The Last Aerie, by Brian Lumley

The Last Aerie was a pretty good book. I didn't think it was quite as good as Blood Brothers, but I liked it. I'm not really sure what else to say about it. It was a good continuation of the storyline, and I'll certainly pick up the final volume of the trilogy if I can. So, I'll just sum up my feelings by giving this book four yo-yos.

Blood Brothers, by Brian Lumley

I finally decided to buy a use copy of Brian Lumley's Blood Brothers, which seems to have gone out of print (as far as I can see, none of the other books in the series are). This is the first volume of the Vampire World Trilogy, which chronicles the story of Harry Keogh's twin suns, Nathan and Nestor, in the alternate universe where the vampire menace was spawned.

Both boys take after their father. Unfortunately, Nestor seems to have all of his father's worst qualities and ends up becoming Wamphyri. Nathan's a much better sort and goes around befriending people and learning. I like the characters. I like the plot (it has lots of action). I like the opening, despite its flaws.

The opening is a recap of past events, a mini-biography of Shaitan (the first vampire), and a history of how a vampire colony was founded across the desert from the inhabited parts of the vampire world. Normally, putting that kind of stuff at the beginning of a book would annoy me, but it was so well written that I didn't care.

This is probably the best book in the Necroscope series, except for the original. I give Blood Brothers a full five yo-yos.

Avengers! ... No Not the Ones from Marvel

I finally finished Necroscope: Avengers. Looking over Amazon's reviews for it, I see that quite a lot of people didn't like it, and some even hated it. Personally, I thought it was a terrific wrap up for the E-Branch Trilogy.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think it's as good as the Necroscope books that star Harry Keogh, but I still think it's a pretty darn good book. We get to see the evil vampires--Malinari, Swartz, and Vavara--destroyed. We don't get to see the Earth safe again though (I don't want to give spoilers, so I won't say exactly why). We do learn that eventually, in the distant future, everything will turn out all right.

It's a good ending for the series. Yes, I know The Touch was written later, but it happened before the E-Branch Trilogy, so I'm not counting it. I like it a lot, so I'll give this one four and a half yo-yos.

Sadly, I'm just about out of new books to read; all I've got left is King Solomon's Mines, which I'm not really enjoying all that much. I should be receiving a book I ordered from Lulu.com soon (it was reccommended by a reader in the comments section on Miss Snark's Blog), and my next book should ship from Zooba soon (It's a Conan book). Still, don't be surprised if it's a while before I post again.

Defiled and yet Defiant

Anyway, on tho Brian Lumley's Necroscope: Defilers. This is the second book in the E-Branch Trilogy, and I liked it more than the first one. Mostly, I think, because there are far fewer references to the Vampire World Trilogy (which I haven't read yet).

This book sees Jake cutter, the new Necroscope, finishing his vendetta against Luigi Casellano, who--surprise, surprise--it turns out is really a vampire. He's the blood son of one of the mafia vampires from Necroscope: The Lost Years. Luckily, Jake realizes the full extent of his Necroscopic abilities and calls up the dead to finish off the undead vampires. Meanwhile, the rest of E-Branch is fighting a bunch of vampire nuns on a Greek island.

It sounds kind of silly, but it's very good. I could hardly put this one down. This is a very great book, and--despite the fact that I'm not reading it next--I'm really looking forward to the third book in the series. The only thing that I didn't like was the chronology, which confused me a little bit.

You see, the other Necroscope books are mostly set in the 1980s, but the E-Branch books are set in the near future (2011, I think). Still it's a minor matter, and won't stop from giving Necroscope: Defilers 4.5 yo-yos.

It's an Invasion

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I've been busy. Anyway, I finished Brian Lumley's Necroscope: Invaders (part 1 of the E-Branch Trilogy). While it is a good book, I think it might have been better if I'd read his Vampire World Trilogy first, because Invaders keeps referring to events in the Vampire World trilogy.

Like the previously reviewed Necroscope: The Touch, this story involves a man who has been hit by one of (the now deceased) Harry Keogh's golden darts and who has gained Necroscopic powers from it. In this case, this man is Jake Cutter, a man who has killed several people in the name of vengeance.

In Invaders, Jake and E-Branch are fighting against a vampire out of Starside (the alternate universe vampires originated in). He's called Malinari the Mind, because he has incredible telepathic powers. Two other vampires came with him, and they too have fearsome powers, though we don't actually meet them in this book. Malinari has set up shop in Australia, and it was only through luck they managed to find him.

This is a good book. As much as I liked the character of Harry Keogh, the lame plot devices Lumley used to prevent Keogh from using his full Necroscope powers got old real quick. Jake is still learning how to use them, so he doesn't need plot devices to keep him in check. I'll give Invaders 4.5 yo-yos.

To Surge Again

Okay, so now I've finished Necroscope: Resurgence. To be honest, I didn't like it all that much.

I thought it tended to bog down in the middle. Harry (the Necroscope) spends most of the book wandering around and acting crazy because he's been hypnotized too often. He even ends up in a mental hospital for a while. Eventually, he gets better with the help of Franz Mesmer, Nostradamus, and the two people who originally hypnotized him.

There was a lot of stuff about the vampires running around and killing each other, too. That was more interesting than Harry acting crazy, but it still wasn't all that great. Things did pick up once Harry got his shit together. Then he just killed all the vampires and made the world safe again (without any real effort).

While this book wasn't great, it wasn't terrible either. Since it's half a book (and compliments an earlier review)I'll give it 1.5 out of 2.5 yo-yos.

Where Does The Time Go?

I didn't even realize that I haven't posted for four days until just now. If I had, there probably would have been something else here yesterday or the day before. In any case, it's time for my review of Brian Lumley's Necroscope: The Lost Years.

If you've read my previous posts, you know I like the Necroscope series. The only real problem I have with the series is that the Necroscope is just too powerful; He can learn just about anything by talking to the dead, he can get the dead to rise up to save him, he can travel anywhere instantly through the "Möbius Continuum," and in the later books (though not this one) he ended up getting all kinds of extra powers from other psychics. So, all of the books I've read have used one ploy or another to keep the Necroscope from using his powers to their fullest extent. This time around, it's a post-hypnotic suggestion that he isn't to reveal his powers to anyone.

In this book, Harry Keogh--the Necroscope--is fighting three groups of Wamphyri (vampires and werewolves). He seems to have fallen in love with a female werewolf, though he doesn't know she's a werewolf because of he mesmeric abilities. Her sire, the father of all werewolves, is trapped in amber (not the Zelany Amber, the rock), and she needs Harry's help to revive him. There are other Wamphyri causing trouble as well. There are two vampire/mafia don brothers and a vampiric Tibetan monk. All of the Wamphyri naturally want to kill each other.

Over all, I liked the book, but I don't like the fact that it's been chopped in half. I don't like it when books in a series don't stand on their own. This one has no real ending; the ending is the next book, Resurgence. I had been planning on reading Wodehouse's Jill the Reckless next, but now I'll have to read the next Necroscope book just to find out what happens. Sigh, half a good book gets 2 out of 2.5 yo-yos.

Can't Touch This!

Well, I finished Brian Lumley's Necroscope: The Touch yesterday. As is usual with Lumley's Necroscope books, I liked it. This one is different than the other ones I've read.

First off, Harry's dead in this one; yes, I know he's dead in the Vampire World and E Branch trilogies too, but I haven't read them yet. In this book, the Necroscope is Scott St. John. Scott's wife died at exactly the same time as Harry Keogh, and he (Scott, I mean) received a metaphysical golden arrow containing a part of Harry's soul. Of course, Scott is so messed up by his wife's death--and he doesn't really believe in his powers anyway--so he doesn't use his new found powers until near the end of the book.

The other major difference between this book and the other Necroscope books is the villains; they aren't vampires this time. Instead, the world is facing imminent destruction at the hands of a trio of insane aliens. All members of their species have the ability to warp flesh with just a touch. Most members of their race used it to heal, but the Mordri Three, as the aliens are called, use it to torture and kill.

The Mordri Three are on a quest to prove the nonexistence of God. Their theory is that since God is good, He would try to stop evil, so they will be as evil as possible, and if God doesn't stop them, He doesn't exist. They show their evil not just through killing and torture, but also by destroying entire planets. So far, they've wiped out three planets and three civilizations, and Earth is next.

Scott isn't alone in his fight. He is aided by a wolf and a good alien--who make up his Three--and by E Branch. There isn't much they can do though, until Scott finally stops screwing around and uses his Necroscope powers. It's pretty obvious why Scott waited so long to use his powers. It's because otherwise the novel would have been a short story.

Sadly enough, despite all their powers, their vast knowledge, and their advanced technology, the aliens seemed no more formidable than the vampires. As much as I like these books, the Necroscope's just too damn strong. With all his powers, he can beat just about anybody with no trouble. Even so, I found this book very entertaining, so I'll give it 5 yo-yos.

The Necroscope (And Some Other Guys Too)

Ok, so I did pick up something at Borders that I decided to read first: Brian Lumley's Harry Keogh: Necroscope and Other Weird Heroes. As you may know, if you've looked at my older posts, I like the Necroscope books. Since I last reviewed one, I've read the series up to volume five, which is the last part of the regular series.

This is a short story collection. It contains three Necroscope stories, three Titus Crow stories, and two Dreamlands stories. While I have read Lumley's Necroscope books, I haven't read any of his other stuff; not because I don't want to, but because my local bookstores don't carry them, which is a shame. From reading these short stories, I think I would like the other series as well.

The Necroscope stories are "Dead Eddy," "Dinosaur Dreams," and "Resurrection." One good point about these stories is that, unlike the novels, Harry doesn't fight vampires in any of them. It's a nice change of pace to see him doing something else. I really enjoyed "Dead Eddy" and "Dinosaur Dreams," though I thought they were both perhaps a trifle long. " didn't like Resurrection though, "I just thought it was weird and boring.

I also though that the first Titus Crow story, "Inception," was boring. It makes me believe that secret origin stories should be saved for masked vigilantes and super heroes. The other two Crow stories were much better. I really enjoyed "Lord of the Worms," and I thought "Name and Number" was pretty good too.

The Dreamlands stories were fairly different from the rest. They were more like straight up fantasy as opposed to the horror/weird fiction feel of the Crow and Necroscope ones. Still, I like fantasy, and these stories, which seem to be set in the dreamland of H. P. Lovecraft, are very good. The heroes are very heroic, and the stories themselves are reminiscent of the dream tales of Dunsany and Lovecraft.

I have to give this book 4 yo-yos, because I really didn't like those two stories, but the rest were great. Up next will probably be what I told you I'd read this time.

Two For One...

No, I’m not reviewing another omnibus. I’ve gotten so far behind in writing my review for Rakkety Tam that I’ve already finished Necroscope Three: The Source. So, I’m going to write reviews for both of them.

As you know—assuming you’ve read my other reviews—I’m a big fan of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. I haven’t been too impressed with some of the more recent books in the series, however. Because of this, I wasn’t entirely certain whether or not this would be a good one. Luckily, it was.

This is one of my favorite books in the series. The villains in this one are definitely nasty; they’re cannibals! The titular hero of this book is a squirrel with a Scottish accent and a feisty temper. He is also the most interesting Redwall Champion that we’ve seen in years. You’ll also find all of the classic Redwall elements: riddles, songs, and of course, the feasts.

This book is highly recommended for the young and the young at heart. I give it 5 yo-yos.





Besides being a fan of Redwall, I’ve also recently become a fan of Brian Lumley’s Necroscope series. This is also a great book in a great series, though part of the jacket description is slightly misleading:

When Jazz Simmons, a British agent sent to infiltrate the base, is captured by the KGB ESP-ionage squad and forced through the portal, his last message tells Harry Keogh, necroscope, that the vampires are preparing for a mass invasion.

Jazz Simmons doesn’t send Harry a message; they don’t even know each other. Also, The vampires aren’t planning an invasion.

Other than that, this is a great story. Harry is a very interesting character, and he is much more of a presence in this story than he was in the previous novel. Also, there are several surprise plot twists that will keep you guessing.

Brian Lumley really knows how to write great horror. I give it 5 yo-yos.






Up next, I’m reading Orson Scott Card’s Lost Boys, which has absolutely nothing to do with the movie of the same name.

The Dead and the Undead

Vamphyri! is the second book in Brian Lumley’s popular Necroscope seriesI had previously read, and immensely enjoyed, volume 1, Necroscope. While I didn’t think this book was quite as good as its predecessor, I still thought it was exceptionally good.

This book tells the story of Harry Keogh, the vampiric Yulian Bodescu, and the British and Russian ESP spy groups. As the novel begins, Harry—the necroscope—is slightly dead, and sharing the body of his infant son. He discovers that the vampires, who he believed had been exterminated in the previous book, were not quite gone yet. Yulian Bodescu had been infected with the vampiric taint while still in the womb, making hm a half vampire. Now the ghost of the master vampire Thibor Ferenczy plans to use Yulian to return to life, but with the combined help of the two ESP branches, Harry tries to destroy the vampires once and for all.

As I said, I didn’t like this book quite as much as the original, mainly because Harry wasn’t in it quite as much. However, this book does have much of interest. We get the life story of Thibor Herenczy and his maker. We get to know other members of the British psychic spies. We get to meet a vampire who’s even more horrible than the one from the last book. The plot is excellent, and the writing is well up to par.

I definitely think this book is well worth reading, though you should definitely read the first volume first. I give this book 4.5 yo-yos.



Up next, I'm reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's Bloody Sun.