Anybody who read Book One of the Vampire Flynn series, Eyes of the Seer, will attest to the fact that the book is fantastically intricate. Feel free to catch up by reading my review of Book One Here.  As I eagerly waited Book Two: Rebirth of the Seer, I had some doubts it would be able to live up to the high bar Dawes had set for himself.  Not only did Rebirth exceed my hopes, it even slightly overshadowed its former in greatness.

Vampire Flynn/Peter is back and although he’s on the road to redemption, it’s bumpy to say the least.  He wrestles with his lust and human emotions almost constantly.  Such a thing could easily get tiresome in a book (I’ve seen it happen.) However, Dawes never stops the action long enough for you to get bored. He manages, in brilliant fashion, to show Peter’s angst while at the same time allowing the story to progress full throttle. 

As always there were parts I adored and a few nit-picks here and there, but I never put this book down (not even to sleep!  And at the time I needed to sleep!)

The Love and Bother:

I don’t know if the author has ever read The Picture of Dorian Gray, but the duality of Peter’s nature often reminded me of my favorite book by Oscar Wilde.  His constant struggle between what he wants to do vs. what he feels he should do is ever-present.  Dawes however takes it a step further by creating a third and less appealing option…what he must do.   This adds intensity to the book as well as forcing the reader to think more about the choices the characters are making.  I loved this new aspect in Rebirth.

Once again, although there is a “villain” in Flynn’s story, the biggest problem in Flynn’s life is Flynn.  (Oh how I could relate to that problem.) On one hand, this allows the reader to philosophically dissect Flynn with every page.  On the other hand, I want cruel, badass bad-guys! The book has two main forces of contention. A dark magician/vampire named Ian and the Order (as you may remember from book one) While Ian is no doubt evil, I didn’t really have any strong emotions toward him.  He didn’t make my skin crawl, or even invoke a desire to hate him as Sabrina did. I think the worst villains play the dirtiest and so far, most of Dawes villains have been downright classy. The Order was frustrating as well.  They did leave a bad taste in my mouth. However, without giving too much away, I will simply say that the Elders confuse me.  Their drastically shifting perspectives seemed to be the only part of the book that didn’t feel fluid and left me perplexed.  

MONICA! I knew she would be present in Rebirth, but I had no idea she would be such a focus.  This book does not begin it erupts and she is with my favorite Seer through thick and thin.  I cannot express how much I love this fictional character. It has been a long time since a female MC got me this excited. She is confident, smart, and completely able to handle the madness that is being a part of Flynn’s life.

While Dawes does give some back-story, he doesn’t try to sum up Eyes of the Seer for the lazy reader who just picked up Book Two.  I always appreciate this as a fan.  Dawes also did a stunning job in filling gaps of information with flashbacks.  The small “story within the story” of how he became known for his black roses was perfect in every way, as was the tale of how he came by his precious sword.  Flashbacks can be tricky and can often come off clunky as hell.  I don’t even think Dawes flinched!

Other Little Things In My Head:

Julian, another Seer, I found different and extremely likeable.  I would like to have gotten to know more about him (and hey, I still might in the upcoming books).  I would go so far as to say that I would love a novella giving me his back-story.

If Malcom were my Dad…we’d have words.  Not nice words.  Only those who have already read the books will understand that level of frustration.

I wasn’t sure whether to mention this or not, but I decided to include it.  I thought this book was sexy as hell.  Lately I feel like whenever I say that I’m somehow inadvertently comparing it to that 50 Shades drivel.  However, the sexual tension in this book is delicious and I couldn’t get enough. 

End result?  Read this book.  Start the series you will be hooked. Dawes is an exceptional writer and I have learned never to take that for granted. Everything he writes is guaranteed to steal hours, if not days of your life, and it’s time well spent with his delectable palate of characters!

BUY REBIRTH OF THE SEER

Find Author Peter Dawes:
Twitter
Facebook
The Vampire Flynn Official Site

For those who follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my slight obsession with author Peter Dawes.  (Stalker is such an ugly word, don’t you think?)

I liked him instantly. His wit and sarcasm captured my heart, as well as his wicked fun sense of humor. 
After reading his first novel, Eyes of the Seer: Book One of The Vampire Flynn Trilogy  (My Review Can Be Found Here) I NEEDED to know more about the brilliant mind that brought the sexy Vampire Flynn to life.

Lucky for me, Dawes is very kind, and less apt to pursue a restraining order than most. 

He even agreed to answer some questions.

Sit back and enjoy his brilliant, fanciful, and truly wise answers.
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Thank you for considering me worthy of interviewing.~Peter Dawes

Don’t be silly, this interview made my week.! Now on to business good Sir…

Why did you choose to have your pen name the same as your main Character? (I know it has confused some people, and caused your book to be misplaced in the biography section of many libraries ;-)

Peter would argue this is where it belongs. I try to remind him he does not actually exist.

It started as an idea born from a very difficult time in my life. The writer desired more anonymity and got tangled up in the world of roleplaying. (For the uninitiated, roleplaying is where you pretend to be a character - either of a show or one of your own design - for the sake of fantasy storytelling or playing a game which requires you to ‘think like your character’.) I brought Peter into the roleplay and discovered how much I learned about him by forcing him to interact with people whose reactions I could not control. At that time, I had four of his manuscripts completed and was working on the fifth. The inspiration hit when I considered publishing them. Since all of them are written in the first person, why not have Peter be the author of his own stories?

Among the host of Supernatural beings, why did you choose to write about Vampires?

This will sound mad... But because Peter told me to. ;)

I had been tempted for a while. I grew up reading Anne Rice and Stephen King, and had become addicted to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show. At the time, I was working for an independent comic book studio as a script writer while penning superhero novels on the side. (Those will see the light of day eventually. When I have the time to shred them into editorial pieces.) I reached a point in the superhero books, though, where I could not work out the plot and it had me frustrated to no end.

Finally, one night I opened a blank document and stared at it. I said, “Whoever else is in there, start speaking now. I need inspiration.” Words began to fly onto the page before I knew it and what is now the first chapter of Eyes of the Seer appeared as though Peter had been calmly waiting the entire time to make his presence known. At the end of the chapter, he was captured by two vampires, one of which drained the life out of him and offered Peter her wrist.

I shrugged and said, “Well... I guess you are a vampire.”

What books grace your shelves?

My favorites ones:

The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Dark Half by Stephen King
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Of all your characters, who is your favorite to write? Who is the easiest?

When Peter took over, he did not relent. I can summon him in my sleep. (I nearly did for half a year while dating a fellow roleplayer who was an insomniac.) Besides him, though? Robin, especially when he and Flynn get to bantering. Flynn is my favorite to write when I am feeling in a devious mood. When I am not, I like to sneak out a set of histories I am penning for Robin and Sabrina and spend some time in Victorian era Ireland.

Would you agree to be turned into a Vampire?

If my partner joined me, then absolutely. I think we would make a devilishly wicked set of immortals.

Are any of your characters/relationships reminiscent of real people in your life?

You have not met my partner yet, but you shall someday. Robin is partially inspired by my younger brother, who has tolerated me through some very strange seasons of my life. I think each character I have penned has had some root in somebody I have known in real life, some less savory people than others. ;)

Do you have a writing process?

I always write with headphones on and music turned up to levels which shall probably give me hearing issues when I am older. I need something open like Twitter or someplace where I can fool around a bit when I hit a portion of the story which requires more time to think. Of course, then the trick is not to let it distract me to the point of not working at all.

Other than that, not so much. Not aside from ensuring I have a cup of coffee by my side and a browser window open if I need to stop and do research. My editor has called me a ‘discovery writer’ and I think that is appropriate. That often means very little in the way of notes.

Your writing ‘voice’ is incredibly unique. Very eloquent and some-what old fashioned.  Do you strive to imbibe Flynn with this style, or is it how you yourself speak?

I do not speak this way, truth be told. I sound more familiar while Peter would be more, “Good evening, my dear. How does the night find you?” I love his eloquent manner of speech, though, so I indulge it whenever the situation permits. He began speaking in my head like this, which was hilarious when it first started. Peter brought out words I had not used since high school English class. I am glad the voice has been well-received, though. He would not speak in any other manner even if I held a stake to his chest.

Yours was the first book I have ever read where I considered the main character both the protagonist and the antagonist.  Would you agree?

It depends on how you look at Stephen King’s The Dark Half. ;) I have always enjoyed stories which take your expectations and turn them upside-down, and I have a wicked obsession with antiheroes. Flynn is something of a metaphor for what exists inside all of us, albeit a very exaggerated metaphor. Give us the chance to lose ourselves inside decadence, without any consequence to our actions, and we will drown - sometimes so fast we do not notice it until we are fully submerged.

The question is, if a hand were outstretched to save us, could we make our way to the surface again? And who would we be on the other side?

How long did it take you to write Eyes of The Seer?

You will not believe me when I say this, but the first draft of 90,000 words was written in three weeks. Three weeks. My muse might have been a little... pent up. Now, what you read was draft five hundred thousand, give or take a few, and it has been chipped, poked, prodded, and revised over the span of five years. (Taking into consideration I did not touch it for a couple of years in-between.) This book series has been a labor of love.

Tell us more about the Sequel to Eyes of The Seer.

In Rebirth of the Seer, Flynn starts learning more about what his calling entails while dealing with the backlash of his bloody past. At the end of Eyes of the Seer, I showed how chilly his reception with the Supernatural Order was. In Rebirth, he and Monica face two new characters who are after Flynn, both for completely different reasons. And while he wrestles with himself and his new identity, he has to question the side he is on and why he continues fighting for it. I will tease that he is at least given one reason. It simply becomes a matter of which direction his loyalties will tip because of that reason.

I will also tease that I cannot wait to see the response to the very end of the book. But I cannot give any other hints than that. ;)
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Damn tease! That’s it my fellow Lords and Ladies.  I recommend Eyes of the Seer tremendously and if you have any questions for the author leave them below. 

As for me, there was one last question I forgot to pose to Peter Dawes.

Can I be High Priestess of the official Monica fan club?

Here is the thing about Vampires. THEY. ARE. EVERYWHERE. I consider this a good thing, don’t get me wrong, I bought the book. However, authors lately haven’t been owning their Vampires.  Allow me to explain.  I see books pop up every day, each one claiming to have “a new spin on Vampires.” Here is the reality. The “new spin” is making Vampires the “good guys.” 

Should I have spoiler alerted that?

This is the point where I admit I am a hypocrite since now that Vampire Diaries has ceased for the season I have no reason to live. 
Damon is so good when he's so, so bad.

Where is this nonsensical rant leading? Straight to a review, I swear it!

Eyes Of The Seer, Book One in the Vampire Flynn Trilogy by Peter Dawes (A pen name I assure you) surprised me, not because it was trying to recreate mythos, but because it embraced it.

Dawes lives in the real world, where a stake through the heart will do you in before you can say ‘ouch’. Vampires burn in the daylight, are reduced to piles of ash, need human blood to survive, and oh yeah, are KILLERS.  They are Classic, and there is a reason such things are called Classics in the first place.

All hail Bela Lugosi.

Here is the 411.  Peter Dawes is an ordinary man living an ordinary life. He is an ER doctor by day, loving boyfriend by night. The story begins with a murder.  Two people are dead at Peter’s own hands, and these deaths were not an accident.

From the scene of his transgressions, he is taken into the dark world of Vampirism.  It is elegant, decadent, sexy, bloody, and PERFECT! This isn’t Twilight folks, Peter is now a Vampire.  He has enhanced senses, increased stamina, intense bloodlust, and a fondness for swords.  He has disassociated from his humanity even further by taking on the new name Flynn. The ensuing story isn’t puppies and lollipops.  In a sophisticated and eloquent manner very reminiscent of early Anne Rice, we are taken through Peter/Flynn’s journey from healer, to Vampire, to Assassin.  God I want to say so much more but I don’t want to ruin anything.

There were things I loved and things that somewhat bothered me, however nothing ruined my reading experience.

The Love And Bother:

Flynn himself was an amazing character and watching his evolution through the first half of the book was mesmerizing only to be outdone by the second half.  However, there were a few times the story fell into a lull, I would have preferred the first half been edited a bit more to cut down on redundancy. (He loves blood and the murder, I really really get it, please move on)

Flynn’s maker is Sabrina.  I had conflicting feelings about her.  She annoyed me to the point I would have liked to rip her throat out, however for most of the story she was not overwhelmingly present.  Yes, I know you have minions for a reason, but sometimes asserting your dominance as a badass first hand is necessary.  I wished she had acted as hardcore as everyone said she was.

Now my biggest complaint and I’m talking to you Author Dawes if you’re reading this, Monica! Why was she not in my life sooner?! As the first half of the book ends, the second half takes off with breathtaking ferocity.  The sassy witch Monica brings some much needed calm to the heavy storm that is purely Flynn’s story.  I adored every moment she was in, and as much as I love Flynn, I will admit I will continue on the trilogy in hopes to see her. 

Other Little Things In My Head:

I loved the brotherhood of Robin and Flynn, although many of the characters are part of the same “Vampire Coven” Robin and Flynn come across as family.

Author Dawes incorporates foreshadowing for each “part” of Flynn’s story with quotes taken from various sources.  I LOVE these types of hints. They push me to say “oh hell, it’s only 1:30am, I’ll just read one more chapter"

I loved that Flynn was so eager to be a Vampire.  I mean…wouldn’t you be?  Where do I sign up? Somehow I found this one of the most realistic aspects of the story.

I would like a call to arms that Author Dawes is required to dress every real man in at least the United States, if not the world.  His Vampires embodied the Classy and handsome attire that just makes a mortal girl drool.

Ok, sorry, going to wrap it up.

All in all this was a great read.  As I said it very much reminded me of Anne Rice (a classic in her own right) and so I suggest this to anyone who enjoys her work.  Also anyone who, as I did, grew up with the Classic Vampire tales.  Dracula didn’t want to drive you to school, he wanted to suck your blood.

And man, if that isn’t a good way to die, I don’t know what is.