Welcome to the Thunderdome...Two Books Enter, One Book Leaves

In just a few months, there have been three vampire dystopian books released:

People live in a walled city controlled by vampires and must donate blood.

People live in a walled city, are dominated by vampires...

World dominated by vampires...oh, well, basically the same thing.

What to read, what to read? Do you really have time to read all three books? Do you even want to read 3 vampire dystopian books? (Which looks like the newest sub-genre du jour as another one is being released soon) Well, you don't have to read all three. I will- two books will go head to head in The Thunderdome and only one will live to fight another day against another book in Round 2. You'll only have to read the winner.

(Don't know what The Thunderdome is? It's from Mad Max 3- I'm a child of the 80's. Sorry for the following clip- Mel Gibson is in it. But he is blessedly silent, for a change. And Tina Turner's awsomeness way overpowers Mel's douchiness. Men battle to the death in the Thunderdome- Two men enter, one man leaves.)

Darkness Before Dawn  by J.A. London and The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa enter The Thunderdome. Dawn looks a bit nervous, and she should because she's a novice- a mere debut novel. Immortal Rules is written by an author who's already published a successful series. The odds in the Dome are 4-1 in favor of Immortal Rules. (Kagawa has written 4 more books than London) The crowd is sneering- at Dawn.

The Premise: Well, both books are about the same thing. So, it's a swing and a miss from both books.
The Plot: Immortal Rules is your standard "Quest-type" novel. Dawn is as much about personal discovery as it is about vampires. Winner: Darkness Before Dawn, narrowly: glancing blow to Immortal Rules, right in the nose. Ow.
Pacing: Parts of Immortal Rules seemed overly drawn out- it was much too long at 400+ pages. A 400 page book shouldn't feel like one- every page should count or be edited out. Winner: Darkness Before Dawn because it was well paced- stuff kept happening and it kept you on your toes- Dawn pummels Immortal Rules and sends it reeling.
Characters: Immortal Rules had better character development- which only makes sense in a long book. But, it seemed like the information- the reveals- were too slow and badly spaced out. Dawn- I just liked the main character better and thought the "reveals" were timed better- kept you in suspense, but not too long. Winner: Dawn, by a smidge- Dawn throws a punch, Immortal turns, but still gets hit in the kidney.
Romance: There's nothing I hate more than a love triangle. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Dawn- has a love triangle. And yet, it doesn't annoy me. It's even plausible and works within the story. Immortal Rules- no love triangle- romance angle kind of low key (which I like). Winner of this round: Dawn. Because if it can make me accept a love triangle, it's gotta be good. Immortal Rules takes a series of head shots, goes down, staggers back up. It doesn't look good...
Readability:  I read a lot of books at the same time. So, to me this is a measure of how often I can't resist going back to a book and picking it up and forsaking other books. Immortal Rules: liked it fine, read it between many other books. Enjoyed it for the most part while I was reading it but...Darkness Before Dawn was a book that I pretty much read cover to cover, putting aside my other books to read this book.Winner: Darkness Before Dawn who delivers a series of blows that puts Immortal Rules down- permanently.

Winner: Darkness Before Dawn is leaving The Thunderdome. Battered, yes. So battered that we'll give Dawn a break before sending her back to The Thunderdome to fight The Hunt.
The Dead: Immortal Rules. You'd probably enjoy this book, if it weren't busy being dead on the floor of The Thunderdome.