Super-Powered Prose: Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth

I hate Christopher Farnsworth.

Not because he’s a bad writer. Not because Blood Oath is a bad novel. He’s actually quite talented and I enjoyed the novel immensely.

No, I hate him because he came up with The President’s Vampire first.

Let’s be honest: it’s a great concept for a novel. Based on a Fortean legend that President Andrew Johnson pardoned a vampire, Farnsworth creates the character of Nathaniel Cade. Cade’s a 160 year old vampire bound by magic to serve whoever is the sitting President of the United States.

For well over a hundred years, Cade served as the United States’ first line of defense against the occult.

Around this ingenious concept, Farnsworth builds an entire world that lies in the shadows, a world he only begins to show us in the pages of Blood Oath. In the process he creates an epic page turner of a novel; a piece of modern pulp fiction of the highest caliber.

I’m not going to give anything else away about this novel. I will just say this: if you’re a fan of pulp fiction, superheroes, or just good storytelling, you owe it to yourself to check out Blood Oath. I think you will be glad you did. Highly Recommended.