Oh, my.
This entry is regarding the last (until now) of the Little Vampire books by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg, to be released in May, 2008 in German language. And it's got SPOILERS. Feel free to skip or stop reading now.
Still with me?
Okay. This is a dull translation of the plot as it appears on Amazon.de.
The Little Vampire and theNow: GAH GAH GAH GAH!!!!!! She's gone further than ever with this! The fact that it's not Rüdiger (I never thought he'd ever do it anyway), Anna or even Lumpi who bites Anton, but selfish, care-for-yourself Olga, makes it more believableLastFinal TransformationAnton isn't sure at all about what he should think of Olga's invitation to Giselher the Lissom's "vampire buffet". Will Rüdiger and Anna show up at the party, too? They never mentioned anything like that to him. But he hasn't seen any of them since long. Thanks to Lumpi, Anton finds out that the "vampire buffet" is also called The Night of the Final Transformation, and that means that it's a very dangerous thing for a human, even if he's dressed up as a vampire. In this night, all humans who have been bitten from vampires will irreversibly become vampires themselves. And Olga doesn't leave Anton a chance. He has to come, and it happens what Olga had since long wanted: Anton gets the bite. Against his will! But thankfully there's Rüdiger. The Little Vampire helps his friend and protects him from a destiny as a vampire. Only a bite mark on the neck remains. And Anna, who Anton probably won't see again...
As there are no news about new books, it seems like the author has made a final decision about The Issue and this time she really wants the series to end. That Anton/Tony becomes a vampire because he wants it has been one of my wishes since I was a child. I'd always pictured a more adult version of Anton as a savior, a reformer, a good vampire who would be encouraging social change and modernization in the vampire and the human world. I like him a lot; he's truly a hero. And he'd be living with Rüdiger and Anna forever, or until the sun/stake does them part.
But somehow I feel that she won't cross over that much, and I'm intrigued about how she's going to resolve The Issue once and for all without taking the most obvious path. Because it gets booooring, so much tension about one single thing that obviously bothers her and her characters a lot, and never settling it. Just go, Angela! Most of your readers are adults now-- we can handle! ;)
Edit: Title translation changed. Also, the sentence "only a bite mark on the neck remains" could also be translated by "only an itchy pain in the neck remains", or something like that.
Posted by Elenis at February 26, 2008 11:22 AM