- Title:
- The Awakening: A Vampire Huntress Legend
- Author:
- L.A. Banks
- Release:
- December 10, 2009
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrator:
- Hillary Huber
- Series:
- Vampire Huntress Legend #2
I’m extremely biased in favor of this series. I’ve been a fan of it since 2010, so take that in mind when reading this review. I’ve tried to give it a more critical look this listen, and I’ve spotted some things I never noticed before. As Minion and The Awakening were originally one book, they make for a really slow burn. The story is primarily told through characters doing exposition dumps. Maybe this is why I don’t mind a slow burn, it takes a while to get where it’s going, but the payoff is worth it.
While there’s not a whole lot of it in The Awakening, this series as a whole has some of my favorite combat scenes ever. There’s blood and gore, they’re well described and intense. It’s easy to visualize what’s going down as you read or listen.
One thing I fondly remember after getting a friend to listen to books 1 and 2 was a back-and-forth “debate” we had about whether or not Fallon Nuit was a huge dumbass or not. Carlos is supposed to be this master strategist, but it seems to me that he just blunders his way through situations in these first 2 books. Fallon Nuit often just picks a conclusion and then works back to it, while Carlos just rolls with it. My friend was arguing that Fallon Nuit couldn’t possibly have known about The Chairman’s “next level bullshit” when he interfered with Nuit’s bite in Minion.
I previously talked about the first chapter of Minion being cut from the Minion: Special Huntress Edition created a plot hole in The Awakening. The Guardian team fired Dan in the first chapter for his safety. While in The Awakening, he brings that up, but it was never addressed in the SHE. There were a few instances of dialogue that made me wonder if they were referencing the first edition of Minion that I never really noticed before. Unfortunately, I didn’t make note of them, so I can’t point them out. It’s nothing major at least, as I’ve enjoyed this book for 12 years and only now thought of that.
One other thing that has always struck me as odd is how little the Neteru Guardian team seems to know about vampires. I get that it’s like this for exposition purposes, but at the same time, it makes them look like a bunch of rookies with little to no experience. They’re supposed to be seasoned vampire and demon slayers and Big Mike can’t even remember that vampires aren’t weakened by iron. This seems like a very stupid thing to get wrong, as it could lead to a life-or-death situation.
I enjoy this book very much. I highly recommend it, as well as the rest of the series. I’ve been reading it for over a decade and I easily see myself continuing to do so. I’ve been listening to the audiobook for a few years now and I’ve probably listened to it a dozen times. I enjoy the narration and it’s unfortunate that the other books haven’t received the same treatment.
