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The Last Vampire (The Last Vampire, #1)

Christopher Pike

Start date: December 6, 2020

Finish date: December 24, 2020

Discussion: PikeCast Book Talk

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Episode 5: SLUMBER PARTY w/ guest David Sodergren (and Boris the Pug!) (Air Date: 11/26)
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last updated Nov 16, 2023 05:52AM

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What Members Thought

Oct 13, 2022 Daniel Stalter rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fits-of-nostalgia, ω-physical-shelf, pulp-horror, nostalgia

The Last Vampire delivers on what I have come to expect from Pike; complicated characters with dubious morals in fucked up situations. Alisa, also known as Sita, was a bit grating as the main character, although she did grow on me over the course of the book. Starting out she was a little bit too obnoxiously good at everything. My eyes rolled more than a few times. I would have liked it better if she struggled with computers. It would have given her a degree of fallibility that I felt was missin ...more

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Dec 17, 2020 Becca rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: the-pikecast

Check out our full thoughts of The Last Vampire on The PikeCast! The Last Vampire episode will premiere on December 24!

You can find The PikeCast on both Spotify and Apple, along with:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Patreon | Goodreads Group ...more

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Jul 03, 2022 Thomas rated it liked it · review of another edition

Well, my prediction was wrong. At the end of last month's Pike review, I figured the Midnight Club series would come in July. I was wrong, we got the trailer and it's coming out in October. I guess Netflix's thing of trailers being just a month before the thing doesn't apply to that Geeked Week stuff. So yep, we're gonna be doing this for a bit longer. Thankfully I randomized beforehand and got this. I was hoping I'd be wrong so here I am.

This is easily Pike's biggest work. He's done a few seque Well, my prediction was wrong. At the end of last month's Pike review, I figured the Midnight Club series would come in July. I was wrong, we got the trailer and it's coming out in October. I guess Netflix's thing of trailers being just a month before the thing doesn't apply to that Geeked Week stuff. So yep, we're gonna be doing this for a bit longer. Thankfully I randomized beforehand and got this. I was hoping I'd be wrong so here I am.

This is easily Pike's biggest work. He's done a few sequels but this became a series that had 6 entries in the 90's alone. Then after he went back into things, vampires blew up and they made some ones, now they are up to 9 with him wanting to do a couple more to close things out. We'll see. Side note, they were reprinted in bind ups title "Thirst", with three books in each volume. when the new ones started, they put them in the Thirst line, so they had 2 volumes to that point, so Last Vampire 7 was published as Thist Volume 3, so now we have 5 Thirst books instead of 9 Last Vampire books.

That's confusing, dare I day chronologically confusing? ...Oh yeah, there's a first one before all that Clearly it struck a chord but did it deserve all that? Well, I will say I thought it was pretty good.

It revolves around Sita/Alisa, a vampire who is one of the lasts of her kind. She has been around for thousands of years and some people are starting to get suspicious. . She takes care of one guy but he was sent by someone else, so she must find that someone and deal with them, and they must be tied to her past.

There's a lot to take in here. It goes does hard into the deeper metaphysical stuff as it goes on, and has a fair bit of flashback to explain how vampires came to be and how she ties into that It's the least traditional of these so far, due to having a narrator who is this immortal being.

It's another that isn't exactly horror although it does have the highest body count of these, i think. Her nature makes her an interesting protagonist and she was developed fairly well. Her voice stands out as being very knowing and formal, which made it more engaging but also wasn't totally for me. Pike is already not the most me-friendly writer ever and you add this on top of that?

Still, it was interesting. This version of vampires is the typical variation at first, which them not doing the usual stuff yet still being night creatures that drink blood and all that. What makes them unique is the backstory, which is pretty neat. It gets into spiritual stuff that is kind of out there, it's not for everyone but at least it was interesting to read as we get deeper into it. It's another case where I don't think i "got" everything but whatever. (BTw, the Spooksville vampire was kinda like that, the stand out thing about the vampires is the unique backstory, which is different from this one but sill cool)

The other characters are a bit more mixed. The villain was cool enough for what we got, the love interest gets deeper stuff near the end but otherwise is typical, there's this Seymour guy who is basically pointless generally but if he was the love interest, it would have worked better. The love interest already has a girlfriend who does nothing.

There aren't too many flaws here but that's mostly because I was so entranced by it I wouldn't know to count as flaw. It wasn't my thing all the way as even the biggest emotional moments are muted due to the nature of it all, but that's a personal thing and not a mistake per say. I'm not used to this enough to judge everything, so other reviews from more seasoned fans may be pin down more of this.

It's too long as per usual but at least what we got works. It's a solid read that stands out with the vampire lore and pretty solid lead character with a unique voice. The ending is mixed, it's rather abrupt but ends on this interesting note. It's kinda tragic but leaves it ambitious on what really happens here...and it has a to be continued. The printing i read advertises book 3 coming in 1995, this was 1994 so In assume that the TBC was added later after the sequels were done. But if they were planned from the start instead of this being a more unique ending, then that does take the mysterious out of a tad lol.

I'm not sure where you go from here beyond exploring a bit more backstory but there's 8 more, i guess Pike found a way. It's not gonna be for everyone but it still stands out and is pretty solid. It's the most consistent of these so far, even if others have appealed to me a tad more. But yeah, being a better work from him, I can see how it got popular. I'm curious how the sequels are but that's for the far future.

Next time, the randomizer picks the book right before Midnight Club, no idea what to expect there. See ya then. ...more

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