The Red Serpent Trilogy, by Rishabh Jain and Delson Armstrong

 Not only are vampires real, they have taken over Earth and driven the humans away.  Alex, born to a human mother and a vampire father, is Chosen One of prophecy, the one who can destroy vampires forever.  But to Vampires, he is the Falsifier, the one who will hasten the second coming of the vampire god.  Will Alex be able to come to terms with the warring factions of his ancestry?  If forced to choose a side, which will he chose?

I will start off by saying that the author of this book is very young to be undertaking writing a published book.  I give him a lot of credit for pursing his creativity.  However, I think his youth is quite apparent in his writing.  First off, the book starts with an historical introduction to the story that accomplishes setting the scene and developing the story world.  But it reads like an encyclopedia entry, and for me, it simply felt like cheating.  I want the scene to be set within the context of the story, not through an introduction presented in outline form.  Similarly, I found the characters to lack a lot of development.  I felt that the whole story was presented at arms' length, never allowing the reader to get close, and really care about the characters.

The story develops at a very fast pace.  Part of the reason this happens is the author tells us a lot of the action, as opposed to showing it to us.  Again, this keeps the story distant, and made me feel as if I were reading a book report of a lengthier, more substantial book.  I just found it very hard to get into.  

I thought this was a creative spin on vampirism, pairing it with Christian apocalyptic themes and creating its own mythology.  And  I think the story shows a lot of promise, as does the author.  I just want to see more depth in the story, the characters, and allowing the scene to be set naturally within the context of the story itself.  Fans of sci fi will probably like it, as it has a lot of sci fi elements, as opposed to paranormal ones traditionally associated with vampires.  

I received a review copy courtesy of Tribute Book Tours, in return for my honest review.  The rest of the tour can be viewed here.


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