Fangland

The first half of the book was entirely useless to me. It was filled with characters whose names I couldn't remember and the inner workings, politics, and paranoia of the news show "The Hour". If I wanted to read about 60 Minutes, I'd have picked up a documentary.

This book was recommended to me as a retelling of Dracula. And in that, it was moderately successful. In fact, if you only take the parts that are the actual retelling, you have a pretty decent and interesting story. The twist on vampires was even crazy enough to work.

Although, Mr. Cover Artist, if you're going to have fang marks on the cover, the vampires in the book should probably have fangs. Maybe wait to fire up the old Photoshop until you've read an ARC or something.

The show more second half of the book picked up enough of a pace to keep me interested. The characters started sticking in my brain, and I started caring about them. Some of them even developed beyond two dimensions. Maybe. But I was getting into it. And then the ending came.

I finished the book three minutes ago, and so help me if I don't want to punch a kitten in the face. I'm returning this one to the library and hoping that someone who can actually enjoy this will read it next. show less

I understand why this book has gotten rather poor reviews. If I weren't listening to it on CD, I would have quit reading over a week ago and returned it to the library. The most interesting character in the book is Austin Tratta, one of the journalists of The Hour (a news show in the book which resembles our real-world 60 Minutes) who writes his account in a therapy journal, though he never quite accepts the evidence of his eyes or what he is told.

Evangeline Harker, with whom the book opens and closes, on the other hand, is not that interesting nor really that compelling a character and I don't think that her part of the account is really all that clear in the end.

I will give Marks kudos for writing an unusual vampire story. His vampire show more is both amazing and despicable and amazingly despicable. Jan Torgu, the vampire, uses an unusual method to infect his victims - a constant recital of the names of places which have seen the worst atrocities (places like Treblinka, Gomorrah, Sarajevo, etc.), of the human race follows in Torgu's wake, it slips into thoughts and memories of the people he comes into contact with and begins to undermine their ability to function. Some how he manages to infect the technology used by the show long before he ever arrives at the office. Now there's a hostile takeover if ever there was one ... show less

What a strange little book Fangland is. I was initially intrigued because Audrey Niffenegger had a blurb on the back, but quickly got caught up in the actual story once I started reading it.

Don't get me wrong, it does get off to a slow start, and is confusing at points in the beginning. As the story winds on, though, it's easy enough to figure out that you're supposed to be a bit confused, as it adds to the atmosphere.

The first half of Fangland reminds me of Dracula, as far as suspense goes. I was actually a little frightened in that good horror way as I got closer to the second half of the book, while the story mostly remains in Transylvania.

When the focus switches back to the US and the offices of a 60 Minutes clone known as The Hour, show more the suspense lightens up a little and the story isn't as... believable, I guess, as it was in the first half. I'm not sure why. It might be the diffusion of focus, from one person (Evangeline, the reporter stuck in Transylvania) to a multitude (a greedy handful of people who work in the offices of The Hour). It's still an enjoyable read in the second half, just not as gripping and creepy.

One minor complaint: calling the offices of The Hour "Fangland" seems like a shoehorned-in explanation of the title. It doesn't feel organic at all, and I wish it was just mentioned in passing, once, instead of clumsily "explained" twice (that I counted).

All in all, a good read if you're a fan of vampire novels. If you're just a suspense fan, you'll probably still enjoy it, but I think it's made more enjoyable by the allusions to standard vampire lore sprinkled throughout the novel, especially in the first half. show less

Fangland re-tells the classic Dracula story with a modern day twist. Evangeline Harker is an assistant producer for The Hours, a 60 minutes type new show based in New York. Evangeline travels to Romania to research a possible news story for the program. However, instead of meeting an Eastern European crime lord, she finds Ion Torgu, a modern day vampire. The story simultaneously deals Evangeline’s disappearance and Ion Torgu’s creeping influence on the workers of The Hours. As Torgu’s presence infiltrates The Hours, one by one the news workers grow sick and deranged.
The overall concept of Fangland is interesting and the novel starts out well. However as the story wears on the plot begins to plod along. There is no real sense of show more menace or emotional investment in the characters and soon their predicament becomes somewhat boring. show less

Evangeline Harker is a producer for a television news show called “The Hour”. On the heels of her engagement she reluctantly leaves for Transylvania to investigate the possibility of a story about an international gangster, Ion Torgu. In this book Torgu steps into the count Dracula character. Unfortunately, he does not do it well. Mr. Marks attempts to update the vampire lore and I found he left much lacking. Although Torgu shares some of the classic vampire traits the rest is too ambiguous to define him as a vampire.

The story unfolds to the reader in journal entries, letters and emails between the characters so is told in many voices. This technique often works but in this book it only adds to make the story a little show more disjointed.

Fangland can best be described as Dracula dragged into the 21st century. The first quarter of this book started out with great promise and then, for me, it just started to run out of steam. The saving grace is that as a former 60 Minutes producer Marks does give the reader an intimate glance into the (possible) behind the scenes of a major news show. His tidbits of satire is what kept me reading to the end. show less

Not great poetry, but effective at relating this modern werewolf story with poetic compression, resulting in a taut, crisp thriller that had me turning the pages eagerly right up to its satisfying end. Enjoyable for having been daring enough to attempt relating a story in poetry in this prosaic age -- and the more rewarding for having pulled the experiment off. Kudos to Marks for a notable accomplishment.

The first think that got my attention was the cover of Fangland. It’s very dark and mysterious and splattered with blood. My kind of book. When I received Fangland in the mail I began reading it at once. Evangeline Harker is a producer. She goes to Transylvania to interview Ion Torgu. Torgu is very mysterious man with all kinds of secrets. Is he a criminal? Is he a vampire? Is he something worse?
What I like about the book: The newsroom characters were quirky, from a civil war reenactor to someone thinking the network is always 'out to get them' . I found them very entertaining. The story was told from different perspectives. Some of the story was told through email and journal entries. I liked this because you got to see the mayhem show more that was happening back at the office. I liked the characters reactions because they were mostly believable. I liked the story line. It kept me interested and curious on what was going on. The ending was okay.
What I didn’t like about the book: There were a few moments when I wanted to smack Evangeline. She ignores her common sense and her gut feelings and gets into the car with Torgu, a criminal. I wanted to scream “Are you out of your mind? Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to get into a car with a known or suspected criminal? Stranger Danger, Evangeline”. However if she didn’t ignore her gut, it wouldn’t have been much of a story. So I’ll let that pass.

More reviews available at http://2readornot2read-loves2read.blogspot.com show less