Audiobook13 hours
A Taint in the Blood
Written by S.M. Stirling
Narrated by Todd McLaren
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Long ago, homo nocturnus ruled the Earth, able to manipulate the forces of nature at their most basic level. Before the dawn of recorded history they were overthrown, leaving behind them only legends-our legends of shapeshifters and blood-drinkers, of cruel gods and evil magicians, of ogres and goblins, succubi and incubi. But a strain of their blood lives on in humanity, the genes themselves bending the forces of probability to reunite. Secret clans used their half-understood abilities to hide from the witch-finders and the normal humans; occasionally one would be detected, a Giles de Rais or an Elizabeth Bathory. Then, in the nineteenth century, the discoveries of Mendel and Darwin enabled them to understand what they were and to breed back the full range of their dark powers.
Now, in the twenty-first century, they rule the world again in secret; only the Brotherhood fights them, in a clandestine war of terror and assassination, of Wreaking and silver-inlaid knives. Adrian Breze was born into that war, but he defected to the side of humanity, and for decades he was the Brotherhood's most effective fighter, just as his twin sister Adrienne is the Council of Shadow's strongest. Now he has retired, weary of the endless struggle, but Adrienne has her own purposes, and they don't include letting her brother live quietly in his mountaintop retreat near Santa Fe. To force him out, she kidnaps his human lover, Ellen Tarnowski, and the war is on again-with the future of humanity at stake. For the Council of Shadows is ready to emerge into the light, with a plan that will reduce humans once again to the harried prey of the creatures of darkness.
Now, in the twenty-first century, they rule the world again in secret; only the Brotherhood fights them, in a clandestine war of terror and assassination, of Wreaking and silver-inlaid knives. Adrian Breze was born into that war, but he defected to the side of humanity, and for decades he was the Brotherhood's most effective fighter, just as his twin sister Adrienne is the Council of Shadow's strongest. Now he has retired, weary of the endless struggle, but Adrienne has her own purposes, and they don't include letting her brother live quietly in his mountaintop retreat near Santa Fe. To force him out, she kidnaps his human lover, Ellen Tarnowski, and the war is on again-with the future of humanity at stake. For the Council of Shadows is ready to emerge into the light, with a plan that will reduce humans once again to the harried prey of the creatures of darkness.
Author
S.M. Stirling
A well-regarded author of alternate history science-fiction novels, S.M. Stirling has written more than twenty-five books, including acclaimed collaborations with Anne McCaffrey, Jerry Pournelle, and David Drake. His most recent novels are T2: Infiltrator, The Peshawar Lancers, and the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy.
More audiobooks from S.M. Stirling
Shadowspawn The Peshawar Lancers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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A Taint in the Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Council of Shadows Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shadows of Falling Night: A Novel of the Shadowspawn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for A Taint in the Blood
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
31 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A disappointing read for me. I found the take on the magical was an interesting but in most other ways it felt like I was reading a BDSM bodice ripper (nothing against these just not what I was expecting / in the mood for).
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I listened to this on audio book as background noise while working. I also almost stopped because some of the the accents were difficult for me to get used to. They seriously grated on my nerves in the very beginning. But of course the more I listened I eventually got used to it and it wasn't so bad.
Adrian is a shadowspawn, hellspawn? demonspawn? The word they used already escapes me hah! But anyways think vampire but he's one that fights his nature - he doesn't want to drink blood and when he has to it gets it from a cold icky donated blood bag from The Red Cross. He figures he donates to the institution and he's a man in need of some volunteer blood from time to time. Someone has a guilty conscience much?
So he and his girlfriend Ellen just split and right about that time Adrian's evil twin sister comes to town and abducts her. Very unfortunate for us audio listeners her name is Adrienne. You know I might even have this backwards since I listened instead of reading it - so my spelling could be wrong here are their names. It doesn't matter really because in the audio it sounds almost freaking exactly the same when pronounced...kind of bugged me to no end. If I would have read it instead of listening I bet it wouldn't have bothered me so much.
As we move along Adrian gets pulled back into an organization he had retired from that are out to kill off the evil menace (they don't really do such a great job of it) - and he's off to rescue his kidnapped lady from said evil twin.
A few mild concerns: There was a touch bit of overload on info for me in this one but I think if I would have read it instead of listened to it I would have enjoyed it more. Some of the scenarios seems a wee bit convenient but what is fantasy if not convenient?
The telepathic talking portion with the long pauses between each word in the narration almost ended things for me entirely and I was a touch close to not continuing with the audio. Can you tell yet that I'm a sensitive freaking listener?
All things considered, it looks like it could be a good series so I'm going to continue. Though I'm going to skip book 2 and go straight to book 3 as part of a personal experiment. As I honestly didn't listen with undivided attention to this audio book and it was only given 1/3 of my attention while I went through my normal workday, my review might not be entirely fair. The third book I'm going to actually read in print so we'll see how it holds up to my - trying books later in a series as a 'standalone' experiment. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So - a variant (I'm not sure anything is really new anymore) on vampire/werewolf types. Clearly a setup for lots more, but a standalone.
Some fairly serious kink but without a huge amount of detail. Would be very triggery for abuse survivors, I think.
Ellen breaks up with her lover Adrian but is kidnapped by his evil sister. They are blooddrinkers, telepathic and shapeshifters. He'd hidden this from her. Sister is using her for bait and as a pawn in a larger game, keeping her as a "lucy," part of a stable of "food."
Stirling misses a few notes in some details. e.g. He's missed the memo that younger women are no longer wearing pantyhose, so having the high end designer provide them as part of fitting out Ellen.
Stirling does a workmanlike job with the "big picture" plot and I ended up liking both the "main" characters and seeing some appeal in the truly awful.
But expect a certain amount of eyerolling on the "oooh, she's a submissive and a bit of a masochist" stuff, even though it is done in a way that didn't have me pitching the book at the wall. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent first book I what I hope will be a long series. The evolutionary origin of Vampires/Shadowspawn is the most logical and consistant I have ever read and leads, again very logically, to why they feel and act the way the do, both the "good" vamps and the evil ones. Adrienne the evil sister is more evil than Hannibal Lector, the victims both Renfields and Lucys are reasonable and pitiful, especially Monica.I like series so it is a bit irrational of me to abject silghtly to how much Stirling has left for the next books, but I do.