Was I delighted when one of my favorite authors gave A Sigh for Life's Completion a good review in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine and showed that he got it? Yes I was. Here are a few excerpts:
"I realized that it wasn't really a vampire story—or at least not any sort of a traditional one. In fact, it isn't so much about vampires as it is a meditation on what it means to be human. It might be described as a utopian novel, if the utopia being explored can be the microcosm of a family of choice.
"Or we could also call it a love story, since love is what sets everything in motion.
"Paul Christian appears to be a mortal man, but he and his family are much more. Yet while they have amazing abilities, the cost of maintaining their lives is that they must take the lives of others to survive. They require human blood, and feed on those who make innocents their own prey.
"Lauren owns and runs Lolly's Tavern. She's damaged goods, having grown up in the tavern and the apartment above it, but her life seems empty after the death of her father. She finds it hard to relate to anyone on a personal level, and the clientele in the tavern has been steadily declining because it's not the same easygoing place it was when her father was alive.
"When Paul and Lauren meet, everything changes. Not only for them, but also for everyone around them. . . .
"In a sense, for all its fantastical elements, A Sigh for Life's Completion has the pace of real life, where things don't necessarily happen in an orderly fashion. But unlike most of our lives, the stories of these characters are told in lovely, readable prose. And for all the sprawl of the larger plot of the book, the characters are entrancing and kept this reader fascinated, concerned, and interested from start to finish."
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2011/cdl1109.htm
