The Blood Books: Vol. 1 by Tanya Huff

Date Published: 2006, DAW Books.
ISBN: 075 - 640 - 387 - 1
# of Pages: 554

I didn't think I liked mysteries or crime/detective novels, but this may have converted me (though, then again, maybe it's the supernatural fantasy stuff I like so much). This book is actually two books -- the first in a series by Huff that follows a policewoman-turned-private-detective due to a degenerative eye condition who finds herself involved in supernatural cases after unwittingly teaming up with 400+ year-old vampire Henry Fitzroy, a historical romance novelist and the bastard son of Henry VIII. The first book follows the investigation of the conjuring of a demon. The second follows some trouble with a local (friendly) werewolf pack that is being systematically hunted down.

The writing is fast-paced and engaging and the characters are all very likeable (even the un-like-able ones) which is a sign of decent quality writing to me. After reading this I acquired (hrrm-umph) the Canadian TV series that was based on these books and found a lot of very interesting differences and similarities. I enjoyed that Henry was a romance novelist while reading this book. I thought that it added some dimension and seemed to be a pretty understandable profession for an immortal vampire to take up when he finds that he isn't really able to do things like "be outside during the day" or "associate with other people", and really it was just very cute. In the TV series they change this profession to graphic novelist which just made me kind of nauseous. I got the impression that romance novelist just wasn't masculine enough. They also very explicitly played down on Henry's very transparent bisexuality in the novels which I ALSO thought was very interesting and enjoyed very much.

I liked that the focus shifts to multiple supernatural creatures and that there seems to be a lot of different directions these stories can take. I think that this is fairly standard procedure for novels (supernatural crime solving novels seem to be a genre in and of themselves these days...) like this but I imagine for its time (1991) it was quite progressive. It has the usual trappings of poor plot development and predictable sequences of events that I would expect, but for what it is I think it is pretty decent.

Blood Groove by Alex Bledsoe

Date Published: 2009, Tor Books.
ISBN: 076-5-323-087
# of Pages: 302

I found this book when I was browsing a small bookshop in the local mall not too long ago. I'd never heard of it before, but was itching for some funny obscure vampire book, and figured I'd found one. It was actually placed in the YA section, which surprises me a bit. After reading it, I'm not sure how many parents would be comfortable with their child -- even their teen child -- owning it.

The plot mainly involves a vampire, who was staked and paralyzed in the early 1900s, reviving in the 1970s in Memphis, and dealing with the social situation of the time. It's as much a book about race and discrimination as it is about vampires, and in many ways it deals with these themes more effectively. However, that's not to say that it's simply a metaphor or a simple parable, it's got some seriously dark, gory and violent stuff in there. It worked for me, but it may not work for everyone. Also included are some pretty graphic sex scenes. I was surprised to find it, but not put off. It worked somehow.

The main characters were very likable and intriguing, but not overly so. I was, at times, legitimately appalled by their behavior and yet attracted to them nonetheless. After a certain point, you've gotten to know them so well and are so attached to their viewpoint that they can apparently do anything, no matter how heinous, and still carry your favor. I think this is evidence of good writing and character development.

The plot itself is not contrived or cliche, and is actually quite refreshing. The vampire cliches used in the novel actually serve to accentuate just how far Bledsoe was willing to go to differentiate his tale from the other vampire books being published recently. They stood at a stark opposition to the originality, and even then they were often traditional elements that were re-imagined in some grim, non-traditional ways. There is some vampire-induced hypnotism in this book that is seriously disturbing.

Anyway, I'd recommend it to folks that are looking for something new in the genre and don't mind sex and violence, and especially those that like seeing characters that are allowed to show their dark side and yet still fill the role of the "hero".

The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman & Tony Moore

Date Published: 2006, Image.
ISBN: 978-1-58240-672-5
# of Pages: 144

I picked this up yesterday because I've totally been sucked into the AMC TV series adaptation and have never even touched the graphic novels before. I felt really bad, and tomorrow is the season finale and I thought... well, this will certainly help to ward off the inevitable zombie withdrawal, even if I don't wind up liking it as much as the show.

Though honestly, I DO like it. The story is very, very similar to the beginning of the show for... about the first half of this book, I would say, though it runs at a much quicker place. The differences that were present were actually quite large (so far), which is great actually because it makes me want to continue reading because I'm not confident that I can predict what will happen next just based on having seen the show.

What I liked least about this, unfortunately, is the art style. The zombies are actually great, but the human characters are a bit choppy to me, and the male characters specifically are a bit difficult to tell apart. I like Dale a lot less in the book so far than I liked him in the show (he was my favorite character), and all of the others I can kind of give or take in both instances, so I'm hoping that it continues to zero in on the characters some more so I become more attached to them. The one major death in this book I cared very little about, though it was treated like it was significant.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Date Published: 2008, HarperCollins Children.
ISBN: 978-0-06-0530945
# of Pages: 312

I had never read anything by Neil Gaiman before I picked up this book. I know, I know. Sue me. I have this tendency to want to read things people tell me to read and then shirk those suggestions as though fighting some evil demon that is seeking to influence my mind. I have my OWN wants and desires, I say. Well, I got around it this time by picking this book up in a small, well-decorated and horrendously under-stocked and over-priced bookstore in Miami when I was visiting my family last year. I then proceeded to put it off AGAIN for nearly a year before finally reading it, and I feel like an enormous asshat for doing so.

This book is amazing. Seriously, there are almost no words. It is an achievement in children's literature -- and despite the themes of death, some violence, and a lot of scary, scary stuff I do think this belongs in the hands of middle-schoolers, at least. Though that's really just the start. Everyone should be reading this book.

The story follows Nobody Owens, a baby whose family is murdered before the opening chapter of the book. He manages to crawl his way into a cemetery before his would-be murderer manages to realize he's missing. From there, he is raised within the safe walls of the graveyard by the ghosts that reside there, and his mysterious caretaker, Silas, who alone has the power to enter and leave the graveyard at will and so can provide Nobody with clothing, food, etc. His adoptive ghost family -- the Owenses, of course -- provide him with the affection and support he needs to grow up to be an intelligent, inquisitive and empathetic young man.

Yet his murderer is still out there, and as the reader learns more about the group that this killer is apart of, he or she becomes more wrapped up in Nobody's world -- which is, at times, incredibly, surprisingly frightening, but is more often new and exciting and beautifully macabre.

The character development was wonderful. I loved Nobody, his family, the witch he meets (don't want to spoil!) and most of all, his caretaker, Silas, whose self-conscious, uncomfortable concern for Nobody is painfully sweet.

""'We can put the food here,' said Silas. 'It's cool, and the food will keep longer.' He reached into a box, pulled out a banana.
'And what would that be when it was at home?' asked Mrs. Owens, eyeing the yellow and brown object suspiciously.
'It's a banana. A fruit, from the tropics. I believe you peel off the outer covering,' said Silas, 'like so.'
The child -- Nobody -- wriggled in Mrs. Owens's arms, and she let it down to the flagstones. It toddled rapidly to Silas, grasped his trouser-leg and held on.
Silas passed it the banana.
Mrs. Owens watched the body eat. 'Ba-na-na,' she said, dubiously. 'Never heard of them. Never. What's it taste like?'
'I've absolutely no idea,' said Silas, who consumed only one food, and it was not bananas."

Honestly, purchase this book now and read it immediately (do as I say, not as I do!) I was left feeling emotions I haven't felt in a long time from a book, and I am honestly still really upset that it's over. Superb writing, excellent story-telling, great characters and original and imaginative world and plot. There's nothing missing here.

Bloodlist by P.N. Elrod

Date Published: 1990, ACE Fantasy
ISBN: 0-441-06795-6
# of Pages: 200

I picked this book up in a bargain bin a number of years back. I was going through the heaps of books I have piled in boxes recently in a painful effort to rid myself of those that I REALLY NO SERIOUSLY never plan on getting around to, and this little book was uncovered. I've obviously been in a vampire mood lately and it looked quirky enough to tickle me, so I gave it a chance.

It was honestly about what I expected, though I was certainly entertained and sometimes meeting expectations is better than being pleasantly surprised. The premise is this -- a man wakes up one day to find that he has been murdered. He is able to determine this, of course, because he is now undead -- a vampire. The gimmick becomes clear at this point. He's able to track down and punish his own murderer, and the process is charming, as he must team up with a quirky British private investigator who is utterly intrigued by the protagonist's "condition".

I was a little turned off at first by the traditional way in which vampires in this story were imagined (the need to sleep with one's native soil, difficulty crossing running water, ability to become invisible, etc.) but I got caught up in it pretty quickly and while it's still not the sort of vampire I prefer (it all just strikes me as SO far-fetched that it's hard for me to suspend disbelief) I did find it fun being involved in a story in which something so fantastical was wrapped up in something as mundane as a detective story.

Oh -- and the setting is post-prohibition Chicago for the most part, which is charming for its own reasons. It's really actually very "cute", in a loose sense of that word. Again, what I mostly enjoyed was seeing a vampire character forced to deal with a genre that traditionally has never seemed to have any room for the supernatural.

Great Ghosts by Daniel Cohen

Date Published: 1990, Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0-590-45108-1
# of Pages: 48

I used to love reading these little ghost/horror books when I was a child, so I couldn't help but throw this one in the bag when I was at a used book sale at the mall recently. It was one of those "fill a bag for $1" sales, which are impossible to resist when you like books and might have a slight hording issue when it comes to them, SO. Here it is.

Anyway, I was overall not too disappointed with this collection, given the age/grade level this was geared towards (and especially considering the time this was published -- oh early 90s juvenile paperbacks!) Having said that, the only story in the collection that I got even the slightest thrill from was the last one, but I will get to that in a moment.

The first story in the collection is An Ancient Ghost, which is pretty much about exactly what it sounds like. It supposedly takes place in ancient Greece -- you know this because it says so and because the main character is "a scholar" and he reads. Not to analyze these four double-spaced pages too deeply or anything, but I was especially tickled by the "learn-ed people are idiots and never pay attention to the supernatural" subtext.

The Man in Grey is your basic "theatre ghost" story. There isn't much else to say about that.

The Berkeley Square "Horror" was perplexing to me before I even began reading, but mostly because of the unnecessary quotation marks in the title. There was very little to get worked up about in this tale - some people go into a haunted room and get themselves killed. No one knows how it happened. No one knows why it happened. No one cares. No one also bothered to edit. Favorite line: "His face wore a look of utter terror." Mr. Cohen, come on now.

The Screaming Skull is interesting if only because it would be fucking awesome if some dead guy's skull screamed every time you picked it up, which is pretty much all that happens in this story. It also purportedly brings "bad luck", as it is the skull of a West Indian slave who was pissed about being taken out of his native land. Things are struck by lightening, which is obviously supernatural.

The Flying Dutchman is omg the Flying Dutchman.

The Bell Ringer's Ghost is about a monk who fails to protect his abbey by falling asleep on the job of bell-ringing when a flood comes and kills a bunch of people. His ghost feels guilty so he protects people that come to visit the abbey and stuff. It's alright.

I'm looking again at The Brown Lady but it must have been unimpressive because I don't remember anything.

Bentham's Headless Ghost is barely about a ghost at all. Not completely sure why this was included, except that it's sort of icky. "Bentham's ghost has been reported in the halls of the University. The spectre carries his skull under his arm. Sometimes, it is said, he rolls his skull down the corridors, like a bowling ball." That's pretty much it.

I did enjoy Winterton's Spirit because it was kind of what the fuck. Some guy is supposedly dead, another guy sees his ghost which tells him that he is in fact NOT dead, he goes to warn the coroner that he isn't dead and his body is gone.

?????

So that is sort of confusing. But neat. More of a zombie story than a ghost story, perhaps? "Winterton was never found, dead or alive. His spirit did not appear to Hassan again." DUDE.

A Hunger Like Fire by Greg Stolze

Date Published: 2004, White Wolf Publishing.
ISBN: 1-58846-862-3
# of Pages: 283

I have to preface this with an admission -- I've never played White Wolf's games before, and I really didn't have any sort of precedent before opening this book. What I did have was a frustrating desire to read more snappy, bitey vampires novels following Chuck Wendig's Double Dead, which I had the pleasure of finishing late last month. I originally obtained this book about six years ago, when I was in the middle of highschool (has it really been that long?!) and I remember reading it and liking it, but I didn't actually remember the story very much. Oops. I found it on my shelf after browsing my extensive collection (ahem) and decided to give it another go, based on the fond memories and everything.

It didn't disappoint. I was a bit out of the loop because I wasn't familiar with some of the key plot elements that are apparently a component of Vampire: The Requiem but things sort of settled out for me as the story progressed, and I found myself actually pretty comfortable with many of the terms and references and mechanics, which I think is a testament to the strength of the book. It does introduce things very gradually and keeps your interest peaked, and I think that's why I enjoyed this despite not being a player.

It does help that the story begins following Bruce, who is really a newcomer to vampires himself. It follows his realization that he has been "embraced" (read: transformed into a vampire) and carries on from there as he adapts to his new life. It also follows Persephone Moore, who is also a newer vampire, but by the action of the story is already well aware of it and is struggling more with the consequences of being the only "childe" of the city's Prince vampire, Maxwell. The problem is that there is an overall ban on creating new vampires, and it is not faring well for Maxwell's political support.

The political aspects of the novel are what did not move me much in the beginning but what eventually carried me into it and got me involved towards the middle. I was intrigued and curious about the mechanics and uses of the system. What did bother me was some of the characterization. I enjoyed the minor characters more than the two main characters, I think, though of the two (Bruce and Persephone) I would have to admit a solid preference for Bruce, who just rang much truer to me than Persephone, who was a bit too much in all senses of the phrase (too beautiful, too adaptable, too capable, especially for someone who was supposed to be new to the game). I did like hearing about how each new vampire dealt with cutting off ties with their former life. I don't recall hearing very much about this in other vampire stories so it was interesting and engaging.

There are, from what I can gather with my Google-fu, two more novelizations similar to this one, and I already have them both (though they are unread). I'm eager to get into them, but have some other things I want to finish up first. I'm a bit disappointed that there aren't more than that, if this book is any indication of their quality. It looks like the middle one is written by a different author from the first and third, so I guess it's really a crapshoot.

Double Dead by Chuck Wendig

Date Published: 2011, Abaddon.
ISBN: 978-1-907992-41-4
# of Pages: 168

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Where do I even begin? When I was a preteen I went through an obligatory vampire phase that was regrettably short lived due to just how picky I am about these sorts of things. I didn't give up vampires because I didn't like them, I gave up vampires because I had run out of vampire material that was truly awesome. It took about roughly six months.

So oh how long have I awaited a story like Chuck Wendig's novel, which I just by-chance happened to pick up off the rack at a bookstore a week ago and proceeded to tear through in two days. It was absolutely everything I love about horror/fantasy. Zombies and vampires are nothing new, but Wendig makes it seem like they are. Who knew that all that was needed to refresh both zombies and vampires was to just smash them together?

Of course, Double Dead is more than that. Coburn the vampire, the novel's main protagonist, is delightful. See how he systematically devours human after human with no remorse, see how he quips his way through many a conversation. I imagine some might be offended by the profanity (oh god the profanity) and in some cases I'd be tempted to agree, but it just seems so necessary for the character that I actually found myself enjoying the various ways in which Coburn derided, abused and dismissed his human compatriots. He is a vampire after all, let's not forget that. He certainly wouldn't let you.

While the entire plot really centers around the relationship Coburn develops with a band of humans that have somehow managed to survive the zombie apocalypse, I enjoyed far more the instances in which Coburn was allowed to have free reign on the narrative. There is a particularly gruesome scene involving cannibals and a WalMart that I would prefer not to ruin for anyone. I think this might be due to my general dislike of the other main protagonist, a young girl named Kayla whose blood has some seriously neat and magical properties. I found her contribution to the overall plot really enjoyable, but her as an individual -- not so much. It's difficult for me to pinpoint why, but I might just really not like teenagers. Iunno.

But this is a relatively minor blip on the radar screen of overall awesome that is Double Dead. Give me more, I say. The ending of the novel (as well as some loose threads earlier on that are not actually quite as loose as they are just sort of waiting -- such as wtf tell me more about Coburn's maker) really begs for more.

The universe the novel takes place in is awesome on its own (keep your eye out early on for INSANE MUTANT VAMPIRE ZOMBIES, I'm not making this up) but what really made this novel work for me was the obvious work put into character development. I feel like people talk a lot of talk about how important being able to connect to characters is, but few walk the walk. Wendig does. I trust him with my hard-earned, distractionary book money. If you even care a little bit about vampires, zombies or really cool shit in general, you should, too.