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The Obscurati (Vamp Camp #2)

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 37 ratings · 3 reviews

A hundred years after his turning, Mårten Larsson and his lover Oberon have taken the compassion and caring they found in Vamp Camp and created an empire that brings balance to vampire society around the world. Once two giddy young vamps, now they're the most formidable vampire hit squad in history: The Obscurati.

As the “Unseen Death,” the duo enforces vampire law. When a...more

ebook, 210 pages

Published January 3rd 2011 by Dreamspinner Press

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Feb 22, 2011 Kassa rated it 2 of 5 stars

While I quite enjoyed Vamp Camp #1, the sequel didn’t have the same entertainment factor for me. The characters are amusing with the same dry wit and tendency to tell the reader the story but unfortunately the plot meanders back and forth with no real tension and no strong purpose. Instead this feels like a bunch of scenes thrown together with the right elements: sex, romance, blood, vampires, wealth, power, fights, secret councils, and even death of major characters but it doesn’t come together...more While I quite enjoyed Vamp Camp #1, the sequel didn’t have the same entertainment factor for me. The characters are amusing with the same dry wit and tendency to tell the reader the story but unfortunately the plot meanders back and forth with no real tension and no strong purpose. Instead this feels like a bunch of scenes thrown together with the right elements: sex, romance, blood, vampires, wealth, power, fights, secret councils, and even death of major characters but it doesn’t come together in a cohesive, interesting narrative.

Obscurati begins some 100 years after the first novel. Marten is once again the narrator and right away there is an amusing back and forth with his confessor. After this scene the story jumps back and forth between past events in the characters’ lives, the events that have happened in the past 100 years and current actions. The past events are meant to give more insight into the characters and their histories, how they each came to be vampires and what it means to them. The events in between the last book and the current book are meant to help any new readers and remind old readers of what happened previously and sort of catch everyone up. Then there is the current action of the secret vampire assassin group which is the loose thread holding the book together.

Right away I had a problem with the disjointed nature of the narrative. Jumping back and forth creates an uneven texture to the story and seems to offer scenes randomly. Many of these are meant to add various elements such as a graphic sex scene, an amusing antidote, witty reparate, a dry humor about the history of vampires and so on. While these scenes do achieve those goals, they do so in a very chaotic, non linear way. This never let me get into a flow with the story and instead kept feeling like I was reading random scenes added together without a tight, focused, purpose. Part of this is that the story is almost entirely told the reader versus shown.

Marten doesn’t speak to the reader as much as he did in the first book but there are sly nods and winks quite often. He’s trying to draw the reader into the various situations to laugh along with him. Some of this works quite well and there are numerous moments of charm and entertainment. On the whole though this simply fell flat for me and didn’t contain anywhere near the same amount of enjoyment and fun the previous book had. A big problem is that the story lacks a strong plot and focus. The secret vampire assassin society is the biggest focus in the current time but this feels too weak and easy unfortunately. There is very little tension and mostly a recitation of the various jobs Marten, Oberon, and Hamlet commit as assassins.

Since all three are the best of the best, the most talented, the most skill, the richest, the fastest fliers, and so on the jobs are not daring and breath taking. Instead they’re almost mundane and boring. The best part is the brief skirmish at Menz’s compound but the story moves on incredibly fast from that scene and loses any emotional impact. In fact I found the last 40 pages after that event incredibly boring. The narration starts to list the details of the jobs and the various toys the vampires start to use from guns to planes. Marten and Oberon are so successful that really this is an over the top way of showing how great, rich, and easy life is now for them.

In a sense that’s really what you expect of typical vampires – they fly around the world in minutes, have so much money they could buy the world and never be poor, they’re gorgeous and constantly sexual, etc – and this story plays up all those tropes. This trend really made me sad since the charm of the first book is the hapless, sarcastic Marten with his dry wit and engaging manner trying to navigate a world of vampire politics that doesn’t really suit him. In this story he’s become a super powerful player in that political machine without any of the conflict or fight. We’re simply told how great everything is and how much in love everyone is.

This leads to the last issue I want to touch on – the romance between Oberon and Marten. In the first book these two fell in love from having sex constantly and that’s changed somewhat here. Oberon still screws anything that moves and the two have a very open relationship while Marten eventually falls in love with another human. It doesn’t end the main relationship but instead creates a ménage that frankly left me cold. There are some very nice emotional scenes where Marten shows the depth of his love for Oberon – again not sure what it’s based on but there is love there – but most of this is shown through sex, sex, and more sex. So the inclusion of another makes absolutely no sense to me nor does it add anything to the romance. I don’t really feel any connection or chemistry between Lonny and Marten so I don’t particularly like or appreciate the pairing.

I will say that the author knows how to write and can write some really entertaining and amusing scenes. There is a sense of wry charm and wit that is hard to come across in books. I can easily see why some readers will find the narrator engaging and so charming they forgive the flaws. It’s really up to the individual reader to decide. Although I quite liked the first novel, the second didn’t live up to that promise and I probably wouldn’t continue with the series sadly but I am interested in what else the author does.
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Mar 30, 2012 Hearts On Fire Reviews added it

Reviewed by: Kevin
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Rated: 4 hearts

Check out the review on http://heartsonfirereviews.com/

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Mar 10, 2011 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Obscurati, the second book in the Vamp Camp series, is a fun read. It doesn't ask much of the reader other than to enjoy themselves. There is very little angst and lots of sex--most of it by way of Oberon. While I enjoyed this book a lot and I have hopes that there might be another to follow, I enjoyed the first book better. It was fresh and had a very mischievous undercurrent to it. I like Mr. Wagner's writing style. It's very clean and uncluttered.

I give The Obscurati three stars.

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About Wynn Wagner

Wynn Wagner and his husband Rick live in Texas.

Texas doesn’t recognize their marriage even though it was done by a real priest in a real Old Catholic Church during Mass. God recognizes the marriage even if the state doesn’t. “Texas versus God,” Wynn says. “I pick God.” He prays that Texas politicians will one day consider his religion to be as valid as the politicians’ denominations.

Dr. Wagner rec...more Wynn Wagner and his husband Rick live in Texas.

Texas doesn’t recognize their marriage even though it was done by a real priest in a real Old Catholic Church during Mass. God recognizes the marriage even if the state doesn’t. “Texas versus God,” Wynn says. “I pick God.” He prays that Texas politicians will one day consider his religion to be as valid as the politicians’ denominations.

Dr. Wagner received a Th.D from St. Wolbodo Seminary and elsewhere a Masters of Liberal Arts and undergraduate degrees in English and Philosophy. “Ancient history,” he said. “The earth has cooled significantly since all that.”

He is a retired archbishop and former president of the World Conference of Old Catholic Churches and Coadjutor of the North American Old Catholic Church.

Yes, the doctor is a retired archbishop who writes gay romance novels. “It’s a niche,” he says.

He has written numerous gay and spiritual books. The author Patricia Nell Warren calls him a “powerhouse in GLBT publishing.”

Before that, he was a programmer who helped write the tax software used by some of the world’s largest corporations. He also wrote Opus-CBCS, a computer bulletin board system that was wildly popular in the 1980s. Opus generated millions of dollars for HIV and AIDS, back when almost nobody was helping fund research or caring for those suffering from the disease. He also wrote a short piece called “HIV: Day One” for those who have just learned they have HIV. “Day One” is hosted by AEGiS, an HIV web service operated by a religious order in San Juan Capistrano, CA (USA).
Before programming and writing, Wynn worked in radio in Texas and New York. Before that, he was a pimply-faced teenager.

He was awarded a key to the city by the mayor of Corpus Christi, Texas. It was a key to the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a town Wynn has never visited. “No respect, I tell you,” he says.

Wynn is the son of Swedish immigrants who was adopted at birth. He sang as a boy soprano in the Texas Boys Choir and appeared on such television shows as Ed Sullivan and Perry Como. His singing took him to Carnegie Hall, to Europe, and to record dates like the last recording conducted by Igor Stravinsky.
Wynn Wagner is a member of The Authors Guild.(less)

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The Vamp in the Silver Mask (Vamp Camp, #3)

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