I really enjoyed this third novel of Tanya Huff’s ‘Blood’ series. I really didn’t like book #2, ‘Blood Trail’, because of the lack of development between the series’ supposed love interests, Henry and Vicki. I still have the same problem with Henry and Vicki’s under-developed relationship, but the mystery plot of ‘Blood Lines’ went a long way to making up my waning interest in this series.In this book an Egyptian mummy is terrorizing Toronto. Mike Celluci is on the case, but he soon realizes that the supernatural element is over his head, so he enlists the help of his ex-partner Vicki Nelson, and her vampire side-kick, Henry Fitzroy.The villain is a century’s old, previously entombed, Egyptian wizard/high-priest. I loved the Egyptian mummy plot of this book. So much so that I want to go out and read other books with a mummy/zombie plot. If you loved the 1999 film ‘The Mummy’ then this book is right up your alley. Sticking a mummy in modern-day (1990’s) Toronto made for a fabulously twisted whodunit with a fresh supernatural bent.In about the last 3 or 4 chapters the stakes are raised to incredible heights as the mummy has Vicki in its sights and is hell-bent on eating her ‘ka’ (life force). Vicki is put into a situation no ex-cop wants to be in, and it’s a mad dash to the books finish line to see if Vicki can save herself, and stop Toronto from becoming an Egyptian monument.I did love the action of this book. I’ve never read a mummy plot before (the closest I’ve come is Gail Carriger’s ‘Changeless’) and I loved how unique this supernatural story was.My rating for this book is entirely thanks to the mummy plot. The character development however, once again left much to be desired...I’m still uncomfortable with the development (or lack of) between Henry and Vicki. In this book there are lots of revelations concerning Vicki’s relationship (past and present) with Mike Celluci, and Henry’s feelings for Vicki. But still, I was unhappy with what Huff has to offer..... And once again the crux of my complaint is centred on Henry’s sexual relationship with ex street-rat and Vicki’s nineteen-year-old friend/informant, Tony.Below is a scene that takes place outside of Henry’s apartment; Vicki is leaving as Tony is about to head in to see Henry;“Hey, Victory, don’t sweat it.” As though he’d read her mind, Tony’s voice softened. “It’s easier for me. I didn’t really have a life till he showed up. He can remake me any way he wants. You’ve been you for a long time. It makes it harder to fit the two of you together.” You’ve been you for a long time. She felt some of the tension begin to leave her shoulders. If anyone could understand that, it would be Henry Fitzroy. “Thanks, Tony.”“No problem.” The cocky tone returned. “You want me to hail you a cab?” “No.” “Then I better get upstairs.”“Before you split your jeans?”“Jeez, Victory,” she could hear the grin in his voice, “I thought you couldn’t see in the dark.”That scene is the most reaction readers get from Vicki concerning Henry’s relationship with Tony. Tony all but says he loves Henry and yes, he will be sleeping with him tonight, and Vicki merely sends him on his way. I’m still uncomfortable (on Vicki’s behalf) about the Henry/Tony pairing. But I’m mostly frustrated with Tanya Huff for dropping that massive bombshell and never delving deeper.I’ve read through Amazon reviews of the ‘Blood’ series, to see specifically if other readers were disquieted by Tony’s role in Henry’s life. I only found one other reviewer who expressed dislike, and that was to do with the fact that Henry has a sexual penchant for men, as well as women. I like a good M/M romance as much as the next person, that’s not my problem (I actually wish that Huff had made Tony and Henry the series main HEA focus, throwing Vicki in makes things awkward and seedy). My problem is with the fact that Vicki is okay with her friend and protégé whom she has card for since he was 15, carrying on a sexual relationship with the same man that she is sleeping with. Ick.Huff sheds a bit more light on Vicki and Mike’s past relationship, thereby exposing Vicki’s flaws. Turns out that while Vicki and Mike were ‘dating’ for 4 years, they were never exclusive. Vicki slept with other men, Mike with ‘bimbettes’. Vicki and Mike were perfectly alright with this set-up. But with the introduction of Henry, Mike suddenly wants a little more commitment from Vicki. He is even, *gasp*, contemplating settling down with her. But Mike dares not approach with Vicki, because he is well aware of her personal hang-ups.Vicki is quite damaged when it comes to intimacy. Her father left her mother for a younger woman when Vicki was a child, and it seems that indiscretion has coloured Vicki’s entire romantic outlook. It sort of explains why Vicki is okay with having an open relationship with both Henry and Mike, and why the lack of definition regarding her and Henry’s partnership doesn’t faze her.I think Huff has given Vicki too much baggage. Not only does she have a degenerative eye disease that meant she had to leave the job she loved, but Vicki puts on a macho/ballsy front in order to over-compensate for having lived and worked in a male dominated environment. She also has daddy abandonment issues and therefore cannot commit and cannot view sex as anything other than a temporary pleasure. It’s all a little too much, and almost turns Vicki into a caricature. She comes across as very angry, ‘the world is out to get me’ and nobody loves me. Urgh. It gets to be a little too much at times. If Huff had only made Henry (or Mike!) the one shining light in her life, the one point in which she can let her guard down and enjoy something. Instead, in this book both Henry and Mike lay their feelings about Vicki on the line... and she ignores them. Or as Vicki succinctly puts it:It’s just like a man to want to complicate a perfectly good relationship. Admittedly I wasn’t really buying Henry’s proclamations of love when he delivered them to Vicki (especially because he thinks similar thoughts about Tony, but Huff never addresses the double-up). I think Henry’s declaration of love came too soon and with too little development on his and Vicki’s relationship. But regardless of that, it was frustrating the way Vicki donned her armour and refused to acknowledge Mike or Henry’s professions of love. Grr! Huff is making Vicki very hard to swallow.I did like this book. I appreciated Huff’s attempt to shed some more light on Vicki’s feelings for Henry and Mike... but it was a case of being ‘a day late and a dollar short’ when Huff already dropped the Henry/Tony/Vicki bomb in book #2 and once again refused to examine it in book #3. The mummy mystery saved this book and ensured I’d kept reading...3.5/5
Et bien que dire… après les créatures habituelles, on passe à une sorte plus inédite, une momie !! Je crois que la dernière fois que j’ai lu une histoire avec une momie dedans c’était un Chair de poule lol Des dieux ténébreux et oubliés, une manipulation massive et de haut niveau, de la magie ancestrale et un mort qui se relève pour manger les autres, dit comme ça on a vraiment envie de lire le livre !! Et pourtant la série s’essouffle et on s’ennuie au bout d’un moment.Vicki est toujours égale à elle-même, un véritable pitbull qui ne lâche pas son enquête mais en même temps elle n’arrive toujours pas à vraiment se décider entre les deux hommes de sa vie. Mike et Henry commence à perdre de leur éclat dans ce troisième tome, leur face à face n’est plus aussi intense et intéressant, comme s’ils se complaisaient dans leur ménage à trois… Au final, le seul qui continue à être aussi intéressant c’est Tony et on commence à comprendre pourquoi l’auteure lui a consacré une série.L’intrigue tourne bien évidemment autour de la momie et de ses crimes, mais aussi autour de la remise en question de Henry, sur ses pouvoirs, ses sentiments pour Vicki, s’il doit rester aux USA. En parallèle, il arrive deux fois plus de bricoles à Vicki en un seul volume que dans les deux précédents réunis. Mais tout ça commence à perdre du rythme, d’inventivité et à être bien trop facile à deviner. On ne retrouve pas le même plaisir qu’on début de la série, un peu comme si l’auteure commençait à perdre son envie de continuer les aventures de Vicki.Même s’il y a pas mal de choses qui sont inattendues et qui pourraient valoir le coup de lire le livre. On sent que la série commence à décliner et laisse présager le pire dans les volumes à venir si l’auteure ne se reprend pas. Il y a toujours un livre qui est moins bien que les autres dans la saga et malheureusement pour Tanya Huff, Frontière sanglante n’était que le premier de la liste…
What do You think about Blood Lines (2004)?
What surprised me the most about this book was finally getting to read about the "baby in the backpack" thing that clearly traumatized Tony so much that he thinks about it all the time in the Smoke books. All right, what actually surprised me that this ended up not having to do with a dead baby in, like, a knapsack, as I had thought, but in fact involved some sort of back-facing snuggly. Oh, those wacky Canadians! Anyway, besides my realization that I'd been an idiot, this particular volume of the series didn't do much for me. The parts where Vicki is falsely imprisoned did succeed in freaking me out, but in general I found the book too long and a bit blah. I'm still looking forward to reading the next one, though—especially since I finally found it the other day after fearing it lost in my move. But I'll count this one as far from my favorite of the series so far.
—Trin
This is the book which stands out most in my memory (followed by Blood Pact), most likely because I have always been interested in Egypt and its history from an early age and the villain from this book is an Ancient Egyptian - so cool!I also really like this book because I was able to visit the Royal Ontario Museum when they had the Book of the Dead on exhibit (and the main setting for this book is the ROM!). I said in an earlier review that I like books where the settings are somewhere I have been (or seen on TV) as it gives it a more realistic feel... you know just how far people have to walk to get from place A to B and so on. In this case, having actually visited the ROM I can picture the halls our villain and our heroes had to walk through and it adds so much.Our love triangle is more persistent in this book, it never quite reaches the nauseating levels so often found in YA books, but it isn't as interesting as it started out being. Both Henry and Celluci want more than Vicky wants to give, granted both are willing (kind of) to step back and let her lead (something that comes up again in Blood Pact) but it would be nice if it could have remained a more modern love triangle... without the love element.The one thing I dislike here is the abuse that Vicky goes through in the detention facility - now, I am sure that bullying/fighting etc does happen in 'real life' and I am sure that the guards do turn blind eyes but this... it just seems forced. Either that or Vicky gets over it far too quickly for it to seem realistic. I know she is portrayed as being a strong woman etcetera but there I find it unlikely that anyone who is drugged, arrested under false details and goes through living hell would bounce back as she does.
—Carina
I feel a bit mixed on this one, the third novel in the Blood series featuring private detective Vicki Nelson. These ostensibly are "vampire books" since the one regular supernatural character Henry Fitzroy qualifies as one. He's not a very original or charismatic literary creation however. He's in the good guy vein, in fact has a lot less darkness in his soul than most of the type compared to say Joss Whedon's Angel or Chelsea Yarbro's St Germaine or LK Hamilton's Jean Claude. He's along typical vampire lines; he's stronger and faster than any mortal and has aged only a few years over more than four centuries, and he can't stand the sun. Though for a child of Henry VIII (there was a historical Henry Fitzroy) he seems a very modern man. But the fun of this series so far is more in the supernatural mystery and milieu with which Vicki and Henry become involved. In the first one it was demons, the second it was werewolves. And now in the third here's what's possibly my favorite creature of fantasy and horror--the mummy! An unsealed sarcophagus is brought into Toronto and inside is a pre-dynastic Egyptian mummy--a man cursed and bound for good reason and about to be let loose on Toronto--and in this particular book the stakes are high for both the city and Henry as it seeks to suck in enough soul energy--particularly from Henry--to raise himself to near godhood.On the other hand, I'm finding myself less and less enamored of Vicki. I did find it refreshing that unlike other urban fantasy heroines such as Anita Blake or Sookie Stackhouse Vicki not only doesn't have superpowers, she's dealing with a handicap that forced her to retire as a police officer--she's going blind. And I do like the grit with which she struggles to stay functioning and independent. However, I have a friend who hated Vicki as idiotic and arrogant from the very first scene of the very first book, and I'm beginning to come around to her point of view. Vicki is stubborn and arrogant to the point of folly, and I rather hate how she does the sex-doesn't-mean-a-thing dance with both Henry and her old partner and lover, Michael Celluci. If you think guys have commitment issues... I'm also tired of the bitch stereotype in fictional female law enforcement. Apparently, if popular thrillers and mysteries are to be believed, all women cops and PIs all have mile-high chips on their shoulders. Just once, I'd like to read one with some diplomacy and social grace who doesn't feel she has to out-macho the men.But was this still fun? You betcha. There's something a bit tongue in cheek in the way Huff plays with the supernatural motifs, and her dialogue is witty and it's often fun watching Vicki and Celluci especially interact. Celluci gets more of a role than in the two previous books, and that's one of the more welcome developments here.
—Lisa (Harmonybites)
