Robots and Vamps

Reviewed by Matt

The jacket cover of this book really piqued my interest. So, I decided to dip my toe in the urban fantasy pool once again and unfortunately, I came away disappointed once again. Maybe I should just stick with Jim Butcher and Mike Carey to fill my urban fantasy craving from now on.

The main character, Te Evangeline, is your typically angst ridden girl who has lead somewhat of a lonely life. She is aware that there is supernatural world beyond this one but has never taken it seriously. Her current employer, Babu Cherian, was her father’s friend and cohort. Robert Evangeline, Te’s farther, died several years ago and Babu promised him that he would watch over his daughter and keep her away from the family business.

The story takes place in city called St. Ives. St. Ives is one of the many menageries or zoos in the world that hold deadly supernatural creatures. Every so often one the creatures will escape forcing Babu and his team to track the creature down and put them back into their cage. Since the creatures are immortal and cannot be killed, they do not like being kept eternally inside their dark cages. So when one of them breaks loose, they have blood lust on their minds and innocent people will continue to die until they are stopped.

One of the most interesting aspects of the story is how the team must track and capture the deadly creatures. Typically, there is Tracker who locates the creature for the rest of the team. In the novel, Lester the vampire is the usual tracker and he is very good at it. After the creature is found, the Suppressors must weaken the creature typically through physical means. This is done by a combination of characters, Babu with his gun or Munin with his toy ray gun. If this doesn’t work then Babu has to check his brother out from the mental ward. His brother is able to create mental “static” that causes any supernatural to go down quickly. After the creature is subdued, the Binder is brought in to mentally bring the creature under control and take it back to their cage.

Te’s father was one of the best Binder’s that ever existed but he died by mysterious means. Babu wants Te to take Robert’s place on the team, but he did make a promise to his friend and has not forced Te to follow in her father’s footsteps. So he allows her to accompany him on his supernatural investigations but will let her to become too involved.

But now the proverbial shit has hit the fan and hell has broken loose. One of the most dangerous creatures, Kitsune, has escaped his jail and is looking to release all of the creatures into St. Ives. Babu is forced to bring Te into action but he discovers that she maybe more dangerous than the creatures they are hunting.  Te also begins to uncover her father’s past and learns that she may have different destiny. In short order, Te and Babu end up on the opposite of a conflict that has raged since beggining of time.

What I liked:

Mr. Peters has really developed an unique world inside the city of St. Ives. I really enjoyed the premise of a team hunting down supernatural creatures. Each of the characters within Babu’s team have their own distinctive powers and personalities that it made it entertaining to read about. This part of the novel was a lot of fun and I wished it would have continued in this direction.

What I didn’t like:

For me, I could never get used to Mr. Peter’s writing style. It was hard for me to sit and read large chunks of the book without becoming bored. He would endlessly describe certain concepts, like Te’s visions, that would drone on forever.  I really wanted to like this novel but it just didn’t click.

Last word:

The essence of a good yarn is present in this novel but is drowned out by tedious prose. Your mileage will vary but this book was a challenge for me to finish as I became disinterested by the last third of story.

To discuss this book, please visit Robots and Vamps Book Club