cresenda's introduction stated her clearly as a human. There's a talking lizard. I wonder what other fantasy creatures will turn up...
Overall: Strength 3 tea to this opening of what could be a very very good fantasy book once done.

Summer Reading Update 2/In my Mailbox

And again… listed  in pink is what I got this week…it’s kind of an In my Mailbox

READ

• Teeth, Vampire Tales  (review here)
• The Bell Jar (review here)
• How to Be A Woman (mini review here)
• The Vampire Blog (review to come)
• Lord of the Flies (review here)
• Acadia (e-book) (review here)
• Vampire Doll vol 1 (review to come)
• Dead Streets
• Mail vol 2
• Black Swan Rising (review coming)
• Haruhi 3
• Haruhi 4
• Haruhi 5
• Much Ado About Nothing manga version
• Johannes Cabal the Necromancer  (review coming)
• Montmorency (reviewcoming)
• Tantalise (review coming)
• A Study in Scarlet graphic novel (review coming)

READING

• The Invention of Murder
• Zombies of the World (e-book)

ON MY PILE TO BE READ

• Descended by Blood (e-book)
• Catalyst (e-book)
• Quest of the Demon (e-book)
• Dr Faustus
• Empire of the Rising Sun
• Pride and Prejudice
• To Kill A Mockingbird
• Carrie
• Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus
• Skin Hunger
• Halo
• Spooks-the Apprentice
• Monster Island
• Wish Me Dead
• The Undertaker’s Gift
• Godchild
• Think of a Number
• Crescendo
• The Divine Comedy
• The Resistance
• Undead and Unwelcome
• Mercy
• Periodic Tales
• Life as We Knew It
• Virals
• Death-At Death’s Door (bought)

NOT GOT YET

• Hetalia 1
• Texas Gothic
•  Angel Sanctuary

ALSO REVIEWED THIS WEEK

Nina

• Nekropolis
• Divergent

Katy

• Mostly Harmless
• Tins

Think I’m doing ok so far?