Vampirates: Blood Captain

Pirates, vampires and an inordinate amount of blood and gore combine with the intention to thrill in this, Number 3 in the series.

In essence there are two strands. In one Connor, the brother, leads a precarious pirate life and experiences the remorse of killing his first victim. His sister Grace meanwhile, lives and learns in a remote sanctuary where sick vampires go to be taught how to deal with eternity. Their stories touch and blend, sometimes actually and sometimes telepathically, whilst around them a host of larger than life characters fight, betray, seek the upper hand and sometimes die.

There would have been an advantage to have read the other books in the series, but nevertheless there is plenty here to entertain and it definitely stimulates wider questions about wellbeing, duty and conscience.

At 544 pages it’s a whopper but the crafted suspense keeps the pages turning fairly quickly. Serial adventure readers will no doubt take it aboard!