Vampire$

Rating:
Summary: A Lunge Toward The Pathetic
Review: I have now read many vampire novels including the renowned works by Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, and Richard Matheson to name a few. To bring my opinion out quite bluntly, I believe this novel was inches away from being a waste of the paper it was printed on. Let us take in mind the plot: drunk guys getting hired by local governments to destroy vampire infestations. I find it kind of humorous. The plot is supposed to be revolved around hunting vampires and a majority of the book is the nervous break down of one of two main characters or a drawn out story of the past told by a character that I would not even consider human. All in all, I simply believe this book lacked a concretion of plot. Nearly halfway in to the novel, the plot changes, but it is never really solved. A novel such as this requires a live/undead/corpse/whatever protagonist and antagonist. Vampire$ having not really contained either easily became 300 pages of mindless bantar and rambling through drunken stupors.

Rating:
Summary: Don't see the movie!! Read the book!!
Review: I read this book about 5 or 6 years ago and have been waiting for a sequel ever since! The first two chapters left me laughing like a lunatic on crack and completely entranced. Read the whole thing in one sitting. The description of the deputy in the jail nearly made me wet myself.

On the more serious side, this work flew along and was action packed until you got into the scenes retelling the tale of the female protagonist. I found it rather blah for about 15 pages, then it picked right back up in the same hell-bent-for-leather style that made it so much fun to read.

I recently saw the movie and brother....did that massacre a good book. I almost walked out half way through! I was ashamed the plot of the book was not upheld and that I had subjected my friends to such an awful defamation of a wonderful book.

I recommend the book heartily!

Rating:
Summary: Can't stop reading
Review: Man, I hated all vamps stories, but then I loved the movie. I even bought a used copy from Blockbuster. A few days ago a got this book, and I couldn't stop reading. Good for a hot afternoon in the couch! I truly enjoyed it a lot!

Rating:
Summary: Vampire$
Review: One of the most raw, grittiest and frightening vampire novels I've ever read. Don't get me wrong, I devour such authors as Michael Romkey, Anne Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton and numerous others, but this one still rates very high with me.

If you've seen the movie, forget it. This happens to be a very close friend of mine's favorite book. His birthday was the 28th and the movie came out on the 31st (of October 1998). We decided to get him tickets as one of his presents. Never more have I wished I could take back a gift. The movie was hideously bad and so untrue to the book.

If you saw the movie and thought, "that could have been better", read the book. I guarantee you will NOT be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: This book is very good. I tell you it is nothing like the movie at all accept for the names of two charecters and the fact that they kill vampires. The charecters are very interesting. Felix and Jack being the coolest. We have Felix who is extremely rich but no one knows but Annabelle. He is a gunman who hates guns and fighting. Yet it is the thing he was born to do. Then we have Jack Crow a behemoth of a man who has spent so much time doing government work he can get away with basically anything. The story is a very good read I have read it four times now.

Rating:
Summary: Please don't blame the book for the movie...
Review: I mean that. "John Carpenter's Vampires" was a decent movie, if a bit trite (a black cross? reverse exorcism? please...), but this book is anything but trite. It is vulgar, edgy, dark, and very very good. Forget the limp-wristed characters Anne Rice writes about. Steakley's vampires are a monsterous lot, full of violence and horror. Brian Lumley's books are a much closer comparison, and that is high praise in deed (for me, anyway). It doesn't hurt that I grew up not ten miles from Cleburne, Texas, and it was a kick in the pants when I saw the city represented in the book (it's a small, dusty, Texas town without much of note), not to mention the fact that John is from there. On a side note, his dad's dealership has moved to Fort Worth, I believe.

Anyway, before I digress further, go buy this book! It was action aplenty, characters that just grab you by the lapels and shake you, and a story that never tires no matter how many times I read it. This is a first class American vampire novel. Forget about Rice. THIS is was a vampire book *should* be.

Rating:
Summary: How Can A Movie Be Based On This Book?
Review: I watched the movie before I read this book expecting them to be relatively the same. But the are completely different. John Carpenter, although it is a great movie which I give 5 stars, did a crummy job at putting the book on film. The only things they had in common is that the main character is Jack Crow and that they hunt vampires. However, even though the book isn't what I expected, it was still a great book that I couldn't put down. I recommend it highly for someone who is interested in vampires, but if you are just reading it because you saw the movie, don't be surprised if you find them very dissimilar.

Rating:
Summary: Brutal, funny, scary and sad...
Review: It's not often that one reviews a book about a team of vampire-hunting rednecks by talking about the emotional truth and core of the book. So I won't. It's there, though.

This is a quick read, and one that you'll zip through after the first few pages. It concerns a man named Jack Crow, who is more or less the Vatican's official vampire killer in North America. Jack has been killing vampires for three years, which is the longest anyone's done that and survived. Jack is more than a little burned out--seeing everyone he's known for three years slaughtered by creatures that move faster than the human eye can track can take all the enthusiasm out of life.

The most fascinating and realistic part of this book (to me) was that the vampire hunters just plain didn't know much about their prey (who are TOTAL EVIL, not misunderstood goths). Various plans are used over the course of the book, and some of them work. Many don't. There just isn't enough information to make a better plan.

Anyway, if you hated the movie read the book. Carpenter managed to excise almost everything that made the book worth reading (including a character that Kurt Russell *should* have played) when he made his film.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Case...
Review: Don't let the movie of the same name fool you; Carpenter mangled this book in film. This and Armor (by the same author) are two of the most engaging sci-fi/horror novels I've ever come across. Steakley's unique style of writing has a way of keeping the reader glued to the book, forsaking such luxuries as food and sleep. Both books are a MUST HAVE.

Rating:
Summary: No bats, no capes, just two fisted action & mean vampires
Review: Steakley takes all the old vampire lore and tosses it out the window. Just stakes thru the heart and sunlight. Crow and Felix are to of the most original characters I've ever read. For all his drinking and swearing, Crow shows his true humanity in his feelings for his comrades. The master vampires are mean,vicious and down right bloodthirsty. I read this book in two sittings. And thats only because I had to go to work. All in all it's a great read for fans of the genre.