Blood Slaves (The Blood Saga)

Blood Slaves is the debut novel from Markus Redmond. This historical horror is the first novel in Redmond’s Blood Saga. Redmond tells a tale of one enslaved person’s fight for freedom, vampires, and how monstrous humans can be. Dealing with weighty subjects, this book comes with trigger warnings. Redmond gets very detailed about the treatment of enslaved people, both adults and children. Redmond’s vampires are borrowed from African mythology, which gives them unique characteristics. This is a horror novel with all the blood, gore, and mayhem one could expect from a vampire saga.

Redmond’s novel is a different type of vampire story. First, he borrows from African lore. Second, no matter how violent and evil the vampires are, nothing compares to the monstrous acts the enslavers in this novel commit. Redmond has the reader sympathize with the monsters over the humans. Like many paranormal horror novels featuring vampires, many scenes can get gory but also exciting. After a slow start, the action ramps up, and things get pretty interesting. The second half of this novel is hard to put down, no matter how gruesome it gets. For a different vampire story, try Blood Slaves.