Just Finished Reading: Blood and Chrysanthemums by Nancy Baker (FP: 1994) [282pp] 

Even after 6 months Ardeth Alexander was still getting used to being dead, or undead or whatever the hell it was. Certainly none of her pop-culture references helped much. Not going out in the daylight was pretty obvious and she liked the fact that she was both faster and stronger than before despite not looking it. She really liked the fact that she didn’t have to kill people to just ‘get by’. The whole drinking people dry thing was just a myth. She could just sip a bit and tell them to forget the encounter. A half day later they’d be fine – probably. She could even ‘get by’ on animal blood. Sure, it tasted like shit but sometimes it was just easier. Her ‘maker’, Dimitri Rozokov, wasn’t much help in the whole “how do I live as a vampire” thing. Despite the fact he was 500 years old he wasn’t all that introspective on the subject – odd for a Russian. It didn’t help that he had only recently woken up from a century long nap and was struggling to adapt to the late-20th century. But they both had bigger fish to fry... The organisation that had capture Rozokov and, admittedly inadvertently, ‘turned’ Ardeth might still be out there looking for them – despite the fire and the carnage of their escape. There was definitely someone (or something?) seeking them. Why, they could only guess. Was it someone else looking for the secrets of immortality or something completely different? Was it friend, foe or something else entirely? Did they really want to find out? Did they really have a choice? Maybe, just maybe, the encounter could even provide both of them with some answers... 

This is my first return to the vampire genre for SEVEN years! I can hardly believe it. I used to be SO into the whole vamp thing. One of the (many) things I liked about it was the variety of interpretations surrounding the core ideas. This was another one where the vampires were immune to holy water, crosses and actually anything Christian/religious but could be harmed by ultrasonic blasts... One thing that I did find most intriguing was the fact that they had little idea of where they came from or indeed (for one in particular) what exactly they were. In this ‘universe’ they are vanishingly rare creatures and are a world or two away from the vampire houses etc that seem to populate most of the genre today. Their biggest problems – apart from sunlight – seem to be long-distance travel, accumulating enough money to ‘live’ and the constant fear of being discovered.  

This is actually the middle book of a trilogy (all out of print I think) but missing out on the first book wasn’t a huge issue. Early on there was a 3-4 page ‘flashback’ that explained much that had happened previously and a sprinkling of other information throughout. The writing was pretty solid, all of the characters were well formed and I liked Ardeth quite a bit. I’ll definitely be keeping a look out for the other books and will scoop them up if I come across them. A more than reasonable vampire tale and recommended if you can source a copy.