Jeff Conner

V-Wars, edited by Jonathan Maberry, is a collection of stories set in the same world but written by a bevy of talented authors.

In the world Maberry creates in V-Wars, a prehistoric virus has been released from polar ice, awakening recessive genes in the human genome. The virus triggers changes in some humans, awakening physical changes that are varied and dramatic. Before long, vampires walk among us. Some are benign; many are not.

Maberry's collection of tales does well and more credibly show more what X-Men (at least the movies--I'm not familiar with the comics) tries to do: it portrays a genetic mutation that changes a portion of humanity, causing ostracization, fear, violence, and, of course, government action. I've always been dubious about what the reaction to the X-Men. After all, the powers they have seem to be magical and useful. On the other hand, the mutations in V Wars result in a change that seems to drive its mutants to, well, suck blood.

That seems a bit more against the public interest than the power to start fires, freeze objects, levitate, or any of the other number of changes that Stan Lee's X-Men undergo.

Maberry does an excellent job tying the stories together with a common story that intersperses the tales. While the majority of the stories seem to take place in and around the American northeast, especially New York City, V-Wars treats readers to a semi-global perspective, with stories from the American southern border with Mexico, in the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains, and one that crisscrosses the globe, starting in Antarctica, jetting off to Romania, and stopping through France, too. Some times we read from the vampire's perspective; other times, from the humans. Maberry breaks up the stories, too, giving the collection something of novel-like feeling.

As interesting as the collection is, the stories are not all created equal, and it's part of the reason I had a hard time settling on just three stars. I wanted badly to give the book four stars--but several of the stories disappointed, even bored me.

They were few, however, and generally the stories were creative and enjoyable, if occasionally not for the faint of heart. Here are a few of my favorites:

"Stalking Anna Lei" by James A. Moore brings together legends of vampires from East Asia, as John Lei searches for his sister while navigating the dangerous world of Asian gangs amid reports of a monstrous creature that seems to be haunting his every step. Told from John's perspective, Moore has a great voice that makes his story one of the most enjoyable, and his plotting makes the final twist satisfying and unexpected.

"Vulpes" by Gregory Frost begins in Antarctica and trails Ruksana back to her home in Romania. Beware, though: when the change comes to her, the results are anything but vampiric.

Yvonne Navarro's "Epiphany" asks what happens when society's most weak go through the vampiric change, trading vulnerabilities for superhuman power. Red Moon is the orphaned daughter of Native Americans, raped, pregnant, and infected by the virus. Beset by changes she cannot explain, she finds herself on the edge of motherhood in a world that threatens to destroy her for the changes that have come over her.

V-Wars deserves a second installment. It is, in many ways, only the opening chapter in the new world that emerges as vampire and human eye each other and wonder if they will live together or in conflict. show less

Mediocre pandemic-induced vampire outbreak caused by global warming releasing pathogens buried for centuries under Arctic ice. But maybe also Antarctic ice? It was a bit confusing. As was the whole book, for that matter. Comprised of several related stories by different authors, there was no flow or consistency at all. But rather than present them as a compilation or anthology as is typically done in such cases (and for good reason), they are somewhat haphazardly broken up into chunks and show more interspersed rather randomly, making for a choppy and discordant read.

But worst of all, it was boring. For instance, there was a story about the local politics surrounding the election campaign of the Bronx district attorney. I've lived and voted in the Bronx for decades and couldn't name a single one, even the borough president is only relevant when there's a scandal. While it was somewhat gratifying to see my sleepy neighbourhood mentioned, the whole thing seemed pointless and likely to appeal to maybe 3 people, the type who watch local TV news and are involved with local politics as a hobby.

A couple of the stories tried to frame vampyrism as a vehicle for social commentary, but were incredibly heavy handed and clumsy. One has a white supremacist motorcycle gang hunting "illegals" (previously immigrants now vampires), one has a professor testifying to Congress (almost as exciting as watching C-SPAN), and one a Native American who is persecuted by ICE (it's ironic, get it?). show less

This is your typical film production picture book, with plenty of full color production stills and photos from the film, interspersed with interviews and descriptions of the production. There are, however, a couple of aspects to this book that makes it a bit more of an interesting read. The first is that the book does take some time looking at the comic book origins of the film and James O'Barr's work, in both a visual and thematic sense. Then considering that Brandon Lee was killed during show more the filming of The Crow by an improperly prepared prop gun, part of this book goes into not just how the film was completed using digital images of Lee in key bridge scenes, but how major cuts to the full story-line, such as the loss of Skull Cowboy, Including discussions with screenwriter David J. Schow about how those changes came about and what they meant to the finished project. The attention to these aspects of the production elevate this to a status higher than film fan scrapbook, and make it a real document of a permanent entry into film-making history. show less

While this is a collection of short stories, the overall effect is reminiscent of World War Z by Max Brooks and Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson with different narration threads creating a history of the end of the world. It feels like a single story, not a collection.

The story starts just as the virus I1V1 hits the population after being released from polar ice. We watch as the virus activates dormant genes in "junk" DNA causing multiple vampire types from folklore to appear, as well as a show more few werewolf types. The entire world is "infected", with the stories focusing on the US and New York. Human takes on a entirely different meaning, as the apocalypse starts, and arrives, from a source we never suspected. show less