Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155271 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In L.A. Banks's debut novel, Minion, a tough, sexy new vampire-huntress challenges the dominance of Anita Blake and Buffy. In fiction, film and TV, vampires are a dominant trend of the young millennium. Is it is because the blood-suckers are a perfect metaphor for corrupt politicians and corporate executives? Because alternative sexualities are gaining acceptance? Because the idea of living forever (even if undead) is so alluring? The reasons are unclear. What is clear is that the hottest subgenre (in both popularity and sensuality) is the vampire-huntress subgenre, thanks to Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter and Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Damali Richards is a rising star of Warriors of Light Records--but her fans would never guess that she is also the most important vampire-hunter in a millennium. However, unfortunately for the inexperienced young huntress, the vampires and demons have discovered her existence. An age-old war escalates to unprecedented heights of violence as the dark forces strive to slay Damali before she comes of age and gains her full powers.

Damali is an appealing heroine, the concept is intriguing and the series is promising. However, the first novel is rocky. Damali is a vampire-killing martial artist, and Minion presents an epic struggle between good and evil, yet the novel neglects to include a climactic battle between Damali and the bad guys (or much of a climax at all; a sequel is obviously forthcoming). Another problem is that Damali's teacher withholds crucial information from not only the huntress, but also her guardians. In contrast, the characters frequently tell each other things they already know. Readers craving the twisted erotic charge of the Anita Blake novels or the Buffy-Spike relationship may be dissatisfied that sexual tension is less important to Minion; and readers seeking Hamiltonian melodrama may also be disappointed. --Cynthia Ward, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

It was okay
If you're looking for another Anita Blake book and are seriously frustrated because (like me) you've read them all, don't expect this book to solve your frustrations. It will only make them worse. Minion attempts to enter Anita Blake's playing field with a vampire slayer somewhat like Buffy. Every 1000 years a venetu (vamp slayer) is born... you get the picture?

The cover of this book is nice, and the idea is good. The guardians and slayer being artists in a band is okay too, but what isn't okay is the way the book just ends. There is no climatic good vs evil ending, no fight with the master vamp and slayer going at it hammer and tongs. Nothing. It just stops. There is a second book coming in January, but I think it should be called the second HALF of this one.

Minion is only half a story. It left me feeling annoyed and frustrated. Maybe if I had the second one already, I would have given this one more stars, but maybe not too. This book does not stand up on its own. It really does need a proper ending.

Completely and utterly disappointed
Laurell K rocks but L.A. Banks belongs to one of those grunge bands which has a small dedicated following and which noone else has ever heard of or ever wants to. It was too hard to establish empathy or even a particular liking for the main characters. The use of "my bad" over and over and over and over again just about drove me up the wall. It's not a UK expression and so it was unfamiliar although not too hard to figure out. Or so I thought. Every so often a character would use it with an obviously different (and still incomprehensible) meaning and the plot of an entire page would become meaningless nonsense because of it. So many times I was thrown out of the flow of the book that I gave it up as a bad job! It was a niggly thing, but written into the dialogue so often it became so irritating that it overcast the entire book. Would I buy another. Not on your nelly!

What a major diappointment!
What a dreadful shame. I had really high hopes for this. It was billed as somewhere between Anita Blake (Laurell Hamilton) and Buffy but didn't deliver. I love my horror fiction atmospheric, full of great characters and with a thumping good plot. This disappoints on all counts being instead a muddle with no real story or climax. It is poorly written and has committed that unpardonable sin of taking a basically good premis and soundly killing it. Don't buy any books by LA Banks until she learns to actually write. Stick with the experts- Laurell Hamilton, Kim Wilkins, Tanya Huff, Mercedes Lackey (horror NOT her SF) and Kelley Armstrong. Save your money.