Black Dagger Brotherhood
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Romance author J. R. Ward's erotic paranormal romance series The Black Dagger Brotherhood.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a paranormal romance series consisting of six vampire brothers who all live and fight off their enemies together. They stand together to protect their lovers and their species.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Black Dagger Brotherhood
Wrath is the King of the vampires. He is the last pureblood vampire in existence. Essentially blind, he is the leader who was not willing to ascend the throne. His story is told in Dark Lover.[1]
Rhage is the strongest and most beautiful of the Brothers. Cursed by the vampire's deity, The Scribe Virgin, he is possessed with a dark side that is a danger to everyone. His story is told in Lover Eternal He falls in love with a human named Mary and wishes to take her as his shellan.[2]
Zsadist is the scarred, menacing Brother.[3] Taken as an infant from his family, he's forced into blood slavery until his twin, Phury, rescues him. His story is told in Lover Awakened.
Vishous is the most intelligent and the one who is specially gifted. His curse is his ability to prognosticate: he sees the future, though not the 'when' of events so he is tortured by his inability to save those he loves from danger. Tattooed on his face, his privates, and his entire hand, he has the ability of pyschometry. His story is told in Lover Unbound.[4]
Tohrment took over leadership of the Brotherhood when Wrath became King. He was the steady and calm brother, until a tragedy changed his life.[5]
Phury is Zsadist's twin brother and a celibate who cannot truly live because of everything his biological brother has lost.[6] Phury is incredibly loyal to his brother, even shooting off his own leg to save his twin. His story is told in Lover Enshrined.
Butch/Dehstroyer is the only human to be allowed within the Brotherhood, and Wrath's cousin. This connection to him allows him to be "turned" and he is initiated in the BDB. He lives at the "Pit", a two bedroom house connected to the mansion where the King and other Brothers reside, with Vishous and he is a friend to all the warriors. An ex-homicide detective, he was lovingly given the nickname "Cop" by the vampires. He is the object of an ancient Lesser Prophecy, and has the ability to sense them wherever they are and can absorb them into himself. His story is told in Lover Revealed.
Rehvenge is brother-in-law to Zsadist, a symphath, and owner of a local club called ZeroSum. His story is told in Lover Avenged.
John Matthew/Tehrror is the reincarnation of Darius. Before learning of his true identity, John Matthew lived a bleak existence. At one point, he was cornered in the hallway to his apartment and raped by an unknown assailant. Through Mary Luce, John Matthew learned that he would soon go through his transition to become a vampire. He was also invited to live amongst his kind, at which time he lived with Tohrment and his mate, Wellsie, until the third book, where Wellsie is murdered by The Lessening Society.
[edit] The Series
[edit] DARK LOVER
Dark Lover is the first of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It tells the story of Wrath - the last purebred vampire left on the planet. The uncrowned king of the vampire species, Wrath lives only to fight in an endless war with the soulless vampire slayers, lessers, who brutally murdered his parents centuries ago. As leader of the Brotherhood, his only solace is in fighting, not looking to the past or future, shunning his duties as King.
Within the vampire world, Wrath is known as the Blind King, due to his extremely poor eyesight, though this does not affect his powers on the battlefield nor his ability to sense the feelings of others around him.
Blaming himself for his parent's death, Wrath has wrapped himself in a cocoon of self-hatred and unfeelingness, but Dark Lover tells of his enlivening. When the lessers kill one of his best fighters, Wrath is left with the responsibility to help the warrior’s half-human daughter, Beth, through her transition - this is a critical moment in a vampire’s life when he or she transforms into an adult. Thereafter, they must drink the blood of the opposite sex to survive and are unable to withstand sunlight. Occurs generally in the mid-twenties. Some vampires do not survive their transitions, males in particular. Prior to their transitions, vampires are physically weak, sexually unaware and unresponsive, and unable to dematerialise.[7]
It is through Beth that Wrath learns to feel, and look toward the future, of his life and of the species as a whole.
[edit] LOVER ETERNAL
Lover Eternal is second in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It tells the story of Rhage, the strongest and best fighter of the Brotherhood. He is also considered the most attractive of all the Brothers. His beauty has earned him the nickname 'Hollywood'. However, Rhage was cursed in the early eighteen hundreds, for angering The Scribe Virgin. Due to his continued recklessness and uncontrollability just after his transition, The Scribe Virgin gave him The Beast. Fearsome in its beauty the Beast resembles a huge dragon with massive claws and a jaw filled with sharp fangs.
It was a punishment designed to regulate Rhage's energy and moods. Whenever he gets out of control, the Beast comes out. When this occurs Rhage's eyes turn a brilliant white and his body mutates in a grisly display of tearing and ruptures - letting the Beast emerge. When it is out, Rhage is totally suppressed and he is in no way able to control the Beast, who knows neither friend nor foe. Because of this, Rhage has to keep the Beast from coming out, subduing it through the satiation of a good fight or sex.
Rhage's sexual exploits are the stuff of legend in the Vampire society. It is said that fathers tell their sons the story of Rhage when the time is right. But Rhage does not relish this reputation and is, in fact, eager to cast it off.
In Lover Eternal Rhage meets Mary, a human female who he is unexplainably drawn to. Mary is unwittingly thrown into the vampire world and reliant on Rhage's protection. However, with a life-threatening curse of her own, she is not looking for love and lost faith in miracles long ago. But when Rhage's attraction turns to something more emotional, he has to fight to make Mary his alone.
[edit] LOVER AWAKENED
Lover Awakened is the third in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It tells the story of Zsadist, the most lethal of the brothers. A former blood slave who was mercilessly tortured during the first hundred years of his life, Z is the one who has fallen farthest from grace. Lover Awakened tells of his redemption.
As an infant, Zsadist had been taken from his home and forced to serve in the house of a vampire aristocrat while he was pre-transition. Years later, hours after his transition, he found himself tied down, with thick black bands being tattooed into the skin around his wrists and neck (his pulse points). Overnight he had become a blood slave - a male or female vampire who is subjugated to serve the blood needs of another. For a hundred years, Zsadist had to suffer through the horror of being at the mercy of a brutal vampire female, The Mistress. Over time, Zsadist became numb. His canary yellow eyes, similar to that of his twin’s, Phury, grew black and soulless, a reflection of how he felt inside.
Though Phury rescues Zsadist, Z still bears the physical and mental scars from a terrible past. He becomes famous for his sinister deeds, especially where females are concerned. He is considered a savage, feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion and terror his only passion—until he rescues a beautiful female from the Lessening Society.
Bella had been instantly entranced by the seething power Zsadist possesses; and though he considers himself unworthy of her, she strives to prove her feelings and her belief in him.
[edit] LOVER REVEALED
Fourth book in the series. This is the story of Butch. Released 6th March 2007: Butch O'Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard living, ex-homicide cop, he's the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world- to engage in the bolster war with the lessers. He's got nothing to lose. His heart belongs to a female vampire, an aristocratic beauty who's way out of his league. If he can't have her, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers...
Fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, found by a miracle, the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back, though even her love might may not be enough to save him...
[edit] LOVER UNBOUND
The fifth book in the series. This is the story of Vishous.Released on 25th September 2007: Ruthless and brilliant, Vishous son of the Bloodletter possesses a destructive curse and a frightening ability to see the future. As a pretran growing up in his father's war camp, he was tormented and abused. As a member of the Brotherhood, he has no interest in love or emotion, only the battle with the Lessening Society. But when a mortal injury puts him in the care of a human surgeon, Dr. Jane Whitcomb compels him to reveal his inner pain and taste true pleasure for the first time- until a destiny he didn't choose takes him into a future that cannot include her.
[edit] LOVER ENSHRINED
Fiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood's bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished.
As his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body but his heart for herself- she sees the emotionally scarred male behind all his noble responsibility. But while the war with the Lessening Society grows more grim, and tragedy looms over the Brotherhood's mansion, Phury must decide between duty and love.
[edit] References
Text
- Ward, J.R., Dark Lover, Signet Eclipse, 2005.
- Ward, J.R., Lover Eternal, Signet Eclipse, 2005.
- Ward, J.R., Lover Awakened, Signet Eclipse, 2006.
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