Devil's Dream: Shade of Devil Book 1 Paperback – October 28, 2019

Great start to a new series throughly enjoyed first partShayne silvers is a great writer. . . .

Experience is everything. You start off at the bottom, and every new thing you learn, changes everything you learn after. And the way you go about things from the start, versus how you finish end up feeling leaps and bounds away from eachother. And when they start something new, from the ground up where they once did, the hands of the master create something very different from they once did when they first began, trying out the tools of their craft.Over two dozen books into building a universe, and all that experience funneled into making a new one from scratch. Which is not to say Silvers didn't go totally ham-tastic with it all, he absolutely did and dear lord does it show.Devil's Dream, the first book of the new Shade of Devil series takes thorough advantage of all the experience Shayne Silvers has had in crafting the madness of his characters to their varying degrees by giving his protagonists exactly zero time to escalate their development, he simply throws them into the deep end from the start in this new outing. Sorin Ambrogio is the monster behind the myth, the wild flames of bloody chaos that cast the shadows from which the Dracula crawled out of, but the world doesn't know that, not after Dracula rising to try and surpass his master and erasing him from the world out of fear and ambition. But the First Vampire did not die, only slept, caught in eternally repeating dreams of what he lost and sustained by the embers of rage, longing for vengeance.A sleep that should have been mere weeks instead lasted over five hundred long years, and the First Vampire is awoken, weak and addled, to a world far flung from what he knew, with new rules, new complexities and new stakes. But vengeance alone does not stay Sorin's sole concern for long, new friends out of necessity become a flicker of hope for the man that once tried to emerge from within the monster so long ago, and more surprising still comes a different sort of hope in the form of the heir to Dracula's only other nemesis: Van Helsing, or more specifically, his immortally gifted daughter Victoria. She should see Sorin as an abomination, the cause of Dracula's rise to power and the blight that his minions spread across the earth, and he should see her as his greatest threat aside from Dracula himself. But instead, something with far more potent potential stirs between them, from sources linking back to the gods themselves, but also from something very, achingly human in them both.Silvers' writing shows that yes, he can go back the start and do it all again with style. Characters feel grounded in the moments they should, yet outlandish and fantastical in all the other moments where over the top excess is choice. The legacy of what and where the curse of vampirism truly stems from builds the foundation for a wide reaching, far branching odyssey, both for the lore of the world and story at large but also in the stakes for the main character's own life and fate, and the lives of those he finds becoming important to him. Themes of loss, learning and rediscovery of self well up in even the smaller character moments, and the fights, brutal, fast and blood as they are all serve to highly the true sense of monstrosity that still pervades every aspect of the characters' direct narrative. That the choice of being man or monster itself is not what you are, what you do.As a stand alone installment and the start of a new series in a new universe, Devil's Dream is a testament to an author in his top stride. New characters, new lore and new twists and turns abound, and the ride has only just started. Once again, I wait to see where it all goes next.

We all know the story of how Dracula became the first vampire, but in Shayne Silver’s Devil’s Dream, Dracula is not the first. Sorin Ambrogio is the REAL original vampire! Joined by an indigenous shaman, a vampire slayer and werewolves, Sorin is on a mission to kill Dracula for murdering his village and family. Asleep for 500 years, he’s awakened in present day New York.“We’re approaching the dawn of a new world. Don’t get stuck watching the sunset.”I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity to give us a bigger story of Sorin’s creation, since it is a new spin. Instead we get what felt like just outlines of the story. What is given is very interesting and just BEGS for more detail, but can be summed up on less than one page and I feel robbed of a detailed creation story that could’ve taken up a couple chapters.One of the really interesting characters, aside from Sorin, is Nosh Griffin, an indigenous Shaman of the Mohawk tribe. He helps Sorin navigate through present day New York to kill all the vampires under Dracula’s control. His powers are similar to Nightwolf of Mortal Kombat, he can summon a spirit bear that he controls to help fight off the vampires. NOW THAT IS PRETTY COOL!Giving this a 4/5. I enjoyed the book, but the backstory just being an outline bothered me because what we were given would’ve made it sooooo good!

Shayne Silvers’ new series, Shadow of Devil, opens up a new world set in New York City. The story spreads across time of American history with an emphasis on American Indian lore. The first book, “Devil’s Dream” introduces the main character, Sorin, who is the first vampire in the world.Despite the overwhelming books about vampires, Silvers, in his normal style, created an innovative world of blood and passion unlike any other. The characters, some that are familiar and others created from Silvers’ imagination, are appealing and real.Shayne Silvers is now a proven storyteller. He stepped out of his successful series from the “TempleVerse” and created this new world. There is humor, clever dialogue, surprises and twists that has become his trademark. One of the reasons that makes Silvers’ books so successful is his ability to take a common idea and turn it into brilliance.Only Shayne can create a character like Sorin, a vampire with a heart. I got to know Sorin in this first book. I’ve seen his mind….his perspective…his heart and his hunger. He is definitely not your typical vampire. He might have turned Dracula and he does survive on blood, yet Sorin is driven by something beyond the “Devil” that makes him a monster. He strives to become the man he was before the curse.I look forward to see what Silvers does in Sorin’s life and the supporting cast in this series. I know that it will continue to entertain his readers. It is clearly a vampire story that you can bite into with the investment of your emotions. You DO NOT want to miss this book, this series. It is clearly the best vampire story written.

Amazing level of detail in introducing an individual from the 1600-1700s to present day. Really enjoyed learning about these characters.