Sadly, I never had a chance to post these reviews.
Now that the new edition is here, time to have a party.
To start with, JD Cowan. Just some excerpts.
What makes these books so successful is how much fun they are. There are clear good guys and definitive bad guys, there is humor, there is plenty of action, there is a solid plot with developing characters, and the central romance is engaging. It's the sort of vampire tale not seen since at least the days of The Lost Boys when you could be serious and fun at the same time without insulting the lore or the audience. It also helps that the vampire mythos the story is built on is well established and builds off of concepts Bram Stoker used way back in Dracula and are given solid rules that must be obeyed. There are no glittering pseudo-vampires here.
As an end to the series, it's a suitable final chapter. Each book had slowly grown with scope and ambition leaving few places left for the series to go without devolving into self-parody. But the author avoids that trap by ending it at just the right point when the stakes hit critical mass. You will see carnage and death, and you will see if good really does ever win in this world of horrors. The last encounter is the final statement on all four books and the definitive last period on just what it is all about. I would argue the last few lines of the book sum it up even better, but I'm not going to spoil that.....
As it is, this is the best vampire series I've read. An engaging run from start to finish as each book improves on the last and finishes with a conclusive ending that wraps everything up neatly. If you've been waiting for vampires to be great again: these are the books you've been waiting for.
Good to the Last Drop, as well as the whole series, comes highly recommended. You can't get better vampire-related entertainment than this.
Then there was Lori's review.
If you thought the other books in the series were full of great fight scenes and characters, hold on to your hats, because this one is the best yet.
The fight scenes are a lot of fun, well done, and intense. The characters are still convincing, compelling, and occasionally hilarious, in an understated, New-Yorker kind of way. Marco and Amanda are full of their various faults, but loveable for them.
My favorite aspect about Amanda? How many times can you watch a TV show or read a book with a “tough girl” who isn’t automatically an evil, catty, bitch?
........... I think that's all I need to say here.
Other than that rare feat of talented writing, the best part of this book is the way he managed to tie in the worldbuilding and the plot in a perfect end-of-the-series sendoff. Without any spoilers, let’s just say that the idea of a good vampire that makes sense pays off magnificently at the end. There’s a perfect juxtaposition of downright, pure evil on the one side, and rare, beautiful goodness on the other.
Buy the novel here.
Buy the series here. Because it's out and it's complete.
I prefer crawtrapman comment about bugging you until you write more. That cat really knows where his towel is at.
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