Rating: 
Summary: Bentley Little's Scariest Book
Review: I've read them all to date, and this juicy vampire story is the spookiest, scariest book of all his books. Other good ones are "The Store" and "The Walking", but "The Summoning's vampire is one creepazoid character, as are his minions, like Pastor Dan Wheeler. When they are crawling around beneath the black church you'll gt shivers up and down your spine. This is Little's equivalent to King's "Salem's Lot" (which coincidentally, I think is the scariest Stephen King book by far).
Rating: 
Summary: A nice twist on the vampire story
Review: Little takes the vampire lore and takes it in a whole new direction. Vampire stories are so common place, much like serial killer novels, but Little changes the myth around here.
The story revolves around Sue Wing and the discovery of a chinese vampire that has invaded her small town in Arizona, hunting people at a local "dude ranch."
Little sets the pace well and fleshes out his characters. He finishes it off with a great and spooky climax to the book. Little fans need to search for and keep this new spin on vampires close to their hearts-uh, jugular.
An enjoyable read, filled with twists and turns to frighten even the most jaded horror fan. Two thumbs up, Mr Little.
Rating:
Summary: A nice twist on the vampire story
Review: Little takes the vampire lore and takes it in a whole new direction. Vampire stories are so common place, much like serial killer novels, but Little changes the myth around here.
The story revolves around Sue Wing and the discovery of a chinese vampire that has invaded her small town in Arizona, hunting people at a local "dude ranch."
Little sets the pace well and fleshes out his characters. He finishes it off with a great and spooky climax to the book. Little fans need to search for and keep this new spin on vampires close to their hearts-uh, jugular.
An enjoyable read, filled with twists and turns to frighten even the most jaded horror fan. Two thumbs up, Mr Little.
Rating:
Summary: Yowza! What a cool book!
Review: Nobdy but Little could have pulled this one off, and it probably helps that his wife is Chinese. What a cool, clever take on the vampire legend! The setting is the desert, very much like Harry Shannon's terrific "Night of the Beast," and the small-town in a desolate area thing works wonderfully well. My favorite of Little's books, by far, "The Summoning" has a black church, a vampire from the East and a great over-the-top "pulp" ending to write home about. Grab this one, it's a blast.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended!
Review: Originally published in 1993, THE SUMMONING by Bentley Little went out of print. Now, luckily for horror fans, THE SUMMONING returns to print, providing an eerie glimpse into evil when Rio Verde, Arizona becomes the focal point of a depravity older than time. A vision of Jesus Christ inspires Pastor Dan Wheeler to build the Church of the Living Christ. As hammering, sawing and nailing continues through the late night and early morning hours, volunteers build the church of Wheeler's dreams. A church like no other, its black walls towering in the desert landscape. Wheeler knows he lacks the charisma of television evangelists. Nevertheless, the influence of the being Wheeler calls Christ enriches his influence on these around him. Wheeler believes Jesus' favorite color is black. He gathers weapons in preparation of the Lord's work. The Christ figure tells him that he has forty days to prepare for the Second Coming. Bodies of humans, animals, and insects, are found drained of all fluids. Brad Woods, a local coroner, has performed autopsies on a lot of bodies, and none has ever scared him until now. Never has he seen a body so completely drained of fluids. Worse, he finds bite marks on the neck. Now seven citizens of Rio Verde must hunt down the vampire before their town is decimated. Little creates a vampire unlike any other. Rather than conforming to the characteristic vampire myths, he follows Chinese legend. For example, instead of fearing holy water and crosses, this vampire fears jade. Rather than the dapper European gentleman vampire, or the young punk/rocker vampire, or the sexy misunderstood vampire, Little boldly creates a creature of immense evil replacing attraction with stark terror. Combined with a rich cast of characters, each uniquely sketched and vividly realized, THE SUMMONING is a macabre tale that comes Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Who Is The Vampire? Great Novel...Dumb People
Review: Something strange is happening in the Arizona town of Rio Verde. Chief of Police Robert Carter was called out to find the body of local citizen Manuel Torres, exsanguinated. His brother Rich, the newspaper editor, is having marriage problems subsequent to his wife Corrie's new job with Pastor Wheeler, who Jesus has just appeared to and told to build a huge black church in preparation for His second coming on October 31st. Meanwhile, the bank president is preparing "uniforms" for his employees by sewing together used underwear and every grave in the town cemetery is exhumed in under one hour.
What the hell is going on here? People are dying left and right, animals and trees are being completely drained of all their fluids, the word "vampire" is whispered throughout the town -- although few will admit to believing in them -- and the matriarch of the Wing family that owns the Chinese restaurant seems to be the only one who holds the secret to protection from the cup hu girngsi ("corpse-who-drinks-blood"). Luckily, their daughter Sue just got a job with the paper.
The Summoning was the first novel I ever read by Bentley Little (who won the Bram Stoker award for his first novel, The Revelation). After seeing his name lauding novels by the likes of Richard Laymon, I decided to try him out, as well. What a treat. Usually, I would first attempt a short story collection by a new author, but I found this cheap at a used book sale. I also don't usually read "vampire" books, but this one seemed to be approaching the popular myth from a different angle, at which it definitely succeeds. This is no ordinary movie vampire: it doesn't care what religion you are or how you flavor your food. Although he does have a strange disinclination towards jade ...
While The Summoning may not be as fast-paced as one might expect a horror novel to be, but the eerie atmosphere more than makes up for it, and I was constantly engrossed in its pages. Nothing is as it was in Rio Verde and the small town finds itself turned upside down by the conflicting natures as both the "bloodsuckers" and the "Christians" go on related killing sprees. The depth of character is phenomenal. These protagonists are as real as the people you find beside you every day and you can't help but root for them while fearing for their lives. Even Little's portrait of the life and trials of the Wing family (as assisted by his Chinese wife -- Wai Sau -- and the Chu family) are believably drawn (this coming from one who knows little-to-nothing about other cultures).
It never turns into a rollercoaster ride, even during the denouement, but The Summoning is nevertheless a fully satisfying read by one of the genre's top talents. Those searching for something a little more literary with their blood and gore need look no further.
Rating: 
Summary: Desert horror that has its moments
Review: The once-peaceful desert town of Rio Verde, Arizona is slowly changing. An evil force has swept over town, one that sucks the blood out of animals and humans. Coroner Brad Woods has performed many autopsies in the past but he has never seen bodies like this before, where every drop of blood is drained and only rippled shards of skin remain. Nobody, including police authorities, really has a clue as to what is going on, except that is for the Wing family. Grandmother Wing has met such a creature in the past in her native China, it's a vampire or a "Cup-hu-girngsi" as told in Cantonese. Grandmother Wing knows that this vampire cannot be fought with the usual catholic folklore but instead with ancient Chinese secrets but will any of the town's residents believe her and listen to her before it's too late?
Like many of Little's other novels, the setting is in a quaint peaceful community where nothing much happens but now slowly, slowly, things turn strange. It has become a staple of his work to start things off with the mundane and then build up the intensity however this time Little takes way too long to get started. The characters are well developed and that's all fine and dandy except what we get the rest of the way is an entire novel about people speculating whether or not vampires really could exist or not. Yawn. The vampire is an "invisible" one, we're never described its appearance throughout the novel, only towards the very end and even then his appearance feels lacklustre and clich?d. The vampire mythology and Chinese culture aspects of the book could have been discussed in much further detail in my opinion (where's Stephen King when you need him?).
Many characters are introduced only to be picked off immediately by this invisible presence. It would have been better if Little had chosen to focus more on the characters that really work, especially Sue Wing. Sue is a 21-year old Chinese-American lady who is absolutely one of the finest character creations of Little's career. She is a caring, giving soul who is ostricized all over town because she's "different" but she's headstrong enough not to let any of this bother her. The chapters with her in them were always the best ones and I just wish that Little had made her a character in one of his better novels instead. Aside form Sue Wing, my other favourite character was Pastor Dan Wheeler. Imagine if you will a mean version of Father Elias in "The Revelation" and you will get a good idea. He is truly insane, and his ideologies downright frightening. I had no idea this book would be filled with so much religious themes, more than any of his other books. One has to wonder what kind of religious upbringing Little might have had the way he writes about these things.
I had many problems with this novel but I'd also like to point out that I still ended up enjoying it because, well, it's Bentley Little. Those who have read him know what to expect with his books and this one will still satisfy the fans; it's Little's typical writing style, injected with left-wing socio-political commentary, darkly humourous situations and lots of graphic depictions of bodily violation. I must say in its defense that this is probably his most successful novel in terms of describing life in a small desert town. I practically felt like I lived in the desert during the week I took to read this book. In the end, "The Summoning" disappoints not so much because it's a bad novel, more because it had at its core a truly original concept that was never realized to its full potential.
Rating:
Summary: The Summoning
Review: The only other book about vampires that frightened me was Salems Lot by Steven King. The Summoning reminded me\ of that story and it scared me almost as much. The author (Mr. Little) created a very believable tale in a familiar small town where regular folks managed to look ordinary while they became creatures or slipped into madness. Bentley Little kept the details of the killer just out of the readers view so we are peeking around corners along with the small group of heroes in Rio Verde. There are surprises throughout and Mr. Little provides page after page of very creative and very creepy events. The chapters flew by and at the end of the night after putting my book up for the evening - I found I was too terrified to take my dog outside for our routine walk. The Summoning made me afraid of the dark! I loved it!!
Rating:
Summary: Another pleasing novel from Mr. Little
Review: The Summoning is the 5th novel from Bentley Little that I have read, and thus far, is my favorite. While reading his novels, I am constantly reminded of certain events from other horror writer's works, but strangely enough, in this case, it's a good thing. As for originality, his strength there lies in his ability to shock the reader. Mr. Little can shock the most jaded horror reader, myself included, and this is a most welcomed gift. Occasionally, he will get a little farfetched and a supposed shock is mostly silly and vastly unbelievable, but this is a seldom occurance and most of his intended shocks do just that, and when you least expect them. I personally believe The Summoning has the better character developement of the 5 novels I have read, as I truly responded to and cared for each of the main characters. The over-all story was intriguing, but like I said earlier, it reminded me of several novels I have read before, with all the best bits and pieces combined to create this story. The Oriental angle was a breath of fresh air. Regardless of a few minor drawbacks, Mr. Little's novels are certainly enjoyable to read and one gets their money's worth.
Rating:
Summary: Yowza! What a cool book!
Review: The Summoning is the first Bentley Little novel I've read, but it won't be the last....His story of an ancient evil preying on the residents of a small Arizona town is absolutely riveting read. Little creates a smart cast of characters, including Rich Carter, editor of the local newspaper, and his Brother Robert, the local Sheriff, Sue Wing, a young Chinese girl whose Grandmother knows a thing or two about Vampires, and the Cup Hu Grignsi himself, an ancient vampiric monster who has decided to stop creeping around in the night, and make his presense known to the world. The method the creature intends to use to reveal himself to the World is pretty unique, but is bound to be troublesome to some of the more Religious readers. It made me a little uncomfortable, and I don't consider myself Religious at all. But I guess that's the mark of a good horror novel....The only thing keeping The Summoning from a perfect 5 is the ending: It seemed a little rushed, and I would have appreciated more insight into the Vampire. Overall, though, The Summoning is as creepy as hell, and one of the best books I've read in a good long while. I'm looking forward to reading more of Mr. Little's work.
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