欧宝娱乐

3.5 stars, with a slight nudge toward 4.

I have had this book on my To-Read list for a while, but never got around to reading it until now. I'm glad that I read it because it was pretty good, and parts were very creepy. I didn't find it scary and had no problem sleeping or anything reading it, but there were parts that had a higher than average creep factor, and it was nice.

I liked that this book had a realistic baseline, and felt like it could truly happen. Don't get me wrong, I like the traditional vampire lore that is based on a curse or some evil or something, a changing of the soul that's manifested in the body, if you will... but this was different and I really liked the concept, as well as the science behind it.

There were things that I felt could have been stronger, and more fleshed out, mainly the characters. There were a few references that didn't really bear out in behavior, and some behaviors that didn't quite match the information that we had, like Setrakian's stamina, or Ephraim being a recovering alcoholic of less than a year and not craving a drink... but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I mostly didn't have any trouble liking or caring about these characters, so the little inconsistencies didn't become issues for me. Also, I feel like there were one or two unresolved issues in the story (or maybe they were resolved, but not exactly clearly?), but they didn't detract too much from the story, and could still be addressed in later books.

I also liked the writing for the most part. It had a sort of "For Everyday Use" feel, but then some parts were written in such a way as to just feel like they were more. Again though, there were sections that, for lack of a better term, tried too hard and felt a little forced or out of place. For instance, this line: "Like smoke rising up a chimney, we must force him to the roof." This, in the middle of a vampire vs human battle... I just feel like the first part of the line makes it awkward and takes me out of the story. I think of myself as if I were in the story: I'm fighting my ass off to stay alive here, I see my target, I communicate my intention in the shortest possible command to save my breath, to not waste time, to not give anything a chance to kill me while I'm waxing poetic. "Force him to the roof!" or at the most, "We must force him to the roof!". Who has time for similes in life or death situations? Sure the hell not me.

Anyway, I'm curious where this story is going to go... there was an interesting development at the end that has me intrigued...

Horror October 2011: #5