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Uprising (Vampire Federation #1)

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 · rating details · 116 ratings · 39 reviews

A gruesome ritual murder has stained the Oxfordshire countryside. It's just the first incident in a chain of events awakening Detective Inspector Joel Solomon to his worst nightmare-and a dreadful omen of things to come. Because Joel has a secret: he believes in vampires.

Alex Bishop is an agent of the Vampire Intelligence Agency. She's tasked with enforcing the laws of th...more

Paperback, 480 pages

Published February 1st 2011 by Signet Select (first published December 8th 2010)

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Apr 04, 2013 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-firstreads, vampires-werewolves

An age old vampire tale with a modern twist. The vampires have officially blended in with society. By taking special pills, they can even join humans for an afternoon picnic in the sun. To keep humans oblivious to their existence, the Vampire Federation exists to keep the vampires in line. Those that break the rules will be shot with a special bullet that kills them. Naturally, not all vampires like these new rules and will do as the feel they must to ensure the Federation is properly dealt with...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars

There is an audience for this book. That audience, however, is not me.

Sean McCabe is a pseudonym for thriller author Scott Mariani, and in Uprising he blends the thriller genre with a vampire story. Our protagonists are police detective Joel Solomon, and Alex Bishop, who is herself a law enforcement officer of sorts. She works for the Vampire Intelligence Agency, which serves the Vampire Federation, a bureaucracy that governs vampire society and has developed several technologies that allow vamp...more There is an audience for this book. That audience, however, is not me.

Sean McCabe is a pseudonym for thriller author Scott Mariani, and in Uprising he blends the thriller genre with a vampire story. Our protagonists are police detective Joel Solomon, and Alex Bishop, who is herself a law enforcement officer of sorts. She works for the Vampire Intelligence Agency, which serves the Vampire Federation, a bureaucracy that governs vampire society and has developed several technologies that allow vampires to live relatively normal lives amid the human population. But not all vampires adhere to the Federation’s dictates. Joel and Alex discover a traditionalist cult that hopes to overthrow the Federation and return vampires to their roots: lurking in the night and treating humans like cattle.

As is typical for a thriller, Uprising features a number of action-packed set pieces, including a gun battle on the spokes of the London Eye. Gore is spattered liberally, especially since vampires have developed a toxin that kills their own kind more gruesomely than the old-fashioned stake; it causes them to explode. Joel and Alex get to do plenty of badass things, and a great deal of ink is spent describing guns and cars. There is a niche of readers who are bound to love this.

I’m not that kind of reader, though, and I don’t think I’m alone. I like a good fight scene as much as the next person, but in my urban fantasy I also crave character development, a challenging mystery, and creative use of mythology. Romance is not a requirement, but if it is present, I want it to be well-developed. The characters in Uprising are flat, defined mainly by their badassitude. Because they are not fleshed out, their romance lacks spark. The mysterious traitor is easy to guess. And in the overstuffed vampire genre, McCabe just doesn’t add much that is new. (While the specific chemicals that enable vamps to live among humans are McCabe’s invention, the idea of conflict between the vamps who want to live among humans vs. the vamps who want to dominate humans is all too familiar.) The plot points I found most compelling are recognizably adapted from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Everyone borrows from the classics, of course, but in this case I’d rather have just reread Dracula. I like Stoker’s characters better! There are also several character decisions and plot points in Uprising that don’t quite make sense.

I had high hopes for one aspect of the plot, though. There’s one thriller trope that continues to be a guilty pleasure of mine: the quest for a legendary McGuffin, here represented by the Cross of Ardaich. Unfortunately, the scavenger hunt for the Cross, once it gets going, is brief and perfunctory.

So, Uprising is not my cup of tea. If you enjoy thrillers and would like to see that genre’s tropes mixed in with the paranormal, or if you like urban fantasy primarily for the action, however, Uprising and the Vampire Federation series may be yours.(less)

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Dec 10, 2012 StrangeBedfellows rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just finished reading this today, and I thought it was great. Granted, I wasn't immediately hooked. A few things stand out as less-than-perfect. For example, there's an overly narrated quality to the author's writing style that I didn't always like. At times, it felt like McCabe was trying to write things like a movie instead of a book. Some may enjoy that, but I felt that the narrative flow suffered. A few too many perspective changes, choppy action sequences, scene setups that were a bit for...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal-adventure, reviewer-copy

A horrible experience as a youth left Joel Solomon with a unique perspective when it came to claims of vampire ritual killings in the area. As a Detective Inspector, he logically thought that the teen, Declan Maddon was on drugs or alcohol and had imagined the Halloween night death. But, as the boy that watched his own parents attacked by one, Joel had a sense that Dec was telling the truth. As one of the Vampire Intelligence Agency’s (VIA) top field agents, Alex Bishop’s job included policing o...more A horrible experience as a youth left Joel Solomon with a unique perspective when it came to claims of vampire ritual killings in the area. As a Detective Inspector, he logically thought that the teen, Declan Maddon was on drugs or alcohol and had imagined the Halloween night death. But, as the boy that watched his own parents attacked by one, Joel had a sense that Dec was telling the truth. As one of the Vampire Intelligence Agency’s (VIA) top field agents, Alex Bishop’s job included policing other vampires and making sure that the humans never suspected vampire existence. Hearing the story that Dec was telling the police brought her face to face with Joel and even though that first encounter didn‘t amount to much, there was something about him and she knew they would meet again. Taking different routes, Alex and Joel end up being on the same path … to stop the uprising of the vampire traditionalists.

Book 1 ….. Took an extremely long time to get into the story of the Uprising. Some of it could be attributed to it being the first book of a new series and wanting the back story told. To some point it was predictable, nothing like posting forbidden laws at the beginning of a story to ensure that some if not all will be broken by the main characters by the end of the story. I did struggle to get into it at first, there was so many characters and keeping them straight at first was difficult, and then to find most of the characters that had been introduced ended up dying was a bit frustrating. Near the middle of the book though, I did find myself not wanting to put it down, the main characters had been reoccurring enough that I finally got into the actual story and learned to overlook the introductions of the expendable characters. Turns out that I really liked both Joel and Alex. I liked the way it ended - emotionally, I will probably seek out the next book after it becomes available, if for not other reason than to see the reaction of the characters to the ending action of one of them.
(less)

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Jan 24, 2011 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, horror, urban-fantasy, vampire-fiction

This review is based on an advance reader copy received through the First Reads giveaway.

For me, the first half of the book deserved four stars, but flaws eventually dragged it down to only three. The ending lost it a half-star by being amazingly cliched, but the other half was lost due to sloppy writing of the real world surrounding the vampires.
For example, a point is made that the main human character, Joel, has never travelled outside of Britain. Then, just a few pages later, he flies to Ita...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Patty rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was such an intense book…I loved every minute of it. It is the tale of a new generation of vampires. These vampires want to live in peace with humans. They don’t really want to turn anyone into a vampire and when they have to feed they administer a drug to the human that stops the bleeding and blocks their memory of being dinner. How cool is that!!! This new generation of vampires also uses sunblock…a made just for vampires one that they have to swallow every 12 hours. The description of t...more
This was such an intense book…I loved every minute of it. It is the tale of a new generation of vampires. These vampires want to live in peace with humans. They don’t really want to turn anyone into a vampire and when they have to feed they administer a drug to the human that stops the bleeding and blocks their memory of being dinner. How cool is that!!! This new generation of vampires also uses sunblock…a made just for vampires one that they have to swallow every 12 hours. The description of this sunblock reminded me of that candy called PopRocks…because it fizzes on their vampire tongues. These vampires also have their own federation or agency that was designed to keep rogue vampires under control. Every once in a while a human is sort of accidentally made into a new vampire but that is relatively rare. Oh…and there is this drug…I think it is called Nosferal…that will kill any bad vampires. That brings us to the Vampire Federation which is sort of similar to a CIA. They are charged with the task of keeping all of the vampires under control and keeping all of this vampire stuff away from humans.

So…this new system seems to be working until a power hungry vampire and his sister decide that they want to take over the world. They are about as bad and evil as any vampires can possibly be. No morality, no soul…just pure unadulterated evil.

This is where Alex, a female Federation vampire, and Joel, a regular human policeman, come into play. They are thrust together and must destroy the evil vampires, particularly Stone and his sister Lillith or everyone will die.

So…of course all of this is incredibly action packed, different and so much fun to read. Lots of amazing scenes, lots of gripping adventures, and once you stop being totally freaked out and scared…lots of fun.

I think…

Just teasing.

Seriously…this was a great book…I know there is a second book coming. This would make an amazing movie. The movie would be scary, intense and have you on the edge of your seat in suspense until the end.

This book is definitely the exact opposite of the Twilight books. The vampires in Twilight seem like puppies compared to some of the bad vampires in Sean McCabe’s novel.
(less)

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May 16, 2013 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was a very quick read, and although it had a great premise, I thought that the plot was a little contrived and simplistic by the end. Vampires have decided that to survive in modern society they need to self-regulate and create a policing arm of their Vampire Federation. With the help of drugs that help them withstand sunlight, give their victims amnesia about being fed upon, and a lethal vampire-destroying drug, the Federation hopes vampires can keep order and live among humans. Unfortunat...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Brandi Salazar rated it 4 of 5 stars

It took me a while to get through this one, which is saying something. McCabe is a new author to me, so it isn't unusual for me to take a while to warm up to the story. But the first 100 pages or so were all about setting up the characters, which were myriad, and the plot. It proved interesting yet boring at the same time even though the story wasn't really lacking in structure or imagination. Maybe it was just me?

I actually really liked his use of choppy sentence structure. The detail was simpl...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Rizza rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 12, 2011 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars

In the modern world, vampires remain hidden, but have created their own worldwide governing body that enforces the rules of vampire behavior, and distributes drugs that enable vampires to go out in the daylight and prevent humans from being turned by a vampire bite. A group of traditional vampires that just sees humans as a food source and wants to return vampire life to its old ways attacks the Federation with the intent of destroying it. Human police inspector Joel Solomon and Vampire Intellig...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Kaitlin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Anytime you combine a crime thriller with a paranormal theme, the chances are pretty high that the story will be interesting from front to back.

I found myself drawn to the characters very quickly in the story and couldn't wait for the "high points" of the story to come. Joel is the type of man who renders that typical tough-man, cop appeal who is determined and driven in his career and life. He suffered some unthinkable trauma as a young man and has spent the rest of his life fighting to avoid h...more Anytime you combine a crime thriller with a paranormal theme, the chances are pretty high that the story will be interesting from front to back.

I found myself drawn to the characters very quickly in the story and couldn't wait for the "high points" of the story to come. Joel is the type of man who renders that typical tough-man, cop appeal who is determined and driven in his career and life. He suffered some unthinkable trauma as a young man and has spent the rest of his life fighting to avoid his troubled memories. His determination to avoid his past is what makes his struggle throughout the book so profound, even when he eventually has to face his worst nightmares head-on.

Alex, on the other hand, is hard-core woman to the bone.. or at least she believes she is. Having spent over a century hiding behind her past and working toward building her career in the Federation to keep peace among the vampire civilization, she's all business and no play. By working with the Federation, she has become so accustomed to the benefits that she has somewhat forgotten what it means to live as a vampire susceptible to the natural elements of life.

When turmoil strikes in the world of both vampires and humans, Joel and Alex must fight past their differences and attempt to conquer some of the biggest battles of their lives.

As exciting as the story sounds, by the time I made it half-way through I just found myself dragging. I almost couldn't even finish the story. By no means was the book bad, it just didn't set off my "thriller" radar as much as I had hoped. I struggled to even figure out what it was that left me disappointed while reading it. The characters were descriptive and deep, the locations could easily be envisioned through their depictions, the struggles that were experienced were easy to relate to and the battles were even gory and rough; but, I still felt something was lacking.

I'm not giving up on this series, I have hopes that it will peak my interest yet, so we shall see!

Kaitlin @ Novel Creativity (less)

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Sep 17, 2012 Francisco rated it 4 of 5 stars

After watching his family slain by vampires as a child, Detective Inspector Joel Solomon secretly believs in the blood suckers. As an adult, he is plauged by nightmares of that fateful day.

Alex Bishop is an agent with the Vampire Intelligence Agency, who keep track of vampires around the world, making sure the secret of vampire stays that way.

After seeing the murder of a young woman by what he knows are vampires, he is on the hunt to prove these vile creatures are real and to hunt them down an...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Michelle (In Libris Veritas) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: vampires, first-reads, arc

First off I feel horrible for not reading this sooner then I did, and there was really no excuse except I didn't want to. Now on to the review. Uprising is one of the, now rare, vampire novels that involve a lot of bloodshed and tough characters. It's not a totally original plot but after the amount of vampire romances I've read this was a nice change in pace. I did enjoy the main character Alex, she is a tough girl and can handle her own. I didn't really like Joel too much, he was kind of 'eh'...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Melissa Reinhart rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's definitely not your average vampire book. If you want a "Twilight" kind of read, this isn't it. I loved the idea of the story... the vampire federation is a great angle... it just felt like it was missing something. Certain areas could have been more evolved... for instance the cross. This cross is the stuff of legends, talked about for ages, a vampire's kryptonite... no one has seen it, no one knows if it even exists... and dude just happens to know what church to go to, swims under a wall...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I just found out that I won a copy of this book through the Goodreads First-reads program!!!!
I'm so excited! THANK YOU GOODREADS!!!

I received the book yesterday! I'll be starting it shortly!

I have to say that I thought this book was fantastic! It was well written and fast paced! Gabriel Stone is the kind of villian that you just love to hate. Loved Alex; such a strong female lead! And who wouldn't love Joel! I can't wait for the next book to see how he deals with his fate. Alex had a very tough...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Lucas rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't have anything bad to say about this book, but I also find it hard to think of many things that stood out for me. Nevertheless, I still thought it was a good read. Uprising mostly follows two main characters, Detective Inspector Joel Solomon, and Agent Alex Bishop of the VIA. The parts featuring the two main characters are what make the book as good as it was, while the parts featuring the other characters tended to drag it down some for me. The version of vampire lore within this novel i...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Kati Bowditch rated it 4 of 5 stars

Usually I do tend to gravitate towards darker vampires and was really excited to get this book. The spin on the use of science to create/manufacture ways for vampires to be out in sunlight was a different one, not bad or good as I prefer vamps that are night dwellers, but it made a lot more sense than other things *cough* I have read.
It does grab you and keep you interested, I kept trying to put it down and wound up not able to do so until I had gotten done with it. Just the right blend of vamp...more

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May 19, 2011 Cheryl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

I loved the premise of this book: the existence of vampires, a secret federation (of vampires) which ensures that the vamps don't kill humans, a gruesome murder, a dogged detective trying to solve the murder, and the vampire who helps him. I was interested just reading the book jacket! I especially enjoyed the beginning of the book - the opening scenes are atmospheric, spooky, riveting. I really wanted to like the book....but found the characters too formulaic. They seemed like caricatures of ch...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

Book was a bit slow to get going, and generic in places, but an enjoyable read on the overall. This books goes in my "beach read" category--decent and active plot, no meaningful character development, but a fun and light read nonetheless.

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Sep 28, 2011 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: vampyre-zombie

Great easy, engrosing read.

Touches of classic gothic vampire elements married with a modern thriller ... I loved the modern/classic mix of this one and definitely looking forward to the sequel.

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Apr 24, 2011 Scenemyemo rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked reading this. It is a little less-then fast paced, but it was still a very nice book to read. I loved the authors use of words and visuals, and his setting fascinating as well. (: I will be awaiting #2.

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Jan 24, 2011 Nickki Braun rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reader-winner

I just finished this book and I too felt it was over narrated and the ending was a bit much. I wasn't immediately hooked but about the middle somethig took hold and I had to see it played out. I give it 3.5 stars.
I would buy the next book just to finish the story. I don't like to leave things unturned. ;0)

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Jun 27, 2011 George Wilhite rated it 4 of 5 stars

very intriguing first book in a new series--interesting world of vampires good and evil--cool weapons--excellent male and female leads

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Jan 09, 2011 Jeffrey marked it as to-read

I hope to read and review this book soon. Looks like a good book.

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Mar 30, 2011 Cheekey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another Vampire book. I got sucked in. I thought it was good and am willing to read the next book.

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Jan 09, 2011 shinfu marked it as to-read

This looks like it will be a great book to read.

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Jan 25, 2011 Shelley aka Gizmo's Reviews marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2011-releases, vampires

Releases February 1st 2011

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Jan 16, 2012 Adri rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.25

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Jan 09, 2011 Landy marked it as to-read

Looks good.

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Feb 11, 2011 Lisajean74 rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: supernatural

this was if 24 was set in a time with vampires. intereting but predictable plot points.

1 like · like · see review

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