15 March 2011

Avalon Revisited by O.M. Grey is the book I finished last night. It took me under four hours to read it.

That having been said, I guess I even enjoyed it, despite it not being at all what I had in mind when I picked it up. Kyle and I bought this book a couple of weeks ago at the North Texas Irish Festival. It was being sold by a young man in a small, but charming booth. The space was more elaborately decorated than most, catching my eye, of course. There was rich fabric, a tall counter, and an attractive wooden bookcase to one side. The bookshelves were filled with the books he was selling, and this was one of them. Also available was a trilogy that intrigued us, but which our budget that day stopped us from acquiring. The overall theme of the booth was fantasy “steampunk”–complete with an Emergency Vampire Slaying Kit, framed under glass.

We were charmed by the effort that went into the product presentation, and as both Kyle and I have recently been reading other Victorian/steampunk/vampire stories, our interest was piqued enough to make Kyle pull out his wallet.
Although not at all impressed with the book’s cover, I was tickled by the blurb on the back. It told me the main character’s name was a vampire named Arthur, his love interest was a vampire slayer named Avalon, and it was a “sexy, Steampunk romance,” I was in.

What I didn’t realize until I’d read into the book … about five pages … was that “sexy” meant “seriously not for the shy or prudish!” I have certainly read my fair share of smut, but it’s been a while, and I was a tiny bit put off by the use of words like “shaft” and “petals” and descriptions of corset-ripping that culminated in the vampire killing his first victim by page 18. I have been known to brag about not reading “romance” novels … I am amused by them and I have dear friends who can’t get enough of them. But, it’s not my thing.

The book was reading quickly, though, so I stuck with it. And, in true romance fashion, our main character does fall in love by Chapter Three. Thankfully, this changes his outlook on things and in fact he does no more killing of innocent humans until the climax of the story itself, when he does so only to save his true love’s life–and then, they’re not so innocent. The pages in between deal with his various relationships and how he has juggled the life of an English nobleman with the life of a three-hundred year-old vampire. Arthur, the elder son of Henry VIII, by the way—a detail which I especially enjoyed—sees his first love, Katherine (of Aragon) all over again when he sees Avalon, and his heart is captured. Since she’s a sworn vampire slayer, the conflict is obvious.

After admitting I was in fact reading a romance novel, and adjusting to the occasional descriptive sex scenes, my main disappointment was that I felt this could have been any vampire romance … the Steampunk element was very weak. It’s there—the lovers meet on a dirigible airship flight; there are a couple of wrist-worn technological devices and a mirrored locket reported to detect vampires; and there are some descriptions of the Victoran clothing worn, although those lacked the detail I would have expected. But, it seemed like there was much in the way of Steampunk aesthetics that could have been included and wasn’t.

All in all, Avalon Revisited is a fun enough read, but I can’t say as I’d truly recommend it. I will say, however, that the writing quality was good enough, that I am still interested in reading the trilogy by the same author. I think Ronnie may have purchased those … I may see about borrowing them. I will look forward to hearing Kyle’s report on reading Avalon Revisited. He has much more experience with reading the Steampunk genre, and as such, I would give more weight to his review than to mine.

First sentence: “I was to be the King of England.”

~MB

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