I hate getting bad news, but especially when it's late…

Back around 1993 or so I remember looking over the shelves of my local bookstore and coming across a book by the name of "Vampire$". What caught my attention, as I'm sure you can guess, was that little dollar sign at the end. What was that about? Was this a book about rich vampires? What in the world? So, I picked it up and checked out the back of the cover to see what this strange book and its title were all about…

From Amazon's description, "Vampire$" is… "about a tightly knit group of professional vampire killers. They may say they're in it for the money, but their death-defying bravado and warm male friendships are as intense as those in any soldier-hero epic. The irrepressible, foul-mouthed, hard-drinkin' Jack Crow–decked out in high-tech chain mail and wielding a fearsome crossbow–is the leader of the bunch. He's the sort of man who screams obscenities at the pope, and then (after a lot of booze) weeps in the pontiff's lap over the horrors he's witnessed."

Vampire hunters? For money? Backed by the Vatican? Yep, that was definitely my type of book. I couldn't buy it and read it fast enough. But, while reading it, I was hit by a huge surprise — one of the locations used in the book was Cleburne, Texas, a small town not ten miles from where I was living, a place I knew all too well. What was a tiny Texas town doing in a novel? Later I discovered that the author, John Steakley, was actually from Cleburne, and that his father owned a car dealership in the Fort Worth area (where I happen to live). Seeing a place like that in a book everyone around the world could read struck me as insanely cool.

When I was done reading the book I went out and looked for more from Steakley. That was when I found the novel "Armor". Amazon describes this one as… "Felix is an Earth soldier, encased in special body armor designed to withstand Earth's most implacable enemy-a bioengineered, insectoid alien horde. But Felix is also equipped with internal mechanisms that enable him, and his fellow soldiers, to survive battle situations that would destroy a man's mind.

This is a remarkable novel of the horror, the courage, and the aftermath of combat-and how the strength of the human spirit can be the greatest armor of all."

Frankly, that's a pretty poor description of what is an intense and engaging story about what a person must become to survive the horror of war. The closest comparison is obviously "Starship Troopers" by Heinlein, but "Armor" is a much darker story, and the story is less interested in dealing with future politics and more in getting inside the struggle to survive. Just an amazing read.

Once that book was put down I sought out more from Mr. Steakley, but sadly there weren't any. For years I kept looking, but nothing new ever popped up. When the internet finally rolled around I looked to see if he had a website, which he did, but it seemed to be run by fans, and all it ever said about new work was "no information." Ugh. For such a talented writer to not use and share his gift was sad.

Today I found out that John Steakley died nearly a year ago. Goodreads says that he passed away in his home after a long illness. I couldn't find any further information. Apparently he had worked on a sequel to "Armor," but he was never able to finish it. This is all very sad news to me, and I feel especially bad that it took me so long to find out about it.

To the family and friends of John Steakley, let me offer my sincerest sympathies for your loss. He was an amazing writer, and I'm sure he was a wonderful person to know and love. The world is a poorer place without him and the stories he had inside. My condolences to everyone…