The Priest of Blood

By: Douglas Clegg

Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan

The man known as Falconer was born the bastard son of a whore, served the royal court as a predator trainer, and warred against the infidel Saracens as a conscripted soldier in the Holy Land. But it wasn't until he found himself in the arms of a creature called Pythia that he found his destiny - as a vampire.

©2005 Douglas Clegg (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

A riveting experience!

This story kept me fully engaged and on my toes, such a great series! I love this book!

This started out so well!

Packed with magic, grittiness, hardship, adventure, and beautiful world building, I LOVED the beginning. It felt like being transported to the dark ages of adolescent Europe when magic and mysticism were part of daily life. I was genuinely surprised to find that in a vampire novel.

But as the vampire side of the story started developing, I found myself rolling my eyes and feeling like I was listening to a tacky, pulpy, goth romance vampire novel. Yuck. All of the magic drained out of the story for me when the main character droned, unceasingly, about the highly sexualized process of being turned. There's just far too much heavy-handed eroticism. I also skipped through the VERY drawn out sex scene earlier in the book.

Don't get me wrong...vampires can totally be sexy and alluring. It's often why we love them. And I'm not a prude by any means. But the story has to be told tactfully, without turning into porn, and that's what this felt like. No thanks. I'm not sure what else I expected but I couldn't finish the book.

Took Too Long To Get Going

I started this book a few weeks ago and I am struggling to keep interested. The book is just plain boring. I'm almost 5 hours into the book and hardly anything of interest has happened. Although the tone of Napoleon Ryan is great- his cadence in reading this book makes it hard to listen. Maybe he is just trying to breathe life into this book - but its just painful. I haven't even gotten to the Vampire part yet and I don't think I will.