Post by MayanApocolypse on Dec 30, 2006 1:37:39 GMT -5
I love this series. Come to realize it, it's the first supernatural series/book I've read outside of manga.
Mythos:
VAMPIRES
A vampire's power grows with age. Mostly a matter of fine-tuning. Whenever you're embraced the body is slow and sluggish, though you can already sense a certain amount of power and have heightened senses. It takes a bit of time to get used to the body, the new strength, the way it moves, and everything. But they also have an innate power cap that can be changed by very few things. Not everyone can become a master vampire.
Vampires burn in sunlight (standard myth, really) and thus have an innate fear of it. Well, more like immortal terror. However, a high enough power level can enable a vampire to wake and walk in sunlight. The higher the power level, the less they're asleep during the day. One part of the novel confirmed that vampires die when they sleep. Their soul actually leaves the body.
Vampires can be hurt by crosses, but only by someone of the faith. If you're Wiccan, the cross does nothing. If you're Christian or Catholic, the cross works. A cross is not faith, it's only a symbol. A cross also glows white-hot when near a vampire. A vampire pressing a cross to a "normal's" skin will burn both the "normal" and the vampire. Holy water will also burn.
Vampires have an animal to call. Well, I think master vampires have an animal to call, not all vampires. That particular were-creature is also their animal to call and command.
Different lineages have different abilities. Jean-Claude's (yes, that's where I got the name and image) of the line of Belle Morte, and a few of her line have her ability to attract and seduce. ... There's a lot of sex in these books as you get further on. Incubus Dreams, her second-to-last, was rushed by her publishers and so it was mostly sex. Danse Macabre was much better.
Sometimes a vampire can have children, but they usually have to be recently embraced. The problem is that the child could come out as a monster, resulting from Vlad's Syndrome. They do have prenatal tests for Vlad's Syndrome, as well as something (forgot what it's called) that results from conceiving while the person was in his were form.
LYCANTHROPES
Yes, lycans. Why? Because for almost every animal, there's a werecreature for it. And they have different ways of working together. The werewolves, for instance, go off of Nordic mythology in their namings. The pack is headed by the Ulfric, with his mate, who is the Lupa. A werewolf challenging to be Ulfric was Fenrir. The leader of the werelions was the Rex, the leader of the wereleapords was something else. The leader of the wererats was the Rat King. Not all weres are the result of the lycanthropy disease. Some are the result of curses, such as the were swans.
They don't necessarily have to shift, even during the full moon, but it's difficult at time. Another were creature can even call the beast of another, if they're of the same species, resulting in them shifting. Shifting will kill an unborn child if the lycan is pregnant. The last I remember was 4 months and counting, and that was spectacular.
A rare ability is for lycans to partially shift. Like vampires, not all lycans are made the same. Not everyone has the strength to become leader of the pack, whatever that leader is called. Most packs of different species don't tend to get along, though that's changing a bit in the city this story takes place in.
OTHER
There are many others. Anita, for instance, is an animator. This means she can raise the dead, up to a certain extent. It takes some sort of sacrifice to do so as well. Blood, death... either will do.
Different powers feel different to types of psychics. Anyone with power has some level of psychic ability, since that's what it stems from. Animators and vampires, for instance, have the cold chill of death. Werewolves and other lycans have the heat of passion and hunt.
Now here's the cool part... they've all been legalized. Anita is a legally registered Vampire Executioner. Doesn't mean she can randomly kill vampires, only when they break the law. Unfortunately, jailing vampires doesn't work, so executing the murders is all they can do. Usually she's killing them as they're trying to kill her, so there's very little "what if they're innocent?" stuff going on. You're not allowed to be embraced under the age of 18. Those who were already child vampires have been grandfathered in. Same with werecreatures. There's still bias, of course, but everyone being legal is a rather recent thing. Some people are even donors of sort, though I forget what they're called. But they have multiple vampire bites.
It's hard to describe it all. It's a very intricate world setting. I will say that it isn't at all a book for children. Aside from the near-constant sex by Incubus Dreams. However, Guilty Pleasures and the other early books are quite fascinating without getting into that sort of stuff. Each book is also named after a place in the setting.
Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
The Lunatic Cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus In Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams
Danse Macabre
Other books are Micah (a small extra piece involving a certain wereleopard, set between Incubus Dreams and Danse Macabre) and Strange Candy (which has two stories set in Anita's world, and one that had started Anita's world as she'd first created it). She also has a Fae series in a different world setting, but I've never read it. I'm still trying to find the one Star Trek novel she wrote, back before she wrote this sort of thing.
Mythos:
VAMPIRES
A vampire's power grows with age. Mostly a matter of fine-tuning. Whenever you're embraced the body is slow and sluggish, though you can already sense a certain amount of power and have heightened senses. It takes a bit of time to get used to the body, the new strength, the way it moves, and everything. But they also have an innate power cap that can be changed by very few things. Not everyone can become a master vampire.
Vampires burn in sunlight (standard myth, really) and thus have an innate fear of it. Well, more like immortal terror. However, a high enough power level can enable a vampire to wake and walk in sunlight. The higher the power level, the less they're asleep during the day. One part of the novel confirmed that vampires die when they sleep. Their soul actually leaves the body.
Vampires can be hurt by crosses, but only by someone of the faith. If you're Wiccan, the cross does nothing. If you're Christian or Catholic, the cross works. A cross is not faith, it's only a symbol. A cross also glows white-hot when near a vampire. A vampire pressing a cross to a "normal's" skin will burn both the "normal" and the vampire. Holy water will also burn.
Vampires have an animal to call. Well, I think master vampires have an animal to call, not all vampires. That particular were-creature is also their animal to call and command.
Different lineages have different abilities. Jean-Claude's (yes, that's where I got the name and image) of the line of Belle Morte, and a few of her line have her ability to attract and seduce. ... There's a lot of sex in these books as you get further on. Incubus Dreams, her second-to-last, was rushed by her publishers and so it was mostly sex. Danse Macabre was much better.
Sometimes a vampire can have children, but they usually have to be recently embraced. The problem is that the child could come out as a monster, resulting from Vlad's Syndrome. They do have prenatal tests for Vlad's Syndrome, as well as something (forgot what it's called) that results from conceiving while the person was in his were form.
LYCANTHROPES
Yes, lycans. Why? Because for almost every animal, there's a werecreature for it. And they have different ways of working together. The werewolves, for instance, go off of Nordic mythology in their namings. The pack is headed by the Ulfric, with his mate, who is the Lupa. A werewolf challenging to be Ulfric was Fenrir. The leader of the werelions was the Rex, the leader of the wereleapords was something else. The leader of the wererats was the Rat King. Not all weres are the result of the lycanthropy disease. Some are the result of curses, such as the were swans.
They don't necessarily have to shift, even during the full moon, but it's difficult at time. Another were creature can even call the beast of another, if they're of the same species, resulting in them shifting. Shifting will kill an unborn child if the lycan is pregnant. The last I remember was 4 months and counting, and that was spectacular.
A rare ability is for lycans to partially shift. Like vampires, not all lycans are made the same. Not everyone has the strength to become leader of the pack, whatever that leader is called. Most packs of different species don't tend to get along, though that's changing a bit in the city this story takes place in.
OTHER
There are many others. Anita, for instance, is an animator. This means she can raise the dead, up to a certain extent. It takes some sort of sacrifice to do so as well. Blood, death... either will do.
Different powers feel different to types of psychics. Anyone with power has some level of psychic ability, since that's what it stems from. Animators and vampires, for instance, have the cold chill of death. Werewolves and other lycans have the heat of passion and hunt.
Now here's the cool part... they've all been legalized. Anita is a legally registered Vampire Executioner. Doesn't mean she can randomly kill vampires, only when they break the law. Unfortunately, jailing vampires doesn't work, so executing the murders is all they can do. Usually she's killing them as they're trying to kill her, so there's very little "what if they're innocent?" stuff going on. You're not allowed to be embraced under the age of 18. Those who were already child vampires have been grandfathered in. Same with werecreatures. There's still bias, of course, but everyone being legal is a rather recent thing. Some people are even donors of sort, though I forget what they're called. But they have multiple vampire bites.
It's hard to describe it all. It's a very intricate world setting. I will say that it isn't at all a book for children. Aside from the near-constant sex by Incubus Dreams. However, Guilty Pleasures and the other early books are quite fascinating without getting into that sort of stuff. Each book is also named after a place in the setting.
Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
The Lunatic Cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus In Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams
Danse Macabre
Other books are Micah (a small extra piece involving a certain wereleopard, set between Incubus Dreams and Danse Macabre) and Strange Candy (which has two stories set in Anita's world, and one that had started Anita's world as she'd first created it). She also has a Fae series in a different world setting, but I've never read it. I'm still trying to find the one Star Trek novel she wrote, back before she wrote this sort of thing.