Necromancer's Curse is a short book at just over a hundred pages. It is the beginning of a series telling the story of K, a man cursed by a god. The curse keeps K alive after his death, but he is forced to live on blood and shrink from sunlight as all good vampires must.

This first book in the Evas' Son series is taken up with the background to the story proper. We learn how K came to be cursed, and what he then does to investigate his condition. We learn about the gods involved and get brief glimpses into minor characters' lives. And that's as far as it goes.

The first conclusion I reached concerning this book was that it was in need of a good editor. With such an editor, this book has the potential to be a good read. As it currently stands, the main character lacks a plan of action and wanders aimlessly around from country to country for most of the book, keeping mainly to himself for centuries at a time, and letting whatever may happen to him happen. I will readily admit that there is some skillful writing in the book, with evocative descriptions, and the author has obviously done some research into the setting of the story, but at the same time there are numerous typos, and a meandering plot which, as an example, means that a whole chapter is taken up with the main character killing a cow for food -- an event that adds very little to the story. I think that if the various space-filling sections were edited out, you would be left with a much shorter, but much more readable work.

By turns the book reads like a role-playing game, like a Ray Harryhausen film, like religious writ, like a history textbook. It is careful to focus on the character rather than on his vampiric affliction in order to avoid being just another vampire book. And because the reader is alone with this one character for the majority of the book, it's good that K is a likable and well-written one. With some focus and cohesion -- and a dash of incisive editing -- Evas' Son could well turn out to be a series worth reading.

The Necromancer's Curse is available now.