The focus of this blog is Leonbergers but sometimes I post about books that are not about Leonbergers but are books that I love, and I therefore want to promote. This time I would like to promote Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires by David Lee Summers. In this book David Lee Summers tells a captivating and very suspenseful story about three vampires and their adventures taking place during a couple of thousands of years.
- Paperback – Publisher : Hadrosaur Press (June 2, 2020), ISBN-10 : 1885093926, ISBN-13 : 978-1885093929, 302 pages, Item Weight : 13.6 ounces, dimensions : 5.5 x 0.76 x 8.5 inches, it currently cost $15.95 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
- Kindle – Publisher : Hadrosaur Press (June 2, 2020), ASIN : B089LQZNYQ, 304 pages. It is currently $3.99 on Amazon.com. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Amazon’s description of the book
Three vampires. Three lives. Three stories intertwined.
Bearing the guilt of destroying the holiest of books after becoming a vampire, the Dragon, Lord Desmond searches the world for lost knowledge, but instead, discovers truth in love.
Born a slave in Ancient Greece, Alexandra craves freedom above all else, until a vampire sets her free, and then, she must pay the highest price of all … her human soul.
An assassin who lives in the shadows, Roquelaure is cloaked even from himself, until he discovers the power of friendship and loyalty.
Three vampires, traveling the world by moonlight—one woman and two men who forge a bond made in love and blood. Together they form a band of mercenaries called the Scarlet Order, and recruit others who are like them. Their mission is to protect kings and emperors against marauders, invaders, and rogue vampires as the world descends into the chaos of the Dark Ages.
This is my review for Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires by David Lee Summers.
A Captivating Epic Vampire Fantasy Across Thousands of Years
Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires is an epic story beginning during the time of Alexander the Great. It follows three vampires that eventually become thousands of years old. They are Alexandra a former slave girl in ancient Greece. Desmond (Lord Draco) who was a Dragon, or knight serving Duke Ambrosius in England, and Roquelaure. There are other vampires in the story too, such as Theron, Wolf and Nabila. At the beginning of the book the vampires are often called Blutsauger. The moniker “vampyr”, or “vampire”, is adopted later.
They travel across Rome, medieval Europe, the Byzantine Empire, the middle east, and Africa. They are part of many adventures, quests, battles, wars, and Desmond who is thirsting for knowledge seeks the holy grail, and the scroll of Jesus among other holy books. They form the Scarlet Order of Vampires. There are legends (including King Arthur) as well as real history ion the book. The various peoples they encounter, fight or live among include some I know something about such as Picts, Saxons, Magyars, and Dacians and others I had to look up such as Avars and Khagans. You encounter ancients cities, places and castles, which are described realistically. Aside from the obvious legends, the historical events in the book are described accurately, as far as I can tell. So, this novel is in a sense also about world history. The author is clearly very knowledgeable.
One thing that I really liked about this novel is that the physical capabilities of the vampires were possible to believe. For example, in vampire stories, it is common for a person bitten by a vampire to become a vampire as well, which would quickly lead to the entire human population turning into vampires. In this book, you become a vampire by drinking the blood from the vampire who bit you and drank your blood first. This could happen by fighting back but it is a rare event that won’t lead to the exponential growth of the vampire population. In addition, vampires do not need to kill humans to drink their blood, unless they drink too much. Vampires can even feed on sleeping human’s without them ever finding out about it. This makes a vampire epic covering thousands of years believable. The vampires are also not necessarily nice guys but not evil either, which makes it easier to relate to them.
That does not mean that the vampires do not have magical powers. They are much stronger than humans, they can sense the feelings and thoughts of others (even though not exactly read thoughts), and implant thoughts and feelings into humans to control them, and they can shape shift. Having magical powers and living thousands of years may not be realistic but unlike many other vampire stories you don’t have to deal with the impossible to believe. I love that.
This novel is exciting, intriguing and full of adventure and great stories. The character development is great, and you can relate to the vampires. The historical references were interesting. There are sex scenes in the book. I did not mind but be forewarned that the vampires in this book have a sex life and it is depicted in the book. The novel was on occasion scary and brutal, but it was more of an epic fantasy adventure than horror. I highly recommend this fascinating vampire tale. Especially for Halloween.
About David Lee Summer
David Lee Summers is an author, editor and astronomer living somewhere between the western and final frontiers in Southern New Mexico. He is the author of twelve novels. His short stories and poems have appeared in numerous magazines including Cemetery Dance, Realms of Fantasy, Star*Line, and The Santa Clara Review.
David also edited Tales of the Talisman Magazine for ten years. When he’s not writing, he operates telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Click here to visit his website
Click here to see my review of The Astronomer’s Crypt, another of David Lee Summer’s books.
Click here to see my review of Vermillion Highway, another of David Lee Summer’s books.
