The Vampire Dancer Saga: Part 3

By: Shalimar Ali

Narrated by: Fatimah Halim, J. Lyle

Length: 1 hr and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Take a magic carpet ride back in time back in time to meet Egyptian queens, The Mummy, Frankenstein and Dracula. Playboy Dracula charms Nefertiti in ancient times, while his descendant playboy Drake puts the move on our Cousin TeeTee in our time. Cleopatra began her journey as one of the most beautiful woman in the world. A jealous rival, Ammut, turns her into an ugly duckling. Will Gene the Genie still love her? Queen NayTure can control the powers of the universe, change night into day, change mortals into vampires. But can she control her heart from falling from falling in love with a man who also loves Malice? Princess Aaliyah, daughter of Cleopatra and Prince Nate Ram is a belly dancer trying to win the heart of King Tut. Her doppelganger, Alyce, belly dances to win the affection of Hutch, Tut's descendant. Queen Salome, the immortal vampire has acquired some new allies from her witch coven to continue her battle against her enemy Ro'Zha. Ro'Zha, a mortal harem dancer, begins her journey on a magic carpet ride. A genie sends her to the future to meet her doppelganger Granny Rosa Smith, a powerful witch.

©2014 Shalimar Ali (P)2014 Shalimar Ali

Could do worse for lunchtime entertainment

Note: Even though this is Book 3 in the series, it works OK as a stand alone.

Told in a series of short scenes, ancient queens and vampires compete and couple in the past, just as their dopplegangers do the same in our time. From Cleopatra to Dracula, belly dancing to the grind, ancient witch Queen Salome to modern day witch Grany Rosa Smith, this tale is anything but traditional.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of this book. It does skip around quickly, so you have to pay close attention. There is also a large cast of characters, so you never have time to get attached to any one character. Instead, you simply have to sit back and enjoy the experience, like watching an hour of 80s music videos. Not every video has to make 100% sense, and they don’t have to necessarily relate to one another, and you certainly don’t get to know the individual band members from the one video they feature in within that hour.

The over all experience was definitely different. I wouldn’t have thought to pair vampires and belly dancing, both of which can be sexy things. I liked that we had more female roles than male roles (something that is still hard to find in today’s literature). However, I didn’t like that at least half of these ladies were in direct competition with each of for a man. Sigh. So cliche.

Still, it was an interesting experience and for an hour’s entertainment, you could do far worse.

The Narration: Fatimah Halim and J. Lyle were excellent narrators. For having to switch characters, locations, and times so often they did a very nice job. I really liked Halim’s rich, full voice that made me think of comfort food and curvy sexy women all at once. J. Lyle had to pull off some accents while sounding like he had pointy teeth, which he did very well.