As an avid horror fan this is not the type of book I usually buy. The reviews and the description at amazon (A blend of historic fact, fearsome fantasy and explicit sex)caught my attention. It was an interesting, well written, and enjoyable story. Even though it's not exactly my type, I'll be reading part 2 to see what happens to Gon next. ( )

ABR's original The Oldest Living Vampire Tells All audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

My thoughts on the cover of The Oldest Living Vampire by Joseph Duncan are the guy looks like Vlad the Impaler. It is not very spooky looking or anything; it is more like what people picture when they think of old vampires.

The main character is Gon, a vampire that is over 30,000 years old. This whole story is told from his point-of-view on his life before and after he became a vampire. Gon has some nice qualities; he has a sort of dry humor that will catch the reader/listener at random. He is VERY old fashioned in his thinking though. That is both a plus and a minus. On the plus side it is because it helps show his life before he became a vampire; a minus because Gon seems to be more focused on his life before vampirism. It seems to be way too much in this story.

I found the descriptions of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon people and life very interesting. It helped set the frame of mind to the reader that it was a very long time ago. Downside was that it took the story over seven hours before it gets to Gon facing his maker and becoming a vampire. This story is not fast paced to get to the heart of the story at all.

I did not like several of the more graphic scenes involving children. Even though Gon explains they are there to show the reader the difference between then and now, I do not believe that to be true. This book could have progressed very well without them. Also, fair warning to future readers/listeners if you are in a public situation, this is not a book to have playing on speakers. Headphones are a must because of the graphic nature of several scenes in this book. These scenes include sex and graphic violence. Warning – Not for young readers; I would not recommend for anyone under the age of legal consent.

This is an ok-ish book. I liked several things about it, but what I didn’t like was the sex scenes involving children. That was a bit too graphic and disturbing for me. They were in there at random places. One minute the story was progressing sluggishly, and then the next children are having sex. In fact, it kept bringing up the ‘sexual nature’ of children a few times after that. Nope, not cool. Thankfully the main character soon aged into an adult so the children ‘sexuality’ went away.

I think the author was trying to make the story have a feel kind of like The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel, but it fell short of that mark. It was just to off putting to me to give it a good rating. I cannot in all fairness suggest it as a good read to others. I did like several parts of the story, but overall it would not be something I would ever read again.

The Author is Joseph Duncan. The Narrator is Ian M. Walker. I liked the narrator’s voice. He has a lovely accent. I do wish that he had read the other character’s voices in different tones to help distinguish them better, but overall it was enjoyable. I recommend it not be listened to it all in one setting though. The tone of voice had me zoning out several times when I listened to the story for too long. This book is ten hours and fourteen minutes long.

This story left me very glad I live in this era. Not that I would know the difference if I lived in that era, but from my perspective of living now looking back to then…I am very happy to be alive now. It is amazing that humans managed to stay alive with so many elements fighting to kill them off. How many of us would really last a day in Gon’s time? I don’t believe I would have lasted long at all. So yes, I am very happy to be alive now and I am very thankful I don’t have to fight off plants or animals to stay alive daily.

Audiobook provided for review by the narrator. ( )