"Apocalypse meets the old west!"
Mariah lives in an area called the New Badlands, along with
her faithful companion Chaplin—an Intel Dog. This is the
place her father brought her to from their Dallas home
after the attack—the attack that her mother and brother
died in. Mariah was forever scarred by that attack too.
Mariah's father worked in a lab in technology—how she
managed to get an Intel Dog. Also why their underground
home has the technology it does, like the visz screens
Mariah is currently watching. There's a man outside and
Mariah can't help but wonder if he's one of Stamp's gang.
Ever since Stamp came out here to the New Badlands, the
community Mariah is a part of keeps expecting trouble. The
New Badlands is a desolate, hot, godforsaken area where
simply surviving is difficult enough. Why Stamp came out
here, no one can figure out, much less what he will do to
their community. When Chaplin keeps insisting that Mariah
bring the man inside and help him, Mariah is not thrilled
and really doesn't want to. Against her better judgment,
she brings him in. Mariah is definitely not the trusting
sort and watches him like a hawk as he sleeps. Gabriel managed to keep the fact he's a vampire hidden when
he was attacked by the gang of ruffians. Now that he's
inside an underground dwelling, he's hoping he'll be safe.
The only reason he even came to the New Badlands was to
follow Abby. For some reason, Abby was able to help Gabriel
retain some of his humanity and he needs her. He doesn't
like what he was before he met Abby. If nothing else,
Gabriel has managed to make the Intel Dog his familiar.
With his vampire abilities, it doesn't take him long to
heal and the next day, Gabriel goes into a sort of
community room where all the different members of the clan
can get together with Chaplin. There are tunnel doors to
all the different underground dwellings. He meets Zel, who
used to be a cop, and the Oldster there and asks about
Abby. Not surprisingly, they're all pretty closed-mouthed
about everything and even though they tell him about an
Annie who was there for a time, Gabriel can sense they're
not being totally honest with him, not that he's about to
use his vampiric abilities on them. He doesn't want them to
know he's a vampire. After all, if it becomes known there's
a vampire in the community, Shredders might come and kill
them all for harboring them. Will Gabriel ever find out what happened to his Abby? What
of the attraction between him and Mariah? Exactly what is
this community hiding? What does Stamp have planned for
them? BLOODLANDS, BOOK 1 (A NOVEL OF THE BLOODLANDS) is a
thrilling, apocalyptic story with a wild west feel.
Christine Cody has outdone herself in coming up with such a
bleak setting for her tale. The whole world just came alive
through her words. The heat, the dust, the despair. And we
have Mariah, a very complicated heroine. Wounded after the
attack on her family, alone now since her father's suicide—
something she still feels guilty about—and trying to deal
with the feelings Gabriel is bringing out in her. Not to
mention, the huge secret she's keeping. Then there's
Gabriel, a still new vampire trying to hang onto his
humanity in spite of what he's become. He wants redemption
more than anything, but without his Abby, will he ever be
able to find it? Everything about this story is so well
written. And the ending came as a total shock to me. Very
highly recommend this book.
Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted July 12, 2011
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The New Badlands—a desolate area in the West forged by the terrible events that altered the entire country, where a few frightened citizens retreated underground to shelter from the brutal weather . . . and from a society gone deadly dangerous. Then the vampire arrived—and they started calling it the Bloodlands. Not because Gabriel, the so-called monster running from his true self, was searching for his lover’s murderer. Nor because Mariah, the woman who reluctantly took him in, was willing to do anything to survive in the changed world. No, the Badlands officially became the Bloodlands the moment a gun-for-hire who’d decided to slay every monster left in the country came after Gabriel . . .
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