Length: 7 hours 2 mins

The name just draws you in right?

No, no it doesn’t.
In fact if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve listened to this author before, I probably wouldn’t have even considered this book.  In fact, even though I really like the author, and got drawn in from his Super Powered series, this Fred the Vampire series was the last one I actually got into because of the weird title.

I was waiting for the 3rd instalment of the NPC’s series to come out, and thought as I was waiting, I’d try out this series too.

And I’m very grateful I did, because it’s awesome.

I think the fact that it’s got such a misleading title makes it one of the hidden gems in terms of super-natural stories/ serials.

As soon as I finished this book, I bought the next 2 in the series. 

So what is the book about then?

I could just give you the publisher’s summary, (here) but essentially Frederich Frankford Fletcher, (I’m glad the author is also a fan of alliteration), but Fred for short lives a generally boring life, working as an accountant… one day he is killed and wakes up as a vampire, and as he is a more timid kind of human and doesn’t really like to intrude on others, just transitions to his new ‘life’ as a vampire, still living his generally boring life, but instead buying blood from a local hospital in exchange for doing the hospital’s taxes, setting up his own business, working from home at night and that’s about it.
However, this all changes when he meets his old high-school flame and finds out she is an agent for for a division of the government that deals with the paranormal world.

From there, he is slowly but surely introduced to a myriad of people and finds himself, rather unwillingly in many adventures.

Format of writing?

I actually had to re-listen to this to be able to write some sort of a review because the format just means that you know what has happened in all 3 parts of the serial, but you don’t know how it is split up.  The way that the book is written, it’s like diary entries, and each major event re-traces how they met the characters previously.
That would be too annoying for a movie, but would be fine for a TV serial to get people interested in it , even if they had missed the 1st couple of episodes.
This book contains 5 individual adventures. (from memory)
1. High School reunion – where he reunites with his high school flame Krystal who is actually an agent for the paranormal division of the government
2. LARP in the Park – Where Krystal takes him on an investigation into a possible necromancer (raising the dead) case
3. Las Vegas – Where Fred is introduced to a soon to be friend Bubba (a were-steed) & the Draconians (human dragon hybrids that secretly run Las Vegas)
4. Missing Mage – Where Fred & his friends have to find a mutual friend
5. A monster in the Pews – Where Fred’s make unexpectedly returns & threatens Fred’s friends if he doesn’t truly become a raging vampire like what was intended.
The serial/ diary like format is continuous, in the way that all stories are leading onto each other yet at the same time, it ends fairly abruptly, but you can feel there is way more room for more stories, which is a great feeling.

As such, is why I bought the next 2 books straight away.

Narration?

I loved the narration, Kirby Heyborne does a great job at giving variation to the many different characters.

I think… Albert the zombie- upbeat voice, great.
Morgan the Draconian – one of the posh commanding figures which is apparently a human, dragon hybrid. You can feel the authority when he speaks.
And Richard a wear-lion – who is mayor of the city, a growl is always at the back of his voice.

…were the ones that I enjoyed the most.

I loved the character Albert. He’s a zombie that died whilst…pleasuring himself, so as explained in the book.. the undead take the disposition and feelings of just when they died, Albert is unreasonably upbeat all the time.
Laughing at inappropriate times and coming up with great little lines, like pointing out that Richard being the person that presides over all therions (were-creatures) in the city, can be effectively thought of as the were-mayor,  Albert chuckles “haha  that rhymes”  even though the atmosphere at the time is very tense.

Would I recommend this book?

Yes, definitely.
Although of course it’d have to be a friend that’s interested in the super natural world, or I think could get into it via the format of this book.

Even if you’re don’t appreciate the paranormal fantasy kind of stuff… probably because of common/ modern interpretations of such things, I would still give this one a try, mainly because it goes against it.  And explains why in doing so.  The story has its own interpretation of all mystical creatures and doesn’t just portray them as animals.  Plus the fact that a vampire is usually represented as some sort of suave sophisticated, elegant person of power, and then knowing the contract that is Fred, I think is quite intriguing.

In short, give it a go, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

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