Blurb:

Duty, Servitude, Vigilance – these are the tenets of the Sanguine Hunter’s Guild, ones that Killian Volkov knows all too well. For generations, the Guild has silently protected humanity from the unseen threat of hybrids: Infected super-humans who sustain themselves off of the blood of others. The life of an operative is a hard one, and rarely does anyone live to see their oath be resigned.

When an assignment goes sideways, Killian finds himself face-to-face with one of the very sub-humans whose kind he has slain so many of over the many long years. Expecting death, he receives something far worse: To share the same fate of those he took part in exterminating – to live as a hybrid.

Awakening to a new reality, Killian vows to use the power he has been granted to find the one responsible, and reverse the misfortune that has been inflicted onto him, all the while adjusting to the violent nature that rages inside of him. But the world is a far more complicated place than he had thought, and so too are the decisions that confront him. Not everything is as it seems, and not every monster is created willingly.

Killian must choose what kind he will be: One born out of necessity, or of apathy.

Plunge into a world of conflict hidden from sight, where the boundaries of monster and man are razor thin. Hate and love collide, revenge meets redemption, and answers are paid for in blood.

Review:

It took a while to get started with this novel. I had other books to read in exchange for reviews, and it was slow going getting everything set up on my kindle. Once I had it on my kindle however (30.09.2024), I got to reading it rather quickly, since it is due to come out sooner rather than later. As I was reading “Volkov” I was surprised with the similarities it has with some rather comedically strange TV shows of a normal guy getting turned and then stuck as a creature he never wanted to be. There’s a few of those. But that’s where the similarities end and the fun begins. 

To begin, hypothetically, if I had to sell this book under threat of being torn apart by a hybrid, I’d read out these few sentences:

“Killian Volkov is part of a secret organisation that hunts hybrids, but soon he gets thrown into a whole new world, and death follows him still. Care for more?”,

and if that was enough, I could live. But it isn’t so I’d probably be dead by now. There is so much more than that bopping around in this novel, with many things good about it. 

Without further ado, let's look at Killian Volkov, and his character. Is he flawed? Yes. Has he had a traumatic childhood? Undoubtedly. Does that absolve him of the various crimes he commits against others in this novel? Depends on who gets murdered and when. In the blurb, he’s transformed into a hybrid, and that amplifies a few things he had as a human. Stuff happens to him, most of it more or less emotionally painful to bear, and by the end of it, he’s a changed man… errr, hybrid. Compared to other media that has unwanted (high school/collage student) transformation, this one is more or less an original in how it dances to the tune of monster slayer turned monster in an actual city with actual landmarks. 

And that brings me to the plot… and the journeys it takes. That’s another thing about the unwanted transformation genre, they stay confined to their state of origin. This one goes to Alaska and back, with many a character hailing from other parts of the world and other parts of the states, not just the city this novel takes place in. There’s many twists and turns to Volkovs tale, taking him back and forth, trying to find the one who turned him alongside a few side characters. There’s some light romance, lots of death, and enough chaos to make one question the sanity of each party involved. 

I touched briefly upon worldbuilding in the previous paragraph, but wait, there’s more. The hybrids are tied into history with this novel, with many events happening on the whim of one particular hybrid who has way too many rumours about them. Aside from that character, the guild, as I’ll call it, there’s a lot of history stuck in the states. It’s always there to fight the hybrids with silver. I like how it’s just two shadowy organisations duking it out with silver, fists and guns. One trying to protect, the other trying to survive. Very fun. The playout is nice too, with one side eventually snapping all form of civilised restraint.

Now, one negative thing I have to say about this book that is only somewhat negative would be that some parts went by too fast, just hopping from scene to scene, with no real breaks whatsoever. Another negative thing that was missing was a bit of guild history. Just a bit more of world history in terms of the guild, answering the question of where the guild came from, for example. But I understand that from a character viewpoint, Volkov might know this already, and there’s no need to bring it in for the audience to know and not just have it there as texplanation. As per the norm, I’d advise you, the reader of this review, to go check out this novel, and read it, so that the opinions you have over it are your own, not just my own.

If you like urban fantasy, vampireesque creatures, and secret organisations duking it out in the alleyways of modern cities, “Volkov” by Ian J. Kempf is for you. 

As usual, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, there’s plenty more here for you to peruse for novels in any genre you can think of, not just urban fantasy. Over here is a random link to a review that is anywhere in the spectrum of science fiction and fantasy. It might be up your alley, it might not be. It’s all part of the fun.

Wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!