Weekly Reader: The Genius of Our Wiles by Blythe Gryphon; Surprisingly Great Vampire Romance and Dark Fantasy Looks At Vampires in a New Way

 

Weekly Reader: The Genius of Our Wiles by Blythe Gryphon; Surprisingly Great Vampire Romance and Dark Fantasy Looks At Vampires in a New Way

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: How's this for a twist worthy of M. Knight Shyamalan?

I am reading two books in a row: both Historical Fiction with subgenres in Fantasy. One, Empire's Heir by Marian L Thorpe, is an Epic High Adventure Fantasy which is usually a favorite genre of mine. The other, The Genius of Our Wiles by Blythe Gryphon, is a Dark Vampire Romance, one of my least favorite.

I read them and what happened? I hate the Epic High Adventure Fantasy, and found it boring, tedious, and questionable. On the other hand, I loved the Vampire Romance with its interesting unique perspective of the infamous (or is that infangous? Boom!) night creatures.

I need to turn in my membership of the "Vampires Are Overrated" Club or check to see if I haven't swapped brains with my sister or something.

In 1265 Kent, Lady Gwendolyn is betrothed to a knight, but she has a secret lover. She has been telepathically communicating with a mysterious man named Pius. Pius challenges her standards of propriety and inner passions and makes her think about breaking out of her structured life.

One night, Pius encourages her to run away with him. There is one little catch and a very small miniscule problem. It's wee, almost petite. Well he's a vampire and he needs to turn her into one so…?

Well that conflict is resolved very quickly and Gwendolyn becomes a vampire or rather in using the vernacular of Gryphon's book, a sunborn.

In fact most of the book actually deals with Pius and Gwendolyn's immortal life and journey to learn about the history of the sunborn, including trying to locate the first sunborn. Meanwhile, we get flashbacks on how Pius became immortal including his relationship with the vampire who made him, Strato.

Gryphon gives an interesting perspective of vampire lore. For example a sunborn vampire is a vampire whose senses are so heightened that they can see the energy and radiation emerge from the sun's rays. Because of that, they can see energy and radiation all around them including around people.

Sunborns are also filled with an unquenchable thirst that can never satisfied except by something red, life giving, and filled with plasma.

The more ethical ones like Gwendolyn, Pius, and Strato compromise by eating animals or feasting on humans that are criminals or murderers who were about to be executed anyway.

There are others however who use their vampirism status to satisfy bloodlust and homicidal tendencies as the trio discover when they encounter a newly made vampire who was a psychopath when she was human. Now imagine her immortal and constantly thirsty with no morals or ethics to hold her back.

The term Lorethor is thrown around. That is a vampire's creator, the one who bit them. They often act as guides and mentors to the young vampire. As Strato does for Pius and Pius does for Gwendolyn. The relationship between an older and younger vampire could be deep friendship or sexual intimacy. Pius and Gwendolyn wed after their sunborn link is established.

Strato remains in Pius' life as well taking on a fraternal almost paternal connection with him. There are some possibilities that his feelings for Pius border on unrequited love as well.

There is even a long period where Pius and Gwendolyn separate for almost two centuries. During this time Gwendolyn becomes a Lorethor herself. This is a period of growth for her to show how much that she has grown as a character that she can go from student to mentor, rookie to veteran in one novel. She is able to take on the senior maternal role that Pius and Strato had previously.

One of the more interesting aspects of the book are the flashbacks and hints about their previous lives before they became sunborns.

The way that this is revealed is through telepathic consciousness shared between sunborns and humans, particularly the ones they select for feasting. For example before she became a sunborn, Gwendolyn caught images of Pius' life in France such as cathedrals and buildings that he as a sculptor helped create.

Pius also sees Strato's memories of Ancient Greece and the Parthenon "when it was new" and his studies under the philosopher, Aristotle. Interesting enough the separation between Pius' mortal life and Gwendolyn's is approximately forty years while Strato and Pius' separation can be counted by millennia.

Along with these shared memories is a shared culture among other sunborns. This is especially prominent when they study the history of the sunborn to learn who the first one was.

In one of the more enigmatic passages, the trio attend a ritual of other sunborns headed by Crete, a sunborn who was old even by Strato's standards. Crete's age and experience gives her an almost goddess like hold on other sunborns. Is she the first sunborn? Well, the text leaves it open ended but if she isn't, she's certainty in the running.

She's a mesmerizing enchanting character who exudes extreme power by her own appearance. This makes her one of the more fascinating characters in the book.

There are some cliffhangers and unanswered questions that suggest another volume. If it takes the Reader more into sunborn culture and history, maybe flashes back to past sunborn of forward to future ones, then I am looking forward to reading it.