Bloodlines

The Guardian of Empire City, Book 1

By: Peter Hartog

Narrated by: Todd Menesses

Those dark and terrible things from your nightmares are very real.

They walk among us, masquerading as your neighbor, your lover, even your friend. You see, Empire City is full of them...if you only know where to look. How do I know this? Well, for starters the name is Detective Tom Holliday. I work homicide for Special Crimes. My friends, what few I have, call me Doc.

And the other reason?

I’ve got magic of my own.

Welcome to Empire City, where magic and technology co-exist, and humanity endures behind walls of stone and spell-forged steel. A place where danger lurks around every street corner, and anything is possible.

When former hotshot homicide detective Tom “Doc” Holliday is recruited to join Special Crimes, he trades in his boring desk job for a second chance to do what he does best: Hunt down killers.

And his first case doesn’t disappoint - a murdered woman with a bogus past, her body drained of blood, and two eyewitnesses wasted on the designer drug goldjoy claiming a vampire did it. Armed with a fickle clairvoyance and saddled with a team whose past is as checkered as his own, Holliday embarks upon an investigation through a dystopian landscape filled with bio-engineered vampires, interdimensional shadow parasites, and the magical masterminds behind it all.

But to solve this murder and safeguard his city, Holliday will have to uncover the truth behind an ancient shadowy conspiracy and confront a destiny he never wanted.Fans of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London and Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files will fall in love with Empire City.

©2019 Peter Hartog (P)2021 Peter Hartog

Genre crossing fun

Part hard boiled detective story, part paranormal fantasy/mystery in a Blade Runneresque world. Engaging, and fun characters, great narration. Looking forward to this series.

Mediocre story ostensibly trying for cyberpunk feel.

I finished the book, so that at least means it was tolerable. However the characters lacked depth, world felt hollow, and story wasn't really fleshed out. Multiple times ,instead of telling the story through writing , the author just had the villains monologue what was really going on.

A powerful blend of multiple genres!

Peter Hartog has brought a powerful monster to life with Bloodlines. It’s a novel of many infused genres that work together so well, it almost creates its own in the process. You will get a handful of cyberpunk, a dash of horror, a sprinkle of fantasy and sci-fi, and a mug full of pulp. I loved it.

Hartog has made incredibly fun and exciting characters to follow along with through Empire City. Tom “Doc” Holliday is a coffee-drinking detective who’s at the tail end of an exhausting career, infused with a mystical thing he calls “the Insight,” which he only has a tiny bit of control and understanding of. Besim is a Vellan, part of a group of people that had come to this world through a dimensional portal. She’s a brilliant and fierce character to contend with, and I found her enthralling. Deacon became one of my favorites. Something about the Ex-Guardian from a confederate place called Birmingham wielding a truncheon that could ignite in holy fire if his cause was righteous just made him a great character to see on the page. You could tell he left his past in a complicated way, not entirely throwing it out but not fully embracing it either. Leyla was also a standout. She’s a hacker, but there’s more to her than meets the eye. She also brings a little levity to some of the more serious scenes. Todd Menesses does a perfect job bringing these characters to life through his performance and narration.

I had seen in an interview from Peter where he said that some of these characters are based on characters his friends had played during a session of a tabletop RPG. You can tell Peter cares about them all, they are a great group!

Overall, I loved this book. I can’t say enough good things. I look forward to its sequel!

Even better the second time around

Having originally read this book when it first c and out, I was excited to hear someone bring it to life. being my second time through it it was great to revisit the characters Hartog has created. The gritty urban fantasy of Bloodlines was still upheld and projected even through audio. the characters personalities ringing through as well as they did on the page. Though, I was a little disappointed with how Layla was protrayed, it didn't take away from her character or the story. as for the story itself, it's still great and i caught more than i did the first time around.

i really hope to see the second book come to life on audio, and will be waiting impatiently for it

Great listen

Not my usual kind of listen, but I really enjoyed this book. Great blend of gritty crime/detective, sci-fi and fantasy. Narration was great!