Blood Slaves (The Blood Saga) by Markus Redmond (Hardcover) (PREORDER)

Fiction - Horror - Alternative History - Historical - African American & Black

RELEASE DATE: 7/29/2025  (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE AND ARRIVE 1-2 DAYS AFTER THE RELEASE DATE)

For readers of Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, this ingenious reimagining of the vampire origin story set during the early days of American slavery blends alternate history with supernatural horror, as the last surviving member of an ancient African vampire tribe meets a slave desperate for freedom, and together, they lead an army of enslaved people in a cinematically blood-soaked battle for freedom and revenge.

What if nobody ever freed the slaves…because they freed themselves – 150 years before the Civil War?

In the Province of Carolina, 1710, freedom seems unattainable for Willie, for his beloved Gertie, and for their unborn child. They live, suffer, and toil under their brutal master, James “Big Jim” Barrow, whose grand plantation was built by the blood, sweat, and tears of the enslaved. To flee this hell on earth is be hunted and killed. Until one strange night Willie is offered a dark hope by Rafazi, an enigmatic slave with an irresistible and blood-chilling path to liberation.

Hailing from the Kingdom of Ghana, Rafazi is the lone survivor of the Ramanga, an African vampire tribe rendered nearly extinct by plague. Rafazi has roamed the world for centuries with an undying desire to replenish the power that once defined his heritage. In Willie, Rafazi has found his first biddable subject to be turned and to help in a hungry revolt. And Willie desires nothing more than to free his people from malicious bondage. Whatever it takes.

One by one, as an army of blood slaves thirsting for revenge is gathered, the headstrong Gertie fears that no good can come from the vampiric legacy that courses through Rafazi’s veins. Willie knows that only evil can fight evil. And when the woman he loves stands between the reemergence of the Ramanga and the justified slaughter of the oppressors, Willie must make an irreversible decision. Only one thing is certain: on the Barrow plantation, and beyond, blood will spill.

Part historical drama, part supernatural horror, and part alternate history, Blood Slaves is an ingenuous and defiant new creation myth of the vampire, one rooted in both justice and the sometimes-violent means necessary to achieve it.

AUTHOR BIO: 
Markus Redmond is an actor, director, screenwriter, and author. Known for his roles on Doogie Howser, MD, NYPD Blue, Murder One, Mad About You, Angel, and Fight Club, he wrote and starred alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Sharon Stone in the indie film If I Had Known I Was a Genius. He wrote, directed, and starred in the Amazon Prime thriller The 6th Degree, and has multiple screenplays in development. He lives in Los Angeles and Blood Slaves is his first novel.

Praise for Blood Slaves

"Markus Redmond has crafted a truly epic reimagining of the 19th century, in which an ancient vampire enslaved on a plantation becomes the catalyst for a widespread slave rebellion and violent reckoning with injustice. It's clear throughout the narrative that the true monsters are not the vampires, who need blood to survive, but the slave-owners, who require human suffering in the name of profit. Redmond's novel should be one of the most satisfying of the year, and perhaps of the decade." --CrimeReads

"I haven't rooted this hard for characters since Black Panther! Redmond's delicious take on the vampire origin story will grab readers by the throat from page one. " --Michelle McGill-Vargas, author of American Ghoul

"Immersive and haunting, Blood Slaves is a painful revisitation of the horrors of history through the lens of supernatural empowerment and a new spin on vampirism for freedom." --Tlotlo Tsamaase, Author of Womb City and The Silence of the Wilting Skin

"Redmond paints such a disturbingly real portrait of inhumanity in the early American South that you'll beg the vampires to rise and destroy every plantation and slave owner." --Nicholas Belardes, author of The Deading and Ten Sleep

"A stunning page-turner of a novel that has all the makings of a 'must see' television series: love, loss, romance, betrayal, tons of action, and a spectacular, timeless look at the eternal battle of good vs. evil. Blood Slaves is a wondrous new history of justice and revenge. It is the American Game of Thrones." --David Greenwalt, Executive Producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Co-Creator of Angel, and Grimm