The Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

I finished up reading the del Toro / Hogan vampire trilogy. The third book is The Night Eternal. It was a tremendously good book and outstanding conclusion to the trilogy.

In this book it's two years after The Fall. The vampires under the Master have won. Humanity has been subjugated under vampire domination. The air has been intentionally poisoned with pollution and black rain and only 2 hours a day of weak sunlight. It's only during that time that the vampires have to go and hide.

The vampires no longer go around rampaging, drinking humans dry and turning them into vamps. There are now concentration camps in which serve as blood farms where both fresh blood is produced for the vampire ruling class; as well as baby farms to produce future generations of human blood producers of the preferred B+ blend.

Still the Master's enemies from the earlier books battle on in the underground resistance. The story centers around Professor Setrakian's confederates Eph, Nora, Fet and Gus who were the principals of the earlier books - and of course the Master. The running theme of Eph's struggle for his son Jake's soul runs through the book. Jake has been taken by his mother to the Master who keeps him unturned and human, grooming him for a sinister plan. Also the pseudo-vampire Quinlan is prominent in book III and his fascinating backstory and relationship to the Master is explored.

In the story Fet comes into an armed nuclear bomb sans a detonator. Additionally the resistance still has the Occido Lumen book which, combined with the nuke, may contain the secret to destroying the Master and his undead brood. The book is the story of their attempts to unlock the secrets of the Lumen, acquire a detonator, battle hunger, stay a step ahead of the Master's vampire horde (along with the vampires human accomplices), and come up with a plan destroy the Master and his vampire empire.

The teasers from the first two books about the origin of the vampire Master and the other 6 Ancients is explored in a gripping side tale dating back to biblical times.

It's a superb story, fast paced and really well written. The ending was outstanding. I'd like to see this made into a movie series.

Well that finishes off a multi part book series. I've got a couple more with one book to finish as well. So I should try to get through those too.

The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

I recently read The Fall the second book in the vampire trilogy. I noticed it at the library and picked it up.

It was a good book. A very fast paced read. This story picks up where The Strain left off with the same principals Setrakian, Fet, Ephraim, Gus, Nora, and Eph's son Zack; battling it out against the Master, Palmer, and the Master's fast growing horde of turned vampires including Zack's mother Kelly.

Only one significant character is added in this book, an aged former wrestler named Angel who appropriately fought as the Silver Angel. In the story there are a number of struggles going on. There is a battle over a key ancient text called Occido Lumen that may hold the key to defeat the Master. Additionally there is the New York and now worldwide struggle against the spreading plague of vampirism, as well Eph and vampire Kelly battle over Zack's fate.

For a middle book the authors do a great job of moving the story along very swiftly while sticking to the storyline. There is the expected amount of attrition along the way to be believable. There are still enough principals left at the end of book two to make book three The Night Eternal compelling. I'll definitely read it when I see it.

The Strain Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

I finished another book recently. It was The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It was a pretty good book. For a co-authored I couldn't tell which part was written by whom, so it was good for that.

It's a story about vampires. Interestingly it takes place in New York. The plague starts with a plane from Berlin that goes black after landing at JFK airport. It turns out one of the lead vampires known as The Master was on board. He was brought to America by a wealthy man with a selfish and sinister agenda.

These vampires are deadly and scary. There's no beautiful people a la twilight. As the plague starts evil is opposed by Dr. Ephriam from the CDC, his partner / love-interest Nora, and an interesting former professor and Nazi survivor from Europe Dr. Setrakian. The pawn shop owner Setrakian is there to explain to Eph what's going on. He also handily has an array of useful weapons to kill vampires. The most effective is still sunshine.

The book reads a bit like a screenplay. Like many modern novels I believe it was written in a way that would be friendly to adaptation to a major motion picture. I believe one of the authors is associated with Hollywood.

The story builds momentum throughout as the vampire outbreak worsens and it was a pretty good finish. The descriptions of The Master are very well done and quite scary.

I guess this is another multi part series. So I'll probably look for book two some time.