Fiona’s Guardians - A Review

FIONA’S GUARDIANS by Dan Klefstad is a complex narrative told from multiple perspectives. The novel examines the business aspect of being a vampire, as well as the recruitment efforts of strigae hunters. The center of the story’s maelstrom is Fiona, a 250-year-old immortal. She has various human servants who do a wide range of tasks for her. Their central role is to procure blood bags from hospitals so that she will not have to kill humans to live her unlife.

Fiona and the other immortals in her cabal had made a decision to avoid killing humans in the modern era. In this way they hoped to remain undetected, purchasing the sustenance that they need from hospital employees through their human guardians, who also take care of the finances for their masters.

There are several servants that do Fiona’s bidding, but like with any employment, there are employee betrayals and sabotage when a feeling of being used, exploited, or not appreciated is perceived. Two of the first guardians introduced in the beginning of the book is Daniel, who has been working for Fiona for years after she took him from another immortal, Soren; and Wolf, a new hire who answered an ad that he quickly finds cannot be turned down once he learns enough about the job details during the interview. Daniel is devoted to Fiona, and Wolf is simply curious about how vampires exist and who his new employer truly is.

On the other side of the equation are monks whose holy mission is to slay the strigae. They too put out ads to attract potential holy warriors to do a job that is incredibly dangerous. They use weapons like wooden bullets that will kill strigae if it strikes them in the heart. The monks seem to be quite good at their job. Though they take losses, they manage to kill quite a few vampires throughout the narrative. Fiona is the trickiest quarry of them all. FIONA’S GUARDIANS will leave readers guessing at how the cat and mouse game concludes at the end of the book.

The vampire theme has been written about so often that any deviation from the standard mythology is always refreshing. What another writer can do with a monster that has books, movies, games, television shows, and steaming series is always interesting to experience. FIONA’S GUARDIANS took an usual path that is sure to intrigue many fans of the genre.