Phil’s Comments (group member since Dec 22, 2015)

Phil’s comments from the NJ: Monsters of Horror Book Group (Hackensack) group.

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2017:

DUMA KEY................................................................Stephen King.........................10/02/17
MY BEST FRIEND'S EXORCISM..............................Grady Hendrix......................07/03/17
THE SEVERED STREETS (Shadow Police 2)..........Paul Cornell..........................05/01/17
INTO THE FIRE (The Detainee 2)...........................Peter Liney............................04/03/17
GRAVE MATTERS (Night Owls 2)...........................Lauren M Roy.......................03/06/17
RIVER MARKED (Mercy Thompson 6)..................Patricia Briggs......................02/06/17
DAY SHIFT (Midnight Texas 2)..............................Charlaine Harris...................01/02/17

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2016 Philip J De Parto.


PET SEMATARY
The author's introduction detailed how much of the book was based upon King's life. He relocated to a house just off a heavily-traveled road when he taught at the University of Maine. Behind the property was a Pet Sematary (sic). His daughter lost her cat to road kill (the name and grave marker appear in the book). His toddler son nearly lost his life on the road. He developed a relationship with an older father-figure while he was there. But he did not have any supernatural experiences, encounter a wendigo, or have anyone / anything come back from the graveyard.

Liz was disturbed by the death of the protagonist's son, Gage, which caused at least one other member of the group to skip the gathering. Phil was impressed with the crispness and clarity of the author's observations about mortality (chapter 7, page 22), the changing of the seasons (8/24), the evoking of horror and dread (multiple places, but especially the encounter with the wendigo in chapter 55). Recommended for those seeking a well-crafted horror story, but definitely not for everyone.

UNDEAD AND UNSURE
The duo had very different frameworks for evaluating this eleventh book in the Betsy, the Vampire Queen chic lit/vampire series. This was Jacqueline's first encounter with the author while Phil had read the ten previous books in the series.

The work was not Jackie's usual cup of tea, but she appreciated the funny dialogue and how Sinclair works out Laura's plan. Phil really liked it on multiple levels. He enjoyed Betsy's idiosyncratic Stream of Unconsciousness, the broad farce of Betsy worship of shoe designers, Sinclair's love affair with his dogs, and the more serious meditation on people who learn better and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He was also impressed with the author's ongoing disregard of the rules of writing, The first half-dozen chapters are essentially a group of undead doing nothing except chatting.

THE RHESUS CHART
The Laundry is Briton's secret Torchwood / Men in Black agency dedicated to preserving the realm from occult dangers. The early books focused on Cthulhu, but Stross has been broadening his canvas as the series progressed and this book gives his take on vampires. When a ruthless, brilliant M & A banking executive becomes a vampire, he turns the rest of his team. The group treats their new situation as a research project, developing a plan to explore their powers and vulnerabilities with post-it notes, Power Point presentations, and all the procedures of a multi-national corporation. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it a whole lot.

HORRORSTOR
The novel is set in a haunted, thinly-disguised Ikea superstore built on the grounds of a prison which had been run by a crazed, sadistic warden. Supervisor Basil Washington selects two employees to remain with him after hours to discover who has been wrecking havoc on the store when it is closed. One of the employees is our point-of-view character, Amy Porter. Amy has had a string of unfortunate events happen to her over the past few years. Things will get a lot worse for her before they get better.

Jeni thought the premise was interesting but the execution cliched, rating it okay (2/5 on GoodReads). The rest of us thought better of it. Pam liked the concept and thought the writing was clean. She enjoyed the inserts and names and description of the furniture. Jacqueline found the book darker than she expected but liked the characters. Phil enjoyed the structure and pacing of the book, as well as the floor plan, employee evaluations, and other extras, as well as admiring the structure of rising stakes as the book moved along. Definitely recommended by 3 of the 4 of us.

FOREVER ODD
The story picks up six months after the first book. Our young (21) hero has been traumatized by the mass murder in the mall and the death of the girl he loved. He is in so much psychic anguish that he cannot even maintain his job as a short order cook. Things go from bad to worse when a charismatic madwoman learns that Thomas can see the dead and falsely believes that he has other preternatural abilities. Most of the book is set in an abandoned gambling casino which is home to man, beast and ghost.

Thomas is an engaging mixture of wisdom and naivete, strength and vulnerability who is full of odd insights into life. Some of his gems: "The joys of life can be found anywhere. Far places offer only exotic ways to suffer (Page 7); "The blood of violence ... creates infinite Rorschach patterns ... (to) which the observer reads the same Meaning: the fragility of existence, the truth of his mortality. (Page 11); "Having by now eaten in excess of five thousand bananas, she might understandably have lost her taste for them ... she had approximately 710,000 more bananas in her future. I find it much easier being a Catholic.

The work is full of quirky characters, vivid descriptions of nature, and sad, tragic ghosts. Highly recommended.

LONDON FALLING
The book is the first in a series of urban fantasy police procedurals set at the Gypsy Hill Police Station in London. Superintendent Rebecca Lofthouse organizes Detective Inspector James Quill, Detective Sergeant Kevin Sefton, Detective Constable Anthony Sostaini and Intelligence Analyst Lisa Ross into a special occult investigation team after a series of murders leads her to believe in the power of the supernatural.

The book definitely held my interest, but there were two things which bothered me. The first is that the characters were all a bit distant to me. This may be excused as an example of British reserve vs American openness. The other was my ignorance of the structure of law enforcement in the UK. The author had a glossary of terms as an appendix, but it would have been most helpful if the first page had held a simple organization chart so that you knew that a DS was under a DI but above a DC,

THE DETAINEE
We were all surprised how much we enjoyed the book. While there were definitely plot holes and logic lapses in the world building, the novel has a memorable narrator with a compelling voice. The author employed some unexpected plot twists and, unlike many series kick offs, this book came to a true conclusion.

Our here is Big Guy Clancy, a 63-year-old former mob enforcer who found himself unemployed and penniless after a colossal financial crisis wiped out the assets of most people. Economic undesirables are confined to rehabilitation reservation whose boundaries are secured by taser- and laser-equipped drones and satellites. The devices cannot penetrate the heavy fogs which periodically roll in from the sea. Then it is every man for himself in the Killing Fields.

The Big Guy recruits an improbable assortment of former drug addicts, ex-soldiers, computer wizards and others to overthrow evil head honcho De Grew and his fellow Waste Lords. Recommended.

NIGHT OWLS
Everyone found this book more enjoyable than the previous volume, BONE CROSSED. The earlier work focused primarily on vampires. This one was on werewolves and, to a lesser extent, the fae community. Pam felt the book's plot was cleaner, more orderly and better organized than some of the author's other novels. We learned more about the background and motivations of various werewolf pack members. Mercy and Samuel both made strides in surmounting their emotional traumas. There were several crisp set pieces, Everyone enjoyed Yo Yo Girl. Recommended.

MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD
Phil posited that instead of looking at the work through the lens of urban fantasy, it should be approached as a "cozy" mystery. A group of people go about their day-to-day business and solve a murder around tea time. Of course, in this particular case, a town in middle-of-nowhere Texas is the setting and the quaint villagers include a vampire, a witch, a psychic, and another dozen people, all of whom have their own secrets.

The book also operates as a bit of fan fiction. The author pulls in minor characters from the Sookie series, her Lily Bard mysteries, her Harry Connelly mysteries, and her Aurora Teagarden mysteries. Toss in a missing woman who later turns up dead, a white surpremacist cult, and a few other supernatural creatures. Allow to slowly simmer.

Anyone expecting something along the lines of TRUE BLOOD is going to be very disappointed, but viewed on its own terms, the cooking is good. We'll schedule the sequel in 2017.

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2016:

THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO........................................Horace Walpole....................11/07/16
PET SEMATARY...........................................................Stephen King.......................10/03/16
UNDEAD AND UNSURE (Betsy 12).............................MaryJanice Davidson..........09/01/16
THE RHESUS CHART (Laundry 5).............................Charles Stross......................08/04/16
HORRORSTOR..............................................................Grady Hendrix......................07/07/16
FOREVER ODD (Odd 2)................................................Dean Koontz........................06/02/16
LONDON FALLING (London 1)....................................Paul Cornell.........................05/05/16
THE DETAINEE (Detainee 1).......................................Peter Liney..........................04/07/16
NIGHT OWLS (Night 1)................................................Lauren M Roy......................03/03/16
SILVER BORNE (Mercy 5)............................................Patricia Briggs....................02/04/16
MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD (Crossroad 1)......................Charlaine Harris..................01/07/16

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2015 Philip J De Parto.


THE DEAD OF WINTER, Cora Oglesby 1
The novel is a weird Western featuring a monster-slaying female bounty hunter and her partner. The partner has a secret which none of us really bought, although how much it bothered us varied from reader to reader. Phil was able to enjoy the book for its unusual setting and its descriptions of the great outdoors. Others in the group were not as forgiving.

POD, Pod 1
This is a first novel and relates two tales of survival against an unusual alien invasion. One story is set in suburban Prosser, Washington and is related by Josh, who is trapped with his engineer father and dog, Dutch, in their house. The other is told by Megs, who is hiding with her cat, Cassie, in the parking garage connected to a Los Angeles hotel. Both narrators are teens.

The invasion begins when countless metallic spheres materialize in the atmosphere and vaporize every vehicle and every person who is outdoors when they arrive. Josh's tale is essentially a tale of man against nature as he and his father must husband their limited resources and maintain their sanity while trapped inside their home. Megs has a much larger area in which to operate, but hotel employees construct a Darwinian society which makes LORD OF THE FLIES look like a study in human compassion. The aliens hang around a month, perform some inexplicable activities, and then depart, having wiped out about 99% of the world's population. The book was okay, but the group showed no great eagerness to dive into the forthcoming sequel.

YOU SUCK, Love Story 2
The eclectic cast of characters from BLOODSUCKING FIENDS return, but most of them are not as interesting the second time around. Fortunately, Moore introduces some new ones like Chet the huge ("a crossbreed between a Persian, a dust mop, and possibly a water buffalo") cat and his pet human, William. The hit of the book was 16-year-old Goth, vampire wannabe, Abigail Normal, who steals the show every time she is on stage. The sometimes attendee of Allen Ginsberg High School ("Go, Fighting Beatniks!") keeps a journal with entries like:

.........THE CHRONICLES OF ABBY NORMAL
..........Tortured Victim of the Daylight Dwellers

So here I am again, to open my veins and spill my pain on your pages. My dark friend after sixteen years of totally boring existence, I come to you at last with a glimmer of hope to break through the gloomth that is my miserable life.... That's right, my Dark Lord has found me. A for-real vampyre. He is called the vampyre Flood, and he didn't say, but I think he is descended from European Royalty--a viscount or a discount or one of those. (Page 38)

Overall, the book is not as fresh as the first volume, but I will definitely read BITE ME, the final book in the series.

THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN, Bobby Dollar 1
Dollar is an angel, assigned to Advocate Duty on Earth. Like his fellow Advocates, Bobby knows he was a mortal before his death and incarnation as an angel, but has no memories of his previous life. When a human dies, an Advocate angel and a Prosecutor devil appear before a Judge to argue for custody of the deceased on behalf of heaven and hell. Advocates lead more-or-less normal lives in human bodies when not at a deposition.

The system has worked fine since Adam and Eve bit the apple. But now something is wrong. Souls are vanishing before the Advocate and Prosecutor arrive. The Prosecutor in Bobby's last case has been murdered and his soul taken. The evidence points to Bobby as the perp. Heaven and Hell are in an uproar and someone has sent a powerful demon after Bobby.

This is a decent fantasy noir which has some fun with the noir conventions. I enjoyed it enough tor read the second book, HAPPY HOUR IN HELL, which I enjoyed more. I'd give it a tepid recommendation.

FROM A BUICK 8
Although is was not as splashy as works like CARRIE or THE SHINING, the group enjoyed the book, particularly Phil. Unlike most of King's work, the book is not set in New England, but instead in Pennsylvania. The author does a convincing job in capturing the outlook and speech patterns of the characters. The book alternates between the past ("Then") and the present ("Now"), and different chapters have different narrators relating the story, depending on who was present for a particular incident.

The book is the tale of the Pennsylvania State Police and an artifact from another universe which has been disguised as a Buick 8. Distrustful of their experience with the Feds (NOT smarter than your average bear), they decide to keep an eye on it themselves, stashing it in an empty garage. Over the span of 25 years, a number of weird events happen in the garage: light shows, temperature drops, disappearances, appearances of life forms from somewhere else.

Unlike THE MIST, which is thematically similar to the work, BUICK is about intelligent people dealing with a dangerous unknown. Strengths of the book included the descriptions of the creatures from somewhere else and the theme that life is not like a book or movie, that you don't always get an explanation or learn the ending.

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY
The book won the Pulitzer Prize, but none of us thought it was as good as the author's THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION.

Teenaged cousins Samuel Klayman (aka Sammy Clay) and Joseph Kavalier meet for the first time on a hot Brooklyn night in 1939 and become players in the nw medium of comic books with their creation of the superhero, The Escapist. The years go by, their fortunes ebb and flow, and they go their separate ways after Clay is subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in April 1954.

Escape / escapism is one of the themes of the book. Joseph is an amateur magician escape artist in the tradition of Houdini. He escapes Nazi-occupied Prague by helping to smuggle the legendary Golem of Prague (the fig leaf of "Monster" to make it kosher reading for the group) and as mentioned earlier, he co-creates a superhero, The Escapist. One of the charges leveled against comic books is that they are escapist entertainment.

We thought the book was okay, but not much more than that.

BLACKOUT, Newsflesh 3
The series details the interplay of power, politics and the news media in a post-zombie apocalypse future. The Center for Disease Control became the nation's pride for its role in controlling the zombie attacks, but the agency became a destination for the power-hungry and has secretly been manipulating disease outbreaks to entrench their power. Celebrity news blogger Shaun Mason and his team are on the run after being branded as bio-terrorists when they began to unravel the conspiracy.

The story is told in chapters alternating between Shaun and his sister, Georgia. Georgia is back from the grave in a way. Actually, she is a clone of the original Geogia who has (handwavium follows) been imprinted with the memories and brain patterns of the original Georgia, making her a 99% faithful reproduction. The CDC has plans for the clone, but Georgia 2 has plans of her own.

While not as fresh and original as the opening volume, FEED, BLACKOUT is a satisfying conclusion to the series and I recommend the trilogy to fans of both science fiction (the social / technological adaptations made by society after its outbreak is the most interesting part of the series) and horror (Zombies! Run!).

VAMPIRE ACADEMY, Vampire Academy 1
The author has created a universe inhabited by three types of vampiric creatures. The first are the Strigoi, who are pretty much the traditional sort of Dracula vampires: evil, undead and extremely powerful. The second are the Moroi, who are long-lived (though not immortal), possess weaker versions of some Strigoi abilities like mind-control (compulsion) and have elemental powers of their own which the Strigoi lack. The third are the Dhampir, offspring of mortals and Moroi. Dhampir are swifter and stronger than either of their progenitors, but cannot perform magic and can only interbreed with Moroi.

Part Hogwarts, part high school angst, ACADEMY is focused on best friends Lissa Hathaway, Dhampir protector/bodyguard to Moroi princess Lissa Dragomir. Rose is our point-of-view character, who slowly unravels the secrets ad hidden agendas of the various people at the school.

I liked the book and particularly enjoyed the relationship between Rose and Lissa. I thought a number of minor characters like Natalie Dashov, Christian Ozera and Miss Karp were nicely done. Recommended.

BONE CROSSED, Mercy Thompson 4
Phil gave the background on the events of the previous books in the series before turning to the current title. There are two plotlines to the novel. One deals with the repercussions of Mercy's defiance of Marsalia, head of the local vampire seethe in the previous book. The other deals with vampire James Blackwood, the head vampire of another city who is so fearsome that the other vampires refer to his as "the Monster."

While not as strong as the first book in the series, the fourth installment has a number of virtues to recommend it. One is the elaborate plot orchestrated by Marsalia to rid herself of some unwanted vampire underlings without breaking any conditions set by vampires more powerful than herself. Another is the family of Corbin, Amber and Chad Wharton, unwilling pawns of "the Monster." People were divided on what they felt about the aftermath of Mercy's rape and subsequent execution of her assailant in the previous novel.

DEAD EVER AFTER, Sookie 13
Pam and Phil thought the book had the feel of the early Stackhouse novels, with a strong sense of place and filled with believable small-town characters. The three of us enjoyed the two new characters introduced in the work, waitress Andrea (An) Nur and vampire Karin Slaughter. Returning half-demons Mr Catlindes and Diantha were among the cast members singled out for praise.

A number of people in the fan community were unhappy that the vampire Eric was offstage throughout almost the entire novel, but I found it an understandable decision. The Viking vampire is a larger-than-life character, and his presence would likely have overshadowed scenes the author wanted to set aside to wrap up the stories of other characters,

While not the best Sookie novel the author has written, it is a satisfactory conclusion to the saga, except for those who wanted Sookie to wind up with one of her other suitors.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2014 Philip J De Parto.


WICKED, Wicked Years 1
WICKED (The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West) by Gregory Maguire was discussed at the Monsters of Horror Book Group at the café of Barnes & Noble in Hackensack, New Jersey on Thursday, November 6, 2014.

Jeni and Karen had previously read the book and felt that it did not hold up very well upon a second reading. Karen complained that "Gillikin," the portion of the book set at school in Shiz, reminded her of a mix of MEAN GIRLS and HEATHERS. Phil disagreed. He enjoyed the book and particularly liked that section.

HOW THE WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE GOT HER GROOVE BACK, Angel Crawford 4
The zombies in this series are the product of a virus and have been around since antiquity. As long as they can feed on brains, they can function just fine in society. It is only when they go without eating to long that they lose their intelligence and become mindless feeder.

The book is competently written and there are certainly some nice moments along the way, but the series works best when it focuses on Angel's day-to-day concerns. The focus here is on the evil corporation trying to weaponize the undead. There is a major plot-twist in the end which may lead Angel down some interesting paths in coming books.

BLOODSUCKING FIENDS, Love Story 1
Everyone liked the book. Highlights included the antics of "The Animals" (the night crew at the Safeco store), the chick-lit bits like the women's magazine multiple choice tests, and the Emperor of San Francisco (based on a historical charater). Jeni and Audrey talked about their experiences in San Francisco and the Midwest and what the author got right and wrong. Phil's favorite line was about Michael Jackson's lead in Jonestown: The Musical (the book is from the mid-nineties).

ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD, Anna 1
This is the first in a series featuring teenaged Cas (actually, Theseus Cassio) Lowood who carries on the family business of slaying restless ghosts after a spirit got the drop on his father while he was a child. Anna is no ordinary ghost, however, and doing a drive-by ghost bust is not going to work this time. Instead, Cas has to settle into the community and spend a lot of time learning exactly what is going on with Anna.

There were a number of nice bits to this story. The minor characters were generally well detailed. We particularly liked the non-stereotyped mother of Cas and also Carmel Jones, the school Queen Bee with a heart and a brain, and especially Anna. None of us cared for the Obeah / Voodoo subplot which entered late in the book, There was also some discussion of the age-appropriateness of the book as one library listed it as a juvenile.

SKELETON CREW
The collection consists of 22 works plus and Introduction and Notes. It opens with the novella, "Mist." Other stories which elicited comments were "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet," "Gramman'," "The Raft," "The Reach," "The Wedding Gig," and "Word Processor of the Gods."

GOOD OMENS
OMENS is a light-hearted look at the last eleven days before the Apocalypse, and those who wish to prevent it. Among those who are trying to avert the end are Aziraphale ("An angel, and part-time rare book dealer") and Crowley ("An Angel Who did not so much Fall as saunter Vaguely Downwards"), as well as a number of humans who are attempting to interpret "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter."

The group agreed with Phil's assessment that the book worked better in the beginning when the writers could simply write comic bits than later on when the authors had to advance the story from Point A to Point B. This is a problem common to most comedies. High points included a number of supporting characters including Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell, Sister May Loquacious of the Satanic Chattering Order of Saint Beryl), and Dog, the cute, little canine companion (and former hell-hound) to Adam, the Anti-Christ, plus lots of funny footnotes.

SIDE JOBS
There are eleven stories in the tome, with two of them, "Backup" and "Aftermath," told from the point-of-view of Harry Dresden's half-brother, Thomas, and best friend, Karrin, Murphy respectively. Notable stories included "A Restoration of Faith," which chronicles the first meeting between Harry and Karrin before the start of the series, "Day Off," a screwball comedy in which problems keep interfering with Harry's attempt to prepare for a date with Anastasia, "The Warrior," in which Harry learns that simple acts of kindness are as important as magic swords in the war between good and evil, and "Aftermath" in which Karrin and others work to carry on after Harry's death.

ODD THOMAS, Odd Thomas 1
Lilz B felt the supporting characters were very interesting. Jeni found the book hard to get into, though it picked up somewhat as it went along. Phil liked the characters better than the plot and felt that Koonz telegraphed the twist ending of the book. There were a lot of side tangents about other Koonz works.

MAGIC & LOSS, Golgotham 3
The Golgotham is the Manhattan neighborhood of the supernatural community in this fantasy. The heroine is human and her fiancée is Kymeran, (an elf -like race). Thee are people in both communities who are unhappy with the impending nuptials.

Phil and Jeni had read all three books. Phil thought it was the best in the series and Jeni, the worst. Phil particularly liked the glimpses of the world-building and the backstory on Tate's mother. Jeni found the characterization unconvincing.

MOONSHIFTED, Edie Spence 2
Despite no one else liking Phil's selection of MOONSHIFTED, the second book in Cassie Alexander's Edie Spence urban fantasy series, it was a very successful session. Suggestions were made for titles for the next six months. As for the book itself, the group felt it read much too much like a trashy romance novel and that neither the heroine nor any of the other characters was at all likeable. Any time Phil attempted to say something positive about the book, he was cowed into submission.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2013 Philip J De Parto.



WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, WTZ 3
The action kicks off with a death on the set of HIGH SCHOOL ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!, a horror movie using the small Louisiana town Tucker Point as its setting. However, the film is only a cover for an evil corporation's experiments with real zombies.

Taras (who admits that he is not particularly well-read in the sub-genre), considers the series the best execution of a scientific basis for zombies he has come across. Phil is a fan of the small-town working-class setting and the character of Angel. He is concerned that Angel's improving circumstances may dilute these virtues and make her ma more mainstream middle-class heroine.

THE BOOK OF CTHULHU 2
The volume contains 24 stories by Laird Barron, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Caitlin Kiernan, Fritz Leiber and other writers. While most of the stories were in the vein of traditional Lovecraftian horror, there were also pieces done as espionage, humor, noir, pulp adventure, secret history and war stories. I was drawn to these outliers and most enjoyed Neil Gaiman's "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar," A Scott Glancy's "Once More from the Top," Kim Neuman's "The Big Fish," and Jonathan Wood's "The Nyarlahotep Event."

POLTERGEIST, Greywalker 2
The books feature private detective Harper Blaine who, after an near-death experience, develops the ability to observe and interact with "the Grey," a parallel world of magic inhabited by creatures of myth.

The current book is essentially a straightforward detective procedural, a structure I was perfectly happy with, but not popular with many fans of the first book who wanted more ghosts and vampires running around. Harper is hired by a skeptical researcher attempting to duplicate a Canadian PKE experiment from the 70s. Weird things start happening, one of the test group winds up dead, and everyone has something to hide. Solid entertainment unless you're expecting something else.

THE FULLER MEMORANDUM, Laundry Files 3
This is the third book in the author's Laundry Files series featuring secret agent code name Bob Howard. The Laundry is the secret British agency created to protect the realm against supernatural peril. Most writers would use this premise to do a Men-in-Black vs vampires or ghosts. Stross, however, is a lot more somber. Howard's main foes are Lovecraftian cultists and bureaucratic in-fighting.

The memorandum in question outlines how to bind an entity called The-Eater-of-Souls to a human host and control it. But the cultists are not the only ones after the paper, Russian agents are also on the trail. There are spies, counter spies and deception on all sides.

The previous book in the series, THE JENNIFER MORGUE, was essentially a romp. FULLER is a much darker work. Bob and his wife, Mo, have chosen not to have children because the stars are aligning for the end of the world and a parent's greatest act of kindness might be to kill their children before they are devoured by the unearthly horrors heading our way. In their own minds the cultists are the good guys because should they prove useful in unlocking the arcane gates, they may be spared, thus ensuring the survival of a portion of humanity.

DEADLINE, Newsflesh 2
Taras felt the book seemed like sci-fi for the masses, with gaping lapses in logic and plausibility. Phil rated it as okay, but not up to the standards of FEED, the opening book in the series.

GREYWALKER, Greywalker 1
This is the opening volume of an urban fantasy series of the same name and features PI Harper Blaine, whose near-death experience allows her to perceive and interact with the supernatural creatures from the Greyworld who occasionally cross over into ours.

A wrathful ghost and vampire politics are the main plot threads in the book. There are a batch of interesting secondary characters, including Harper's pet ferret, who so charms a goth girld that Taras described her as having a "cutegasm."

NIGHTSHIFTED, Edie Spence 1
The novel features nures Edie Spence who works on floor Y4 of County Hospital, a floor set aside for vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures and their victims. It's dangerous, low-paying work, but it's a job, and you meet some interesting "people." After she keeps her head when a were-dragon busts out, the mysterious creatures that run the hospital decide that Edie would be a useful agent to investigate some weird happenings outside the facility. Nothing great here, but good enough to give the next book a chance.

THE HORROR STORIES OF REH, Pt 2
The group will devote two sessions to this collection due to the number of stories it holds. The first session will discuss stories beginning with "In the Forest of Villefere" and concluding with "Delenda Est." The second session will discuss the balance of book.

THE HORROR STORIES OF REH, Pt 1
The group will devote two sessions to this collection due to the number of stories it holds. The first session will discuss stories beginning with "In the Forest of Villefere" and concluding with "Delenda Est." The second session will discuss the balance of book.

THE RIDGE
None of us were familiar with the author and all of us were impressed by this tale of ghostly possession set near a wild big cat sanctuary. The writing was tight, characterization crisp, and goings on suitably spooky. We would all be inclined to try other works by the writer.

THE BOOK OF CTHULHU
Among the stories lauded were "Calamari Curls" by Kage Baker, "The Men from Porlock" by Lair Barron, "Shuggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear and "A Colder War" by Charles Stross. Other contributors included Ramsey Campbell, David Drake, Joe Lansdale, Brian Lumley, Bruce Sterling and Gene Wolfe. This was a strong offering.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2012Philip J De Parto.


THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES, Laundry Files 1
This is the first of the author's Laundry Files series and consists of the novella, "The Atrocity Archive" and the novelette, "The Concrete Jungle," an introduction by Ken MacLeod and an afterword by the author.

The stories are a mixture of Len Deighton and H P Lovecraft. Agent Bob Howard is an operative for the Laundry, a secret British agency which combats terrorists and other madmen trying to summon Cthulhuoid creepy-crawlies and other monstrosities to do their bidding. Inter and intra agency politics and intrigue prove every bit as dangerous to one's health as neo-Nazis and jihadists.

Although Jungle won the Hugo Award, I thought Atrocity was by far the better story, giving Stoss a larger canvas which he could fill with greater detail. The trip to the lifeless world whose moon bears the image of Adolph Hitler is particularly creepy. I look forward to reading other books in the series.

DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON, InCryptid 1
This is the first book in the author's InCryptid series featuring monster hunter Verity Alice Price. The Price family business is cryptozoology, the study of ghouls and other non-human creatures who walk among us and slaying them when necessary (but only after giving them a chance to mend their ways). However, the Prices are not the only monster hunters in the picture. Most people in the business are members of the Covenant, a secret organization is basically "the only good non-human is a dead non-human." This sets up a complicated relationship between monster-hunters and cryptoids, some of whom get along fine with humans, others who would prefer to prey upon them but refrain from doing so out of fear of the Prices, and creatures who are simply irredeemable.

Although we enjoyed the characters and the writing, Taras found the morality of the situation appalling. The Price family code is that everyone deserves a second chance, so when Verity tracks down a ghoul who has already slain over a dozen women, she lets him off with a warning to either leave town, stay in town but reform, or face death when next they meet. Phil was less judgmental, seeing the merits of both the Price and Wolansky points of view.

EMPIRE STATE, Empire State 1
The book is an odd mixture of Rocketeer-type superheroes, noir, steampunk and metaphysics. It has the flavor of DARK CITY, with a bit of Amber thrown in. The presence of a killer robot gives the opus a monster of sorts, a fig leaf to cover it as suitable for the group. I think it worked better as a concept than as a realized novel. Your mileage may differ.

EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL
The collection consists of 14 stories. It is impractical to comment on that many tales in this space. Common elements which recurred in a number of talks included divorce and smoking. "The Little Sisters of Eluria," a Black Tower yarn, "The Road Virus Heads North," and "Lunch at the Gotham Café" were among the stories which generated the most discussion.

CHASING THE MOON
Martinez has carved out a niche for himself writing humorous horror, science fiction and fantasy. His works include GIL'S ALL FRIGHT DINER, MONSTER and DIVINE MISFORTUNE, all of which we have explored at one or another of our book groups. Chasing begins when a down-on-her-luck young woman named Diana gets a terrific deal on an apartment. Of course there's a catch. Once she signs the lease, the door disappears and she is trapped in there. The only way out is through a closet. In the closet is a polite monster, Vom the Hungering. Vom will eat her if she opens the door. Diana eventually does figure a way out, befriends Vom, meets her eccentric neighbers who have nonsters or weirdness of their own, and ultimately saves the world.

I enjoyed the book for the pluck and intelligence of Diana and for lines like these: "That's just Keith," said Chuck. "He doesn't exist." "And don't feed me any of that karma or subconscious-desire bull. If life worked like that I'd have gotten a winged unicorn when I was six, and I'd be an astronaut who hunts vampires in her spare time."

THE OCCULTATION AND OTHER STORIES
George liked the work a good deal more than Phil, praising the author as a writer of literary horror. Both felt that the non-supernatural horror tale "Strappado" was among the strongest works. It is the story of a man who finds himself enmeshed in an exhibit of horrific performance art. We were also in agreement that his longer pieces tended to be stronger than his shorter works, and that the author is very good at handling scenes set in the wilderness.

SANDMAN SLIM
Club members Philip De Parto and George Galuschak attended the Monsters of Horror discussion of Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey on Wednesday, May 8, 2012 at a mystery location in New Jersey. The book is the first in an urban fantasy series about a man who has escaped from Hell and is out for revenge on the wizards who killed him.

George liked the book a lot, finding it reminiscent of the Parker novels by Donald Westlake. He liked the voice, the non stop pulp pacing, the dialogue and the imagery and felt the magic coin was "awesome." Phil was less impressed, feeling Mike Carey and Simon Green had worked in a similar vein to better effect.

LEFT HAND MAGIC
This is the second in the author's Golgotham series which is set in an alternate reality in which the supernatural community was deeded a section of southern Manhattan in return for their help against the British during the American Revolution.

Everyone has praised the world-building here but some reviewers have been critical of the book's characterization. While I see their point, I believe that the author may be deliberately keeping the lead's emotional states close to the vest for a more gradual reveal as the series continues.

We learn more about the world as throw-aways. JFK did not die in Dallas in 1963 because he heeded the warning of a soothsayer. Elvis had a grand 50th birthday bash attended by a number of rock stars who died young in our reality. The glossary of Golgotham slang continues to grow. There is a wonderful set piece of a series on incidents which result in a riot in Chapter Six. Recommended.

IRON KISSED, Mercy Thompson 3
The heroine is a Native American who can shape shift into coyote form at will. Native American supernaturals are rare creatures who were pretty much wiped out when European supernatural folk like werewolves and vampires came over with the settlers. Like many other urban fantasies, some elements of the supernatural community have made their existence known to dominant human population while others remain secret. The plot of this work concerns a series of murders in the fae reservation and the theft of magic artifacts.

While the novel is certainly readable, I don't think it or the second book, BLOOD BOUND, were up to the standard of the first story, MOON CALLED. I liked the continued depiction of werewolf society and was relieved that Mercy finally decides between the two alpha wolves who have been courting her. The author lost Pam with the aftermath of Mercy's mind-control rape. A mixed verdict.

UNHOLY GHOSTS, Downside Ghosts 1
This is the first in an urban fantasy series featuring exorcist Chasse Putnam.

There is some interesting world building in the book's set up. Twenty years before the start of the book, the spirits of the dead rose. Both traditional religion and secular governments were powerless to do anything against the restless spirits which killed a third of the populace. Into the breach stepped a new power: The Church of the Real Truth, an alliance of witches and sorcerers with the ability to control or banish the dead.

The Church now runs the world, but not everyone with magical ability is pleased with this state of affairs and the Church itself is not the harmonious monolith it presents to outsiders. And some ghosts are still loose in the world and have their own agendas.

The author puts a new spin on many of the urban fantasy conventions. For example, the tattoos on the heroine have a functional, and not merely decorative, purpose: they serve as channels for her arcane abilities. Chasse is a different sort of heroine, a drug addict haunted by the horrors she has witnessed. Recommended.

FEED, Newsflesh 1
FEED is a science fiction zombie novel. You don't have to believe in the origin of the zombie virus to appreciate the world-building that went into envisioning a post zombie apocalypse world. The lead characters are a team of young bloggers (George felt the work had a YA feel to it) covering a presidential campaign. Bloggers are the rock stars of this society because while respectable media were slow to recognized the existence and severity of the zombie problem, bloggers were instantly on line saying zombies are real and this is how to deal with them. The author surprised us both with some late-book plot twists. Definitely recommended.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2011Philip J De Parto.


HEXED, Iron Druid 2
The book is a contemporary fantasy about Atticus O'Sullivan, the last surviving Druid, who has used his magic to survive for nearly 2000 years. Along the way he has acquired a diverse array of friends, enemies and acquaintances including gods, immortals, vampires, werewolves witches and other esoteric beings, as well as those of a more mundane origin. Mr Hearne does a very nice job fleshing out his secondary characters. Highlights include Atticus' talk with the vampire Lief Heglerson about the importance of mastering the local idioms and the visits by the trickster god, Coyote. Recommended, though you'll get more out of it if you read HOUNDED first.

LADY LAZARUS, Lady Lazarus 1
The heroine is Magda Lazarus, a young Jewish witch working for a vampire in Budapest Hungry, whose younger sister has had a vision of the approaching Holocaust. Magda decides to reclaim their family's lost heirloom, THE BOOK OF RAZIEL, which can command an angel to do their bidding. But Magda is not the only one seeking the tome. Vampires, werewolves, witches, sorcerers and demons are soon aiding or opposing her quest.

I found the 1939 setting and the world building to be a refreshing change from the average fantasy novel. The author mixes real and fictional incidents and characters. I suspect the marketing people at Tor asked who the were going to be able to market the book and am glad that Tor went ahead and published it.

NEKROPOLIS, Matt Richter 1
The book is the frist in a series featuring zombie detective Matt Richter. Our hero plies his trade in the perilous streets of Nekropolis, a city in another dimension created by demons four centuries ago. The city was established because humans had become too clever and technologically advanced and were becoming hunters instead of the hunted by vampires, werewolves, demons and other supernaturals.

The work is reminiscent of Simon Green's Nightside books, with winks and homages to any number of movies and stories about dangerous creatures. Another charm is throwaways like "...a country vampire bar named Westerna's. I'll never forget the sight of vampires in cowboy hats, jeans, and boots line dancing--though I intend to spend the rest of my existence trying like hell (page 149)."

RIGHT HAND MAGIC, Golgotham 1
MAGIC is an urban fantasy which plays against many of the reader's expectations for the genre, which may be why it has been coolly received by readers. Phil, on the other hand, was happy to have a book which did not feature a leather-clad kick ass heroine who tumbles into bed with an incredibly hunky vampire and have pages of the most mind blowing sex in human history in chapter three.

The story is set in a parallel universe Manhattan. In this universe, the supernatural community has been outed by humanity and had to sue for peace. The magical ghetto (in the original sense of that word) is called the Golgotham. Tate, our heroine, takes a room at a house in the Golgotham because the room is really cheap ... and much bigger on the inside than on the outside. The romantic interest is the landlord, Hexe who stubbornly refuses to practice any form of left hand magic which is used for evil. Almost all magic practitioners perform left or right hand magic as the situation demands. But the few who adhere to only the left or the right hand side are especially effective with their curses or cures. Another bit of fun was visiting the blend of familiar and invented New York City streets and landmarks in this universe.

HAUNTED / Dark Delicacies 3
The volume contains 20 stories, as well as a forward by Steven Weber and an afterward by Del Howison.

One difficulty many theme anthologies encounter is repetition. The constraints of the topic may channel a number of writers to do minor variations of a particular theme. This collection did not demonstrate that problem. Indeed, I was surprised at the variety of settings the authors employed. Three of my top four stories are set in the present, but “Mist on the Bayou” (by Heather Graham) is set in rural Louisiana, “A Haunting” (by John Connolly) occurs in a nameless big city, and “The Architecture of Snow” (by David Morrell) alternates between Manhattan and rural Vermont. The forth, Ardath Mayhar’s “A Nasty Way to Go,” is set in rural Texas during the depression.

“Mist on the Bayou” features a ghost, a haunted house, a vampire and a psycho, but mixes them together in a way you would not expect. I particularly enjoyed the bayou atmosphere of this story. “A Haunting” is a bittersweet tale of an old widower and the woman he loved which would not have been out of place as a work by Bradbury or THE TWILIGHT ZONE. “A Nasty Way To Go” is a nicely underplayed southern gothic with the voice of a small town constable in Texas. “The Architecture of Snow” contrasts the genteel heritage of traditional publishing with the cutthroat corporate mindset of the present day industry.

I have enjoyed all three volumes in this series and will keep buying them as long at they keep printing them. Kudos to cover designer Annette Fiore DeFex.

TURN COAT, Dresden Files 11
The book is a mixed bag. In many ways it is one of the weakest novels in the series, with few memorable scenes. On the other hand, Butcher finally makes progress in advancing the overall story arc of the series, unveiling one of the members of the Black Council, killing a major character and ending two relationships with Harry Dresden. Lots of stuff happens, but it is not as involving as the other books.

BLOOD BOUND, Mercy Thompson 2
Mercy is a Native American shape shifter, one of the few native supernaturals who survived the invasion of European supernaturals (such as vampires) who came over with the human colonists. A debt of honor requires her to accompany a vampire to a meeting with another, much more sinister, vampire. The second vampire has been possessed by a demon and has the nastiness of both creatures. Werewolves and other supernaturals are soon drawn into the stew. While it's not quite up to the standards of the first book, BLOOD BOUND is still and enjoyable, rewarding read.

BLOODSUCKERS, Anthology
This is one of three paperbacks to reissue Penzler's mammoth THE VAMPIRE ARCHIVES reprint horror anthology. Stephen King, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons and Bram Stoker are among the 20 authors in this volume. The book also features and introduction by Penzler and a preface by Neil Gaiman. The most unorthodox selection was the John Keats poem, La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

DEAD IN THE FAMILY, Sookie Stackhouse 10
This is one of the author's stronger recent efforts and certain scenes, like Sookie's bullying-into-action-a-despondent-Eric-Northman near the end, were particularly well handled.

MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES, Living with the Dead 1
The book relates the story of Sarah and David (no last name given) whose troubled marriage takes a turn for the better when the dead rise and the pair save each other’s lives a number of times. The book strikes a nice balance on the issue of competence, with the couple managing to make their share of mistakes without coming off as morons. It is a pleasant enough page turner and the first in the author’s Living with the Dead series.

BLOOD PRESSURE, Vampire Testament 2
BLOOD PRESSURE is a contemporary vampire novel set in New York City 20 years after the events in BITE MARKS. The survivors of the first book, vampire and human, return and new characters are introduced.

The vampire community of New York knows only one rule: Cover your tracks and don’t let humans discover that vampires are real. Unfortunately, the disruptions by the rouge vampires of BITE MARKS were too big to cover up. While the average man-in-the-street is unaware of the existence of vampires, certain high level government and private security operatives not only are aware that vampires exist, but have developed an array of sophisticated anti-vampire devices. They are only waiting for the proper moment to use them. The anti-vampire forces make their move during the annual meeting of the leaders of the New York City vampire community, capturing nearly every Master Vampire in the city.

This sets in motion a complicated series of strikes and counter strikes. Old foes must join forces. Allies turn against each other. Bad guys reform. Good guys turn to the dark side. The book has a clear ending, but the stage is being set for the third book in the series which will be set 20 years in the future and pit the forces of two super vampires against each other. I am certain BLOOD PRESSURE will make my best reads of 2011 list.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2010 Philip J De Parto.


DEAD & GONE, Sookie 9
This is the ninth book in the author’s Sookie Stackhouse series and is more plot driven than most. Four important events occur: a couple of supporting characters are killed off, the shapechanger community follows the lead of vampires and make their existence public knowledge, Sookie finds herself betrothed to a vampire, and the world of faerie is sealed off from the mortal realm. Unfortunately, Harris is juggling so many balls that her characters are less engaging than in earlier books.

A GIRL'S GUIDE TO GUNS & MONSTERS
The book is an original anthology of 13 stories edited by Martin Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes. Many of the stories featured new adventures by ongoing characters utilized by the authors. These included two of the best yarns, "No Matter Where You Go" by Tanya Huff and "Elizabeth and Anna's Big Adventure" by Jeanne Stein, as well as the worst, "Jiang Shi" by Elizabeth Vaughan. Also worth mentioning is "Heart of Ash" by Jim Hines.

AUDREY'S DOOR
The novel is a contemporary horror novel set in a haunted building with an odd group of tenants in New York City. The obvious comparisons are ROSEMARY'S BABY by Ira Levin and Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. While not of the classic status of those two works, the book is a solid piece of writing with intelligent plotting and characters you care about.

BITE MARKS Vampire Testament 1
The novel is set in New York City at the end of 1986 and start of 1987. The code of conduct which has allowed vampires to co-exist with humans has been broken by a rouge vampire who is creating an army of vampire slaves to do his bidding. Unless he is stopped, they will create too much havoc for the more responsible vampires to cover up. But how do you reason with an infant vampire?

CTHULHU'S REIGN
The premise of the work is that the hostile, godlike aliens who ruled the world long before the birth of humankind have returned. Fade to black for the human race. That said, some of the writers have created interesting, imaginative tales of dread and doom.

The collection's first story, Ian Watson's "The Lurker in the Cemetery," is the best. An international collection of tourists are in an Italian cemetery when reality changes and legions of Cthulhus of varying sizes materialize on the Earth. Two things make this a powerful yarn. The first is that the group is clever and resourceful. Unfortunately, they are trapped in a cemetery with a man-sized Cthulhu. Clever and resourceful are not going to get you out of this. The other is how Watson uses the CERN collider, fractals and other bits of science to make his story work. Lovecraft was well grounded in the science of his time, and it's good to see others carry the torch. For example, Richard Lupoff relocates Yuggoth from Pluto to an anti-matter planet at 90 degrees to the solar plane. Will Murray's "What Brings the Void," Darrell Schweitzer's "Ghost Dancing," Brian Stableford's "The Holocaust of Ecstasy" and especially Matt Cardin's wonderfully blasphemous, "The New Pauline Corpus," are all worth mentioning.

WORLD WAR Z
Mel Brooks' son gives a clever account of the war against a worldwide zombie outbreak. The book presents its story as a series of short, first person accounts of the crisis by those who survived, from its outbreak in the hinterlands of China (shades of the Black Plague!) to the American counteroffensive. The speakers include government officials, soldiers, and just plain folks: Americans, Chinese, Russians, Israelis, South Africans, Iranians, and more. One touch I particularly enjoyed was the accidental nuclear war between Iran and Pakistan, a war no one wanted, but which evolved through a series of misunderstandings. War is like that. So is life. This book is strongly recommended.

MONSTER
Monster is both the title of the book and the name of the point of view character, a sloppy working class guy who works in pest control of the supernatural variety. Monster is no villain, but he is not a particularly nice guy, either. His girlfriend is a succubus and his sidekick is an origami inhabited by a visiting consciousness from a higher dimension. He becomes involved in the affairs of a young lady, Judy, who unknowingly carries the fate of the universe in her hands.

The most interesting thing about this fantasy is the explanation of magic. Magic is all around us, but most people are unable to perceive it because the part of the brain active in early childhood which allows us to see enchantment decays as we age. Without this perception mechanism, the subconscious rationalizes any mystical experiences or simply blinds us to the supernatural. Psychics and similar people have a vestigial remnant of this part of the brain, and a few people like Monster and other pest controllers, possess it in its entirety. Not profound, but worth reading.

DEAD & LOVING IT
The collection consists of four paranormal romance tales about werewolves, vampires, and other creatures. The stories are "Santa Claws," "Monster Love," "There's No Such Thing as a Werewolf," and "A Fiend in Need."

The weakest story in the set is the first, "Santa Claws," whose characters are not particularly memorable an whose supernatural element seems almost an afterthought. The contrast between Claws and the next story, "Monster Love," is jolting. "Love" has a sharply drawn vampire and werewolf as its leads. The final two yarns are also good, and "Fiend" introduces a werewolf into the author's Betsy, the Vampire Queen universe. As a fan of the series, I enjoyed seeing the Betsy cast from a different point of view. All in all, not a bad collection once you get past the first story.

NEVERMORE / Supernatural
There are two plot threads in the novel. The first concerns the haunting of members of a very bad heavy metal band by a former groupie. The second is a series of murders by someone reenacting deaths from Edgar Allen Poe stories.

Reviewers slammed this book on Amazon.com, but we enjoyed it. I especially liked the scenes set in the Park in Rear bar where metal fan Dean Winchester not only has to endure listening to an untalented band, but also has to keep a straight face to its adoring groupies.

VICIOUS CIRCLE, Felix Castor 2
This is the second book in the gritty fantasy noir series featuring exorcist Felix Castor. Carey is able to pull off a nice variant on the tough P.I. because of the setting, but a simpler plot would have been more effective.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2009 Philip J De Parto.


THE WOLFMAN
Each of the foursome had read the work, and the discussion turned into a lovefest between those who had liked the book (Liz and Phil), and those who had REALLY liked the book (Pam and Barry). Barry really liked the narrator's voice. Pam lauded the roughness and lack of polish of the work. We all agreed that the plot was mediocre, but that the characters and sense of place were quite well done.

UNDEAD & UNPOPULAR, Betsy 5
The book is the fifth in the author's Betsy, the Vampire Queen paranormal romance series and a fun, breezy look at the lighter side of being a vampire.

SMALL FAVOR, Dresden Files 10
Only Phil had read the book, but Greg and Barry were game about learning about the book, the Dresden Files series and Butcher's other works. Contrary to expectations, this was actually one of the more focused discussions we have had in a while.

BONE KEY / Supernatural
The book is set in the Florida Keys where a vengeful Native American God plans to wipe out virtually all of humanity, forcing an uneasy alliance between the monster hunting brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, and a demon with her own plans for the human race. The discussion covered the book, the television series, and other works of horror.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES
I confess to mixed feelings about the book. The central conceit of mixing brain eating zombies with Austin's delicate, class conscious young ladies is an absurdist's dream come true. There were scenes in the early going where I could read only a few pages at a time before being overcome by silliness of it all. I found the middle dragged, but the final third won me back. It took some time, but I'm glad I finally finished the book and mentally still chuckle at some scenes.

DEATH'S DAUGHTER, Calliope 1
DAUGHTER is an okay, but nothing special, first solo book written by the former BUFFY actress. Taras gave up on the book during its first chick-lit chapter. Phil felt things picked up after that. He liked how heroine Calliope Reaper-Jones is hot and gushy over the hunky Daniel until she realizes that he is glamouring her, at which point she stops acting like a romance novel heroine and starts thinking. The description of how Hell is organized was another strong point.

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, Felix Castor 1
This is the first in a fantasy noir series featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor. The author has lots of fun inserting the standard noir tropes--down on his luck PI, dame who spells trouble, etc--into a London where the dead and undead are ubiquitous. I kept expecting to see Simon Pegg make a cameo.

This is Carey's first novel, but he has previously written comics and graphic novels.

BETTER OFF UNDEAD
The collection consists of 18 stories about ghosts, mummies, vampires, zombies and similar creatures. My favorite stories were "Night Shifted" by Kate Paulk, "Genius Loci" by Chelsa Quinn Yarbro and "Museum Hauntings" by Irene Radford. Other contributors include Alan Dean Foster, Esther Friesner, Jay Lake and S M Stirling.

SUNSHINE
Phil and Pam had read the book and were in agreement that the first third of the book was stronger than the rest of novel, although there were individual scenes throughout the book which were quite moving. Phil cited Sunshine's trouble in adapting to night vision as a praiseworthy detail of the work.

DARK DELICACIES 2: FEAR
This mass market reprint of an original anthology consists of 18 stories plus an introduction by Del Howison, a foreward by Ray Harryhausen, and an afterword by Jeff Gelb. Only Phil had red the book. He stated favorites as "Sunrise on Running Water" by Barbara Hambly about a vampire on the Titanic, "Stacy and her Idiot" by Peter Atkins for its tough girl voice, and "Where There's a Will ..." by Robert Masello for the cleverness of the situation. Other contributors include John Farris, L A Banks, Max Brooks and Joe Lansdale.

THE MANY FACES OF VAN HELSING
The book is a mass market reprint of an original 21 story anthology edited by past S F A B C Speaker Jeanne Cavelos. Among the notable tales were "Anna Lee" by Kathe Koja--told from the point of view of Lucy Westenra's maid--for its language and voice, "Venus and Mars" by Christopher Golden about vampire children who prey on child molesters for its premise, and "Origin of the Species" by A M Dellamonica for its ideas about supernatural selection.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2008 Philip J De Parto.


PEEPS
The book is a short novel and published in trade paperback format. It invents a parasitic virus as a scientific rationale for the legends of vampirism, some of which legends have a basis in fact (in the world of the book) and others of which are pure malarkey.

The book is divided into alternating chapters. Odd numbered chapters tell the story of semi-vampire Cal Thompson. Cal has a partial immunity to the peeps virus. He is not as powerful as a true peep (short for parasite positive) vampire, but is quicker, stronger, etc than an ordinary human. He is a carrier of the disease and works for the Night Watch of the City of New York, an organization of humans, carriers, and peeps who quietly keep the peep population under control.

Even numbered chapters tell the stories of real world parasites. The early chapters focus on the myriad ways parasites make life miserable for their hosts. Later chapters focus on less destructive sides of the parasitic community and how they, much like the peeps of the book, have a useful function in the world’s ecology.

There are some nice ideas in the book, but most vivid images are those about how real parasites operate in nature.

MOON CALLED, Mercy Thompson 1
The book is the first in a series of urban fantasy novels featuring Native American coyote shape changer Mercades Thompson who lives next door to the pack leader of the werewolf community in North America. The book focuses mostly on pack politics, although there are vampires, witches, and other supernatural folk, too. There are a number of nice touches. One which I enjoyed was that just as the human immigrants pretty much wiped out the native humans, the supernatural community (vampires, werewolves and dwarves are all Old World folk) did the same to the supernatural creatures who inhabited the New World before them.

THE TERROR
Simmons based his book on an unsuccessful British expedition to discover the Northwest Passage in the 19th Century and uses the historical ships' crews as characters who discover that there is something unnatural stalking their ice bound vessels. While there were some atmospheric and suspenseful scenes, Pam and Phil both felt that the last 1/4 of the book felt like Simmons had awkwardly welded the ending of an entirely different novel to his work.

HUNTER'S MOON / Wolf Man
authorized sequel to the original Universal Studios film. The group felt that the book was faithful to the film and well written, but disliked the twist ending.

PROVEN GUILTY, Dresden Files 8
Phil, who was the only one to have read the book all the way through, thought that this was one of the series stronger efforts and read passages from the series previous book, DEAD BEAT, which set up some of the situations in this month's book. Several of the group enjoyed Dresden's first trip to a horror (Splattercon!!!) convention, although only the group's con goers could appreciate some of the subtler in jokes. Phil also lauded the exchanges about God and children between Harry and Michael near the end of the book. The intrigue with the fairies and the dark conspiracy were also high points of the work.

TRIAGE, Anthology
The premise of the anthology was "A stranger walks into a place of business . . . and starts shooting." Richard Laymon led off with "Triage," the most straightforward implementation of the idea. The story is set in a nearly empty office building and is by turns a game of cat and mouse, a tale of torture, and a revenge fantasy. Jack Ketchum closed with "Sheep Meadow Story" which features Stroup, an unlikely and unlikable accidental hero who works at a thinly disguised version of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. The awful submissions that cross the agent's desk are hysterically bad. The best line occurs when Stroup is on his way to shoot his ex and her lover and realizes that a psycho gunman is about to do the job for him.

I enjoyed both tales, but the uncontested champion was Ed Lee's science fiction horror novella, "In the Year of our Lord: 2022." Set on board a space ship on a secret mission to investigate a mysterious artifact, it is a claustrophobic, paranoid piece of world building about a religious dictatorship in which no one is who they seem. This may be the best story I've read this year. Very highly recommended.

NYMPHOS OF ROCKY FLATS, Felix 1
This is the first in a series of books featuring Felix Gomez, a GI who was turned into a vampire as punishment for accidentally killing an innocent civilian family while stationed in Iraq. Now a stateside detective, he is hired to investigate why a group of women working on a top secret project have had their libidos shifted into overdrive.

While there are some nice touches, like the vampire ceremonies for slain vamps, the writing and characterization lacks depth. It should satisfy someone looking for some light beach reading, but don't expect much more.

THE MISSING
The book is loosely tied to the author's previous book THE KEEPER, but where the first book was supernatural horror, THE MISSING is about the outbreak of a virulent, devastating disease which wipes out nearly all animal life. Moira really enjoyed this grim, uncompromising novel. Phil thinks it's yet one more reason why one should never travel to Maine.

DARK DELICASIES, Anthology
DARK DELICACIES, an original anthology of twenty tales of terror by the likes of Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, Brian Lumley, Whitney Strieber and F Paul Wilson, was discussed at the Monsters of Horror Group.

On nice thing about a short story collection is that if you don't have time to read the whole book, you can still participate in the discussion if you read a story or two.

THE HOLLOWER
No one read the book for the Monsters of Horror Bok Group, but we didn't let that stop us from having a good time. Instead, [we talked] about horror books and movies (mostly movies). Among the filmmakers discussed were Val Lewton and the directors of the Splat Pack: Rob Zombie, James Wan, Lee Waddel, Neil Marshall, etc. There was also talk of CLOVERFIELD, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, SLEEPY HOLLOW, HALLOWEEN, HOSTEL, and BEOWULF.

GIL'S ALL FRIGHT DINER
The subtitle of the book could be "How Two Red Neck Undead Found True Love, Saved the World, and Had a Decent Cup of Java." Duke and Earl are a couple of Good Ole Boys who just happen to be a vampire and a werewolf. They are not about to let their town fall victim to zombie cows, evil Elder Gods, or falling property values

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2007 Philip J De Parto.


DEAD & DATELESS
D&D is the second book in a series begun in DEAD END DATING. The heroine is Lil Marchette, a vampire who runs a dating service which includes some discriminating clients. She is faced with two problems in this book: securing 27 tall, dark and handsome men to mate with a group of female werewolves on short notice, and clearing herself from a murder charge.

The author has some nice ideas--werewolves only ovulate during a lunar eclipse and only macho men excite them; most vampires are "made" (turned by biting) but some are "born" (they cross over upon their first sexual encounter) and look down on those who are made. However, the conventions of the paranormal romance have Ms Raye leave these ideas in the background while she concentrates on resolving the coupling of the aristocratic born vampire with the hunky blue collar made vampire. It's an okay read, but nothing special.

UNSHAPELY THINGS
The book is a present day urban fantasy noir set in Boston. Seventy years ago a rift in the multiverse shifted a large number of faerie tale creatures in our reality, and both sides have been struggling to adjust ever since. The hero is Connor Grey, a druid whose magical abilities were crippled following a battle with a terrorist elf. He now works as a consultant for the Boston Police Department.

The series owes a lot to the popularity of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files, among others. One thing which helps make this book distinctive is that although the hero has a great deal of magical knowledge, his actual power is very weak. During the course of the book, he slowly realizes that he was a real jerk when he was a powerful mage and has not gotten much better since his accident. He decides he must do better. This is a good read and I plan to give the pending sequel a try.

BUSTIN'
BUSTIN' is a paranormal romance by the author of THE RELUCTANT MISS VAN HELSING which we read and enjoyed earlier in the year. Although not up to the level of that book, BUSTIN' is a pleasant enough representative of its sort. In this case, the romance is between the heads of two rival ghost-, zombie-, whatever-bustin' agencies.

The author has a lot of fun with puns and other lighthearted wordplay, but the book actually works best when it operates as a straight dark fantasy work. The scenes of two mixed teams of busters', vampires, and werewolves hunting a nigh-unkillable Gorgon in abandoned subway tunnels were the highlights of the novel.

POWERS OF DETECTION
Phil, Wanda and Pam read the book and considered it a better than average collection. Fully half of the stories got three thumbs up and only one received zero thumbs. Two of the stories, “The Nightside, Needless to Say” and “Fairy Dust,” were by favorites of group. The Simon Green story focuses on a minor character, Larry Oblivion, who hasn’t let being dead deter him from running his detective agency. “Fairy Dust” by Charlaine Harris is a Sookie Stackhouse tale. The mind reading bar maid is hired by her fairie godmother, Claudine, to discover the killer of Claudine’s sister. Although it’s a Sookie yarn, most of the action deals with the fairies. We all liked both stories.

The other three thumbers were “The Death of Clickclickwhistle” by Mike Doogan, “The Sorcerer’s Assassin” by Sharon Shinn, “Cold Spell” by Donna Andrews, and “The Price” by Anne Bishop.

“Clickclickwhistle” is the volume’s lone science fiction tale and reads like an old ASTOUNDING yarn by someone like Eric Frank Russell with its clever humans, weird aliens, and corny humor. Think “Alamalagoosa” crossed with “ST: Journey to Babel.”

“The Sorcerer’s Assassin” features a crotchety old headmistress of a school for magic taught by a number of disliked mages. It’s only a wonder that someone didn’t start trying to kill them sooner.

A sneezing wizard and his assistant are called upon to solve a locked room murder in “Cold Spell.” Like “Whistle” and “Assassin,” the murder investigation is leavened with humor.

“The Price” presented us with a bit of a dilemma. It had its faults as a mystery, but the background of the society the author created was so gripping that we all want to go out and buy her novels to find out more about this world. Thus, three thumbs up. As I said, it was a good book.

WATCHERS IN THE NIGHT
The book posits an posits a society of two types of undead. The Killers are the traditional vampires, cold, powerful, merciless and viewing humans as prey. They are opposed by the Guardians, humans drained by Killers but who have not surrendered to the Hunger by acquiring an addiction to human blood. They are not individually as powerful as the Killers, but can work as a team to dispatch the Killers, who are sociopathic individuals.

I found the supporting character, Drake, to be the book's most interesting cast member. Drake is a Killer, but he is warily tolerated by the Guardians because he has aided them in the past, and because of his choice of victims. Late in the book (page 289) he explains:

"It's like this, Gray--you can only control what you can control. I can't control my need to kill. I can control WHO I kill, and to a certain extent how often. Montgomery couldn't control his need to kill either. But he could have controlled his choice of victim, and he could have controlled the way he went about it. He didn't have to rape them. He didn't have to drive stakes through Guardian hearts. He didn't have to try to destroy the Guardians from within. And he certainly didn't have to try to create more Killers.

"If I could live on lamb's blood and milk, then I would. But I can't, and I refuse to wallow in guilt over something I can't control. Perhaps that's a lesson you should look toward learning."

HAGS, SIRENS & OTHER BAD GIRLS OF FANTASY
There were not many name authors in the 20 story collection although two of them -- C S Friedman and Rosemary Edghill -- are past guests of the club. The Bad Grils include Lilith, Medea, Pandora, Isis, Hera, sirens, harpies, a valkerie, and a wicked stepmother, and most of them -- "Black Annie" by Jean Rabe being the obvious exception -- are not so much wicked as misunderstood or suffering bad press.

I read aloud the two stories I most enjoyed. The first was Christine York's "Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth," the true story of what happened in that Fairie Tale by Cinderella's evil step mother. The other was "Mother of Monsters" by Greg Beatty about Hades' punishment of Echidna, the mother of Cerberus, Chimera, the Hydra and other creatures of Greek myth. I also read a passage of Peter Orullian's "Lilith." The stories were well received.

I'M THE VAMPIRE, THAT'S WHY
The book is a mixed bag--it has some really cool ideas, but the story never really grabs you. The heroine is single mom Jessica Matthews, one of ten women who were slain by a vampire in a single night in the dying town of Broken Heart, Oklahoma. Only 10% of a vampire's victims normally rise, but 9 out of 10 of these ladies successfully survive the Turning. This is because the vampire in question is an escaped patient of the Consortium, a group of good vampires and humans who have been trying to cure the Taint, a blood disease which is ravaging the vampire community.

There are lots of interesting ideas here: tying vampires into Celtic myth, the slow death of the lycanthrope community because so few pups survive childbirth, and putting humans on special diets before feeding time so that a vampire can still indulge her taste for chocolate, for example. There are also some nicely constructed scenes like Jessica and a friend talking about cheating exes on the back porch, or her daughter's afterward, or "Jessica's Glossary: Stuff No One Told Me So I Figured It Out On My Own, Damn You All."

There are enough good things heer to give it a mildly favorable review, but I just wish the writing was more involving.

THE WAVE
The book is mystery writer Walter Mosely's third science fiction effort in recent years, joining genre works BLUE LIGHT and FUTURELAND. Phil and Moira had read the book and had widely different opinions on its merits.

Phil admired the writing and characterization, but disliked the plot, stating that "where the book was good, it was not science fiction, and where it was science fiction, it was not good." Moira strongly disagreed. She felt that the genre tropes were handled well, and particularly enjoyed it as a very strong embodiment of a philosophical/theological concept of dealing with resurrection.

JUST ONE SIP, Anthology
The collection consisted of "Viva Las Vampires" by Jennifer Ashley, "Bring Out Your Dead" by Katie Mc Alister, and "Lucy and the Crypt Casanova" by Minda Webber.

The best of the trio is the Minda Webber yarn. This is a stand alone tale by the author of THE RELUCTANT MISS VAN HELSING, a book the group enjoyed last year. The setting is New Orleans; the heroine is Lucy Campbell, host of the TWILIGHT ZONE, a Jerry Springeresque cable show focusing on the antics of vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural types. But Lucy knows that she is destined for greater things, after all, she was a weather girl at a Texas television news show before coming to the Big Easy. Hijinks ensue when she begins to investigate a series of murders, a case her hunky ex-boyfriend, a vampire and a detective, is already pursuing.

UNDEAD & UNRETURNABLE, Betsy 4
Although this is not the author's best book, the series continues to be entertaining and leaving us wanting more.

HORRORWEEN
This is the third book of a series set in the town of Orangefield, New York featuring the demonic menace, Samhain, but is pretty much a stand alone. Several sections had appeared as short stories and did not really mesh as an integrated novel.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2006 Philip J De Parto.



MANITOU BLOOD, Manitou 4
This is the latest effort in an intermittent series which began in 1976 with THE MANITOU (made into a bad movie with Tony Curtis and others).

This is a contemporary horror novel about an evil unleashed by the events of 9/11. A madman releases an evil spirit which results in a peculiar vampiric possession rapidly transforming Manhattan into an island of the damned. We liked it.

A DARKER CRIMSON, Crimson City 4
I was surprised to discover that the book is part of a shared world paranormal romance series begun in Liz Maverik's CRIMSON CITY and continuing in A TASTE OF CRIMSON by Marjorie Liu, THROUGH A CRIMSON VEIL by Patti O'Shea, SEDUCED BY CRIMSON by Jade Lee. Ms Jewel had previously written two non-Crimson romances, THE SPARE and LORD RUIN.

The Crimson City in question is Los Angeles, which gained its new name from the rivers of blood that flowed when a portal to another reality -- one ruled by demons -- opened. The outgunned authorities learned to their astonishment that a number of mythical creatures -- vampires, werewolves, paranormals -- were secretly living among us and had no use for the demons, either. An alliance of necessity pushed back the invaders and sealed the portal. A series of protocols was established to permit the defenders of the world to coexist. The treaty is now frayed, and an all-out war between fang, dog, and human seems inevitable. And across a veil of magic, the invaders plot their return.

Reviews of the book were mixed. In general it was felt that while individual scenes and chapters were well constructed, the transitions between scenes often left the reader lost.

OFF SEASON, Dead River 1
Barry had suggested this tale of a small group of vacationers under seige by cannibals at a remote cabin in Maine. Considering that the previous month's book had been a collection of Lovecraft stories set in New England, and that several of us were reading Sarah Langan's Maine horror novel, THE KEEPER, the northeast corner of the nation is not looking like prime vacation territory in our circle.

This Leisure Books paperback is the second mass market printing of the novel, and it contains several items of interest not in the original release. First of all, it restores the author's original manuscript which means that it is considerably more graphic than the original version. It also kills off a major character that Ketchum was ordered to spare in the earlier printing. The book also offers two bonus features, an author's account of the publishing history of the book, and a bonus story, "Winter Child," which he pruned from his novel, SHE WAKES, in order to improve the pace of that novel.

Barry and Phil did most of the talking as they had actually read the book. Barry is a fan of the author and felt that although the menace was not supernatural, the basic situation placed it squarely in the tradition of such works as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Phil enjoyed the book as an adventure story, though gorier than his personal taste, and particularly enjoyed that the heroes thought things through rather than deciding to go out alone for midnight strolls.

WAKING UP SCREAMING
The book is a good value even if one has read the tales elsewhere. It includes the entire contents of the Del Rey paperbacks, THE LURKING FEAR AND OTHER STORIES and THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, as well as a few additional stories.

The collection contained examples of the three basic types of stories Lovecraft wrote. "The White Ship" represents the author's surreal, lyrical Lord Dunsany-influenced fantasies. "From Beyond" is one of the author's most imaginative stand alone horrors. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is one of the cycle of tales forming THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, the author's most important and enduring creation.

There are some worthwhile stories in the book, but it by no means shows Lovecraft at his best. We had a good time, and even minor Lovecraft presents more ideas than the major work of most horror writers.

MINION, Huntress 1
The book is the first in a series of a young, black, urban, female vampire, a hip hop Buffy if you will.

Despite a promising premise, there were serious problems with the book. The plot required an awful lot of suspension of disbelief with vampires, demons, astrology, psychic powers, and all kinds of fantasy tropes to make the plot work. Most of the characterization was sketchy, and the writing generally had the feel of a screenplay--surface with little depth. The book didn't really end, but simply ran out of pages. Any kind of payoff will occur in later volumes. This one was simply set up (we didn't like this in Kim Harrison's DEAD WITCH WALKING and we didn't like it here).

The discussion was attended by Association members Philip De Parto, Pamela Webber, and Barry Weinberger, as well as newcomer Anthony DiPrima. Anthony's questions about what makes a good work of horror triggered a really interesting discussion which brought in authors like Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, H P Lovecraft and others, as well as movie adaptations of some of their works.

THE RELUCTANT MISS VAN HELSING
This is the second in a paranormal romance series by the author, the first being THE REMARKABLE MISS FRANKENSTEIN.

The conceit of the book is that Van Helsings have been slaying vampires for generations, but Jane Van Helsing would much rather be bird watching and husband hunting than sneaking through graveyards and crawling through underground chambers. But it IS the family business, even if she is no good at the game.

The novel starts slow, but picks up about 1/4 of the way into the book. Although the author hits you repeatedly over the head with some traits--like the heroine's weakness for chocolate--you slowly warm up to the characters. There a lots of puns, groaners and wordplay. This will not be for everyone but falls into the average to better than average range.

SHARPER THAN A SERPENT'S TOOTH, John Taylor 6
Comparisons were made of Green's Nightside to works by Neil Gaiman, Roger Zelazny, and various comic books.

DEAD ON MY FEET, Halflife 2
This is the second book in a series which began with ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, and considerable time was spent discussing whether or not the book worked on its own. Feedback ranged from okay to very favorable.

UNDEAD & UNAPPRECIATED, Betsy 3
In between digressions, the gang examined UNDEAD AND UNAPPRECIATED by MaryJanice Davidson.

BITE, Anthology
"Biting in Plain Sight" by MaryJanice Davidson and "One Word Answer" by Charlaine Harris stories were judged the cream of the crop. Vickie Taylor's "Blood Lust" rated an okay. The stories by Laurell Hamilton and Angela Knight received a "thumbs down."

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2015:


THE DEAD OF WINTER...................................Lee Collins.....................11/05/15
POD.............................................................Stephen Wallenfels.........10/01/15
YOU SUCK....................................................Christopher Moore...........09/03/15
THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN....................Tad Williams...................08/06/15
FROM A BUICK 8............................................Stephen King..................07/02/15
AM ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY..........Michael Chabon..............06/04/15
BLACKOUT....................................................Mira Grant......................05/07/15
VAMPIRE ACADEMY.......................................Richelle Mead.................04/02/15
BONE CROSSED.............................................Patricia Briggs.................02/15/15
DEAD EVER AFTER........................................Charlaine Harris...............01/01/15

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2014:


WICKED..................................................Gregory MaGuire............11/06/14
HOW THE W.T.Z. GOT HER GROOVE..........Diana Rowland...............10/02/14
BLOODSUCKING FIENDS...........................Christopher Moore........09/04/14
ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD........................Kendare Blake...............08/07/14
SKELETON CREW.....................................Stephen King.................07/03/14
GOOD OMENS..........................................Pratchett & Gaiman.......06/05/14
SIDE JOBS.................................................Jim Butcher..................05/01/14
ODD THOMAS...........................................Dean Koontz.................04/13/14
MAGIC & LOSS..........................................Nancy Collins................03/06/14
MOONSHIFTED........................................Cassie Alexander............02/06/14

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2013:


WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE........Diana Rowland...............11/13/13
THE BOOK OF CTHULHU 2........................Ross Lockhardt...............10/10/13
POLTERGEIST..........................................Kat Richardson...............09/11/13
THE FULLER MEMORANDUM....................Charles Stross................08/14/13
DEADLINE...............................................Mira Grant.....................07/10/13
GREYWALKER..........................................Kat Richardson...............06/12/13
NIGHTSHIFTED........................................Cassie Alexander............05/08/13
THE HORROR STORIES OF REH, Pt 2...........Robert E Howard.............04/10/13
THE HORROR STORIES OF REH, Pt 1...........Robert E Howard.............03/13/13
THE RIDGE..............................................Michael Kortya................02/13/13
THE BOOK OF CTHULHU...........................Ross Lockhardt................01/09/13

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2012:



THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES.............Charles Stross.................11/14/12
DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON............Seanan McGuire..............10/10/12
EMPIRE STATE.............................Adam Christopher...........09/12/12
EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL...........Stephen King...................08/08/12
CHASING THE MOON....................A Lee Martinez................07/11/12
THE OCCULTATION.......................Laird Barron...................06/13/12
SANDMAN SLIM...........................Richard Kadrey................05/09/12
LEFT HAND MAGIC.......................Nancy Collins..................04/11/12
IRON KISSED................................Patricia Briggs.................03/14/12
UNHOLY GHOSTS.........................Stacia Kanes....................02/08/12
FEED...........................................Mira Grant.......................01/11/12

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2011:


HEXED............................................Kevin Hearne......................11/03/11
LADY LAZARUS...............................Michele Lang.......................10/06/11
NEKROPOLIS...................................Tim Waggoneer...................09/01/11
RIGHT HAND MAGIC........................Nancy Collins......................08/04/11
HAUNTED / Dark Delicacies 3............Howison & Gelb...................07/07/11
TURN COAT.....................................Jim Butcher.........................06/02/11
BLOOD BOUND................................Patricia Briggs.....................05/05/11
BLOODSUCKERS, Anthology..............Otto Penzler........................04/11/11
DEAD IN THE FAMILY.......................Charlaine Harris..................03/03/11
MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES..................Jessie Peterson...................02/03/11
BLOOD PRESSURE.............................Terence Taylor....................01/06/11

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2010:


DEAD & GONE, Sookie 9....................Charlaine Harris......................11/04/10
A GIRL'S GUIDE TO ... MONSTERS.....Hughes & Greenberg...............09/02/10
AUDREY'S DOOR..............................Sarah Langan.........................08/05/10
BITE MARKS Vampire Testament 1.....Terence Taylor........................07/06/10
CTHULHU'S REIGN...........................Darrell Schweitzer..................06/03/10
WORLD WAR Z.................................Max Brooks............................05/06/10
MONSTER........................................A Lee Martinez.......................04/01/10
DEAD & LOVING IT...........................MaryJanice Davidson...............03/04/10
NEVERMORE / Supernatural..............Keith DeCandido.....................02/04/10
VICIOUS CIRCLE, Felix Castor 2..........Mike Carey.............................01/07/10

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2009:


THE WOLFMAN.................................Nicholas Pekearo.....................11/05/09
UNDEAD & UNPOPULAR....................MaryJanice Davidson................10/01/09
SMALL FAVOR...................................Jim Butcher.............................09/03/09
BONE KEY / Supernatural...................Keith De Candido.....................08/06/09
PRIDE & PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES.........Austen / Grahame-Smith..........07/02/09
DEATH'S DAUGHTER........................Amber Benson..........................06/04/09
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW......................Mike Carey...............................05/07/09
BETTER OFF UNDEAD.........................Hoyt / Greenberg.....................04/02/09
SUNSHINE........................................Robin McKinley........................03/05/09
DARK DELICACIES 2: FEAR.................Howison / Gelb.........................02/05/09
THE MANY FACES OF VAN HELSING....Jeanne Cavelos.........................01/01/09