The Nightman's Odessy Action, Adventure, Historical Fantasy, Vampire
Epic Publishing
Dec !9, 2023
Kindle
397
Amazon
Listed in the Top 5 authors of supernatural fiction in the Critters Readers Poll (formerly the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll), Tony-Paul de Vissage brings his own flare to vampire romance in this sweeping tale.
Desperate to save the woman he loves, nobleman Damien LaCroix allows himself to be turned by a vampire, only to discover it comes at a higher cost than he ever expected.
A plague is killing Damien’s people. As he confronts his own mortality, he receives a dire message from his betrothed. The sickness has overtaken her family, and she fears it will take her next. The thought of losing her is unbearable. He seeks out a vampire to turn him so that he can save Antoinette.
But when Antoinette betrays him, she shatters his hopes of eternity together. He vows never to turn another and leaves France with his ancestral home burning in the distance. He travels across Europe, fighting as a mercenary for a time, and gets caught up in the French Revolution.
When he travels to the New World, he finds himself smitten again by a human woman, the kind he’d vowed to avoid. When Kate is accused of murder and likely to be hanged for her crimes, Damien faces a dire choice.
Review By Sherry Perkins.
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
“This time Damien wasn’t going to get his way.”—The Nightman’s Odyssey
Hold on to your horses, your hat and cloak or whatever, we’re going on a dark adventure. A very, very terrifying one! And I’m loving it, every morbidly fascinating and gory bit. This kind of story is something Tony Paul de Vissage does exceptionally well. It’s why I am such a devoted fan!
de Vissage is a lean writer. “The Nightman’s Odyssey” sentence structure is pared to essentials. This is especially effective in the horror genre. A staccato burst of facts that leave you enough room to imagine the worst. Because most assuredly, much worse is coming. If you’re talking about vampires, then you know there will be horror upon horror to follow.
What makes the terse prose even more effective is it’s befitting the main character, Damien Lacroix. Damien, an Early Medieval (aka, the Dark Ages) nobleman, expects to get what he wants, when he wants it—until the plague arrives. Pestilence strikes the love of his life, the virginal Antoinette. Knowing her death is inevitable, and with all hope lost, Damien stumbles across someone who can help him save his beloved Antoinette. Saving her comes at a cost though. One Damien could not have foreseen nor even imagined.
Then, like all classic vampire stories, the story takes a horribly violent turn. Make no mistake, viciousness is part and parcel of “The Nightman’s Odyssey.” That’s as it should be. Because whether it’s the story of a man searching for true love, he is a monster. The thematic style of “The Nightman’s Odyssey” calls two other vampire stories to mind. First, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” specifically where Harker, shivering with anticipation, describes his encounter with Dracula’s Brides. The other is Justin Cronin’s “The Passage,” where evil is unrelenting. You’ll have to tell me if you agree.
Wanton rape, war, graphic killing, and explicit sexual activity is rampant in the story’s beginning which should be expected in a story about blood lust, feeding frenzies and raw passion. Although you’d think such horror or its detail has no place in romantic fantasy, it is historically accurate and a necessary contrast to show the character’s growth. The writing keeps you in context, rivetted to the page. That said, there is always hope. Year after year after year…which is another clever bit of writing by de Vissage—the story carries into a future quite far removed from ours, with an ending that is, shall we say, poetic justice, nonetheless.
A five-star review about a vampire with an ancient and unfortunate past that follows him wherever he goes.
I’m adding this to my list. I like a story that shows character growth, and vampires!