Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean -- Justin Somper

Great idea*, poorly executed.

Twins Connor and Grace are left penniless orphans when their father dies.  To escape the rich couple that wants to take them in (and the orphanage that is their only other option), they steal their father's yacht and sail away.

After being caught in a storm that destroys the boat, the twins are picked up by two different ships.  Connor is picked up by pirates and Grace is picked up by the (bum bum buuuuuum) Vampirates. 

Adventures ensue.

A few things.  The prose is, well, kind of painful.  I never got drawn into the story because I felt battered by groaner after groaner:

"...he had never gotten used to the raw power of the ocean -- its ability to change from a calm millpond one moment to a raging furnace the next."  [Raging furnace?  Like, flaming and hot?  Bizarre.]

"She stared down at his bright green eyes.  They were the exact same shade as hers -- as if an emerald had been cut in two."  [I hate the gemstone-eye bit, especially when I'm supposed to like a character.  Gemstones are hard and cold -- Kathy Mallory has emerald-green eyes, but she's a bit of a sociopath, so it works.  The Tempest (yep, Tempest) twins, not so much.]

That's probably just personal taste, though. 

This is another story.  Recognize the captain?

The captain walked around Connor, without saying anything.  Connor marveled at the many colors in his hair.  At first, he had thought it was simply different shades of brown, but no, there was gray in there -- or rather silver, and then, as the light caught a fresh angle, green, too -- like strands of seaweed.  Among the distorted rainbow were two -- no, three -- dreadlocks, bound with seashells.  It was an unusual look, but he carried it off with manly ease.  For all his finery, and somewhat erratic way of moving, you could tell that the captain had physical strength, not to mention the charisma of a natural leader.

Oh, but it COULDN'T be Captain Jack Sparrow, because Captain Molucco Wrathe wears glasses and has green streaks in his hair (one of which turns out to be a pet snake).  Totally original creation.

Finally, I would like to know why the book needed to be set in 2505.  Culturally, the pirates are a throwback to the early 1700's, there's nothing new technologically, and Connor is obsessed with hockey and basketball, says "cool" on a regular basis and high-fives people.  I think there was vague mention of a catastrophe that affected the size of the oceans and technology in general, but nothing concrete.  It just seemed like a sloppy way to allow the twins to act somewhat like modern teens AND have a pirate adventure. 

I rather suspect that several sequels are planned.  Eeek.

*Though I believe this came first.

Comments

[Liz B]

Ah, green eyes. Giving a character green eyes is a factor on almost every Mary Sue test out there; and yes, in one of the stories I wrote as a teen the main character had green eyes.

Almost any time I come across green eyes in a story anymore, I think, there better be a darn good reason for it! Like the missing emerald is actually the person's eyes.

[Chrissy]

Vampirates?! I'm sorry Leila, but I can't stop laughing. It sounds like the title of a bad, I mean really bad, B-horror movie.

[Leila]

It would make a perfect MST3K movie. Speaking of, the sci-fi movie marathon is coming up.

And c'mon -- it could've been fun! They're vampires! They're pirates! Swashbuckling and fangs and whatnot. (Though it seems like it'd be difficult to steer the ship during the day, not to mention the problem of being attacked during the day.)

Anyway. I suspected it would stink, but I still had mini-high-hopes. Even good-bad would have been okay.

Sadly, it was just bad-bad.

[Ayden]

Pretty lame. If there's going to be a book about pirates AND vampires then it should be scary and action packed. Vampirates had neither. Also, that was a pretty poor attempt at a climax; couldn't the pirates have blown each other up or something???

[Ayden Again]

My complements to this site for actually giving a truthful review.

[kieran]

By all means i loved the book - blood captain, best in the series. but i agree there could be some more action involved , it is a boring book, but theres goodness in it

[None of your buisness]

I have personaly read this book, and no matter what anybody thinks of the book plot line, setting or anything, this story is really awesome. I have no what so ever problem with it and i think Justin Somper is a wonderfull author who fills his book with despcription and action. Although i would like him to write the next book faster! Blood Captain is by far the best in the series.

(When hes describing the emerald eyes, he is simple saying that that is the colour of the eyes, not that the eyes are cold and hard like a gem, duh, and id like to see you write a book and grab everybodys attention)

[Lois]

Okay, I really agree with "None of your busines". Whoever posted this may have their opinions, and of course, I have mine, but I know from experience, I write some books and post them on Quizilla, it's really not easy to write a book that everybody likes. I personally love these books, it's probably about my favorite series. By the way, I live in America. When does Blood Captain come out in America? Thanks-Lois

[Lois again]

By the way, Lois isn't my real name, hehe, I just like it so I use it a lot. Look me up on Quizilla, Dawnfire999 is my username. -Lois

P.S. Robin is my real name..... yeah, now you see why I use Lois

[Lois (AGAIN!)]

Okay, one more thing... what is the fourth book's name?

Thanks, Lois (Robin)

[Lois (Yes, again, I know)]

Also, when he said the thing about their eyes being like an emerald cut in half, he means like when you find two pieces from the exact same gem they are identical. It's just a fancy way of saying that their eyes look the same.
-Lois

[kg1234567890]

The first Vampirates book was awesome and i think Emeralds are pretty making the characters more unique not ordinary iread a whole lot of books and this is defenitely one of the best!!!!!!!!!!!!