Sunday, September 19, 2010

Review: Blood Bank (Vickie Nelson #6)

Blood Bank, by Tanya Huff, is a collection of short stories based on the Blood novel series about Victoria "Vicki" Nelson and Henry Fitzroy. Most of the short stories take place around Blood Pact and Blood Debt. Some stories are historical, chronicling Henry's journeys as a vampire. The collection also includes the TV screenplay for the Blood Ties' episode, "Stone Cold."

This Town Ain't Big Enough: Vicki Nelson, private investigator-turned-vampire must deal with a new vampire encroaching in her territory (Toronto). Can she defeat the elder vampire without sacrificing her life?

What Manner of Man: Set in the early 1800s, Henry tries to track down a spy before their departure to France. (I really enjoyed this story because the previous books did not focus much on Henry's past as a vampire living in Europe.)

The Cards Also Say: A psychic warns Vicki a fanatic wants to kill her. Vicki must find who he is before he stakes her.

Other short stories include...

"The Vengeful Spirit of Lake Nepeakea"
"Someone to Share the Night"
"Another Fine Nest" *
"Scleratus"
"Critical Analysis" *
"So This Is Christmas"

Tanya Huff officially stated on her blog that there will be no more Blood stories. It also looks like the Blood Ties TV series will not resume either. You can still watch full episodes online or purchase the DVD on Amazon.

I know this review is long overdue. If you are a fan of Vicki Nelson and Henry Fitzroy, I highly recommend the Smoke series about young wizard-in-training, Tony Foster. He was a reoccurring minor character in the Blood books. In the Smoke series, he has a major role. You can read more about Henry and his new life with Tony in Vancouver, British Columbia. I also hope Tanya writes more Smoke novels. Overall, it was a pleasure to read Tanya Huff's novels over the decade, and she will remain one of my favorite paranormal authors of all time.


3 comments:

maggiemay said...

As you say there will be no more Blood Ties Books (or show) but the same people who brought us Blood Ties have optioned three more of Tanya's Books, Smoke and Mirrors. They hope to make it into a tv series if they can get it financed and marketed. They have changed the storyline a bit: Henry now becomes the main character and his sidekick is a woman call Antoinette. But this is a long ways off. And we can only pray that they never offer it to lifetime because of what the idiots did to Blood Ties.

Wicked Melody said...

Thanks for sharing the news, maggie.

Blood Ties had so much potential. I would have been more pleased if it ended on 4 seasons rather than the abrupt 2! Look at how well True Blood is doing in the media -- Blood Ties would have rivaled the show.

Soni Vamp said...

Alas, we only those 22 episodes of BT to tide us over (and over again) and ending on such a cliff hanger too :(

But Tanya did Tweet some time back in August about one of / another of her Henry stories being released in an Anthology (along with a story from Anne Rice).

The Anthology is called "Vampires in Love" and her story is called: "Sceleratus"

Here's a link: http://andpuff.livejournal.com/202031.html