Dark Slayer (Dark, #17) by Christine Feehan Series: Dark Series #17
Also in this series: Dark Nights (Dark #6.5, #9.5), Dark Wolf (Dark, #25), Dark Promises (Dark, #29), Dark Carousel (Dark, #30), Dark Legacy (Dark, #31), Dark Sentinel (Dark #28)
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 416
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Series Rating:
A rumor has persisted in the vampire world of a dark slayer—a woman—who travels with a wolf pack and any among the vampires who meets her is slain. Mysterious, elusive and seemingly impossible to kill, she is the one hunter who strikes terror into the hearts of the vampires.
Ivory Malinov is that woman, betrayed by her own people, by her family, by everyone she held dear and she hunts during the night with only her pack to sustain her sanity. She has not spoken to or been with any other person for a hundred years other than to feed from or slay. She stumbles across a body on her way back to her lair and discovers—her lifemate.
He is Razvan, branded a hated criminal, detested, feared and loathed by all Carpathians—he is also a dragonseeker of one of the greatest lineages of all Carpathians. Held captive nearly his entire life by his grandfather, the Carpathians bitterest enemy, he is seeking the dawn to end his terrible existence.
This is a story of two people, horribly betrayed, wounded in spirit, fighters to the death, who must struggle to unite against a common enemy.
Every Thursday, we’ll be posting throwback reviews of our favorite and not-so-favorite books. Enjoy!
As I mention anytime I review a book in this series, Dark Prince was the first paranormal I ever read. Even with the monotony over the last few years, I still won’t stop reading this series. I think that Dark Slayer is a big turn for the series. CF finally closed a story arc that has been a long time in coming and has started a new one (which has been briefly touched upon). My hope is that it brings new life into the series.
Ivory Malinov has long been thought dead. Betrayed by the prince’s son (Mikhail’s brother), Ivory was cut up into little pieces and left for the wolves to feed on. Yes, I realize this is disgusting and it made me cringe a little each time Ivory thought/talked about it. Using her Carpathian ability to talk to the wolves, she convinced them to bury the pieces of her with a promise that she would take care of their pack “for all time”. [A little side note: That phrase is WAY overused. It really gets old.] So Ivory has to stay in the soil for centuries so she can put the pieces back together. When she rises, her only mission is to hunt the vampire. She has gotten so good at killing the vampire that they refer to her as the Dark Slayer.
When she is heading back to her lair, she sees a Carpathian lying in the snow. She instantly knows that he is her lifemate and she is compelled to get him to safety. The last thing Razvan wants is to be saved. He has finally escaped the mage, Xavier, and there is nothing more he wants than to die. In earlier books, I would compare Razvan to The Ghost in Nalini‘s Psy/Changeling series. You never quite knew if he was good or bad. Right when you think he was good, he did something bad. It was very confusing. So obviously we now know that Razvan is good. Not only that, but he has been horribly abused and used for centuries.
While Ivory and Razvan silently agree not to complete the ritual that would make them lifemates, they decide that they will bring Xavier down together. Razvan is hesitant at first b/c Xavier has been able to possess him at will and Razvan doesn’t want to hurt Ivory. She convinces him that he is stronger than he has ever been and he can beat Xavier.
So the story arc of Xavier comes to an end in this book, which was nice. The problem with the infant mortality rate is also addressed further. I think that will be prominent in the books to come. What is obvious is that Ivory’s brothers (all vampires) have banded together to bring down Mikhail. Since vampires are usually solitary creatures, it should make for an interesting arc.
This is one of the better books of the series. I went back and re-read some and there are only a select few heroines I like. Ivory is definitely one of them.
4.25 out of 5.
This book is available from Berkley.
Dark Series
If I hadn’t (finally!) kicked the Feehan addiction a few years ago, your review might make me get this one…
But frankly, I’m not willing to be sucked back in the vortex. 😉
Great Review Casee! You have whetted my appetite for another Carpathian saga. You are right, the series was starting to get stale and very rote. I hope this new story line will liven things up. One other thing, you mention the repetition of a particular line in the story and found it annoying. CF actually does this in almost every book. She gets hooked on a phrase and can’t seem to stop using it, kind of a literary OCD. I agree it is annoying and lessens the story.
On another note I just wanted to thank Book Binge for sending me my winning book, Julia Quinn’s “What Happens in London”. It was great fun to win something and better that I get to read another Quinn.
Have a great day!
🙂
Mame
http://www.besottedbookworm.com
AL, which one did you stop at?
Mame, I was rolling my eyes when I was a quarter of the way through the book. I’m wondering who she will write next.
Dark Guardian was the first paranormal romance book I ever read Casee so I can’t help but stick with CF. I enjoyed Dark Curse and thought she was at least making an effort to liven up the series.
Dark Slayer sounds good, it sounds like CF, I’m excited to read it. I’m so glad you enjoyed it =)
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I will say I agree with azteclady. I stopped reading after Dark Demon (even though I purchased the books just because). I loved Dark Prince and Mikhail well I obsessed over him and I don’t want to see his fall.
Your review has me tempted (almost) to run home and read the last few books in the series.
Not sure that I like this new arc of taking Mikhail out – not sure at all that I want to start this madness again.
Would you believe that I don’t remember which one was the last I read? I know I bought a couple out of habit… I believe that the last one I read was Dark Melody, but frankly, they started running together and now I am not sure.
When I finally kicked the habit, I got rid of most of them; I think I have three or four (five? should go look) of them–the first ones, because at the time I started reading them, the premise seemed like the height of originality.
I am still reading the Dark series. Yes, I get annoyed at CF sometimes, but need to see where she ends this series.
I stopped reading when she headed to South America (I was bored before that). But I read the last one (because someone sent it to me) and it wasn’t bad.
I’m not sure I want to get sucked back in, though.