Yum!

The sixth book in this ongoing saga is about Gregori's (Dark Magic) lost brother Darius. As is with their line, Darius, though without the guidance of the ancients still manage to acquire skills and keeps their group together. Therefore, as the leader of their group, he is masterful and law unto himself. Along comes Tempest, who is sweet natured, has an affinity with animals and is not intimidated by Darius. On top of that, she does as she pleases, ignoring Darius whenever she feels he is overbearing. It is beautiful the way Darius cares for Tempest and the sacrifices he is willing to make for her. This is definitely a keeper!!!

A truly mesmerising read

Before I go onto the gushing part of this review I feel some perspective is called for. So I will start by telling you what this book isn't, for me at least. For a start it wasn't anything like any Stephen King novel I ever read, despite claims that it is. It really is a different type of story and to compare in that way does this an injustice. Nor did I find it horrifying or scary. But I don't think that was probably the authors intention.

What this IS: A wonderfully observed coming of age tale centred around young Oskar, a bullied boy on the verge of adolescence who wets himself and shoplifts for therapy. The beauty is in the friendship he strikes up with Eli: the girl living next door - who just happens to be a 200 year old vampire stuck in a twelve year old girls body.

The creation of these two young and desperately lonely children, and their attempts to just get through each day given the challenges of their individual lives. Is the absolute strength of this. Their emerging friendship and Oskars coming of age, given these obstacles, especially Eli's condition, is absolutely mesmerising. Keeping me transfixed through every page over one weekend, and there are over 500 here.

There are a whole bunch of peripheral characters, the local drunks, parents, sex offenders, the bullies and the kids living on the same estate. All are vivid but at no time do you ever feel like they are anything other than mechanisms to hook the stories of Oskar and Eli. Hooks that worked brilliantly because all we are really interested in is Oskhar and Eli.

PROS: An absolutely wonderful tale of two young children, one a boy coming of age, the other a twelve year girl who also happens to be a powerful vampire. Utterly engaging, with an amazing end that is built up from almost the first page and the books title. The technical detail of a vampires biology was very imaginative.

CONS: The story of Hakan slips into parody. I was not sure whether this was intended as a homage to the classic books that exist in this genre. Or a slightly clumsy mechanism with which to manufacture a specific moment towards the end. Either way it didn't quite sit with the quality of the rest. There is also a big twist two thirds of the way, the purpose of which will only be known to the author. It didn't entirely work for me.

Summary: Not the next Stephen King, that does both authors an injustice. This is a wonderfully fresh and original coming of age story premised around a genre you might have thought had been done to death. Very highly recommended.

Missed a triack

This book annoyed the hell out of me, Why travel all the way to New York, when you could easily reach Greece,Italy, France, Spain or UK in a couple of days by boat????

Shame there was a half-decent story in there waiting to come out, spoilt by that huge plot hole, A Scottish Bog Mummy and a giant Zombie.

Supernatural Thriller

Supernatural novels may be a dime a dozen nowadays, but Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series stands out as being a lot more worthy than that. Very contemporary, it combines humour and thrills with the otherworld, where danger is abundant, and powers are required in order to survive.

What also makes this series a winner is its rotation of main characters."Bitten" and"Stolen" were told through the eyes of Elena Michaels, our werewolf narrator. But Paige Winterbourne, a witch and former coven leader, hosts"Dime Store Magic" and"Industrial Magic".

However, Paige's partner is Lucas Cortez, a sorcerer and sometimes-unwanted member of the Cortez Cabal. Witches and sorcerers normally don't get along, but Paige joins the investigation into a ..........

To get to the bottom of it, though, Paige needs help. With werewolf Elena Michaels to ........, Savannah, Paige then enlists the help of necromancer Jaime Vegas, a ..........

Disconnecting vampire Cassandra DuCharme also ...... And then there's Savannah and her binding spells, not to mention a male vampire who thrives on stereotypes. The kills are gory, the vampire stereotypes are made fun of, and there's less sex than you'd expect from this genre. The writing is witty, and the characters are believable. Sure, our heroines Elena, Paige and the upcoming Eve Levine have similar personalities, but Cassandra and Jaime seem more distinctive. The lovey-dovey stuff is a bit cloying, but there are no explicit sex scenes. Explanations are long, but unfortunately it's still easy to get confused about supernatural murder motives and the spirit world.

But if you're looking for a supernatural series with more bite and more clothing than other books, then you've come to the right place.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

With this book, we come to the end of the CIRQUE DU FREAK series by Darren Shan, the one we have been waiting for and dreading. Now the Vampire Prince must face his archenemy, Steve Leopard. It is a complex and difficult problem -- He will be dead if he loses and damned if he wins. One of them will die -- the other will become the Lord of the Shadows and destroy the world. Vampire or Vampaneze; who will win? Can Darren cheat destiny? The action is fast and non-stop The complex plot will keep you guessing until the very last page. The story is full of violence with blood and gore. Some of the characters are human, but most are not, and some are very frightening, but most are loyal, and fierce.

Kids can't seem to get enough of Shan's brand of compelling, scary stories, but they also address some serious issues, and show the importance of friendship and sticking to your moral and ethical standards. It seems to me to be a bit too frightening for kids ten years old and under, but maybe just the thing for older teens that are reluctant readers. It's an ongoing story that you might want to start reading with volume one and work your way through the series, but this one has enough background information that you can enjoy it by itself.

Reviewed by: Grandma Bev

Simply extraordinary...

One of the best, if not the best, King books. Certainly one of the very best books ever written about children. I challenge anyone to read this book and not find their own small and perfectly remembered childhood nightmare. King's opus magnum as far as I am concerned - and to date I don't think he has bettered it.

One of the better 'Dark' stories

I found this book to be a much better read then the other 'Dark' books I've read.

However,I felt the author should have made Jaxon more objective to her 'Carpathian' transformation, instead of calmly accepting it. After all she is supposed to have a very independent nature!

The other complaint I have about this book is the use of the word 'honey'
Come on, Lucian is 2000yrs old, with Old World manners. So, wouldn't he use terms of endearment he learnt eons ago before he lost all emotion, and since his speech tends to reflect this, instead of the modern day endearments?
Except for those 2 objections, I enjoyed the book and found I couldn't put it down, till I reached the end. The chemistry between the H/H was great, very believeable.

A star less, because of the two complaints.

Excellent collection assembled by ST Joshi

This volume contains the stories: Dagon, Randolph Carter, Arthur Jermyn, Celephais, Nyarlathotep, Picture in the House, Outsider, Herbert West, Hound, Rats in the Walls, Festival, He, Cool Air, Call of Cthulhu, Colour out of Space, Whisperer in Darkness, Shadow Over Innsmouth, Haunter of the Dark, as well as a fourteen page Introduction by Joshi (the foremost scholar on Lovecraft), a suggestion for further reading, a note on the text, and an extra sixty pages of explanatory notes.

This is an excellent collection of Lovecraft stories with a lot of interesting notation and material on his background, his childhood, his inspirations for each story, and various other pieces of fascinating information. It is also, in my opinion, the strongest of the three current Penguin collections of his work, containing as it does the superb Colour out of Space, Shadow over Innsmouth, and Call of Cthulhu (my favourite). Each story is annotated with numbered reference points which can be a bit distracting at first but doesn't really get in the way of your enjoyment of the stories, and provides fascinating insight into the use of certain words, the origins of characters' names, towns and events that influenced the plot, etc. In addition, each of these stories are the definitive editions compiled by Joshi himself, making this currently one of the best Lovecraft collections in the UK. Highly recommended.

palease

I had this book ordered all the way from england along with the spook's secret which is coming out in america on august 28 but I couldn't wait these are wonderful books alice is my favorite character

so emotional

well, i thought the first one was good, but this just gets better. the second book has a kick-ass title which totally beats the title of the first book. and okay, i'm not an emotional person most of the time (apparently, i possess the emotional range of a teaspoon), but this book made even me cry. anyone who liked the first book will like this one too. can't wait for the third!

A strong improvement over the first volume

The second Sandman collection picks up from the last one, with the Sandman continuing the process of restoring the Dreaming to its proper state, and also introduces a whole slew of new characters and storylines that will continue to resonate within the series until its very end.

Rose Walker and her mother travel from the USA to the UK to mee an unknown benefactor who has paid for their trip. The benefactor turns out to be Unity Kincaid, a victim of the sleeping sickness that swept across the world between 1916 and 1989, whilst Morpheus was imprisoned by Burgess. Whilst she was sleeping, Unity was raped by an unknown assailant, and had a baby, who turns out to be Rose's mother. Rose and her mother are stunned by this revelation, but Rose also takes advantage of the financial largesse of her very wealthy grandmother to undertake a search for her brother Jed, who disappeared several years ago.

At the same time, Morpheus has detected the forming of a 'vortex', a dangerous focii of dream-energy that could disrupt the dreams of the entire human race and kill them. Before he can shut down the vortex, which takes the form of a person, he decides to use it as bait to lure out several inhabitants of the Dreaming who fled to the waking world during his imprisonment, such as the thoroughly amoral Brute and Glob, the personified dream-place Fiddler's Green and the Corinthian, created by Morpheus to be the 'ultimate nightmare'. This results in Rose and her family being placed in extreme jeopardy.

Several other stories are also wrapped around this one: we learn why the Sandman's former lover, Nada, was glimpsed in Hell in the opening volume. We learn that his younger brother/sister Desire is plotting something behind his back. We also meet arguably the Sandman's only true human friend, Hob Gadling, from whom the touch of Death was lifted in 1389, making him immortal. Once a century Hob and Dream meet at the same pub and compare notes on how their lives have unfolded over the past century. This story, Men of Good Fortune, is a stunning piece of work and one of the seminal chapters of The Sandman (alongside the likes of The Sound of Her Wings from the first collection and the forthcoming Midsummer Night's Dream, Three Septembers and a January, The Dream of a Thousand Cats and Ramadan). It also introduces Will Shakespeare, whose amazing writing skills are revealed to be the result of a pact made with Dream, in return for which Shakespeare agrees to pen two special plays for Dream. But more on them when they appear.

The Doll's House represents a quantum leap forward in Neil Gaiman's writing and storytelling abilities. So many storylines revisited in future stories are set up it's pretty breathtaking, from linking this version of the Sandman to the previous DC one (an ineffective, slightly bumbling human crime-fighter called Hector Hall) to the establishing of numerous characters we will meet again later (such as Lyta Hall) and the establishing of several new regular characters, such as Matthew, Death's new raven, and Fiddler's Green. It also features one of Gaiman's most effective moments of horror, with a convention for serial killers (inspired by the World Fantasy Conventions of the mid-1980s) giving rise to moments of both disgust and jet-black humour (panels on deconstructing the stereotypes of female serial killers or how to make money from your hobby). There's also some nice tributes to other comics: as well as the 1970s version of The Sandman we also get a pastiche of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland strips. As well as the obvious nod to Shakespeare we also get to meet Christopher Marlowe (who is dismissive of Shakespeare's first play, Henry VI, whilst his own masterwork Faustus is getting vast amounts of acclaim).

We also get some more clues as to what The Sandman is about. The legend of Nada shows that the Sandman has made some mistakes in his past and he needs to correct them, whilst Men of Good Fortune shows that the post-imprisonment Sandman is a slightly warmer person than before. A century spent alone has given him the chance to reflect on things and it's interesting seeing his cold, heartless side giving way more easily than before. The story ends with Dream confronting Desire and the immediate crisis solved...but Lyta Hall is living in mortal fear of what Dream told her (read and find out), which sets up events much later in the series.

The Doll's House (****) is a radical improvement on the first Sandman collection, Preludes and Nocturnes, and gives the series a sense of purpose and direction. With the story Men of Good Fortune Gaiman's writing reaches a strong new level of maturity and intelligence, whilst Collectors may be among the most disturbing comics ever created.

He Is Destruction........................

It’s almost time fellow shansters, the saga is coming to an end and soon we’ll find out who will rule the night: a vampire prince, or a vampaneze lord.

Set 2 years after we find out who Harkat used to be the two friends are still with the cirque, but Darren’s break from the hunt is over, he must return to where it all began and let destiny take course, he must return home!

We are reintroduced to old friends as well as old enemies including: Debbie, Alice, Annie, Tommy Jones, Morgan James, RV and, of coure, Steve Leopard.

I don’t want to give away thye ending, but rest assured, once you finish this book you will have to read sons of destiny to satisfy your bloodlust!

Come on amazon!

This volume isn't out of print, and it's the start of a series the second of which is out this autumn... So why are you claiming you can't get hold of it?

Stevenson's Dark Corners!

'You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I can't name.' (Dr Jekyll)

Stevenson's remarkable novel explores the 'other' face of Victorian respectability, the underbelly of a society 'profoundly committed to the duplicity of life.'
The setting of novel lends itself to horror. We are in London, a filthy degraded place, full of labyrinthine streets. We are blinded by fog, searching for a 'creature' who evades detection at every turn. We wander the streets with 'gentlemen' who have a pronounced predilection for night walks and alley ways and speak in 'masculine' codes. Their nightly Insomnia suggests sexual restlessness and with no women in sight, and lots of male friendships, this fin-de-siecle text rather suggests the unlawfulness of homosexual desire.

Then we abruptly encounter the inhuman figure of 'Mr Hyde' as he stamps maliciously on a helpless child. This transgression of any residue of civilised behaviour catapults the novel into horror where it lingers for the rest of the narrative. We spend time gazing at a 'blistered and distained door' through which the unspeakable Hyde makes his way and we metaphorically lose our respectable ways!

Ironically for a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson, 'Tusitala', 'a teller of tales' the tale refuses to be told. This is because the narrative is initially dependent upon the voice of the unprepossessing Utterson, ironically a man who fails to utter anything in terms of personal disclosure or revelation. This secrecy is then reinforced by other restrictive narrative viewpoints, thus confining the 'secret' of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to conjecture - the strait jacket of Victorian repression. (And yes, there is a joke in there!)

For who is the final teller of this macabre tale? The last voice we hear in the novel is that of Dr Jekyll, yet we know he died as the infamous Mr Hyde, and that we are only privy to this knowledge through the 'eyes' of Utterson who never comments about it .He just disappears into respectable silence. Each time I read the novel I am always aware of the missing voice in the text and feel rather bewildered at the lack of any stable conclusion to the novel. We are just left with the voice of the very much resurrected and undead Jekyll/Hyde voice who finishes his own novel after all!

Read it at night and lock your door!

The Rats - James Herbert

Being the first"Horror" book I've ever read,"The Rats" really does live up to it's genre, I've never found it so difficult to bite my nails and turn the page at the same time.

Set in East London in the seventies, the young art teacher - Harris, plays our leading man. Harris finds himself in working with the Minister of Health and the police force after a surge of decease carrying rats the size of dogs mercilessly attacked and devoured the public.

This horror novel comes with so much shocking gore I couldn't put it down, I really enjoyed it, even though it gave me the heebie jeebies!

Classic

This novel is a classic! Robert Louis Stevenson (of Treasure Island fame) had a dream/nightmare, awoke and immediately wrote down the tale; this novel.
It is only around 85 pages long which is very short, this however is a brilliant thing because most novels are way to long, this can be read again and again in no time!
The story is set in a sinister/magical Victorian London and as most people are aware; it is a tale of dual personality. The good Doctor Henry Jekyll creates a serum to turn himself back and forth into the evil Edward Hyde, after a little time however he cannot get rid of Hyde!
If you love literature, real honest to goodness classic British literature and gothic horror set in the magical world of Victorian, foggy London, then read this!
Classic.

Her best ever

In my opinion this is the best Carpathian novel Christine Feehan has written. The characters were solid, the romance was her usual good standard but it was the story going on around the lovers that realy had me sitting on the edge of my seat.

I don't normaly write reviews but had to speak out for this book. I couldn't put it down.

It's a great story...

This series has a fascinating story line and is a really enjoyable read. I love Merry and all the other characters and can not wait to find out what happens them. Sadly, however, based on this book, I may actually have died of old age by the time they get out of bed.

Without the endless pages of sex I'd guess the last 5 books have to makings of maybe 2 really excellent ones. Hopefully, this explains why I'm only giving this one 3 stars despite thinking this is one of the best stories I've read in years.

Please Laurell let something other than sex happen soon! Clever plot device to make Meredith's survival depend on her getting pregnant but having been through every position in the Kama Sutra at least twice now with what sometimes feels like 3 million different partners I'm really, really, really ready for the story to move on - even just a little bit.

Extremely helpful

This book really helps you to understand the text in greater depth. I would recommend it for anyone doing Frankenstein coursework at GCSE level, as it builds your confidence before you begin writing your essay.