Viper And The Farmer (The Morganville Vampires #0.2) By: Rachel Caine (Book Review)

 Summary:

A Morganville Vampires short story about Myrnin and how/when he was turned. 

Interestingly enough, this short story was only available through Wattpad. I love authors who go out of their way to make it easily accessible for their readers to find and read short stories. I hate when they make it difficult to obtain or it's clearly a money grab. 

Myrnin is that one character in the Morganville series that you want to know their whole story. He's so quirky and nutty that you wonder just how he came to be and who would be crazy enough to turn him into a vampire. 

I am so happy we got this short story because it truly gave us an insight on his backstory. He was sold by his mother so she could help sustain her other children. His father was a loony which is where he gets his mania side from...probably not the best kind of person to turn into a vampire because it doesn't stop the mental illness from progressing. Give them centuries to live and just how unhinged can one become? I find it so interesting that Caine wrote a vampire with mental illness. Typically, when someone is turned into a vampire they are often written as being healed from whatever ailment they are afflicted with. While there are vampires (from other authors) that are written out as being sadists or doing things without reason it's not oftentimes where it's outright said they have a mental illness. If anything, it's as if living for so long turned their minds but with Myrnin, he is written as being born with his mental illness. 

His master was highly proficient in alchemy and was the reason why Myrnin was so hard on Claire to learn all aspects of it as well. Both his master and himself were able to produce the philosophers stone which changes base metals into precious metals. While also granting immortal life...this part I am so curious how it plays in the Morganville Universe but sadly it wasn't expanded on in this short story. 

The story of the viper and the farmer was very fitting to the story itself and to name the short story as such. Myrnin's Master should have foreseen that he would betray him the first chance he could. I am curious what happens next in his life and especially how he got to be so close to Amelie. 

Rating: 

4 stars on 5! It was a phenomenal read and actually gave us some fantastic information on Myrnin and expanded on his backstory. I hope to get to read more in the future.