#BookReview: Hera’s Lament by Shaun Griffin

Unforced Errors Leave Bitter Aftertaste In Otherwise Solid Conclusion. It seems like every book in this trilogy, Griffin seeks to explore almost an entirely separate genre of books… all while telling what is essentially a scifi vampire story.

Here, we get into a near-dystopia, where in the fallout from Book 2, Faith has been unleashing the vampire virus all across America in an attempt to lure Anastasia out.

And yet again, the story absolutely works. We get a lot of excellent vampire action, we get the expected human soldiers, we get human tech trying to give humans an edge on the vampires, truly all of the expected stuff one typically sees in a book like this, done particularly well within this story.

Along the way, we even get some strong character growth from both Faith and Anastasia, which is always awesome to see.

Indeed, as a conclusion to this trilogy, this book was *nearly* perfect. But there are a couple of elements in the last 10% or so that give a bitter aftertaste, and at least one of the two was absolutely unforced – preachy politics that had no real place anywhere in this story.

The other… to avoid spoilers, I have to be a bit circumspect in describing, so allow me to mention that I tell a particular story often, I think I may have mentioned it in a review here or there, that I once read another trilogy specifically because its last book was getting *DESTROYED* in the reviews over the ending. All I can say here is that my thoughts on the ending of that trilogy and this one… well, there are reasons I say this one leaves a bitter aftertaste. As an action sequence, it was actually rather badass. But did it work for that character as portrayed to that point? How about you, oh reader of my review, read this trilogy and tell us in your own review whether you think I’m off base here.

Still, truly, truly excellent work on this entire trilogy and even this book itself. Easily one of the best vampire trilogies I’ve ever read, right up there with David McAfee’s Bachiyr series and *well* above that fucking sparkling “vampire” one. Is it Stoker? No. But is it an awesome, gory thrill ride with some interesting twists on the overall lore? Absolutely.

Very much recommended.

This review of Hera’s Lament by Shaun Griffin was originally written on March 13, 2025.

#BookReview: The Genesi Cure by Tristen Willis

Pacing Issues And Out Of The Blue (And Unnecessary) Epilogue Mar Promising Sequel. With how this book ultimately comes out, to my mind it actually would have worked better as one single book rather than two, even though both books told complete stories within themselves. This book arguably brings the most similarities to Hunger Games’ Mockingjay, with so much military strategizing of a looming threat dominating the book before a quick sprint of a final fight with an almost literal blink and you’ll miss it climax. As I said in the review of the first book here, it is still solid enough for the genre and for what it is, and fans of this particular type of tale will likely still very much enjoy this particular book. The training sections and first actual battle are particularly well done and indeed also bring to mind certain elements of Breaking Dawn, which was an interesting twist given the comparisons I named in my review of the first book.

Ultimately the star deduction was 90% about the epilogue though, and while I fully cop to this being a touch of a spoiler, it is an important deal breaker for many people, so I want those types to be aware of this up front – rather than defenestrating this text from the highest available window and leaving a one star review. Specifically, completely out of the blue with *zero* indication *anywhere* else that this was even *remotely* in the cards, we find ourselves a time after the final fight… and suddenly our lead suddenly has a baby, which becomes the entire focus of the epilogue. This was not only unnecessary, but also tarnishes the story told to this point moreso than the aforementioned pacing issues ever did, to the level that it leaves quite a bad “aftertaste” on the story.

Still, up until the moment of the epilogue, this is still a solid story of its type and one many will find enjoyable – and indeed, many will even enjoy that epilogue. But for those that don’t like sudden pregnancies/ sudden babies at the end of their books… just know that you can spare yourself and skip the epilogue without missing anything of import and while preserving your own view of this book.

Recommended.

This review of The Genesi Cure by Tristen Willis was originally written on December 31, 2024.