Product Description

Christine Feehan has worked magic on a legion of fans with her darkly thrilling Carpathian tales. Now she delivers the provocative story of a female vampire slayer who proves as seductive-and mysterious-as the night dwellers she stalks...

For as long as she can remember, Natalya has been fighting demons: first in the form of childhood nightmares, then later, immortal creatures that kill and prey on the innocent-including her own twin brother. Whether Carpathian or vampire, she slays those who murder by night, and has no equal-until she is seduced by the very thing she considers her enemy...

A Carpathian who has seen nearly everything in his endless existence, Vikirnoff doesn't think he can be surprised anymore-until he faces a woman who rivals him as a vampire hunter. A formidable and gifted warrior in her own right, Natalya has a nature that is strangely familiar-yet alien-to his own. Who is this mysterious female who fears no one-not even him? Natalya could be the key to the survival of the Carpathians, but all Vikirnoff is certain of is that she is the key to his heart and soul...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10880 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 560 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780515140880
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Much better than the most recent installments
Like many of the most devoted Feehan fans, I too have been feeling like one of my most treasured series was getting bland and boring! After reading all the reviews I was prepared to be dissatisfied with "Dark Demon." Well, low and behold, I loved it! The H/H were great, but what I loved most was the added lore (Wizards, Dragons, ect.). Seeing the old characters was wonderful because they were some of my favorites, and the main battle scene was awesome. I thought the intimacy aspect was touched on perfectly, personally I always feel like her sex scenes are so redundant that I don't need an excess of them. This story line with the heroine being Dragonseeker added immensely to this latest installment. I definitely could have done without the second language, especially when it isn't translated as your reading. I also wish she would divide the stories into sequenced groups or families so that we could better enjoy the series. I already feel that I need to go back and read previous books so that I can enjoy the newer installments more. But, at this point it wouldn't help. We were introduced with "Dark Prince" and the following stayed pretty consistent. Then she broke off a bit with the "Troubadours." Which was fine, but then she introduces us to the eldest hunters thought to be long dead, which I loved but this is where it gets confusing. Why oh why doesn't she finish with the elders, then the Jungle De La Cruz Brothers then the Wizards and Dragons. I'm so confused it's ridiculous! She tries to explain that the publishers are behind the confusion on her web site, there you can read more about the history and background but it's not all that helpful. I will say that after reading "Dark Demon" my faith in her future is restored and I am again looking forward to the next with a lot more enthusiasm, all the confusion aside.

Over the Top - and Not In A Good Way
In a way, Dark Demon is sort-of a wrap-up book of several plot lines that Feehan has had going for the last few years. We finally get to revisit the wizard cave and find out what the vampires have been searching for desperately enough to actually band together. We see the master vampire, and realize that magic and chemistry are being used to enhance his powers and those of his followers. We also get to finally see Vikirnoff (Dark Destiny) find his lifemate, Natalya, kin to the famous Dragonseeker clan. While the story is satisfying because it weaves several threads together to answer many questions, it disappointed me on several levels.

First of all, there is none of the deep and satisfying "getting to know you" interaction between Natalya and Vik. While the beginning of the book started out promising enough in this regard, their relationship was quickly cast aside in favor of violence and fight scenes - LOTS of fight scenes.

Second, other interactions were discarded in favor of action. 1. When Natalya meets her uncle, Dominic, for the first time, it was like, "oh, hi". 2. Vik doesn't ever contact his brother Nicolae to tell him he found a lifemate. What's up with that? 3. When the other Carpathians finally meet Natalya, it's like, "so what?" Isn't a new lifemate to a Carpathian a BFD?

Spoilers here - Other questions arose -Falcon's lifemate Sarah displayed power when she forged the sword, what kind of power was it, what is it called and what else can she do? Why does she have power, when she is such a new Carpathian, or was this something all the women can do? Natalya was converted to the Carpathians. Her tiger form came with her and so did her magic, but why didn't she grow in magical strength as her niece Colby did after her conversion in Dark Secret? Did the skin graft on her ankle leave with her conversion? Natalya's chemistry experiments were altered by Gary and then by someone else to cause the new parasite vampire blood. Can it be eliminated, and what else does it do? Lots of plot holes in this story.

And lastly, actually my largest complaint - What's with this stupid Carpathian language? How over the top can you possibly be? I DON'T want to learn a new language, which is basically a mixture of Finnish and Hungarian. I DON'T want to read stupid endearments in it every 5 minutes. It disrupts the flow of the story. I DON'T care about the translations - which were just as stupid. I DON'T want to pay 9.99 for a book with 30 pages devoted to an appendix of the Carpathian healing chant in the new language and various translations of certain phrases. Give me a break!

Author Feehan has developed a pretty interesting and fascinating world with her Carpathians, but she did it on romance, interaction between two main characters and tastefully done sex scenes. Since Dark Symphony, Feehan has started to vear from what made this series so successful. With each book since then, she has ventured more and more into a world building more similar to fantasy fiction than romance. I'm not sure I like the new direction, and I don't think a lot of her fans will either.

Review
I've read most of Christine Feehan's Dark Series, and enjoyed them overall.

This book was no different.

What I didn't like:
Now again, I've read and enjoyed most of Feehan's books, but yes, the basic plot line, character presentation and dialogue does get repetitive. The differences are very subtle at times... too subtle.

I didn't like the way Vikirnoff treated Mikhail in the beginning...as if he [Mikhail] was a child needing a babysitter. How annoying! Which again made the ending fantastic. (No worries, I won't tell)

I could've done without the Carpathian language at the end. I would've preferred a preview of Dark Celebration, her new book soon to come out. (That's just me though)

What I liked:
I liked Natayla's abilities. The lady had Carpathian and mage blood in her, and that was awesome. Her magic made her a formidable opponent, and her fighting abilities were on a par with Vikirnoff's. She was strong, independent, and very skilled in her powers and abilities. She was Vikirnoff's equal in every way. Yes, she did tend to be slightly annoying at times (resisting the idea of being lifemates in the beginning to the point of extreme annoyance as all the female leads do at times) but overall I enjoyed her. Oh, one definite plus was her jealousy and seeing how she reacted at other women being near her man. That was funny and endearing, considering the men are always seen as the jealous type. Women can get jealous too!

I loved, absolutely loved, seeing the other characters from Feehan's previous stories in this book, especially Mikhail, Raven and Gregori.

The action scenes-this seemed to bother many people, but I loved them, especially the last action scene where...all right I won't give it away. Personally, I think Feehan has too many sex scenes, which can quickly become tiresome so I'm usually happy to get back to the dialogue/action scenes.

And the new introduction of characters like wizards and dragons, and others (who may not have been new but I hadn't read their stories) were all very nice. All the new details helped give more information about the Carpathians and the world they lived in.

Overall
I liked the book. I liked the wizards, the dragons, the new characters and enemies, the action scenes and the reappearance of old characters. The two lovers weren't as engaging to me as some of the others from Feehan's stories, but they did all right.