Knights of the Blood: At Sword's Point

Rating:
Summary: Good guys can have fangs.
Review: "Knights of the Blood: At Sword's Point" is a story Of vampires. I personally like it and am waiting in expectation of Book 3 in this Comtemporary vampire series. The main character is a California Police Detective John Drummond. He's very wealthy due to a lawsuit he won for injuries to his Stuntwoman wife, who has been in a coma for several years. In this second book Drummond go home after, in book 1 discovering and befriending Knights from the crusades living in an old castle in Germany. In his promise to help them in this modern world, of which they know nothing about, He agrees to join them and be on of them and so he is Knighted. He also perform the ceremony of blood with them, but after a week decide it isn't working out, so he go home promising to return. On the way back home he wrestles a highjacker to the ground thus saving the life of a Prince onboard. When he gets home he gets Kidnapped by the Mosad, trying to find out how much he knows about what went on in Germany, and is release. He thinks that's the end until they try to gun him down. His Captain sends him out of town until they can find out why. Instead of going where they send him, he decides to hide out with his vampire friends and a Catholic Priest while things cool down. When he get there he find them suffering from severe culture shock after stepping out in the world for the first time in 700 years. To calm them down they mount a raid on a former Nazi, whose a vampire also, and his minions not knowing that they , a Mosad assasin and the Pope's own Troubleshooter are on a collegion course bloodier than they imagine.I find it exciting with a few surprises up it sleeve. This story though its characters were created by Katherine Kurtz is written by her husband Scott MacMillan. I give it a thumbs up.***

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: Fantasy, intrigue, gruesome - well what else do you expect from Vampires! Codes of honnor across the centuaries, great imagination and I want to know what happens next.
Where can I get the next book from??

Rating:
Summary: Knights or the blood
Review: Fast paced,fun story line. Ok so it's not war and peace, who cares! the first book is about adventure. Like watching a great flick on tv.

Rating:
Summary: A bit too much needless gore.
Review: I have read many books in the vampire genre, including the first book of this series "Knights of the Blood". This particular novel is, unfortunately, not one of the better stories out there. The basic layout isn't bad, albeit a bit unbelievable, with 700 year old knights, Nazis, Cossacks and whatnot. However the plot is so thickened that it becomes very difficult to follow -- too many sharp turns. And then there is the totally unnessecary gore. The prologue opens with one camper being beheaded while "relieving himself" . And, by the way, there does seem to be some obsession with this type of bodily function -- several victims lose their lives during this process and there is a lot of "execrement and urine" used as descriptives. There follows several other very bloody, gory deaths -- a couple more beheadings, a few twisted stabbings, poking holes in corpses, etc. While it is understandable that blood plays a major role in a vampire novel, the detailed, violent descriptions detract from what plot there is. Gore may have its place in some novels, but here it just seems to be added for effect rather than necessity. It would have been more acceptable if all that blood 'n guts helped fill in or make comprehensible the mish-mash plot. But, alas, it doesn't help. I ended up confused anyway!

Rating:
Summary: This book is great!
Review: I read this book the first time two years ago, and I have read it three more times since. Although some of the plot is not believable (it is called FICTION for a reason), it is interesting because of that fact. I have read some of the other reviews, and I have to say that if you had problems following the plot twists, or were unable to understand what was going on, I recommend you read a different style of material.

Yes, some of the little details do tend to get boring, but without the details, you loose the sense of the characters. I had no problem with the amount of gore. In fact, compared to the usual books I read, this is quite tame. The only problem I had was trying to find a copy of the first book. I have to rate this as one of the better books I have read. And I have read thousands.

The character of Drummond is well played, although their are some inconsistencies. The authors did an excellent job of writing the scenes at the old casle with the Knights. The ! ! opening with the first deaths was very well done. The descriptions of the way in which the two lovers died is eerie. The ending is not overly surprizing, but it still manages to get your attention.

All in all, I found the book a very good read. I recommond it to anyone who has a good idea of what is reality and what is not. Also, if you just enjoy reading a book without having to worry about it being believable or not. Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: A Decent Sequel
Review: I'll admit, this book was not as good as the first, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
The only complaint I would have is that book 3 is so long in coming... because the end of this book left me hanging.
To the guy who whined that the characters are unpredictable... would you prefer they WERE predictable?

Rating:
Summary: A frustrating, confusing book ...
Review: The only further unbelievable plot twist this could have thrown in would be for Drummond to wake up at the end and find it was all a dream ... Medieval Knights drinking at the Local Pub, in Armour ??? A beautiful Baroness just decides to have sex with the mega millionaire LA PD Captain ? The existence of Vampires themselves is less far-fetched than many of the incidents and premises included in this book. Like the first volume, it has interesting concepts (Medieval Knights, Vampire Nazis, even an escape from a Soviet Gulag in the 40's or 50's), but it became too ridiculous for words toward the end. I'm not sure I can stomach a third instalment.

Rating:
Summary: Get out the odor eaters... this one's a stinker!
Review: To put it bluntly, this book was terrible. I read and loved Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels, but there is something fundamentally wrong with _Knight's of the Blood: At Sword's Point_. (Actually, the first was wasn't very good, either.)

The characters in both novels are amazingly shallow, and completely unpredictable, which does not give them some kind of enigmatic presence; it just makes them annoying. They are also rather unbelievable. A 60 or so year-old European priest who speaks perfect colloquial English and reads "Guns and Ammo"? An LAPD detective who is surprisingly wealthy and amazingly refined? The Isreali Mossad as a bunch of yarmulke-wearing, machine-gun toting bozos? These people were completely unbelievable.

The book was also amazingly anti-climactic in that it seems like it is going to wrap up loose ends, then just about the time you realize there are just barely enough pages left in the book to tie things up, a whole new jar of loose ends is opened up and spilled on the page. Sadly, they seem very "ad hoc" and poorly planned.

I gave it a 2 just because the story line, while horribly mangled, could have otherwise been interesting, which is why I will probably purchase (used!) the next book when it comes out and sit up nights groaning at the lousy characters and flimsy plot devices.