Demon Dance (Vampire Gene, #3) by Sam Stone

Demon Dance (Vampire Gene, #3) Reviews

• 
  Michele Brenton

  This is the first book I have read by Sam Stone and it is the third in a series about Vampires with a difference.
  
  Not my usual choice of reading matter but I thoroughly enjoyed it and read it swiftly from cover to cover over a couple of days.
  
  I found I was swallowed up by the world/s she created and the characters were well drawn and didn't strain credibility at all once I was inside the story - which took a paragraph at most.
  
  No boring bits. I usually find myself skin reading a book on first parse - but this one kept me gripped enough to read properly from the start.
  
  The best compliment I can pay this book is that it has made me want to read all the others by the same author now. I can recommend this unreservedly. Glad I stepped outside my comfort zone and expanded my horizons.
• 
  Raven Dane

  Sam Stone , that most intelligent and sensuous of authors of vampire literature has done it again with the third in the Vampire Gene trilogy. Demon Dance continues the reading equivalent of treating yourself to a divinely decadent night lounging on a velvet-draped sofa, drinking vintage blood red wine and being fed luxury chocolates by a handsome or beautiful lover... Demon Dance is sometimes shocking, always intruiging and never predicatable...What more could any lover of beautifully written gothic literature desire?
• 
  Laura Summers

  Reviewed for
  www.bookchickcity.com (7 out of 10 on the blog)
  
  "Demon Dance" takes quite a different turn to the first two books in the series. In previous books we read Gabriele and Lucrezia's stories, which with the exception of the end sequence in 'Futile Flame', were appealing to me as they were vampires and stalkers living amidst the real world. Lilly's story was a lot more fantastical.
  
  It requires the reader to make a few more leaps or faith, with the magical and manipulative Allucian species playing a very important part in the story. At first I felt a little like a duck out of water, and found it hard to grasp that Lilly ended up in what I perceived to be the Garden of Eden. You have to ride through these pages until you become submerged into her story.
  
  Once again, we're taken on a fascinating journey through time as Lilly's story begins to unfold. A wickedly dark life outside of the rules and regulations of normal society. The narrative jumps from century to century as we see Lilly's life in different times and on different lives. And what struck me the most was just how clever it was. How all the different strands in the earlier books all led to this one, and how everything begins and ends with Lilly. There were several big twists I really did not see coming.
  
  I'm not sure I liked Lilly as much as a lead character as I did Gabriele and Lucrezia, while beautiful, I don't think she was as darkly seductive as the other two. Although she is perhaps the one I'd be more likely to be friends with. She also made some choices with regard to her love life that I disagreed with. And, despite being the most magically adept and knowledgable of the three, ironically at times, she did come across occasionally as the least worldly. Never the less I did still very much enjoy her novel.
  
  This book is gothic and macabre and once again I found myself being seduced by the darkness of Stone's vampires. Her characters are sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, but very compelling. The novel continues once more with strong themes of sex, violence, rape. The relationships between each of the characters are complicated to say the least, but this aside you cannot help by becoming hooked by their stories. These are vampires that very much sit in the horror genre, but are still darkly appealing as lead characters.
  
  VERDICT:
  
  This books nicely pulls together all of the threads of the series. If you're looking to return to dark and gothic vampires, then Stone gives you a chance to escape from the sparkly and romantic. I'd thought this book was the end of the trilogy, but Stone could very easily pick the story up again, it will be interesting to see if she does.
  
• 
  Michele Lee

  Sam Stone is without a doubt the heir apparent to the legacy abandoned by Anne Rice. Demon Dance is the third book in her Vampire Gene trilogy, which spans across two millennium while remaining intimately tied to four primary characters. In this volume new vampire Lilly has stepped through a mysterious door in time and space and finds herself on a journey though history to protect her own vampiric legacy.
  
  Stone's prose is richly textured, vividly detailed and her vampires are the super-powered, fickle-emotioned monster horror fans have grown up on. One of the better small press offerings out there, and more affordable than limited editions to boot, Stone's Vampire Gene trilogy (Killing Kiss, Futile Flame, Demon Dance) really shouldn't be overlooked by curators looking to build and excellent horror collection.
  
  Contains: Violence, language
• 
  Monster

  Sam Stone is without a doubt the heir apparent to the legacy abandoned by Anne Rice. Demon Dance is the third book in her Vampire Gene trilogy, which spans across two millennia while remaining intimately tied to four primary characters. In this volume, new vampire Lilly has stepped through a mysterious door in time and space and finds herself on a journey though history to protect her own vampiric legacy.
  
  Stone's prose is richly textured and vividly detailed, and her vampires are the super-powered, fickle, and chaotic monsters horror fans have grown up on. One of the better small press offerings out there, and more affordable than limited editions to boot, Stone's Vampire Gene trilogy (Killing Kiss, Futile Flame, Demon Dance) really shouldn't be overlooked by librarians looking to build and excellent horror collection.
  
  Contains: Violence, language
  Reviewed by: Michele Lee
• 
  Diane

  I met Sam Stone at the SFX conference and although this is not my normal type of reading, I liked her so much I bought the first three in this series. This was my clear favourite so far - and readers should be pre-armed with the knowledge that this is definitely not Twilight.
  
  I quote: "Licking my lips I felt glutted on blood and not the least bit happy with my loss of control. But I don't make excuses for myself. I don't sparkle in the sunlight. I'm the real deal. I'm a vampire. I drink blood. I kill. And sometimes I really get off on it".
  
  
• 
  Terry Martin

  Well, I have to give this five stars as I had a hand in editing it. I'd be a fool not to. It's the third in the Vampire Gene series and ties up most of the ends nicely - yet also leaves it open for more. . .