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Table of Contents

Coming Soon

Mister B Gone by Clive Barker

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

Dark harvest by Norman Partridge

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn

A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton

Bloodfever (Fever series book 2) by Karen Marie Moning

“IT” by Stephen King
 

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Dracula by Bram Stocker

World War Z by Max Brooks

 

“Mister B Gone” by Clive Barker



Burn this book!

Go on quickly while there’s still time! Don’t read another word! Not. One. More. Word.

Why are you waiting?

It’s not that difficult, just stop reading and burn the book. It’s for your own good. Believe me. No, there’s no time for explanations. Every syllable you let your eyes wander over gets you into more and more trouble and when I say ‘trouble’ I mean things so terrifying your sanity won’t hold. Once you see them, feel them, you’ll go mad, become a living blank, all that you ever were wiped away because you wouldn’t do one simple thing:
burn this book.

Doesn’t matter if you spent your last dollar buying it. Doesn’t matter if it was a gift from somebody you love. Believe me friend, you should set fire to this book right now, or you will regret the consequences.

Go on. What are you waiting for? You don’t have a light? Ask somebody. Beg them. It’s a matter of light and death. Believe me. Will you please believe me? A little runt of a book like this isn’t worth risking madness and eternal damnation over well is it? Of course not, so burn it. Now. Go on. Don’t let your eyes travel any further, just stop here.

Oh God, you’re still reading. What, you think this is some silly little joke I’m playing? Trust me, it isn’t. I know, I know, you’re thinking: it’s just a book, filled with words like any other book, and what are words? Black marks on white paper. How much harm could there be in something so simple.

If I had ten hundred years I could barely scratch the surface of the monstrous deeds the words in this book could be used to instigate and enflame, but we don’t have ten hundred years, we don’t even have ten hours, or ten minutes. I’ll make it simple: this book will do you harm unless you do what I’m asking you.

You can do it.

Just stop reading.

Now.

What’s the problem? Why are you still reading?



Clive, Clive, you’ve let me down. It’s an ambitious premise, verging on spectacular. A book narrated by a medieval demon addressing the reader directly from the pages in which it is imprisoned. By turns blustering, seductive, comic, pathetic and honestly frightening at times, the demon relates its story as victim and victimizer during its wanderings.

There are some moments of genius in the book, especially the ‘meta’ parts where the demon ‘addresses’ the reader and hints ominously of the horrible fate awaiting the page turner at the end, all the while mocking the reader’s inability to save him/herself by the simple expedient of stopping and closing the book. Those are some honestly frightening moments where the reader’s very sense of reality almost breaks.

However, this does not excuse the contrived and disappointing conclusion. If anything, it angered me that Barker failed to work up to his potential. For another writer I might have rated this effort 3.5 stars, but I know he can do better.

Even worse are the mistakes in spelling and grammar, especially damning in a book about the power of books and printing.

Still, I would recommend “Mister B Gone.” Despite it’s flaws it stands as an example of how to utilize the private conversation between reader and narrator that lies at the heart of every book. By Bob DeFrank

**1/2

 
“Necroscope: The Lost Years duology,” by Brian Lumley



Life’s tough for Harry Koegh, the world’s only Necroscope (a person who can talk to the dead), burdened with the gift and curse of contact with the Great Majority, all the trillions of teeming Dead, he is able to draw on their talents and knowledge, but he is also burdened with the responsibility of settling their unfinished business and redressing their wrongs as best he can.

He is also a member of England's E-Branch (E for ESP) a secret organization utilizing individuals with psychic abilities to combat enemy nations, terrorists and criminals employing supernatural threats. He also does battle with the deadly vampires who prey on humankind, living and dead alike.

On top of all that, Harry’s wife and infant son, shaken to the core by the perilous life thrust upon him, have vanished.

In the Necroscope series, Harry’s search for his family will ultimately lead him to a parallel world where the undead rule over all the living, but the Lost Years deals with his search through this world, where he is betrayed by his closest friends and soon finds himself embroiled in a war between powerful vampire clans and a liaison with a beautiful, deadly werewolf.

These are the Lost Years.

If the above sounds like a sprawling mess, don’t worry, Lumley makes it work.

If it sounds like the makings of a paranormal romance, it’s the furthest thing from the truth. The women Harry becomes involved with, almost without exception, come to horrific ends so that he can go on a vengeance-fueled killing spree of the baddies, then go back to being depressed, lonely, and available.

I’m torn on the series. On one hand, the concepts are a great expansion on the work of H.P. Lovecraft (from whom Lumley draws much of his subject matter and suitably acknowledges) and the historic detail of the vampires’ flashbacks of their progress through history rivals anything by Anne Rice.

However, in many books the extensive flashbacks become tedious and the conclusion a matter of pulling a nuke and blasting all the baddies.

And on a purely personal level, I found the character of Harry Koegh irritating. Truthfully I found all the characters unlikable and their little slogans and sayings to be dull (if I read one more character say “gadgets and ghosts” I’ll vomit).

The atmosphere, concepts and plotting almost make up for it though. Recommended for readers who don’t mind a lot of gore.

The Lost Years are in my opinion the best of the Necroscope series, striking a good balance between present action and past exposition. He summarizes what needs to be summarized and goes into detail when appropriate. It functions as a stand-alone and so can be picked up and read independently of the rest of the series. Lumley also does a good job summarizing prior books and the rules of his world for first-time readers.

Good for fans of science fiction, fantasy and bloody vampire fiction. By Bob DeFrank ****

 
"The girl who loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King



Trisha McFarland is on a nature hike with her divorced mother and brother. Sick of their bitter arguments, she leaves the path to take a shortcut through the woods, and finds she has walked right out of civilization and into a world more perilous and terrifying than anything she has ever known.

Family squabbles will soon prove the least of her worries. Trisha is Lost.

Wandering in the woods alone, without food or shelter, Trisha struggles to find her way back. Her only link to the human world is a small radio tuned to an ongoing baseball game featuring her hero, Tom Gordon. As time passes, the game becomes a lifeline, source of hope and spur to her dedication.

But something is stalking her. Something wild and terrible that kills with vicious glee. Something determined to prevent her reaching home.

"The girl who loved Tom Gordon" stands out in King's work. While shorter than most of his works, the story deals with a character's journey in landscape rich in both real and symbolic power. Trisha is an endearing character and Constant Reader is invited to accompany her on her way, and hope that her courage, wit and refusal to give up will be enough to see her through.

"Dark Tower" fans will also love the veiled references to that series in the later scenes. By Bob DeFrank ****

 

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

I'm not a big reader of "young adult" books, mostly because I'm not a young adult...(and haven't been for years!), but now and then an author comes around that writes something that goes beyond their own niche, and I think Meyer has accomplished that.  Half-way through this vampire love-story I knew that the novel was going to join my "keeper" shelf. 

In this first book, Bella Swan reluctantly moves to Forks, WA where the rain falls all year round and her divorced father is the local sheriff.  (I've been to Forks too, and Meyer does a good job of capturing the rural town posed on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.)  Bella enters the local High School, knowing she will never fit in but determined to make the best of things and meets the other local oddities, the Cullens.  A family of five foster teens living with a doctor and his wife who are all impossibly beautiful and strangely set apart from the rest of the teens in Forks.  Bella can't keep her eyes off the amber-haired Edward Cullen, but when she meets him in her Chemistry class, she is surprised by his angry, malevolent gaze.  It is clear that Edward can't stand her, but she has no idea why.

The mystery of the Cullens is not the crux of the book, we quickly learn what they are about, but the mystery of how Bella's crush for Edward will turn out keeps the pages turning.  This impossible love story will sweep any romantic reader off their feet. 

The next two books in this series will be quickly devoured by any fan of the first one, and hold all the melodrama and romance of first book.  There is a touch of repetitiveness to Bella's quandary in each book, but I was still completely enraptured by the story and eager to read the next one. 

 

 New Moon (Twilight, Book 2)

 

 Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3)

 

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

The third book in this series about mechanic Mercy Thompson is a great continuation.  That's saying something, since there are a lot of paranormal books out there that have good beginnings and just lose their way (or their inspiration!).  Not Briggs.  I was very pleasantly involved in the story as Mercy gets called in by her old boss and mentor "Zee" to investigate some murders on the Fae Reservation.  Soon, Zee is in jail for the murders and Mercy knows that she is the only one who cares enough to try and clear his name.  Meanwhile she is still torn between the two werewolves who love her; Samuel, the lone doctor who was her first love; or Adam, the local pack alpha who ignites her body as well as her heart.   Briggs knows just how to play this and finally has Mercy make her decision.  (And she chose the right one too!)  Overall, these books work because Mercy is not only sympathetic, but she captures the reader's heart.  I would put Briggs right at the top of the paranormal writers because even though she's on book four, she is skimping on quality or plot or heart.  By C.C. Moore ****1/2

 

Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty is a late night radio host who not only talks about the supernatural, but is the supernatural...she's a werewolf.  I liked all the books in this series but found the quality not quite up to the interesting concept.  In this book, Kitty is living with Ben in Pueblo, but must return to Denver where she was exiled by her old pack, because her mother is ill.  Once she shows up in town, she is quickly embroiled in supernatural politics.  I've read the series from the beginning, and I have to say that I think Ben is the least interesting of all the men Kitty could have ended up with.  He's not bad, but he's just not very intriguing.  I found myself struggling to finish, but maybe that was because I had just finished a far better book in "Ironkissed" (see above) and just couldn't get into Kitty's head. 

by C. C. Moore ***

 

“Dark harvest” by Norman Partridge (horror)


It’s Halloween, 1963 in Anytown USA. But this town has a particularly bloody tradition every October. Every boy from the age of sixteen through nineteen has been locked up for five days without food and on the night of nights they’ll be let out to run the streets
in wild packs. Lethal violence is assured.

The target and the terror of this night is the October Boy, ‘a murderous trick with a bagful of treats’ who stalks from the cornfields every year. A pumpkin-headed horror with hellfire light burning from his hacksaw face, pockets loaded with Halloween candy and a butcher knife in hand. The one who brings down the October Boy gets the prize. The rest go home empty handed. If they’re lucky.

Pete McCormack is gunning for the October Boy this year, and he won’t let roving gangs, psycho town cops or the monster’s own deadly prowess stop him, but the secret of the game may be deeper than he realizes. And the real players surprising.

Partridge has crafted an allegoric horror fantasy of manhood, coming of age and teenage rebellion that will resonate strongly with readers. It is Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery" on high adrenaline.

The quality of writing and intensity of characters elevates the story to well above average. It’s a brief book and it grabs readers and doesn’t let go until the end. A reader will finish it in a matter of hours with a rush of vicarious adrenaline at the ride. Exceptionally good for seasonal reading or a brief treat for the October months. Profanity and a high level of violence make it a poor choice for younger readers. Mature teens and older readers will enjoy. **** By Bob DeFrank



 




“At the Mountains of Madness” by H.P. Lovecraft, annotated by S.T. Joshi in “The
Annotated H.P. Lovecraft” collection



A party of daring explorers ventures forth on an expedition into the frozen wastes of Antarctica. In the far reaches of the pole they will unearth the frozen remnants of creatures from an alien time and sphere. Creatures that are not as dead as they appear.

What happens next will propel the explorers further than human foot has ever tread. They will encounter a world from the distant past and learn secrets of this Earth’s history both marvelous and terrible that will shake the very foundations of their belief about
the cosmos and humanity’s place in it.

“Mountains of Madness” is one of Lovecraft’s longest works and his own personal favorite. Aside from its value as a thrilling adventure, this novella stands as cornerstone of Lovecraft’s masterful Cthulhu Mythos. This is the tale in which the history of the Old
Ones and their relationship to our tiny green world is revealed in all its marvelous, weird glory. This is the tale in which the ‘rules’ of the Lovecraftian universe are laid out and references to the events and revelations in this novella extend throughout
Lovecraft’s other great works.

It is also a story with a truly cosmic scale, showcasing Lovecraft’s specialty of contrasting finite humanity with the infinite cosmos and the incredible Elder Beings that navigate in the starry abysses.  The sheer scope of the story is matched only by Lovecraft’s “The Shadow out of Time.”

In addition, Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi’s notes lend a rich flavor to the text. Through his research the reader is given a window into Lovecraft’s motivations and influences, and the extensive expertise he reveals in the field. Lovecraft, Joshi found, had always
yearned to voyage to the unknown poles and the closest he would ever come would be the vistas of his own imagination. ***** By Bob DeFrank

 

 

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz  

I loved this book.  "Odd" is a twenty-year-old fry cook in a fictional California town.   He is content with his low paying job and tiny apartment because he has a higher calling.  You see Odd has the strange ability to see the dead, and they know it.  So they come to him at strange times, demanding in their silent ways that he do something about their deaths.  They need closure, you see.  The first person voice in the book is brilliant, and Odd is so likable that you can't help but love him.  I just didn't want the book to end. by C.C. Moore ****1/2

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Like me you've probably seen Brook'sThe Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead , maybe even thumbed through it at the book store.  Still, how can this idea be made into a full size novel?  Brooks though has struck gold with zombie and horror lovers with this novel of zombie Armageddon.  Telling the story though single chapter characters from around the world, Brooks rivets up the suspense.  This is like listening to survivor accounts form various sides of a disaster!  ****1/2 Review By C.C. Moore

 

Dracula by Bram Stocker    Okay, you might think you know this story, because maybe you haven't been living under a rock for the last twenty years of vampire hysteria...but you don't until you read it yourself.  This is probably one the greatest horror stories of all time and not for the faint of heart!  For those of you who are scared of the Victorian English in the book, I say buck up and get with the flow, but there is another version edited for the modern reader (*I shall not comment) So if you just can't handle the original, try this version first.   Here's the "edited" version: Bram Stoker's Dracula ***** (A classic) for the original **** for the edited version

 

 

“IT” by Stephen King


Something is stalking the children of Derry.  Something savage. Something hungry. Something that takes on the shape of your deepest fears and drowns you in a sea of nightmare.

Years ago, seven children came together to confront the monster. They drove it away. They thought they’d killed it.

They were wrong.

It’s been twenty-eight years and the killings are starting again. No one can stop these tragedies. No one even understands them.

No one except seven people who must travel back across the years to childhood, where they have access to the full power of the imagination but are also rendered even more vulnerable to the creature’s predatory power. It is a journey home that will force them to confront all their demons in the dark heart of Derry.

This is perhaps Stephen King’s most definitive work, encapsulating themes and conventions that appear in infinite variations throughout his other books. Ideas of destiny and several people coming together to create a more powerful whole, the power that myth and imagination can invest in everyday objects and situations, the journey through life as a heroic quest, the intersection of finite humanity with the infinite cosmos, all are touched on here.

King invites his Constant Reader to venture into the bright sunlight of Derry, and to take a jaunt into its dark underside.

But watch out for Pennywise the Clown, and if he offers you a balloon, run!  by Bob De Frank *****

Another look at IT by C.C. Moore: To this date, this is the scariest book (of fiction) that I've ever read. Perfectly scary, I might add, with thrills adding up with each chapter, with each new character (whether they are about to die or not). I love the kids best and their secret war to stop the evil that no grownup can see, but there is also some brilliant work done as King takes us into each of their grownup lives and shows us how their past has haunted them.  *****

 

 

Coming Soon: Click to Learn More:

 The Outlaw Demon Wails (Rachel Morgan, Book 6)by Kim Harrison (Author)
Release Date: February 26, 2008
 

 Predatory Game (GhostWalkers, Book 6)by Christine Feehan (Author)
Release Date: February 26, 2008

Dream Chaser (A Dream-Hunter Novel, Book 3)by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Author)
Release Date: February 5, 2008

 White Night (The Dresden Files, Book 9)by Jim Butcher (Author)
Release Date: February 5, 2008

 

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