The Dark Hunters Volume 1 Review

The Dark Hunters Volume 1
Story by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Art by Claudia Campos
St. Martins Griffin
July 7, 2009

Summary from Amazon:

In the war against vampires, mankind has only one hope: The Dark-Hunters. Ancient warriors who died of brutal betrayal, the Dark-Hunters have sworn themselves into the service of the goddess Artemis to protect us.
It’s a pact with pretty good perks. Immortality, power, psychic abilities, wealth and a cool wardrobe. But it comes with a few drawbacks: fatal sun poisoning and a new, irreparable dental problem. But aside from the fangs and nocturnal lifestyle, it’s not so bad.

Until Kyrian meets the most frightening thing imaginable. An accountant who’s being hunted by one of the most lethal vampires out there. If Amanda Devereaux goes down, so does he and no offense, he doesn’t want to die (hence the whole immortality thing). And he doesn’t want humanity dead either which is a good thing for us since he and Amanda are all that stands between us and oblivion. Let’s hope they win.

Review:
My father is a huge comic book collector and used to buy me Barbie, Archie, Little Mermaid, and Jem comics when I was a kid. Despite my comic book upbringing, I have never read a manga book until now! I was very pleasantly surprised to get this little gem in the mail for review. I have never read Sherrilyn Kenyon before so I knew nothing about her Dark Hunters Series besides what I read in this manga novel.

The Dark Hunters Volume 1 is exquisitely drawn and really brings the story to life. I enjoyed the interactions between Kyrian and Amanda, and was even laughing at their arguing in some of the scenes. The drawings of her expressions were hilarious and I enjoyed reading about the Greek mythology. It’s a little hard to fully understand a whole series of books by just reading about it in a manga novel but I am intrigued now to check out her full length novels.

The way to read a manga is kind of confusing at first but there are handy instructions in the front of the book, which is actually the back. This book is put together in traditional Japanese style so that means the book opens backwards, you read pages right to left, and you read the bubbles from the top right hand corner, to the left as you go down the page. Surprisingly as complicated as that sounds, it’s not that hard.

The illustrator, Claudia Campos, really did Kenyon’s writing justice and I had so much fun reading about The Dark Hunters. The book ends with a cliff hanger and I can’t wait for the next manga so I can continue the saga that I started! Overall, The Dark Hunters Volume 1 is definitely worth the buy and is great for paranormal readers who want a break from a full length novel.