Read Between August 15 to August 16,2016
Read again in Last Week of November 2016
Edition Details:
Format: E-book
Page Count: 229
Publisher : Dark hall Press
Robin of Ipswich was a knight in the order of Templar. He was returning from a successful campaign. He was excited as he was bringing a knowledge that would change all other campaigns of the order. He had stumbled upon the story of Ivan the wicked.
Ivan was a romanian lord who wanted happiness for his place Erdely. He knew he was called Ivan the wicked and there were many rumors propogated about him. He didn’t care for them as it helped in protecting his village from the neighbouring ones. His people were happy and his village prosperous and that was good en ough for him. And he knew this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the magical chalice that he possessed. This was the cup that gave him and his people eternal life. The lords of neighbouring villages thought he had made pact with the satan but he couldn’t care less for what those people thought.
But Robin knew different. And so he told the story of Ivan and cup to his mentor Sir Philippe de Ridefort and Archdeacon Geoffery Dunn.When Archdeacon Geoffery Dunn hears about the magical cup of Ivan he knows it’s the holy grail. He also knows that it’s property of church and it’s should be in Church’s possession. And he doesn’t care about the price or method by which it’s retrieved.
So, the templars move towards Erdely to retrieve what they think belongs to the Church. But it’s not going to be so easy. Ivan will not give his cup without the fight.
What happens next forms the story.
Vampires have often fascinated me and i keep scouring the net for works related to them. So when i came across the title of this book i knew i had to read it.
The book is first in the series and tells the story of how the Vampirs (which i think is german for Vampires) came into being. This particular subject has various takes on it. Dracula, the most famous Vampire, was thought to be born when Ottomons had attacked his kingdom and dracula made a pact with Satan to protect his empire. Also, it’s said that Vlad the impaler was inspiration for Bram Stoker’s work. Here the author has set the story in 19th century.It starts on March 11th 1218 and last for few months after that.
I could feel for Ivan in the book. He just wanted best for his people. He is a lord whose first priority are his people. He can be very cruel to his enemies but i think they were living in a time when cruelty was a neccessity. Most of the times he was a reasonable guy but what happened to him could have made any one act the way he was.
There are many antagonists in the book. There’s Lord Vojtech of Melec who is a jelaous lord and thinks he’s better than Ivan. But when it’s doesn’t turns out to be like that then resorts to lies to further his ambition. There is Archdeacon Geoffery Dunn who says he’s working for Church but in reality is a selfish guy, who like many others before him, is using religion to further his own desires. I really hated him. You can come across people like him in the present time too. They use religion as a means to cheat gullible people and fulfill their own desires. I think even Lord Vojtech was a better man than him. Then, there are templars who are bound by religion to do what Archdeacon asks them to do. Most of the knights like Phillipe, Robin and his group are upstanding knights who know what’s wrong and right but are bound by their oath of the cause. They are forced to follow the church whether they think it’s right or wrong. I think Philipe should have shown more spine against the deacon much earlier in the story. Philipe reminded me of Pitamah Bheeshm of Mahabharat. He knew Duryodhan was wrong but since he had taken the oath to be with kingdom and protect it so he fought for him rather than against him.
As far as the story is concerned i liked reading the story. It’s the first one in the series so it introduces the circumstances that resulted in creation of Ivan and his clan of Vampirs. This means that it’s near the end that the Vampirs are shown and most of the book is about the set of circumstances that led to their formation. The book ends at a good note and i would definitely like to see how it proceeds from there.
The book is fast paced and there were no points in it where i felt bored. It held my interest till the end. If you are interested in literature involving Vampires then you should definitely check this out.
If you have read the book then do tell me how did you feel about it. If you haven’t then you can get the book from the following link:
Paperback
