I really, desperately wanted to love
Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden but unfortunately this one fell far short of the mark for me. It has all the hallmarks of the kind of tale that I'd adore, I mean, c'mon ... a vampire elf. (Yes, I'm sort of crunchy that way. If an idea is well executed, I'll gobble it up.)
Except this novel could have benefited greatly at the hands of a developmental editor. It's one thing having a story chock full of tropes. It's quite another if you don't find a way to subvert them in some way to give them nuance and overturn readers' expectations. And it's not just the head hopping that drove me dilly, it's also the shallow writing in terms of character development – there was next to no layering, and the prose is adequate at best.
Granted, if you're a huge fan of the setting, and you're into the RPG, you most likely won't be as critical as I am, but truth be told, this read more like hastily dashed off fanfiction than a well-rounded narrative. If the writing had delivered, I would have been won over to enjoy all the Gothic high drama this story packs, but this was not the case. Or maybe I just went into this expecting too much. I don't know. At any rate, I came away disappointed.
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