Nightlife

Rating:
Summary: True Scream Fiction
Review: "Nightlife" is an uncanny mix of old and new as it tells its story of evil preying on the homeless and unwanted in the streets of Minneapolis. Simon Babych, a bookstore clerk, finds himself the unexpected witness to a horrific murder when he decides to bring his homeless friend Phil some food. He finds Phil in the process of being eaten himself, by a creature of shadow, being squeezed somehow until only a puddle of water remains.

Simon flees to a homeless shelter where he meets Becky Rutman, the shelter director. Together, Simon, Becky and an group of their friends discover that what Simon saw has happened time after time. Always, the victims come from the unwanted, those have no one to miss them. Simon leads the hunt for a way to destroy this creature, which shares many traits with what we commonly think of as a vampire. Inevitably, the hunters become the prey, and "Nightlife" is the tale of a battle for survival.

This is not only Simon's tale, but also the story of Richard Carnitch, who has hunted humans as food for several hundred years. He has no memory of being human and has little love for us other than as sustenance and as something to torment. For Carnitch gets as much satisfaction from the mental agonies and humiliations he causes as he does from the feeding itself. He lacks the fangs of a traditional vampire, feeding instead through a kind of osmosis, but he shares many vampire traits. He is outraged that his rightful prey has decided to hunt him and does not hesitate to use his powers to defend himself and take revenge.

Despite it's untraditional characters, Jack Ellis has written the classic monster tale, full of chases, lurking horror and unending suspense. Ellis spends no time explaining or psychoanalyzing his creatures. They are evil in nature, and the enjoy being that way. Instead, he puts his efforts into making his protagonists realistic and likeable. "Nightlife" is perfect reading for that lonely night in front of the fireplace.

Rating:
Summary: A diferent view
Review: After so many books with the vampire as anguished "hero" Jack Ellis takes us back to the orginal, but with a twist. This arrogant vampire who hates humans and delights in their suffering is searching for one of his own kind. But he has revealed his existance to two humans who canot stand by and watch him kill. This novel is a definite page turner, can't put it down. Ellis keeps the suspense going with his many plot twists and his well developed characters.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Page Turner
Review: I love giving authors I've never heard of a chance. I buy their books and sometimes find myself disappointed and sometimes find myself feeling satisfied. But this time I felt exhilerated! I stayed "on the edge" the whole time. This book is worth looking into! It kept you in dire need to not put down and keep turning those pages...all the way through to the end! Keep up the good work Ellis, sure hope to see more work like this in the future. Thank you!!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best vampire novels
Review: Nightlife is by far one of the best vampire novels written in recent years. Jack Ellis, a pseudonym for Stephen R. George, chose to save his best work for last. This was the last title he had published under the Zebra/Pinnacle horror line.

The vampire, while holding true to many of the features of vampires from previous works and movies, does have a few new wrinkles. For one, this isn't a vampire that sucks its victims dry of blood. I won't spoil the means by which it captures and kills its prey because it's something you'd never expect from a traditional vampire.

The vampire, Richard Carnitch, is more than 200 years old and preys on the types of people who wouldn't normally be missed by society in general -- transients, prostitutes, etc. This keeps him flying "under the radar" and helps him to sustain his life by feeding at will with no repercussions since no one would notice the victims missing. That is, until the main character, Simon, sees a friend of his killed by the vampire. From there, Simon forms a party to hunt and destroy the vampire.

The book is a fun and easy read and a good way to spend an afternoon. Of the books by George/Ellis I've read, this is his best. It's been reprinted a few times and is still available. If you can find it, grab it, read it, and enjoy sinking your teeth into it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best vampire novels
Review: Nightlife is by far one of the best vampire novels written in recent years. Jack Ellis, a pseudonym for Stephen R. George, chose to save his best work for last. This was the last title he had published under the Zebra/Pinnacle horror line.

The vampire, while holding true to many of the features of vampires from previous works and movies, does have a few new wrinkles. For one, this isn't a vampire that sucks its victims dry of blood. I won't spoil the means by which it captures and kills its prey because it's something you'd never expect from a traditional vampire.

The vampire, Richard Carnitch, is more than 200 years old and preys on the types of people who wouldn't normally be missed by society in general -- transients, prostitutes, etc. This keeps him flying "under the radar" and helps him to sustain his life by feeding at will with no repercussions since no one would notice the victims missing. That is, until the main character, Simon, sees a friend of his killed by the vampire. From there, Simon forms a party to hunt and destroy the vampire.

The book is a fun and easy read and a good way to spend an afternoon. Of the books by George/Ellis I've read, this is his best. It's been reprinted a few times and is still available. If you can find it, grab it, read it, and enjoy sinking your teeth into it.

Rating:
Summary: Monster vs the Homeless
Review: Nightlife would be a great vampire / horror book if it didn't work so hard at trying to take a moral stance on the plight of the homeless and how various people from different backgrounds can all pull together for a common cause to defeat evil. This aspect of it was tolerable for a while, but when the book started focusing more on the social situation of the homeless and less on the Vampire, alot of the effect was lost, since the ending was become more predictable all of the time.

Richard Carnitch lives and feeds out of Minneapolis and is often portrayed as a Vampire of incredible strength, being able to get into peoples minds, summon and control thousands of animals of many species, and cast evil sensations in entire neighborhoods. In other ways, he's seen as very weak, submitting to childish cat and mouse games, and finding himself unable to deal with a situation with a few people with little if any influence or money can stalk and attempt to destroy him.

The book moves fairly quickly and has many interesting aspects to it but about two thirds of the way through, I couldn't wait for it to be over. Would I read a sequel? Probably.

Rating:
Summary: "What do you fear most in all the world?"
Review: Richard Carnitch wants to know. He'll dig deep into your mind, find the very thing that frightens you the most and use it to terrify, right before he makes a meal out of you. Richard's not certain exactly how he came to be, how old he is, or even if there's anyone else like him in the world, but he prides himself on keeping his city clean of the homeless, prostitutes, and other riff-raff. Who really notices these people are missing anyway?

Simon does.

Simon's just interupted Richard feeding on his homeless friend Phil. Simon can't believe what he's seeing and Richard wants Simon to forget what he saw. Maybe a little scare might keep Simple Simon quiet... and maybe not.

Just when I thought I had had enough of vampires, Jack Ellis gave a new turn of the screw. Very entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: An original story
Review: This is one of the most original vampire novels that I have read with many interesting concepts. A vampire, predator of men, manipulator of minds, is truely a coward at heart? And even though Carnitch has killed thousands, I can't help but feel a little sorry for him and the way the book ended.

Rating:
Summary: One helluva book.
Review: Vampire fiction has become so popular that it's really it's own sub genre of horror fiction. Just take a look at any horror shelf at your local bookstore and calculate the ratio of vampire fiction to other tales. But few manage to breath new life into this theme and write a fun and scary book in the process. Jack Ellis (aka Stephen R. George, author of 13 previous novels,) manages to do just that. And man, what a book. Nightlife is a brilliant variation on the vampire theme. You've never come across a vampire quite like this, I assure you. And most importantly, it's an absolute nail-biter of a horror novel. Ellis/George has a keen understanding of the genre and what readers want from a horror novel, without ever being formulaic or cliched. He has fun when he writes (you can just tell!) and all of his novels are like carefully constructed and expertly paced rollercoaster rides. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up. Hell, buy two of them. You'll end up passing around a copy to your friends and you just might not get one back! (Well, that's what happened to me at least.)

Rating:
Summary: Are you afraid of the dark?
Review: Well if Richard Carnitch lived in your city you would be. Carnitch is a vampire, but not the vampire we have come to know. He preys on the homless, the addicts, the prostitutes, those no one will miss, and he kills them in a most unusual way. While killing one of these people no one would miss, he is seen by Simon, and Simon misses his friend. He gathers a group of ragtag "friends" and they decide to find out what this "thing" Simon saw really is. They soon discover that the darkness is not always just shadows, sometimes it can kill.

The story is fast paced enough that you never want to put it down (I read this book in 1 day). The characters are developed enough that you do feel for them, including the monster himself. The plot twists and turns, suprising you every few pages. I like the fact that Richard is not the prissy, woe is me vampire that so many writers are fond of these days. If your looking for a fun read and magnificently fresh take on the vampire story then i can not urge you enough to grab this book.