Rating: 
Summary: Worst of a great genre
Review: Admittedly, I'm a vampire fiction snob. It takes a lot to please me. To his credit, in the preface Wilson acknowledges two of the genre's best, Richard Matheson's "I am Legend" and King's "Salem's Lot". So even he knows perfection when he sees it. Why then this poorly written dribble? One reviewer questioned why all the vampires were bad. That didn't bother. Wilson stated early on that he was annoyed at the romantic notion of Anne Rice's vamps and wanted to do something "retro." That's fine with me. I welcomed the attempt. But I did expect strong character development, a decent plot, imaginative twists and turns and believable dialogue. This novel disappointed on all fronts. Wilson doesn't take the genre and make it his own. He just regurgitates.As for the characters, I really didn't care whether or not Father Joe bit the dust. The best character of the bunch, Sister Carole, is given short shrift in favor of lesser forces. I would love to have seen more chapters devoted to her. Zev also deserved more attention. I suppose I might have found certain bits of dialogue amusing if I were a Republican Catholic, but that not being the case, I found myself putting this book down, reading other books, and returning to it later, each time hoping that it would improve and each time being disappointed. If you're from the Jersey Shore, you'll enjoy references to local landmarks and those annoying bennies. Otherwise, reread "I am Legend" or wait until the newest addition to the Southern Vampire Series comes out in May.
Rating:
Summary: Worst of a great genre
Review: Admittedly, I'm a vampire fiction snob. It takes a lot to please me. To his credit, in the preface Wilson acknowledges two of the genre's best, Richard Matheson's "I am Legend" and King's "Salem's Lot". So even he knows perfection when he sees it. Why then this poorly written dribble? One reviewer questioned why all the vampires were bad. That didn't bother. Wilson stated early on that he was annoyed at the romantic notion of Anne Rice's vamps and wanted to do something "retro." That's fine with me. I welcomed the attempt. But I did expect strong character development, a decent plot, imaginative twists and turns and believable dialogue. This novel disappointed on all fronts. Wilson doesn't take the genre and make it his own. He just regurgitates. As for the characters, I really didn't care whether or not Father Joe bit the dust. The best character of the bunch, Sister Carole, is given short shrift in favor of lesser forces. I would love to have seen more chapters devoted to her. Zev also deserved more attention. I suppose I might have found certain bits of dialogue amusing if I were a Republican Catholic, but that not being the case, I found myself putting this book down, reading other books, and returning to it later, each time hoping that it would improve and each time being disappointed. If you're from the Jersey Shore, you'll enjoy references to local landmarks and those annoying bennies. Otherwise, reread "I am Legend" or wait until the newest addition to the Southern Vampire Series comes out in May.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Strong Entry
Review: Again Wilson wrote a novel that calls to me. Unfortunately, like so many readers who have the time to read a book in one sitting I must read in 10-15 minute increments. So, a book must immediately transport me to another world. Wilson always delivers and Midnight Mass is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: Another Strong Entry
Review: Again Wilson wrote a novel that calls to me. Unfortunately, like so many readers who have the time to read a book in one sitting I must read in 10-15 minute increments. So, a book must immediately transport me to another world. Wilson always delivers and Midnight Mass is no exception.
Rating: 
Summary: Cliches and Crucifixes
Review: F. Paul Wilson's MIDNIGHT MASS is billed as a throwback to the vampire stories of old. Wilson has eschewed the modern vampire drifting tastefully through unlife in search of the next mocha frappacino--or so he claims. Unfortunately, the book turns into an exercise in cliche and stereotype.
The novel follows the adventures of a nun, a priest, and their friends as they war with the undead. The nun, Sister Carole, is waging a one-woman war against the Undead in their hometown. The priest, Father Joseph, is languishing in exile at a retreat house. He was accused of child molestation just before the vampiric hordes conquered most of the globe and the American East Coast. His good friend, Zev, an Orthodox rabbi, comes in search of Father Joseph, hoping to lure him back to their hometown. The town is firmly under vampiric control. Zev tells his friend of certain unholy rites taking place in St. Anthony's Catholic Church, Father Joe's old parish. The rites are being led by the former pastor. Father Joe heads back home with his friend Zev and the fun begins.
The book begins promisingly enough. As the story, unfolds, however, the author uses cliches to define his characters. Father Joe is an Irish-American with a drinking problem. Zev talks like the Jewish version of Step-n-Fetchit. (SPOILER WARNING!!) Sister Carole and Father Joe suffer from pangs of unrequited love. I'm left with the horrible impression that halfway through the book the author got bored and fell into creative shorthand, using every trite stereotype available.
I was very disappointed in this book. I like vampire stories that use the Christian elements of the vampire Mythos. DRACULA is full of Christian imagery. Crucifixes and the consecrated host are deadly weapons against the Undead. Unfortunately, Wilson follows the route taken by Jon Stakely in VAMPIRE$. Stakely's mistake was to include soft-porn prose in an otherwise promising horror fantasy. Wilson's mistake is taking an interesting premise and cutting out its heart through lazy writing.
A perfect example of this is Zev's struggle in realizing that the crucifix has power over the Undead. The implications of this should be staggering. While the author touches on this briefly, he doesn't handle it nearly as well as he did in THE KEEP. Neither Zev nor any of the other characters takes on a life of their own. I honestly didn't care what happened to any of them. I was curious to see how the story resolved itself, but I didn't fear for any of the characters. That is a fundamental failing on the part of the writer.
The resolution of the story itself makes it clear that Wilson is hoping to pen a sequel or sequels. Perhaps this is meant to be a series similar to Laurell K. Hamilton or P.N. Elrod. Unfortunately, I think I'll flip through the hardcover at the book store rather than read the sequel.
This book was OK, but I wouldn't buy the hardcover. If you've got a public library, you might want to save the seven bucks the paperback will inevitably cost. With apologies to Mr. Wilson, it's just not worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: everything old is new again in this page turner...
Review: I have enjoyed Anne Rice's vampiric, pained aesthetes and Tanya Huff's funny, noble vampires as much as the next reader...but loving the boogeyman or laughing with him gets old after a while. I still love Tanya Huff; don't get me wrong...though I think I have outgrown Rice. I want to be horrified by my horror these days. In this horror show of a world we've been dropped in to, it's...comforting to dwell for a time in a world worse off than our own. I was overjoyed that Wilson (obviously one of my favortie writers if you've seen my other reviews) decided to make vampires scary again. I believe he has succeeded admirably in this page-turning thriller. Vampires have taken over Europe and are now they are sweeping across America...or they're trying to. Life as we know it has ended on the east coast. Roving bands of mortal henchemen calling themselves "Cowboys" hunt during the day for their undead masters. Wilson's vampires are eerie and scary (monsters with enough humanity to magnify their nastiness). Those few who fight both Cowboys and vampires are a great set of characters themselves: Father Cahill and his tough-as-nails niece Lacey. Rabbi Zev and Sister Carole...a seriously scary nun (who used to teach science). The Booklist review above was right to compare this to 28 Days Later. There is a definite similarity. Really the best new take on vampires since...well...The Keep by Frances Paul himself! Why isn't this man on the top of the bestsellers lists? You'll wonder too if you give this or Sims or The Select a try.
Rating:
Summary: His worst effort in years
Review: I usually like Wilson's books, but this one is truly terrible. It is juvenile, predictable, and unoriginal. It reads like something Wilson might have written in his teens, it just isn't good. If you MUST read it, get it at the local library, don't waste $25 on it.
Rating:
Summary: And then?
Review: In his introduction to Midnight Mass, F. Paul Wilson explains that this story came to him in order to bring the vampire genre back to its horror roots (ie, away from the Anne Rice type and closer to King's Salems' Lot). But is the novel worth reading? I really had to trudge through this one. The story is filled with unsympathetic characters, predictable plot lines and pages after pages of boring exposition. In the end, Midnight Mass doesn't rejuvenate the vampire genre, it just makes it feel even more tired. Father Joe Cahill is one of the few survivors of the Apocalypse. Vampires have taken over the earth and very few humans are left alive. And the ones who are are too terrified to try and stand against the new terror. When Joe returns to his parish after a long absence, he joins Sister Carol and his niece Lacey in trying to build a rebellion against the figures of the night. It doesn't help at all that these characters feel like cardboard cutouts of better, more fleshed out people. If only Wilson could have given these characters a real history and purpose, this story would have been much stronger. We need to care for at least one character in order to make a story successful and engrossing for the reader. Halfway through the novel, a plot twist occurs that is supposed to shock the reader and drive the story in a completely new direction. But none of it really surprised me. In fact, this plot twist was so obvious that I was disappointed to see Wilson make use of it. And the vampires are also unoriginal and uninteresting. They are protected during the daytime by groups of men dressed in cowboy outfits. These men are supposed to be terrifying, but they drop quicker than flies. The vampires, on their part, aren't a big threat either; they all seem tame even if Wilson tries hard to make them terrifying. In the end, Midnight Mass was a big disappointment. Wilson is capable of much better. I am a fast reader, but it took me a great deal to finish this one. I really hope that, one of these days, an author WILL write a vampire novel that WILL bring us back to the greatness of Salem's Lot, where the horrors seem to jump right off the page. As it stands, Midnight Mass isn't even close to that kind of greatness. Very little scare and very little originality makes a dud in my book. I guess I'll just have to go back to the Repairman Jack novels to remind myself of what Wilson is really capable.
Rating:
Summary: Oustanding non-Repairman Jack book
Review: It's good to see that F Paul Wilson can still write an engaging novel that is "outside" his Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack novels. PLEASE NOTE: I am a HUGE fan of F Paul Wilson, so I may be biased in this review. I generally don't read vampire-related books, because I never really liked the whole "rock-star, erotic, super-goth, monster warrior, super-vampire" types that have been popular over the last few years. I enjoyed this book immensly. Mr Wilson brings back the more "traditional" vampire (can't see reflection in mirror, garlic-holy water-crosses hurt them etc) and entwines them into a great story. I wouldn't exactly call this book "scary"...more eerie and disturbing. I gave this FOUR stars because the plot is wrapped up very quick (the last 20 pages or so) and the ending is a little flat. Good book overall
Rating:
Summary: Oustanding non-Repairman Jack book
Review: It's good to see that F Paul Wilson can still write an engaging novel that is "outside" his Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack novels. PLEASE NOTE: I am a HUGE fan of F Paul Wilson, so I may be biased in this review. I generally don't read vampire-related books, because I never really liked the whole "rock-star, erotic, super-goth, monster warrior, super-vampire" types that have been popular over the last few years. I enjoyed this book immensly. Mr Wilson brings back the more "traditional" vampire (can't see reflection in mirror, garlic-holy water-crosses hurt them etc) and entwines them into a great story. I wouldn't exactly call this book "scary"...more eerie and disturbing. I gave this FOUR stars because the plot is wrapped up very quick (the last 20 pages or so) and the ending is a little flat. Good book overall
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