They Thirst

At points terrifying and hilarious, this old-school vampire story felt almost cinematic, somehow capturing the feel of a high budget 1980s horror film.

Even if the carefully constructed imagery reminded me of Kubrick's rendition of The Shining, the writing was leagues beyond King's workmanlike prose.

I often found myself pausing to enjoy the balance the author struck with the language, finding a point where the writing is vivid, beautiful, clever, and well paced. Imagery and wordplay abound, and even when the writing is absurd, it is so in that deliciously overwrought camp horror way. Case in point the title drop halfway through, ("EVIL. THEY THIRST." writ loud across a ouija board) which is enhanced rather than spoiled by how easy it show more was to see it coming. Anticipation is the mother of suspense, and McCammon has a firm grasp on that art.

That's not to say I found the plot predictable- instead I kept being surprised as the story seemed to redefine itself in scope, building towards an unexpected cataclysm that reshaped everything I'd come to expect.

Of course, some might decry the ending for involving a Deus Ex Machina, but I disagree-- the final events were at least lightly foreshadowed, and insomuch as they involved a godly intervention, well-- when the opposition is as demonic as this one, who else does humanity turn to? That's not to say victory was easily won-- characters die for the cause, making sacrifices that seem meaningless until the moment they all pay off at the end.

Overall, even when the evil in the story was horrifying me I couldn't turn away, kept reaching for the next page. And that ending -- very well done. show less

Reading this book was like time travelling back to the 1970s. I loved every second of it. The vampires are the powerful bloodsuckers with delusions of taking over the world. The ordinary people in the story have no cell phones or means of instant communication. They have no recourse when they are faced with a nonresponse at the end of a telephone ringing and no one to answer. There isn't even a machine to take a message. Much scarier world back then.

They actually say things like "Oh, he got a color tv and he thinks that the government is taking over his brain waves."

A color tv. As opposed to buying a black and white tv.

The police use one of those giant tape recorders when interviewing subjects. The reporters write out their reports on a show more Smith Corona typewriter. Sit-coms, silk shirts, gold chains and DISCOS!

When I grabbed the book from my digital library I had no idea that it had a first publish date of 1981, so it was clearly written in the late '70s. If people ever want to know about what life was like in the 1970s, they can read this book.

It's a great book for a vampire book from that period. It's seriously classic. show less

So this is the first book that McCammon was confident enough to not have pulled. And it's his first "epic" novel, that is, one with a very large cast and a reasonably complex pacing to it.

Does it work? Yeah, most of the time, it's an excellent ride. There's occasionally some apparent waffling on the part of McCammon to get some supernatural stuff in there. Spirits. Ghosts. Mediums. Don't really know if it's needed, because his vampires were very well done. And bonus points for the line, "I fang-fucked her all night." And, as usual, McCammon plays to his strengths--creating varied, engaging characters.

Unfortunately, he telegraphs the ending a bit too much with a slightly cartoonish over-confident vampire leader. If I could change show more anything, it would be to have toned that down a touch.

But overall, kudos to McCammon for using LA as his stage. Yes, he still has his Renfield and his Van Helsing and his Mina Harker, but the setting is so contemporary that he's able to disguise them fairly well.

Overall, this felt like one of those big, fat, fun late-70s, early-80s horror novels that just aren't created anymore...not even by guys that used to write them, like McCammon and King and Masterton. And that's just a shame, because these are just awesome to read.

Not a perfect vampire novel (that honour is a tie between 'SALEM'S LOT by King and THE LIGHT AT THE END by Skipp and Spector), but it's a fun ride, nonetheless. show less

Roughly contemporary with Anne Rice's suave vampires that would come to dominate media, this book is instead haunted by bloodsuckers in the monster tradition, updated for a "modern" setting, in a pre-computing age that feels very dated now. Cops and journalists track down leads on foot and by phone, a lot of questions that could be answered by a quick google or mobile phone call are problems for the plot to solve.
A very compelling setup and first third of the book is slowly dragged down as the nightmare outbreak continues into a crescendo echoing Bill Hicks' premonitions about Arizona Bay. This would easily be a trilogy of books in the modern publishing climate, so it's nice to read something self contained (even though it dangles a show more bit of sequel bait at the very end).
A decent waste of a couple of afternoons in all. show less

Robert McCammon is an amazing writer. He knows how to create a long novel that is tight from beginning to end.
Though this is a vampire book, McCammon dedicates a good part of his word count to developing his non-vampire characters. As a result, their struggles and losses are felt strongly by the reader.
I worried at first that the ending was wandering and rambling, only to be reminded that McCammon knows what he is doing. He has now become my favorite author.

In a world full of godforsaken Twilight books, it's really great to see that someone understood what vampires stood for several years ago. I would love to see McCammon would try this again now and bring the genre back to where it's supposed to be.

In Los Angeles, a prince from the Balkans has acquired a castle that overlooks the entire city, while several other characters, including a man who survived a vampire attack years before find their destinies over the course of a few days. The ending features a fantastic finish that will be appropriately morbidly funny to anyone with knowledge of the geographical terrors that fill the state of California.

I absolutely loved this book and it is highly recommended, especially for those who enjoy show more reading about vampires that don't angst for no reason at all and a wonderful horror story. show less

Ancient Evil!

I am not giving my normal backstory so just laying out my thoughts as this tome of a vampire book has quite a few characters that are involved within the story, but I will set out two main characters with thoughts.

Character Thoughts:

Two main characters are:

Prince Conrad Vulcan - Master Vampire of Kronsteen castle. Vulcan wants to take over the city of Los Angeles making the whole city under his rule and eventually to encompass the whole state as he takes in more territory. He wants to show that he is king of the vampires and he will do whatever it takes to see that accomplished.

Andrew "Andy" Palatazin is a homicide detective for the LAPD - there have been a rash of killings that seems to be the work of a serial killer and show more as he tries to make sense of what is going on with the killings, he is thrown for a loop when he finds out that some cemeteries are missing coffins and then he has an inkling that "something" might be leading him to Kronsteen castle as an ancient evil is no doubt lurking there.

Book Thoughts:

This was my first time reading this author, Robert McCammon. Not sure why I haven't stepped into him long before now, but he was recommended by a few of my Goodreads friends who have given his work high praises, so I decided to step into his work to see those high praises. :)

Writing style was great and I was drawn right away into the storyline. I am always looking for some type of vampire book that has the "old school" vampires within and this book really took me in that direction.

This book was a slow start with introductions of all the characters that lie within so it took awhile for anything to get going with the master vampire character which led to the first half of the book being a struggle with slow pacing, but there was quite a bit of intrigue and suspense as well which was wrapped up with the serial killings and the detective.

Normally I like my books where something happens within the first few chapters, but there was definitely a "dread" feeling right away as I could feel that something eventually was about to explode with vampire action and the last half of the book was total vampire carnage! Giving this book five "Fatal Fangs stars! show less