Thrall (Legend of the Fallen Empire, Book 1)

Silvius, best known for male/male fantasy romances (The Storm Lords), trods well-scoured territory with this vampire bildungsroman. The protagonist is initially a nameless, nearly mindless thrall who registers only hunger and his vampire master’s orders. Is it rookie ineptitude or a spark of something else that causes him to fail to satisfy either compulsion? The vampire flings all his minions against an experienced vampire hunter, Johann, who kills most of the cohort. Yet Johann seems as incapable of killing this one thrall as the thrall is of killing Johann. As the two parley, Johann reveals that the thrall’s name is Kaiden. Johann is convinced Kaiden has great potential­—and could maybe even be a solution to the society-destroying threat of the vampire lords—but the evidence supporting this theory is thin. Instead, Kaiden comes across as a goth Forrest Gump, stumbling into adventure and significance despite a near-total lack of intentionality. Neither a romance nor fantasy adventure, the story seems primarily an exploration of a difficult voice: technically adept, but no page-turner. (Oct.)