Jeanne C. Stein, The Becoming (Ace, 2006)
Anna Strong is strong, capable, fast, and persistent, all very good qualities for a bounty hunter in southern California. Together with her partner David, formerly a football superstar, she takes down all manner of nefarious people. Unfortunately, a routine run turns into a life-altering nightmare when her target proves to be more than human. The life-and-death struggle becomes a turning point for Anna when she wakes up in the hospital . . . as a vampire. Now, under the tutelage of Avery, a vampire doctor with way too much charm, Anna must learn to master her newfound abilities and gifts, and separate fact from fiction where vampires are concerned. And her first assignment? Track down the person responsible for her new status, and destroy him. However, there are complications, including an entire society dedicated to eradicating vampires, and Anna's refusal to give up her ties to the mortal world. Can she unravel the half-truths surrounding her before someone close to her pays the price?
The Becoming is a perfectly adequate urban vampire fantasy, though it suffers from a few drawbacks. First of all, it's yet another "origin story" as the heroine (and why-oh-why are male heroes so darned rare in these sort of books these days? Are there no male protagonists to become vampires anymore?) is turned into a vampire, learns about her powers, is introduced to the secret society of supernatural creatures, and struggles with the changes, including the urge to feed from others. While I understand and accept that each new series has to address these issues, it still takes away from the overall potential of this book. Another problem is that, for all our heroine relies upon two different mortals (her boyfriend and her business partner), both remain offscreen for extended periods of time. Their impact upon the story is thusly diminished. We're told that Anna has to juggle her love for her boyfriend (Max is an undercover DEA agent) and her mentor (Avery is the vampire who shows her how to use her powers) and yet Max barely gets a fair shake, spending most of his time on the job and out of the way. Worse, Anna's partner keeps getting removed from the action in a manner contrary to the picture we're initially painted. If this is to contrast the inherent power and superiority of the vampires with the ultimate expendability of the humans, it succeeds. But you have to feel sorry for the mortals in question.
The last problem I had, and this is a doozy, is that in the first few chapters, Anna is assaulted and turned into a vampire. And after she wakes up in the hospital, it's explicitly said that she was sexually assaulted. Later, her returning memories suggest that she was a willing participant of sorts in the matter, but not totally willing. In other words, nonconsensual, but not rape. The fast, strong, beautiful, capable heroine we're introduced to in the first chapter is overcome by the vampire against her will (and yes, we are quite directly shown how she fights him off and struggles) and becomes a vampire by accident during the incident. By any normal standards, given the description of the scene, one would label it rape, and yet Anna doubts this, simply because of how the transformation felt? I'm sorry to rant, but the way this was presented and addressed really did disturb me, as did the relative lack of attention given to this later on. Anna mulls on it for a little while, mainly during a subsequent confrontation, and otherwise seems to let it slide, as best I can tell. This was way too large a red flag to throw up and ignore afterwards.
This misgivings about the book aside, The Becoming did offer a nice twist on the normal idea of the vampire's role in society. Instead of them being predators, the major group we're introduced to here are known as the Night Watch, and seem to act more like protectors, a role they've pursued (mostly in secret) for centuries. Of course, even this information may be slightly suspect. These vampires seem rather less shackled by traditional restrictions that most vampires stories: they can go out in sunlight, don't need to feed more than once a month, and seem perfectly capable of holding major positions in society without anyone noticing. In other words, there's very little downside apart from outliving one's mortal friends and loved ones.
Jeanne Stein has offered an interesting take on the vampire mythos, but The Becoming suffers from some major flaws upon further examination. I hope that future entries in this series will improve upon this rocky start, as I think she's got some real potential to work with.
