Nocturnes and Neon: A Novel of the Vampiric

Rating:
Summary: This had better be the start of a series!
Review: A friend of mine recommended this book to me through a chat-site for people who like horror fiction. He warned me that it wasn't the typical vampire-horror fare and that, if I like "old fashioned" (stereotypical) type vampire fiction, I might not like NOCTURNES AND NEON... They were wrong!! I LOVED this book! I fell in love with the characters! I have since tried finding other books by MR. Armstead, but apparently he's a first-timer. If so, I sure hope he's working on more adventures with Quinn, The Adversary and his friends Novembre and Professor Silver! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Rating:
Summary: This had better be the start of a series!
Review: A friend of mine recommended this book to me through a chat-site for people who like horror fiction. He warned me that it wasn't the typical vampire-horror fare and that, if I like "old fashioned" (stereotypical) type vampire fiction, I might not like NOCTURNES AND NEON... They were wrong!! I LOVED this book! I fell in love with the characters! I have since tried finding other books by MR. Armstead, but apparently he's a first-timer. If so, I sure hope he's working on more adventures with Quinn, The Adversary and his friends Novembre and Professor Silver! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Heart-Pounding Vampire Epic!!
Review: I can't begin to say enough about this novel! NOCTURNES AND NEON is absolutely one of the BEST vampire horror novels I have EVER read (and I am a die-hard Anne Rice fan, read Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "St. Germaine" series, and I read Laurell K. Hamilton, too!) This is truly an ORIGINAL and EXCITING novel! Mr. Armstead's take on immortal vampire hunters and scientific vampires and secret government conspiracies is breath-taking in it's scope and depth of design and detail -- and it is a fast, fast read with a lot of action and adventure and some truly gruesome scenes of horror that will long stay in your mind! This is a companion novel to DARKNESS FEARS, I understand, and the two novels are a awesome tapestry of vengeance, bloodshed and danger with WONDERFUL characters you will love to read about!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Heart-Pounding Vampire Epic!!
Review: I can't begin to say enough about this novel! NOCTURNES AND NEON is absolutely one of the BEST vampire horror novels I have EVER read (and I am a die-hard Anne Rice fan, read Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "St. Germaine" series, and I read Laurell K. Hamilton, too!) This is truly an ORIGINAL and EXCITING novel! Mr. Armstead's take on immortal vampire hunters and scientific vampires and secret government conspiracies is breath-taking in it's scope and depth of design and detail -- and it is a fast, fast read with a lot of action and adventure and some truly gruesome scenes of horror that will long stay in your mind! This is a companion novel to DARKNESS FEARS, I understand, and the two novels are a awesome tapestry of vengeance, bloodshed and danger with WONDERFUL characters you will love to read about!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Rating:
Summary: Bad Brian's Opinion About Vampires
Review: I have to admit that the ONLY reason I even considered looking at this was because I was bored and couldn't find any decent summer reading -- I mean, prehistoric sharks? More Mafia books? C'mon! So okay, I ordered NOCTURNES AND NEON and much to my surprise I found a story I could get lost in! It was a little reminiscent of other "New Age" science fiction-type takles on vampires, staying away from the tried-and-true (and done-to-death boring) vampire myths we all know from movies and TV, in that the author really tried to make this one different.

He succeeded. This book is wild!

There are flashbacks to The Crusades and to the Victorian Era, secret agents and corrupt government agencies, shoot-outs, vendettas, mob hit-men, and a really dark, dark hero in the immortal "Haunt" named Montgomery Quinn, a.k.a. "The Adversary"! The plot is complex and gets revealed in slow fashion as the reader is educated about the world of the "Moon-Chosen", and then it revs-up to a violent cinematic climax! It was a FUN read!

But it ended too soon... I want MORE! MORE QUINN!

Rating:
Summary: A Different Kind of Vampire Thriller
Review: I liked NOCTURNES AND NEON. A lot.

Here's why: I read a lot of vampire-oriented horror fiction and dark fantasy. I see a lot of the movie, too. Truthfully, a lot of them a re merely mediocre or just plain bad. A lot of recent vampire fiction has been made up of bad Anne Rice imitations or little more than gore-splattered goonish cartoons. Very disappointing for the most part. But, since I really do enjoy imagining the dark adventures of vmpires I keep reading, hoping for something that may excite me.

Ths book did that.

My own tastes run more towards a very Gothic and sensual view of vampirism, but Mr. Armstead's book jacket "teaser" caught my attention and I bought the book. In this novel, the author presents vampirism as a scientific result of "parallel evolution", explaining why all major cultures on the planet have some myth of vampirism or another. He presents them as amoral, business-savvy, mutated humans who are also homicidal predators and have their own society and rules of conduct. This is an interesting idea and Mr. Armstead takes time to flesh-out his idea in some very entertaining ways.

But it's the CHARACTERS that grabbed me the most! The immortal Quinn, called "The Adversary" by the Moon-Chosen, Professor Patricia Silver, and the mysterious, deadly Mr. Novembre are some of the freshest characters I've come across in recent vampire fiction and the author takes time to give each of them their own story and motivations for participating in this dark adventure. Too, his villains, the murderous Helinor and Cartarrian the Elder and Sangwynne and Mob Patriarch Vic Palmiotta, were very well painted as people, evil people, but people! I enjoyed reading about them!

I hope there will be at least a coupl more sequels to this complex and dark saga!

Rating:
Summary: Goths, Guns and Ghoulishness
Review: NOCTURNES AND NEON was a fun read! I enjoyed the inspired craziness of some of the more homicidal characters and I liked the way the author kept building a sense of history in the conflicts, it gave depth to the way the characters interacted with each other.

The lead characters were very cool and very exciting: I liked Montgomery Quinn and Professor Patricia Silver. And I liked Mr. Armstead's creation of a whole vampire sub-culture with its own rules and codes of conduct. These blood-suckers were built for the New Millenium!

There were some elements of police procedural novels and espionage fiction in the book that I could have done without. I'm just not a fan of gun-toting, tough-talking secret agents. But their use made sense in the context of the book and I truly enjoyed the use of the Mafia family involved with the Moon-Chosen vampires. Again, Mr. Armstead made it make sense. This book doesn't seem to follow any real rules for horror fiction and goes it own way. And that, too, I appreciated!

Not boring and not the same old thing! Read and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Epic horror thriller!
Review: Wow! that's the only word that came to my mind when I turned the last page of this unforgettable supernatural thriller!Armstead has written one of the most gripping, violent imaginative vampire novels I've read since discovering Brian Lumley. He tells us a tale of vendattas than span the centuries and lethal conspiracies. He creates a new myth for vampires and he calls his creations Moon-chosen and they seek a biogenetics experiment that will control their blood-lust called the Need and walk in daylight! One of those who will oppose their plan is one of the formidable heroes that has ever been on a printed page. A immortal, unstoppable being called Montgomery Quinn and the vampires called him The Adversary!.He is one of the Olympians, a race of of immortal beings who's hunt vampires! He is aided on his mission by Professor Patricia Silver, Father Clement, a priest and exsoldier and Lorenz Novembre, a lethal agent of darklink, clandestine organization that battles occult forces!

Armstead's novel has brutal scenes of gunfights and hand to hand combat between our heroes and the dark forces. This book combines
intrigue and conspiracy worthy of Robert Ludlum as our heroes must contend with no only the vampires but their mafia connections and rogue government agents! The villians that dwell in this epic also execellent like the twisted and sadistic warlock Creighter, evil vampire lord Cartarrian and the sinister and seductive vampiress Helinor and brutal mafia don Vic Palmiotta.In this book entranced as Armstead takes you back in time showing some one the battles Quinn has had with vampires and showing also the arrogant cruel nature of this moon chosen as seek torture and kill humans for hunger and their amusement.Pick up this book and enter Quinn's world of vampires, warlocks and vengeance than spans centuries! and Mr. Armstead please write a sequel!