Dark Prince (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 1)
by Christine Feehan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christine FeehanEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04
ISBN: 0843955287
Number of pages: 447
Publisher: Leisure Books
Book Reviews of Dark Prince (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 1)
Book Review: the book that started all the other romance vamp books...
Summary: 4 Stars
One liner: Heroine saves vampire prince (and gives hope to his race)
by becoming his soulmate.
Mikhail, having lived for almost a millennium, contemplates taking his
life, as he is consumed by the darkness that only his life mate can
save him from. However, he does not believe he would ever be able to
find her.
Except, he does. Raven Whitney, a telepathic mortal, who hunts serial
killers through her telepathy, finds his mental calls of distress, and
she responds to him. He is immediately fascinated by her, and he
pursues her as a decent alpha male from any romance would do, despite
her insistance that she's lived her whole life alone and loves freedom
more than the binding of a couple.
He proves her wrong of course, immediately tearing her clothes off
(rawr!) in the middle of his library at her first acceptance of him.
(He gives her some choice in stealing her heart.)
Many more steamy scenes like that. And, in many other places. Such as:
Mikhail's bedroom, the middle of caves with heated pools, the library,
again, and maybe a few other places. Carpathian mating is like the
usual thing, but more intense, and with mutual blood exchange
interlaced throughout, climaxing to the joining of mind and soul.
(They are telepathic, reading thoughts and communicating with others
and animals at will, and psychokinetic, being able to fix major organs
by mental powers.)
Overall, a great read. This was published in the last century. It's
evident that the current "hot series" of vampire romances derive many
of its characters and vampire mythos from this. The common motif in
all vampire romances is that the vampire lives in eternal darkness
until he finds his soulmate, who as her designation implies, saves his
soul.
I admit that at first, I found Feehan's style a bit drab and
undeveloped - her sentence structures were unvaried and her
descriptions were awkward at times, and she read a bit like
Christopher Pike. I found the beginning words of the novel to convey
an overall sense of comedy, rather than a dire profound situation of a
Carpathian seeking end. But, it seems she develops her style as the
novel progresses. Eventually, I couldn't quite put it down, wanting to
read it every other waking moment of the day.
Mmm... but, Carpathian mating rituals are hot.
The vampire mythos is decently well developed for a romance novel. I'm
delighted to find that their status makes sense with respect to
evolution. The males are known to seek eternal rest (suicide, if you
will), when they realize they cannot stand the darkness any more. Only
a female Carpathian, a life mate, can save them. However, the sparse
population of female Carpathians and the fact that the few surviving
babies tend to be male, means that there would be a high suicide-based
mortality rate for future Carpathians. Finding a human who can stand
being converted brings hope to their race - the heroine thus saves an
entire race!
Jackline Hunter's SOYAI (Sum Over Yummy's and Icks)
+ published in 1999, this is definitely the precedent for the whole
series of vamp novels by other romance authors.
+ vampires that can transfigure into mist and animals. definitely puts
the latent animalistic feral power Stoker intended back in vampires.
this is perhaps the only modern vamp book that gives vamp's this
ability. (even Rice's all powerful, though dark, vampires couldn't do
this -- Lestat had to resort to a body thief to change his form)
+ Gregori (very powerful thus very sexy), a reclusive vampire about to
kill himself because he can't find his true love), can use his mind to
fix broken body organs and cure internal bleeding! the wowie's of all
wowie's. a mechanism for becoming perfect when one becomes a
vampire...
+ the idea of having a chain-effect blood-sucking thing, where vamp1
feeds the wounded vampire (vamp0) the needed blood, and vamp2 acts as
a buffer to replace some of vamp1's blood loss.
+ the healing ritual chanting... for some reason, i started hearing
gregorian chant in the air. it felt oddly, eerily, real... like it was
happening all around me, in my dark and drafty bedroom.
+ Mikhail's protectiveness of Raven is really sweet. (especially the
part when he described how he felt the instant he woke up from his
healing sleep that Raven had been hurt while he was in grounds!)
+ the mental bond between Mikhail and Raven
+ the notion of Carpathian sex
+ the sex scenes
- as much as i hate to say it, the truth is that this is but a pale
imitation of the stuff of anne rice. the vampires are the same dark,
brooding kind (though not so verbose in a vastly different prose
style), but their motive is perfectly geared for the romance genre --
to find their soulmate, who will bring them light in their (otherwise)
eternal darkness.
- on the first page, mikhail is described to have read/memorized his
countless books... he really must have been very very bored. he's also
described to have a computer - if he's the type who likes going on
knowledge-gaining rampages, the internet would definitely be a better
source. the first time i read it, i really didn't like how the first
few pages started out. in fact, i was rather disoriented - it all
seemed forced.
- actually, these vampires aren't on par with Ricean vamp's --- the
darkness they brood upon is kept ambiguous. whereas anne rice goes
through tons of *fascinating* philosophy, taking you on odysseys
venturing into the meaning of life and death, feehan just leaves the
vampires' darkness a rather ambiguous desperation deep within them,
goading them towards finding their life mate to save them before they
"turn."
- too much about the nature of the vampires are kept for the reader's
imagination. would it be proper for me to assign to them the dark
brooding of anne rice's armand, marius, or louis? of course not.
- and, it is unfortunate that because of their handicap -- that they
require a life mate in order to escape their ambiguous eternal
darkness -- they can never be as carefree as lestat or gabrielle.
sorry about all these references to anne rice - if you haven't read
her (and are into this vampires having a dark soul stuff), definitely
check her out!
- strong Carpathian males can control their women (and their people's)
mind at will -- such as erasing memories!
- writing style a bit drab. sentences unvaried. read a bit like a
young-adult novel
- near the end, the Carpathians started having all sorts of new and
out-of-the blue powers (which, make them ever sexier, but these extra
characteristics seemed last-minute add-on's) o_O
- after D.P., i wasn't really motivated to read "dark descent," the
short story that came bundled with my copy of DP... instead, i craved
for more of MacAlister's witty narration and her Moravian vampires. i
am probably just in my MacAlister phase right now, non-5'ing what
romance readers would consider the holy grail of vampiric romance.
9 yummy's + 9 ick's = 9 - 9/2 = 4.5 stars!
Summary of Dark Prince (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 1)
Carpathians are an immortal race of beings with animal instincts. Every Carpathian male is drawn to his life mate: a Carpathian or human female able to provide the light to his darkness. Without her, the beast within slowly consumes the man until turning vampire is the only option.'Raven Whitney is a psychic who has used her gift to help the police track down a serial killer. Now she is determined to escape the glare of recent publicity for the peace and quiet of the Carpathian Mountains. Prince Mikhail Dubrinsky is the leader of his people but, as his ancient Carpathian race grows ever closer to extinction, he is close to giving in to the heavy weight of loneliness and despair. From the moment their minds touch, Raven and Mikhail form a connection. But there are those who incorrectly view all Carpathians as vampires, and are determined to give their extinction a helping hand.Literature & Fiction Books
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