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72nd out of 166 books
—
57 voters
Vampire a Go-Go
Victor Gischler is a master of the class-act literary spoof, and his work has drawn comparison to that of Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, and Thomas Pynchon.
Now, Gischler turns his attention to werewolves, alchemists, ghosts, witches, and gun-toting Jesuit priests in Vampire a Go-Go, a hilarious romp of spooky, Gothic entertainment. Narrated by a ghost whose spirit is chain...more
Now, Gischler turns his attention to werewolves, alchemists, ghosts, witches, and gun-toting Jesuit priests in Vampire a Go-Go, a hilarious romp of spooky, Gothic entertainment. Narrated by a ghost whose spirit is chain...more
Trade Paperback, 337 pages
Published
September 2009
by Touchstone
(first published 2009)
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Hillarious! I never read anything by the author before but when do some research (well, you know browsing the webs and all) he's actually has another book Go Go Girls which is also good. I wish I have the copy and read it straight away! He writes the book without saving anything best for the last since I think he's giving good in every page. Every chapters serve you with a very fast pace and it has good simplicity on the writing. I love it straight away. The characters are predictable but it's g...more
Allen Cabbot, a skilled researcher, is sent to Prague as an assistant to the Professor Evergreen who professes to be studying Kafka. It wouldn't be a story if the Evergreen didn't have seemingly sinister intentions, with implications that sends Allen along for the ride of his life. Edward Kelley narrates from his place in the Prague castle and dutifully details Allen and Co's tribulations.
There are no linguistic pyrotechnics, plotting and characterization is relatively simple. Then why is Gischl...more
There are no linguistic pyrotechnics, plotting and characterization is relatively simple. Then why is Gischl...more
This book was probably one of the few vampire books that I CAN'T call a cliche. I mean, how many times did a Priest with a machine try to kill Edward Cullen? My guess, would be never, but then again I never finished Breaking Dawn so I could be wrong.
I LOVED Edward Kelley, in the beginning but by the end, I kind of stopped liking him so much, I don't really have a reason why, but eh.
Zabel, who really wasn't even a major characer, so I dont know why I'm talking about him, reminded me of Magnus...more
I LOVED Edward Kelley, in the beginning but by the end, I kind of stopped liking him so much, I don't really have a reason why, but eh.
Zabel, who really wasn't even a major characer, so I dont know why I'm talking about him, reminded me of Magnus...more
What a fun book! I get tired of all the dark brooding characters in vampire stories sometimes and it's great to read one with some humor. Damn good humor at that.
How can you go wrong with a story that starts out with Allen Cabbot, a grad student with a thing for Bronte, meeting with a college official who's office is full of budgies named Admiral Snodgrass and smokes a joint while informing him of his new summer assignment in Prague.
Things get interesting soon after that with violent Jesuit prie...more
How can you go wrong with a story that starts out with Allen Cabbot, a grad student with a thing for Bronte, meeting with a college official who's office is full of budgies named Admiral Snodgrass and smokes a joint while informing him of his new summer assignment in Prague.
Things get interesting soon after that with violent Jesuit prie...more
I first encountered Victor Gischler’s prose work with his post-apocalyptic novel “Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse.” It was a book with a really fun sounding title. So it had a lot to live up to, and it more than exceeded my expectations. So I was happy to pick up the writer’s follow up novel “Vampire A Go-Go.”
In “Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse” Gischler did a fun, action packed comedic riff on the post-apocalyptic genre. With “Vampire A Go-Go, the author attempts to do the same things with the supe...more
In “Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse” Gischler did a fun, action packed comedic riff on the post-apocalyptic genre. With “Vampire A Go-Go, the author attempts to do the same things with the supe...more
Allen, in order to stay in school working on his Masters, is forced to take a summer job as Dr. Evergreen's research assistant. He goes to the Prague never realizing what he's getting into.
Before he's done, he gets involved with a vampire, a werewolf, witches, alchemists, wizards, and a squad of heavily armed Jesuit priests.
The story alternates between now and the sixteenth century where the narrator lived when he was alive. I forgot to mention the ghost.
Everyone's after the fabled Philosopher'...more
Before he's done, he gets involved with a vampire, a werewolf, witches, alchemists, wizards, and a squad of heavily armed Jesuit priests.
The story alternates between now and the sixteenth century where the narrator lived when he was alive. I forgot to mention the ghost.
Everyone's after the fabled Philosopher'...more
After a dose of Faulkner and Barthelme I found it time to take a break from all that heady stuff with Baton Rouge resident Victor Gischler's supernatural romp through Prague. And quite a romp it was, what with machine gun toting priests, seductive vampiresses, wooden golems and a lycanthrope thrown in to boot.
A self-admitted parody of Dan Brown's almost too popular 'crack the code to solve the ancient mystery' motif, I found this a highly entertaining read. Gischler's prose is tight, his humor...more
A self-admitted parody of Dan Brown's almost too popular 'crack the code to solve the ancient mystery' motif, I found this a highly entertaining read. Gischler's prose is tight, his humor...more
This book has some Christopher Moore moments, but not enough of them to sustain interest. Allen is a professor's assistant in Prague where the professor is supposedly working on a chapter about Kafka. I'm stopping at page 115, and so far there have been no mention of vampires. There have been pornographic guidebooks, sorority sister witches, Jesuits with machine guns, and strange narrative flashbacks by a ghost.
That said, the writing is just plain boring. There really are interesting moments (se...more
That said, the writing is just plain boring. There really are interesting moments (se...more
've been a Gischler fan since GUN MONKEYS and bought this right away assuming it was a sequel to GO-GO GIRLS OF THE APOCALYPSE. It sat on the back burner for over a year--I liked GGG, but wasn't in the mood for a sf survivalist read. I always expect offbeat from Gischler, but wasn't expecting this historical supernatural thriller. I was not disappointed. Not as absurdly wacky as Christopher Moore, but it does have a dash of wackiness. The historical basis reminded me of Kostova's THE HISTORIAN....more
Adventure with Philosopher's Stone as a main theme!! Wrong cover, wrong title, misleading cover story - probably to attract more attention on the popular vampire hype, but I feel plainly lied to.
Anyway, story was fairly good if not overdone. There was some attempt at being funny which didn't work. Characters were being killed before they were fully developed.
I'd not recommend it, I just grabbed it from the library shelf for search of easy (it was) vampire novel (there was one vampire but she did...more
Anyway, story was fairly good if not overdone. There was some attempt at being funny which didn't work. Characters were being killed before they were fully developed.
I'd not recommend it, I just grabbed it from the library shelf for search of easy (it was) vampire novel (there was one vampire but she did...more
I think Victor Gischler is a hilarious writer- his books are offbeat, imaginative, and amusing. This book is about a lazy college student who gets shanghaied into a summer job in Prague working for a professor known to be difficult. The professor's wife is very pale and beautiful. In alternating sections of the book, our hero reaches Prague and starts meeting strange people. In the other sections, an alchemist from the late 1500's is involved in experiments for Emperor Rudolf. The plots come tog...more
To me, this book just really dragged compared to Gischler's other work. I found it really hard to get into and I finished I think just for the sake of finishing. I cared little for any of the characters and the big plot twists were pretty well telegraphed. There are some very interesting visuals created from priests with guns etc., but there is also a distinct lack of vampire action for a book with vampire in the title. If you like Victor, it's worth some time, but if you're new to him, start so...more
Never judge a book by its cover. Don't judge it by its title either.
It never really occurred to me whilst reading Gischler's Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse (a book I really, really enjoyed, by the way), but the eponymous go-go girls of the title barely feature in the book at all. The reader finally gets to know them for about one chapter, and it's towards the tail-end of the book. They show up, kick some ass, and then ride off into the sunset. Literally. One could argue that the title isn't reall...more
It never really occurred to me whilst reading Gischler's Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse (a book I really, really enjoyed, by the way), but the eponymous go-go girls of the title barely feature in the book at all. The reader finally gets to know them for about one chapter, and it's towards the tail-end of the book. They show up, kick some ass, and then ride off into the sunset. Literally. One could argue that the title isn't reall...more
Gischler's novel takes the world of vampires, werewolves (excuse me, lycanthropes), golems, wizards, ghosts, wizards, golems, and a hunt for immortality and twists it around in a subtly humorous romp through the Czech Republic. Allen Cabbot finds his life changed after being sent to Prague in a supposed research capacity - only to come face to face with gun-toting Jesuits, wannabe witches, literal talking heads, and a spectre involved in harnessing the power of the philosopher's stone.
Vampire a Go-Go is a brilliant spoof of the search-for-ancient-treasure genre. It has all the necessary elements, an academic scholar who doesn't know what he's getting into, a Freemason splinter group, and a group of Vatican priests all searching for a lost treasure with mystical powers. That's the standard formula and Gischler screws with it by adding too much...vampires, werewolves, witches, golems, ghosts, alchemists, zombies, and probably more I've left out. The result is often corny, but a...more
Again, I read this book because the author teaches on of my kids. It's kind of a take off on Dracula....kind of...loosely.... There's a ghost in Prague, and alchemists, and guntoting Jesuits and werewolves and university grad students studying abroad. I didn't like it as much as Go-Go girls of the Apocalypse. And that's a statement I never thought I'd make.
Gischler is pretty good if you're in the right mood for him.
Gischler is pretty good if you're in the right mood for him.
Wow, this book was so obviously written by a guy - he talks about hard-on's and makes the female characters talk in the way guys WANT them to rather than how we actually speak.
That being said, if you ignore the profanity that is liberally sprinkled throughout and the sexual references that are even more prevalent it's not a bad story - a vamp, zombies, ghosts, lycanthropes, witches, warlocks and more. Oh, and a completely normal guy tossed into the middle of it all trying to solve everything.
That being said, if you ignore the profanity that is liberally sprinkled throughout and the sexual references that are even more prevalent it's not a bad story - a vamp, zombies, ghosts, lycanthropes, witches, warlocks and more. Oh, and a completely normal guy tossed into the middle of it all trying to solve everything.
The title is a little deceiving. Vampire a Go-Go has its share of vampires, but it also has werewolves, zombies, ghosts and alchemists along with an assortment of armed witches and priests. Gischler wraps all these elements up in a humorous little package which resembles a science fiction horror mystery thriller.
Read the rest of my review at:
http://www.examiner.com/book-in-ann-a...
Read the rest of my review at:
http://www.examiner.com/book-in-ann-a...
Entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. Gischler's writing, while vivid and bloody, also contains a wonderful metafictional wit. The book gives the reader the expected genre trappings, but clearly understands and plays with cliche. Vampire a Go-Go doesn't take itself too seriously while still delivering quality. I will certainly pick up Gischler's other books!
I liked the ghost narrator and the mix of historical scenes with modern day adventure but it seemed to try to throw a little too much into the mix. I've read other reviews that talked about the humor of it and that's it's a parody. I didn't really get that feel from it but perhaps this just wasn't a good choice for the first book I've read by Victor Gischler.
Vampire a Go-Go is a spoof or lampooning on all things supernatural: werewolves, vampires, witches, wizards, Harry Potter...and it all seemed perfectly normal (oh, yeah and ghosts and machine handling Jesuits). Victor Gischler writes in an easy manner with an easy flow. Since this is a stand alone work of fiction, the reader can enjoy the simplicity of the characters.
Vampire a Go-Go follows Allan Cabbot, a nerdy grad student sent to Prague to serve as a research assistant to Dr. Evergreen. Litt...more
Vampire a Go-Go follows Allan Cabbot, a nerdy grad student sent to Prague to serve as a research assistant to Dr. Evergreen. Litt...more
I've never been too into the whole werewolf/vampire scene, but this book did a good job of not making them the whole story. The author does a great job of making you feel just like the protagonist in that you're not sure who are the good and bad guys until the protagonist does. Gischler delivers once again.
there were reviews on the back cover equating this author with christopher moore. now, the reviews were for a previous book, but still, if this work is at ALL representative, he's absolutely NO christopher moore. moore's hillarious, while gischler wasn't even a little bit funny. waste of time!
Go Go Girls was a great read, I was a little wary going into this one. Could Vic pull it off? Yes, yes he did. The satire is biting at times, the spoofs are clever, and the whole book is highly entertaining. Pretty much a one-sitting read, the book flies by and leaves you chuckling throughout.
Not that "go-go girls of the apocalypse" was a deep and philosophical story but it did have a very nice fast-paced fun style to it. This story unfortunately speeds up, slows down, speeds up, slows down, speeds up, slows down and just didn't do it for me, but I'm still going to give the author another chance.
I enjoyed Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypsefar more than this one, but it was still a somewhat entertaining read. Really, 2.5 stars, but rounded up to 3.
it wasn't terrible, it was ok. A young man is sent to find an ancient 'stone' by a vampire seductress which two wizards also want to find, so a secret society and priests are sent to prevent the stone from being found. Wizards, witches, vampires and werewolves, sounds interesting but it turned out just to be OK.
This one was just simply fun. A supernatural romp set in Prague. There's an ancient mystery, vampires, witches, werewolves, wizards, militant priests and one confused grad student. A thoroughly enjoyable piece of candy.
--Leisa
--Leisa
I just needed some light reading after trudging through a history of young civil rights leaders in the US. This was perfect. It made me laugh out loud and was an easy read. Read it in two days.
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