DamNATION

Nathalie Gray
ISBN 9781419908439
Ellora’s Cave (2007)
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (4/07)

“DamNATION” is published on-line by Ellora’s Cave and falls into the Romantica® level of E-rotic.  E-rotic is described by Ellora’s Cave as loves scenes that are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count.  E-rated titles might contain material that some readers find objectionable – in other words, almost anything goes, sexually.

It is the future in London and humans have moved ahead as a species.  Or have we?  Society is now class-divided.  Humans with money live and work way above the ground floor of the city in luxury.  Others are not so lucky and live in violence and danger among the vamps.  In this story, vampires are a species created by man to be servants only.  The author Nathalie Gray describes this species through the first vampire, Helios, as “Humanity created us to serve, protect and to obey them.  To wage their greedy wars, work in their poisonous mines.  They made us pleasing to the eye so their children would not have nightmares, tall and strong and smart so we would adapt to environments never meant to sustain life.  They keep us under their heels by hoarding an enzyme on which we feed, ensuring we remain docile, obedient, yet poison it so we do not become a nuisance.  They played god, tampered with our genes so we would conveniently die in our prime.  Humanity manufactured the ideal servant, the model soldier and worker.  They thing they have created the perfect subspecies.  Disposable.  Resilient.  But they made a mistake. They gave us fangs!”

Helios has been alive for over 200 years because the time-released toxin that kills vampires while they are still young did not work on him.  Unlike other vampires, he can feed on humans and still live.  Helios has had it with the brutality and unfairness of this system and has organized a resistance.  To win, they must obtain the v-serum, an antidote that will save vampires lives, owned by Hemosynthec Corporation.  To do this, he kidnaps Dawn, one of their feisty top executives.  What happens surprises them both, they realize that they are meant for each other.  When Dawn is taken from him, he knows that he has to get her back.     

This story is not for the faint-hearted.  It is full of violence and murder as well as being sexually explicit.  “DamNATION” was very well-written and keeps your attention from start to finish.  The author does a great job with the plight of the vampires that you can’t help hoping that Helios will be successful and that he and Dawn will find a way to be together.

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