Review: Master of Darkness by Susan Sizemore

I have no idea where I picked up my nasty habit of starting a series right in the midst of things, but my back luck struck again with Susan Sizemore’s Master of Darkness. This book is the fourth in her “The Primes” series, centering on vampires but with a bit of shape- shifters thrown in to deepen the universe.

Sometimes, jumping into an establish series isn’t that bad of a deal, as with Maggie Shayne’s “Wings of the Night” series. This time, however, I missed out on some basic bits of world building that Sizemore laid down in the previous three novels. Specifically speaking, her take on the role of tribes and clans. It was easy to figure out that a “Prime” headed a clan, but without having the background, knowing exactly how the tribes and clans differ (and what makes the tribes to undesirable) proved to be a stumbling block.

The mortals in the novel, represented by Eden, are probably the least developed characters in the novel. We get a brief glimpse into her family and work life, but compared to Laurent's family it is a little thin. Several reviewers criticize Sizemore for flat characters, and I think that it's the human characters they're referring to.

The vampires, on the other hand, are better developed, and the subplot concerning Laurent’s parentage contains some of the most emotionally charged portions of the book. Sizemore begins to explore the family dynamic of vampire families and her take on the status of female vampires is an intriguing twist. Hopefully, she will explore the female vampires more in depth in a future addition to the series.
Sizemore has been criticized for having too much sexual elements at the expense of developing other aspects of emotional attraction between her leads. Readers of erotica will find the writing a little tame, and given the mythos of vampires places them as sensual above all else, I don’t think Sizemore made a mistake in emphasizing their sensual qualities about their other emotions.