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| Blood Oath |
Blood Oath, by Christopher Farnsworth, is a novel that desperately wants to be a movie. The story plays out in what I think of as a cinematic way. There’s tons of action: explosions, car chases, torture, rescue, etc. The characterization suffers. The villains, particularly, are thinly drawn and their motivations are sketchy. This book had such a promising premise, but I don’t think it lived up that promise.
This book is in a similar vein to the National Treasure movies, but with the added bonus of the supernatural. In 1867, a whaling vessel returns from the Indian Ocean with a reduced crew and a newly created vampire. President Andrew Johnson pardons the vampire and has him swear to protect the Union and follow all orders from the President. To make sure the vampire, Cade, follows these orders, Johnson brings in a Madame Laveau to hex him. When I heard about that part, I wondered if Johnson could imagine some of the other men who made it into that office. Hell, Johnson himself was impeached once. Anyway, Cade has faithfully served since that day. Farnsworth constructs an entire alternate history around Cade, complete with evil Nazi scientists, creatures from the Other Side, and Freemasons figuring prominently. The first third of the book, which outlines all this, is the best part of the book. Blood Oath shines here, until the plot starts to derail.
After a Frankstein-inspired terrorist plot is discovered, Cade tracks down his old nemesis, the aforementioned evil Nazi scientist, along with his new Odd Couple partner. Meanwhile, a black ops agent goes off the reservation to try and kill Cade. Confused yet? It got more confusing when I realized that there’s no real reason that Holt, the agent, was gunning for Cade. As for the Big Bad, apparently it’s enough motivation that he’s a mad, evil Nazi scientist. After Cade’s extensive set up, no one else gets much of a back story. The book suffers for it, because most of the characters never rise above even one dimensional. Most of them just seem to exist to piss Cade off.
The plot gets somewhat more on track towards the end, when some of the extra plot threads get wrapped up. But it never lives up to the beginning, unfortunately. The writing style, too, is spare. A surprising number of paragraphs in this book are just one sentence long. That’s right, just one sentence. Farnsworth appears to be going for a punctuated, staccato effect with his short paragraphs. But the device is overused. Plus, Farnsworth is capable of much better writing. Occasionally, I was pleasantly surprised by the sophistication of his observations and the originality of his phrasing.
Blood Oath had a lot of potential, but I was disappointed by the execution. If there is a second book in this series, I don’t know if I’ll read it. I’d have to read a lot of good reviews before I read it.