Books: HP7, Vampires, and The Thing That Made Love

[woodwardiocom]

HP7

I finished re-reading the Harry Potter series recently. I presume a review is unnecessary.

The Strain by Del Toro, Hogan

A new vampire novel, co-authored by the director of the Hellboy movies. This is set in contemporary New York, stars a CDC employee, and tries to tread the line of scientifically explainable vampires, with some missteps. It's definitely Stephen King-ish, with lengthy asides about the lives of characters who are just there to die horribly. Oh, and it's the first in a trilogy. I was occasionally a little bored, but I think I'll pick up the next one. Very mildly recommended.

The Thing That Made Love by David V. Reed

The Million Year Picnic (my comics store of choice) got in some trashy 1950s pulp novels recently, and I couldn't resist picking this one up. Its subtitle declares, "No woman could survive such harrowing ecstasy!" The nominal premise is that a new form of metallic life arises in a junkyard outside New York. It makes itself known to a couple men (El and Jim), then tries to seduce a couple women, resulting in their deaths (though, allegedly, with looks of delight on their faces). El is convicted of the murders, and the novel is told from the point of view of a friend of his, attempting to put together the pieces and figure out if El is guilty. The end result (which I'm going to spoil) is that it turns out Jim hypnotized El (among others), there was no metal beast, and the deaths were just ordinary murders by Jim. (The looks of delight don't really get explained.) This novel is actually a (not very well-written) courtroom drama-slash-psychological thriller, with nothing like the salaciousness suggested by the cover. Parts are outright contradictory, and the author blithely sweeps past questions like, "Didn't the other people at the party notice when El and Jean returned from their walk covered in mud?" Alas, this was trashy in all the wrong ways.

Comments

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

That last one sounds like a great framing opportunity, though!