Vampire Zero by David Wellington

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• Published originally in October 2008 (Three Rivers Press paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on May 08, 2010
• Another awesome chapter in the life of Laura Caxton. This is the third book with 13 BULLETS and 99 COFFINS, respectively, being the two previous chapters. In case you hadn't been following along, Laura Caxton is a state trooper who was recruited to work with federal agent Jameson Arkeley to hunt and kill vampires. Arkeley had been hunting them for years and knew all their tricks. At the end of 99 COFFINS, the two of them had done a pretty good job because there were only two vampires left. The good news was that one was incredibly old and barely able to move; the bad news was that the second was a recently turned Arkeley. VAMPIRE ZERO picks up from that point as Caxton, now promoted to Deputy U.S. Marshall, must track down Arkeley (and Malvern, the other vampire) and kill them both. Still ripe with action and suspense, the book also allows us to watch the drama resulting from the transformation. Arkeley flips from his obsessive goal of eliminating all vampires to building his own vampire family. And Caxton mirror's Arkeley's former life as she gives up everything that was important in her life to focus on that same obsessive goal of exterminating vampires. The climax across the books seems to keep growing too. Each time, it becomes more and more intense. I can't wait until I read the next chapter: 23 HOURS.

Vampire$ by John Steakley

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• Published originally in May 1992 (Roc Book paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 07, 2000
• One of the benefits about having a movie made of your book is that the book is usually better than the movie. So if you enjoy the movie, you're more likely to enjoy the book. This is another example that proves that hypothesis. Now if you hated the movie, are you going to hate the book? I don't think so. The plot of the movie is really only the first third or so of the book and the film does not make you care half as much about the characters as the book does. The rest of the story is all new and not part of the movie. Plus the story and feel of the book differs enough from the film that you'll shortly stop making any comparisons. The story is about a hard hitting squad who hunt down and kill vampires. Not romantic type vampires, but ones who degrade and belittle people while using them for their own amusement. Vampires that will slowly suck the life out of a person by months so that they can also enjoy pimping their victim out. The world within the book quickly unfolds as we meet character after character who are all solid people. They have their flaws, they have their strengths, and it is as a group that they work well. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, their group runs in to problems as the vampires start to get the best of them. There is no denying that this book is a hard hitting and often intense story. Hell, one of the main characters is first seen getting drunk with Mexican whores while living in an abandoned boxcar. Now that I think about it a bit, Steakley's style of writing is similar to Joe Lansdale's style. If you like Lansdale, you'll like this book.

Vampyrrhic by Simon Clark

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• Published July 2002 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover signed and limited to 1,000 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on February 25, 2007
• I enjoyed the bulk of this book but had a couple of minor issues. David Leppington is coming back to the town of this birth to investigate the possibility of a job and to learn more of its history. Bearing the same name as the town, the Leppington family used to be prominent members but now are down to a sole uncle who is more loner than town leader. The usual spooky stuff and premonitions of evil occur as Leppington dives into the town history. And then the capper is revealed as his uncle informs him that the Leppingtons are descended from the Norse God Thor who gave them an army of the undead in order to conquer the other religions. With the last living heir in town, the uncle explodes the gates holding the undead back and a horde of vampires are unleashed. While maybe a little crazy sounding, it's no worse than a virus being accidentally released and killing almost everyone (THE STAND) or any haunted house story. My first problem was with being told the same thing again and again. There were a few events that kept getting repeated and repeated and repeated. Enough already, I understand that he is supposed to lead the vampires in a fight against all religions. If I didn't get it the third time, I got it the fourth. No need to keep telling me. My other issue was an ending that was a little too easy. The final confrontation that was expected was there. However, it was how the hordes of vampires were suddenly dealt with that was too simple. Otherwise I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it. Try to not let these minor points be an issue for you.

Vampyrrhic Rites by Simon Clark

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• Published April 2008 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover signed and limited to 1,000 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on July 15, 2010
• I liked VAMPYRRHIC RITES a bit more than the previous book VAMPYRRHIC. The writing seemed stronger. The plot built nicely upon the concept introduced in the first book. And it seemed to build into a larger climax than the previous book. David Leppington, Electra Charwood and Bernice Mochardi have all moved on with their lives after defeating the vampire army. However, all of them are having dreams of their fallen friend Jack Black. Having stayed behind in Leppington, Electra notices weird things beginning to happen. It turns out the vampires are still around and hiding in a nearby lake. Events move to all three of them meeting up again in Leppington along with some new friends. The reason for the new activity? There is another Leppington which means the vampires once again have the chance to be led into a battle against all Christians. As I mentioned, the story builds upon the same idea as before by having a vampire army to be led in battle against all other religions. The events this time though struck me as more intense and involving. While I started the book reading it slowly (a few pages here, a chapter or two there), by the last half of the book I was only putting the book down when I had to. To me that is a sign of a good book: that I was pulled into the book so much that I didn't want to leave it.

Vanilla Ride by Joe R. Lansdale

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• Published July 2010 (Vintage Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on December 9, 2014
• Not yet reviewed

The Vanishing by Bentley Little

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• Published August 2007 (Signet Book paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 22, 2009
• Argh! After so many great books and the progressive improvements, Little turns out a non-so-great book. On the surface, the story is not bad. Two people start to investigate some killings which are happening across the country; the source turns out to be a big bad out of the California backwoods. Nothing wrong there and something that Little should have been able to turn into gold. This time though something went wrong. I had a hard time getting into the story and events. When something would happen, often it would seem unrealistic; not just the killings or gore but the events around them too. Maybe because of that I also found the characters weren't that interesting; it's hard to be interesting when all the events happening around them were hard to believe. I don't want to rip on the book too much because it doesn't deserve it. It's still readable and can be enjoyed to a degree. I wouldn't recommend this as someplace to start reading Little though. Pick up THE STORE or THE ASSOCIATION or THE RESORT. This is one that you can skip if you want and not miss much.

Via Dolorosa by Ronald Malfi

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• Published February 2012 (Abattoir Press ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on August 22, 2020
• I need to immediately start this saying that I did not finish this book. I got a little more than halfway through (52% according to Kindle) when I gave up. The book started fine; it was a tad slow moving along. However, FLOATING STAIRCASE by Malfi was also a slow burn and I liked that book. I figured that Malfi liked to build his way at a slow, comfortable pace. My problem was that I never got hooked into the story. There was nothing pulling me back. I only found one character interesting (Isabella) but she just moved the story around, not moving it forward or backwards. The two main characters (Emma and Nick) just annoyed and frustrated me. I finally realized that nothing was going to pull me in. There was no mystery, no suspense, no drama. That no matter what happened in the second half of the book, I wasn't going to care or be interested. There wasn't even a tad of curiosity that had me wondering how the book would end. At that point, I realized it was useless to continue reading. I do have four more books by Malfi on my To Be Read stack so I'm not giving up on him. This one though just did not work for me.

Video Night: A Novel of Alien Horror by Adam Cesare

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• Published originally in January 2017 (Black T-Shirt Books ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on October 4, 2018
• This is the second book by Cesare that I've finished and I liked it more than THE SUMMER JOB. VIDEO NIGHT is a strong, retro-style, fun and entertaining book. Though to a degree, I'm not sure if it is truly retro or if I consider it that because it's based in 1988. No matter, it's still a fun book. Billy and Tom are high school seniors, getting ready for what comes after while still enjoying their final year in high school. They have a tradition of going to Billy's house on Friday nights to watch a videotape of a horror movie. However, aliens secretly invaded their town on Tuesday, guaranteeing that this Friday night will not be normal. OK, going back to being serious. Cesare does a great job of creating the characters and giving them true personalities. It becomes easy to remember those days as a high school senior: to recall being nervous and shy with friends and with people on which you have a crush. While Billy and Tom are very different people that you might not expect to be friends, those types of friendships do occur pretty commonly. There are two things that I want to make sure to mention. The first was that for some reason I kept having problems with the two main characters. I kept thinking that Billy was Tom and Tom was Billy; their actions and personalities didn't match their name. At least in my mind. Obviously I got past it but it threw me a bunch at the beginning of the book. The other thing was that I kept trying to figure out how the book was going to end; it was distracting me. I was concentrating on the pending showdown with the alien-infected Rhonda when I would jump out of it and think "Whoa. This invasion is way more than just Rhonda. What's going to happen after the showdown?" Cesare ended it nicely and even set it up nicely for future novels if he wants. Similar to what Amber Fallon did with THE TERMINAL. It wasn't Cesare's fault that I kept distracting myself but it was happening. In the end, I would recommend Cesare and his future books. My minor items were just that: minor. Cesare's books still hit that sweet spot of exactly what I like.

Virgin by F. Paul Wilson

• Purchase it here
• Published originally in May 2007 (Borderlands Press paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 10, 2008
• F. Paul Wilson does his usual great job with this novel. I didn't find it quite as engrossing as most of his Repairman Jack novels but that might not be a fair comparison. Action and suspense does tend to pull you in a bit more than a religious mystery. The story follows Father Dan Fitzpatrick who receives a forged scroll on 2,000 year old paper. While he considers it a novel knickknack, the nun Carrie Ferris that helps him at a local homeless shelter sees it as much more. Upon investigation and pursuing the scroll, the two of them find something that could turn the religious world upside down. Having only seen the movie, I can't quite compare VIRGIN with Dan Brown's DA VINCI CODE but it is in the same general genre. Wilson's story flowed more naturally and seemed more realistic to me. At least until the end where I kind of felt that he didn't know what to do. In all, the book is solid and a fun read but not some of the better material that Wilson has written.

Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror edited by Cheryl Mullenax

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• Published originally in June 2009 (Comet Press paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 4, 2017
• This book left me very mixed. Initially after reading the first few stories, I was disgusted and dreading the rest of the book as juvenile and/or pure gross-out attempts. Then I got to "Maggots" and I found something that spoke to me, something that was enjoyable. It actually had characters that were interesting. It relied on more than cannibalism and deformed rotting bodies, which was ironic because "Maggots" made heavy use of cannibalism and deformed rotting bodies. But the story wasn't about the gross-out; it was about survival and doing what is necessary. Then the next two stories were equally good and I thought maybe it was only a bad start to the collection. Unfortunately I then ran into another stretch of poor to acceptable stories. By the end, the whole book followed that pattern of some good followed by some really bad. I suppose that it is no different than any other collection where you expect to find some good stories, some bad stories and what you hope will be some great stories. Maybe the difference here is that the bad stories include both poorly written stories and gross-out stories. Below are the stories that stood out as better than the rest. Oh, needless to say, the stories in this collection are really extreme stories and not for a casual horror fan.

  "Maggots" by Tim Curran - A French soldier in Napoleon's army during the French invasion of Russia must decide how far he'll go to survive. And some thing helps him to decide.

  "Coquettrice" by Angel Leigh McCoy - A man falls in love and then finds out that his girlfriend is using him as cover. The story read to me as a modern and deviant spin of ROSEMARY'S BABY.

  "Sepsis" by Graham Masterton - A young couple who are in love have problems separating themselves. While many stories in this collection were gross, this one really had me tasting every last drop and bite. And cringing the whole time.

  "The Devil Lives in Jersey" by Z.F. Kilgore - A detective labeled as the "occult detective" in his department moves to a small town to help straighten out his teenaged son. Unfortunately the detective finds a new set of supernatural problems. I think I like this story more for the potential than for the reality. There are a lot of elements which were barely touched. The characters have depth potential but are a tad underdeveloped. And the action whips past too fast. This 25 page story should really be expanded into a 200+ page novella or novel and it could be really good!

  "The Caterpillar" by C. Dennis Moore - After moving back to his hometown, a man starts to care for his cousin's quadriplegic daughter who he then discovers is changing even more. The ending is potentially beautiful or scary, depending upon your interpretation.

Virtual Light by William Gibson

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• Published originally in August 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 12, 1998
• This is an excellent story. Gibson is definitely cutting edge in his writing with regards to incorporating technology and creating new terms. Everything that I've read by him has been based far enough in the future to be new, but close enough that the world is still real and not made up of flying cars and alien races. In other words, cyberpunk but try not to get the negative feelings about that word that a lot of people get. Instead this is an intense thriller incorporating virtual reality, designer drugs, new age weaponry, new religions and many other things which quickly pull you into this world rather than your own. It centers around two people: one an ex-cop and ex-rent-a-cop and the bicycle messenger. They quickly find their lives colliding over the theft of a pair of sunglasses. You definitely should read this and other novels by Gibson; I believe that he will continue to be a driving force in cutting edge suspense.

The Void Protocol by F. Paul Wilson

• Purchase it here
• Published originally in January 2019 (Forge Books ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on April 9, 2019
• There's definitely something to be said about binge reading a series or trilogy. It helps to remember all those small things that connect the books in the series. Plus, it makes for a grander finale when it occurs. Rather than building up for just one book, the finale covers elements from all the books in the trilogy. Characters also get that much more time to develop and change. Unfortunately, too many authors that I read and follow are doing trilogies or shared worlds that I would trap myself to be reading three, maybe four different authors in a year if I tried to do this regularly. Hell, I have six or seven Hap and Leonard books on my to be read pile so I would get "stuck" reading Joe R. Lansdale for a while. (There are way worse fates than that though.) But I am digressing big time. THE VOID PROTOCOL. The story continues to follow Rick and Laura and their adventures into the strange and unknown. This time rather than traveling the globe, the adventure is in their own backyard. Clayton Stahlman is collecting people who have been touched with various strange powers. As they protect and investigate the people, Rick and Laura discover the source of the powers: an ICE, Intrusive Cosmic Entity. Even though by the end of the book, everything is tied up nicely, the metaphorical door is still there and able to be opened for more adventures. There was a lot that I really liked about this book. First off, it didn't follow the same rhythm or pattern of the previous books in the trilogy. While there were clues to follow along with a mystery, our intrepid heroes seemed to be more along for the ride than the ones controlling the direction. This made for a nice break during my binge through the trilogy. And I don't remember whether it was THE GOD GENE or THE VOID PROTOCOL but the words Secret History were used by the characters; I geeked out a bit at having the story firmly implanted within Repairman Jack's world. I was a little sad that this was the end, but I was more excited about what the future could hold. It would be super easy for Wilson to bring Rick and Laura further into Repairman Jack's world and start providing a different explanation for what happened in NIGHTWORLD. With the limited experiences he has had, Rick's view of a Cosmic Entity making a change and then watching for the results over years would be an alternate version of the battle between the Otherness and the Ally. Imagine Rick and Laura running into the Lady and her dog. Imagine if "Mother Earth" had to recruit Rick and Laura for a side job that needed to be completed in order to help Repairman Jack complete his primary job of confronting The Adversary. Imagine we see and experience the world after NIGHTWORLD but instead of seeing it through Jack's eyes, we see it through Rick and Laura. Or Wilson can keep it simpler and just give us another trilogy with only minor hooks to the Secret History. Any of those options sound great to me and I would join in the adventure.

Voracious by Wrath James White

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• Published originally in February 2013 (Sinister Grin ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on August 24, 2017
• Lately I've gotten into the habit of reading two books at the same time: a physical book and an eBook on my phone. Basically something to read at any time. Plus naturally the style and content will differ which gives me the option to change things up if I desire. This time while reading VORACIOUS, I was also reading DEPRAVED. I'm not sure which was more intense or graphic or violent. The story in VORACIOUS starts with Lelani Simms, runway model who was once voted one of the most beautiful women in the world. At the start of the book though, Lelani is famished. Starving beyond belief. She's already emptied her refrigerator and working on the uncooked canned food. As she's eating some canned cat food, her kitten comes into the kitchen. Suffice to say, Lelani can then go back to the canned cat food since there's no one else alive in her apartment that will eat it. The readers are then introduced to several other starving people experiencing similar hunger pains and taking similar atavistic actions to satisfy their hunger, including self-cannibalism. Just before the gore and violence gets too repetitive, we meet the two individuals at the source of the problem. From that point on, the story continues at an even faster pace until the logical end. Wrath does a great job of writing a tight and engaging story. The first part had me enjoying the violence and intensity of what was happening. Then at the point that I was beginning to wonder "why" and imagine a bunch of zombie or alien infection type of reasons, Wrath gave me a plain simple explanation that made sense. A bit extreme of an explanation but logical enough to feel that my zombie idea was too radical. About the only complaint that I had with the book was that I lost track of some of the side characters. I had to look back to earlier in the book to see who they were again. Fortunately they were all side characters and died quickly so I didn't have to worry about them for long. If you like extreme horror, then you'll enjoy this book.

Send comments or your opinions on these books to mike@kazba.com.

Last modified on August 23, 2020