Unfettered Vampire, by S. Rodman

[Ulysses]

Unfettered Vampire
By S. Rodman
Dark Angst Publishing, 2024
Four stars

Part of a multi-part series, each of which centers on a different paranormal character, S. Rodman presents a universe in which humans are generally unaware of the existence of a paranormal world. A group of young men live together and support each other—having survived a harrowing ordeal at the hands of a crazed billionaire.

The quirky premise is that Ned, a century-old vampire who looks 20, gets himself a position as nanny to a grieving 45-year-old widower, Morgan Dowd. The reason he does this is that Morgan’s late wife was in fact Ned’s great-granddaughter, whom he never knew. That historical detail is explained as the story unfolds. It’s a rather fun plot idea, romantically speaking, and Rodman tweaks the vampire lore to suit the situation.

Ned is a reluctant vampire, a natural care-taker, which is not what tradition might suggest. That goes hand in hand with the idea of vampires having descendants, which would attach them to the human world in a very different way. I don’t know why I’ve never seen this before. The freedom of writing fiction is fully engaged by the author, and I liked his characters very much.

This is not the finale of the series, and the ending of the book sets the stage for further adventures.