THE LAZARUS CHILD by Jay Raven.
You can now exclusively access the introduction the author created for the readers since this book is the third in the series. Worry not though! It works as a perfect, solid standalone.
You’ll find in these words the gate to a world of blood and darkness, so you feel right at home when you grab The Lazarus Child.
WELCOME TO THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON THE PLANET
Hi, I’m thrilled that you’re about to read The Lazarus Child, third instalment in the Blood Riders vampire hunter series. The novel works well as a standalone, but I thought you might find it helpful if I did a sort of “New Readers Start Here” introduction to the world of the main characters and conflicts – and the inspiration behind the action-packed Gothic adventures.
So let’s dive straight in…
The series follows the heart-stopping exploits of Anton Yoska, 19th century Transylvania’s most celebrated and reluctant vampire slayer, and his team of Quintz – an expert knifeman and dwarf, their apprentice 16-year-old Tomas and a rather fierce brown bear Samson, who loves the taste of vampire flesh.
They operate in a world where nosferatu are commonplace, living alongside humanity in a tense and volatile stalemate – where both sides dream of eliminating the other, but dare not take the first irrevocable step.
It is 15 years since the deadly foes clashed in a brutal war that humans narrowly and unexpectedly won. Since then the nocternus have been banished to reservations, where they are safe from attack and retribution – but any venturing from these safe zones are fair game for a legion of bounty hunters.
Anton is a man with a mysterious past. The only thing known for sure about him is that after being captured during the Vampire War, an attempt to turn him into a nosferatu warrior went wrong part way through the transformation. It has left him with the strength and speed of vampires, plus a few of their supernatural powers – but also the fear that one day the conversion will complete and he will become one of the very creatures he most dreads.
He hates the life of a slayer, almost as much as he loathes Crown Prince Leopold, the megalomaniac ruler of Transylvania. The Prince is ruthless with ambitions that risk plunging the entire continent into a final blood-soaked confrontation. Even those closest to him admit that they never know what’s going on in his scheming Machiavellian brain.
It’s a world of plots, twists and hidden enemies and I hope one that will keep readers glued through the many episodes and adventures ahead.
So what’s the inspiration for Blood Riders? Well, it’s two-fold. Firstly, I was intrigued by the idea – what if the storylines and classic conflicts of western dramas could transpose to a Gothic horror setting. Vampire tribes corralled on to reservations, outnumbered lawmen risking their lives to keep the peace, bounty hunters just as dangerous as the creatures they targeted – sudden death and heroism, betrayal and nobility at a time when life – both mortal and nosferatu – was cheap.
The second factor behind the series was I wanted to make vampires truly frightening again. I wanted to get away from the trend to have sparkly, lovelorn, misunderstood w ould-be Victorian poets wanting nothing more than to be pitied for their affliction. Vampires, in my humble opinion, have always been brutal, cunning and remorseless predators who’d rip your throat out without a moment’s hesitation or regret. They view themselves as gods, entitled to treat humanity as their food supply and playthings. I wanted to remind the world of this fact.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether I’ve succeeded in those two aims.
Happy hunting.
Jay Raven
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