Review: Vincent, Survivor

Vincent, Survivor by O.L. Eggert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’d like to start with a thank you to the author. O.L. Eggert contacted me about his debut novel, which he described as (and I quote) “an urban fantasy with a dark, apocalyptic twist”. After reading the synopsis, I decided it seemed like a thoroughly interesting read. Being a lover of such things, and having a soft spot for review requests, I said yes.

I’ll admit to having a bit of an up and down with the story. There were times when the book was great, and yet at the same time I wasn’t as engaged with it as I had hoped to be. In short, it wasn’t quite what I had hoped it would be. It was a great debut novel, but at the same time I was left wanting a little bit more.

The story itself is great fun. It’s exactly as described by the author: urban fantasy with an apocalyptic twist. In a few ways, though, it reminded me of The Walking Dead. I know, I know, they’re two completely different things. O.L. Eggert gives us a wonderful twist to the usual urban fantasy. Nine times out of ten, the urban fantasy novels I stumble across contain the same supernatural creatures – vampires and werewolves – yet this one gives us something new. In fact, this one gave me something I have not seen before: we have minotaurs. Whilst this isn’t the first time they’ve been used, it was the first time I read about them without a direct link back to Greek mythology. They come from an entirely separate world, a creation of the author. They’re not the only creature, though. We have an entire cast outside of the norm, saving us from the repetition that we so often find in the supernatural elements of urban fantasy novels.

Nevertheless, as I said, I did feel the occasional The Walking Dead déjà vu. It was probably just me, though, as I’m sure many will see my links as being… well, tenuous at best. It merely felt that way to me, and distracted somewhat. It was the whole untrustworthiness of safe havens that did it for me. There were other aspects as well, that gave a slight The Walking Dead feeling, but that was the biggest aspect. It’s not as though such a thing is limited solely to The Walking Dead, as it’s been done in many novels, but with the whole apocalyptic twist such is where my mind went.

Although, that wasn’t the only aspect of the story that has been done before. There were a few ‘twists’ that I saw coming. I’m not going to go into detail, but I saw quite a few of the things before they came to be. Things were made far too obvious, in that regard. It was fun, yet I couldn’t help but feel annoyed at how the characters were overlooking what was so obvious.

Despite this, I did have fun.

Whilst the characters fell flat at time, some did stand out. Grandma, in particular, was a massive love for me. I imagined her to be the grandmother from Mulan. That is, of course, were Mulan not a Disney movie. Grandma let out far too man f-bombs to ever get a role in a Disney movie. Still, she was such a great character to read. If nothing else, she is someone to aspire to be like in old age. Being old and miserable is overrated, this woman grabs life by the most sensitive part of the anatomy and squeezes. Yeah, as you can tell, I enjoyed her character.

There is also potential for where the story will go in the future. I’m not quite sure what to expect next, but there are so many ways in which the story could go and it would be interesting to see what the author decides to do. Whilst I’m not going to go out of my way to read the second book, I am interested enough to give it consideration. Hell, there have been many situations whereby the first in a series hasn’t pulled me in as far as I’d expected only for the second book to win me over. Such is my hope with this.

Overall, it was a fun read. I’d like to once again thank the author for allowing me to give this one a read – much appreciated!

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