NJ: Monsters of Horror Book Group (Hackensack) discussion
2008 Books Read Thread
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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
PEEPS..........................................Scott Westerfeld..........................11/06/08
MOON CALLED.............................Patricia Briggs...........................10/02/08
THE TERROR................................Dan Simmons............................09/04/08
HUNTER'S MOON / Wolf Man........Michael Jan Friedman.................08/07/08
PROVEN GUILTY...........................Jim Butcher................................07/03/08
TRIAGE, Anthology.......................Lee / Ketchum............................06/05/08
NYMPHOS OF ROCKY FLATS..........Mario Acevedo............................05/01/08
THE MISSING...............................Sarah Langan.............................04/03/08
DARK DELICASIES, Anthology........Howison / Gelb..........................03/06/08
THE HOLLOWER............................Mary SanGiovanni.....................02/07/08
GIL'S ALL FRIGHT DINER...............A Lee Martinez...........................01/03/08