Ellora’s Cave, $5.95, ISBN 1-4199-0433-7
Fantasy Erotica, 2005

Descendants of Darkness is actually four short stories put together as one continuous long story. Because nowhere in the book indicates this and a short story can begin where the previous one ended without warning, at first I find myself feeling rather bewildered as to why the story suddenly switches main characters. And then I realize that, duh, this story is actually made up of four shorter stories.

The stories are set in New Orleans which is apparently the favorite playground of the spooks in this story. The first story sees Alonso saving a fortune teller from his maker Lucius only to fall for her because she is his life-mate. Next is a hopelessly unbelievable redemption of the mean and bad Lucius who falls for a werewolf and is apparently redeemed just like that because he’s in love. Leonardo, another fang-face, falls for the obligatory vampire slayer Erin. Finally, another fang-face, Rafe, finds love with a Creole witch.

All four stories are very similar in the sense that there is really no believable attraction between the characters involved in a particular relationship. The whole “life-mate” thing is a short cut for the author to cut straight to sex scenes followed by declarations of love. They meet, they have sex, they feel the life-mate bond between them, the end.

I suppose a reader has to be a big fan of the author or is enamored of “fang-faces and life-mates” fantasies to adore Descendants of Darkness. As for me, these four short and underdeveloped stories just don’t do anything for me.