From Afar in Q&A with Erastes

Feb 28, 2010 Elisa Rolle added it

Regency Vampires is a very thriving genre, and usually the stories are quite gothic and dark, and not only since, obviously, they are set at night. Reading the blurb of From Afar I was expecting nothing different, the story of the vampire Raphael and his unrequited love for nobleman Aleric; Raphael is forced to turn Aleric when the man is mortally wounded by some thieves and now he fears the man will hate him.

But since the beginning, the story reveals to be quite different from expected. First, Regency Vampires is a very thriving genre, and usually the stories are quite gothic and dark, and not only since, obviously, they are set at night. Reading the blurb of From Afar I was expecting nothing different, the story of the vampire Raphael and his unrequited love for nobleman Aleric; Raphael is forced to turn Aleric when the man is mortally wounded by some thieves and now he fears the man will hate him.

But since the beginning, the story reveals to be quite different from expected. First, it begins with a very sexy scene, Raphael perched on a tree spying Aleric with a female prostitute… well, yes, it’s a sexy scene, especially when Raphael starts to masturbate, but indeed I was also worried for Raphael’s safety, wondering if he was risking to fall down the tree. I don’t know but this scene revealed a lot of Raphael, of how, despite being a 36 years old vampire, he is really still the young 21 years old boy he was when turned. Raphael is not a strong and mourning vampire; he is instead a young man who is searching for love. 3 years before he fell in love for Aleric, but like a very “ordinary” unrequited love, he has never had the courage to reach for it; truth be told, I felt like what restrains Raphael is more the moral sin, they are both men, than the vampire thing: even if Raphael was human, I think that he the same would not acknowledge his existence to Aleric.

When he is forced to turn Aleric to save his life, at first Raphael feels guilty; he did nothing to mortally wound Aleric, but indeed it was a good chance for him. But then to Aleric takes very few time to accommodate to his new status, maybe helped in that from the fact that he was totally destitute, without any real chance, and if not for Raphael’s independent wealth, he would have no idea how to pay his debts. It’s not clearly stated, but this is a winning turn of the evens for Aleric from all perspectives: Aleric has always had forbidden desires for men, but he has never had the courage to really indulge in them… now he has an handsome young man all for himself; Aleric has no money and no way to gain them, and instead Raphael has plenty; Raphael feels guilty for turning Aleric and so he is willing to grant any whim of the man.

There are odd but very nice contrapositions in the story: Aleric is the nobleman, but it’s Raphael who has the money; Aleric is the less experience in man love of the two, but he is the one who is more sexually driven to explore; Raphael, turned at 21 years old and with 36 years of experience as vampire, is the oldest between them, but it’s Gabriel who seems to be the “leader” in the relationship (even if, as I said just before, it’s Raphael who has the money). All of them (and maybe some other I forgot), make the characters multilayered and original, and so, even if this is only a novella that spans for only 2 nights in the life of the men, it has a wider breath.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038089TI/?... ...more

Like · see review

Jan 03, 2012 Gerry Burnie rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, homosexual-content, fantasy, gay-fantasy

Gerry B's Book Reviews - http://gerrycan.wordpress.com

Since my last couple of reviews have dealt with non-GLBT books I thought it was time I should get back to the mainstream of Gerry B’s Book Reviews. Ava March’s novella From Afar [Samhain Publishing, Ltd., 2010] is one of the books that has been languishing on my TBR list, and so I happily turned to it this week.

This is one of those crossover stories featuring vampires that seem to be popular these days. For the life of me I can’t figure out Gerry B's Book Reviews - http://gerrycan.wordpress.com

Since my last couple of reviews have dealt with non-GLBT books I thought it was time I should get back to the mainstream of Gerry B’s Book Reviews. Ava March’s novella From Afar [Samhain Publishing, Ltd., 2010] is one of the books that has been languishing on my TBR list, and so I happily turned to it this week.

This is one of those crossover stories featuring vampires that seem to be popular these days. For the life of me I can’t figure out why, and to date no one has been able to provide a definitive answer, but that is a discussion for another day and forum.

This story is set in Regency England, and features a young vampire by the name of Raphael. At the opening of the tale we find Raphael up a tree spying on a libertine lord (Aleric) at play with a prostitute—something that Raphael has apparently watched more than once. The truth is that Raphael is infatuated with Aleric, but given his (Raphael’s) inhuman characteristics a full-fledged relationship is an impossibility.

However, circumstances change when Aleric is critically wounded in a mugging, and rather than see his unconscious love die Raphael gives him the bite of ‘everlasting life’ as a vampire, but since it is without Aleric’s consent the question is how will he react when he regains consciousness?

To give him his due Raphael’s love is genuine, for he goes to great lengths to revive his “lover,” and when he does he is rewarded by a compliant Aleric. The reality is the Aleric is a lord in name only, and is otherwise destitute. Moreover, he had always been more than just a bit bi-curious, and so there follows quite a charming ‘getting-to-know-you’ segment in which Aleric learns the dos-and-don’ts of being a vampire.

The tension in the story is provided by a dominant clan of vampires under the control of a female who, rather awkwardly, develops an attraction to Aleric, and while she can’t destroy Raphael she can cause serious and grave difficulties for both him and Aleric.

It is a cleverly conceived story, capably written and well worth a read, but it is also a little incredulous in places. For one thing I found Aleric’s acceptance and adjustment to his new life a bit too ready, and the ending seemed truncated for what needed to be resolved. Three and on-half bees.
...more

Like · see review