Continuing on from my THE STRAIN review, this book keeps up Hogan and Del Toro’s story of Eph Goodweather and his team of vamp-battling white hats. We've got the average man who becomes a hero, the token girl who is the most emotional of the group (grrr I hate this trope), the wise and knowing mentor, the new hope (Eph's son), the tank... all the usual’s. Despite being tropestastic, the characters are done well, and we even get some warring gangbangers to help in the in the battle – which I liked, along with a seasoned Mexican wrestler.
So in this book, we've travelled past the "OMG vamps exist!!" part of the story and have moved on into "we must stop this terrible plague or die trying!"
The central plot focuses on stopping the spread of the usual cattle vampire infection, and also revolves around a certain ancient macguffin that will end all vampires or whatever it does.
It's a good story, it's well paced and well written, despite the fact the limelight must be shared among so many (which I had issue with in the first book). In face I still haven’t shaken the idea that these books are merely an accompaniment to the movie they really wanted to make. Perhaps it feels this way because of Del Toro. Anyway, I don’t find the head hopping so obvious in this one, or maybe I just got used to it.
It’s the middle book in a trilogy, and because of this it does fall into the usual trouble of having a plot that can’t progress too far. However, lessening the emphasis on the plot (and now knowing the vampire physiology from the first book) this novel is really more of a character study. I know at the end of my last review I hoped for more forward motion, but honestly, I really don't mind spending time with these characters.
Perhaps this is why I didn’t mind the head hopping… it wasn’t getting in the way of anything this time.
At any rate, I am ordering the last book in the trilogy – THE NIGHT ETERNAL – as soon as I have some money.
