It took me a couple of tries to get into this book. I'm not sure if this was due to the fact that reading on the computer has it drawbacks, especially after you have been working at the computer all day, or because I found the multiple viewpoint shifts a bit confusing. We are 50 pages and Chapter 5 before the hero Chris appears. To be honest, I'm not sure if I would have handled it any differently than Howard. A lot happens almost simultaneously that first night as Clint and his band attack the ranch, the Indian encampment, and the town. My interest picked up as the story began to focus more on Chris and his struggles to accept what is happening and the fact that the man who raped and murdered his sister and who Chris thought he had killed, did not die and has returned.
Milus Clint and his band of outlaws make for very interesting vampires. The evil that they were is only amplified by the evil that they have become. Clint is a very dynamic character that at once despises the prison that his condition has condemned him to and revels in the almost indestructible power to continue his murderous ways. His transformation into He Who Drinks Life sent by the Great Cannibal Owl was at the hands of an Apache shaman, as he lay dying from Chris' bullet. He opened himself up to the evil which entered him and he learned from it. Clint turned his old gang into vampires to ride with him, although he retains most of the power. They ride great black horses which are also vampires. They control the creatures of the night and travel with a pack of coyotes. They can also transform themselves into coyotes. Bullets do not harm them. Black blood bubbles from the wounds, immediately sealing them. But they can be killed by an Indian arrow, or by being gored by a longhorn, or by fire, or by sunlight. They can't cross running water, it purifies them, and their evil can't enter a church, although the saloon girl turned vampire, who helps Chris, can, because she is not evil.
Dark Riders is a great addition to the growing body of vampire ebooks and shows the power of ebooks to
