Paperback, 310 pages
English language
Published Aug. 7, 2007 by Warner Books.
Shori is a mystery. Found alone in the woods, she appears to be a little black girl with traumatic amnesia and near-fatal wounds. But Shori is a fifty-three-year-old vampire with a ravenous hunger for blood, the lost child of an ancient species of near-immortals who live in dark symbiosis with humanity. Genetically modified to be able to walk in daylight, Shori now becomes the target of a vast plot to destroy her and her kind. And in the final apocalyptic battle, her survival will depend on whether all humans are bigots-or all bigots are human.
This was a challenging one. On one level, it’s of the Twilight era, almost in response to those novels: genuinely repellant and intentionally alien in opposition to vampire romance. But this is a book about power dynamics; interconnectedness and free will. It’s a hard book to like, but I see what Butler was doing here, I think, and there’s a lot to think about.
I think I would have preferred this to be part of a series. One of only two books about #vampires that I enjoyed, the other being #Echopraxia by #PeterWatts (part of the Firefall series) A young female and black #vampire (vampires grow up more slowly than humans, so she is just a child) finds herself alone and seriously injured with no memory of what happened. Fortunately vampires heal faster and more effectively than humans. When healthy but still no memory, she walks out, finds she is on a burned-out farm, and walks to a road where she flags down a car driven by a man. After she persuades him to take her home (taking blood from people makes them very persuadable), they both spend time to find other vampires to help them and to find out why so many local vampires have been killed. Along the way, she gathers more …
I think I would have preferred this to be part of a series. One of only two books about #vampires that I enjoyed, the other being #Echopraxia by #PeterWatts (part of the Firefall series) A young female and black #vampire (vampires grow up more slowly than humans, so she is just a child) finds herself alone and seriously injured with no memory of what happened. Fortunately vampires heal faster and more effectively than humans. When healthy but still no memory, she walks out, finds she is on a burned-out farm, and walks to a road where she flags down a car driven by a man. After she persuades him to take her home (taking blood from people makes them very persuadable), they both spend time to find other vampires to help them and to find out why so many local vampires have been killed. Along the way, she gathers more humans for her brood.
I think I would have preferred this to be part of a series. One of only two books about #vampires that I enjoyed, the other being [b:Echopraxia|18490708|Echopraxia (Firefall, #2)|Peter Watts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380224957l/18490708.SX50.jpg|26174428] by [a:Peter Watts|27167|Peter Watts|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] (part of the [b:Firefall|22838183|Firefall (Firefall, #1-2)|Peter Watts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408625001l/22838183.SX50.jpg|42393960] series)
A young female and black vampire (vampires grow up more slowly than humans, so she is just a child) finds herself alone and seriously injured with no memory of what happened. Fortunately vampires heal faster and more effectively than humans. When healthy but still no memory, she walks out, finds she is on a burned-out farm, and walks to a road where she flags down a car driven by a man. After she persuades him to take her home (taking blood from people makes them very persuadable), they both spend time to find other vampires to help them and to find out why so …
I think I would have preferred this to be part of a series. One of only two books about #vampires that I enjoyed, the other being [b:Echopraxia|18490708|Echopraxia (Firefall, #2)|Peter Watts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380224957l/18490708.SX50.jpg|26174428] by [a:Peter Watts|27167|Peter Watts|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] (part of the [b:Firefall|22838183|Firefall (Firefall, #1-2)|Peter Watts|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408625001l/22838183.SX50.jpg|42393960] series)
A young female and black vampire (vampires grow up more slowly than humans, so she is just a child) finds herself alone and seriously injured with no memory of what happened. Fortunately vampires heal faster and more effectively than humans. When healthy but still no memory, she walks out, finds she is on a burned-out farm, and walks to a road where she flags down a car driven by a man. After she persuades him to take her home (taking blood from people makes them very persuadable), they both spend time to find other vampires to help them and to find out why so many local vampires have been killed. Along the way, she gathers more humans for her brood, and their relationship could be controversial.
Interesting take on vampire lore, with a page-turning plot, but a far cry from the astonishing work she gave us in Lilith's Brood or the Parable of the Sower|Reaper
