(Audio review)Outstanding story, back story, nearly action packed. All of us have seen or read vampire stories. In most cases they all follow one of two story types. This one is completely different. A story of a honorable yet evil vampire lord rich in culture being lead by his line of blood servants. The characters are all well done with their own goals, desires, and quests. Never a point of confusion and the plot is flat out amazing. Its a great listen and I'm sure an amazing read. If you enjoy vampires, give this one a listen, I promise its really different and will get you excited as you start to love Lord Underwood but hate him just as quickly. It took me a while to get through all of the podcasts for this, partially because I was occasionally swayed by other podiobooks and music. I have to say that the one thing that was consistent throughout the book was Bennett's narration. It's incredibly professional and polished and I think that people would be hard pressed to find many podiobooks out there that are this well done. The story here is pretty well done as well. I like that Bennett tried to create a vampire that isn't the broody, emo dark prince looking for his princess, and he succeeded in that. Underwood does have a bit of the broody sense to him, but for the most part he's a selfish bastard that is only out to preserve his own hide. He has his own set of morals and while he does try to be a gentleman, that only extends as far as what he considers to be right or wrong. A great example of this (slight spoiler) would be when Underwood discovers that the strip bar that he and David have entered is full of victims of human trafficking... and he doesn't particularly care. For him it just means that he'd have been able to get an easier meal and he's condescending towards David's outrage over the situation. This makes for a nice change over the usual vampire story, because it makes sense that someone would overlook suffering and condone violence when they've lived that long. I do have a few quibbles. The first is that at several points we have a bit of an "about-face-turn" on some issues that just doesn't feel quite genuine. You'll likely know what they are when you see them and I don't want to list them here because they're major spoilers. It's not a complete 180, but it's enough of one to where I did raise an eyebrow. The second issue I had is that Bennett packs a lot into the story and while this does lend itself extremely well to an episodic podcast format, I don't know how well this would translate into a written book. I'm aware that the full podcast was split into two books, so I'm sure that this helped that issue for those who read it, but I would definitely recommend that people experience this via podcast as opposed to book only. Purchase the book and give Bennett your money as I do believe that he deserves some financial rewards, but the podiobook version is the way to go. All in all, this was still an excellent listen. It wasn't perfect-perfect, but it was definitely something I'd recommend to anyone looking for something a bit out of the norm from your typical vampire read. It's good enough that I know I'll check out Bennett's future works, that's for certain.
What do You think about Underwood And Flinch (2000)?
Great book-and a superfun listen via podcast readings by the author!
—booklover123
A great vampire tale for grown ups. No sparkles here!
—chen
