Jamie's Book Blog

I love reading.  It's as simple as that.

Migrating my site over to Book Host :D

I'm going to be a bit more scarce for a bit. I'm in the process of migrating my site over to my new hosting provider at Book Host. I just want to say this IS the right choice for me and I'm so glad I made it. I love this new hosting provider and the person who runs it is so awesome.  For instance, I've totally screwed up twice and she's been kind enough to come in and help me and she's freaking getting married on Monday. I told her it was okay if she wanted to wait and help me next week but it only took her a second. Both problems were my fault. The first time I was using IE which I didn't mean to do. Internet Explorer sucks for everything lol. And the second time I forgot to turn on my Ultimate Book Blogger plugin so some of my file attachments didn't make the move over during the import. 

Both problems my fault, both problems fixed by her. My new site is super fast and I love that it's all ready to go with more than enough amazing plugins. I didn't have to install wordpress or anything. I'm just going through right now and fixing all of my settings to how they should be. For some reason I'm having a hard time with making the authors show up under the book reviews, I know I'm missing something somewhere but it's no big worry because help is a click away. It's super nice having hosting from someone who not only knows wordpress really well but also someone who knows my theme and plugin so well.  Most everything is done by the hosting provider and all I have to do is jump on and do a few tweaks. This place is going to be awesome for first time bloggers and I think in time it's going to turn into a nice little community. She has plans so you can see other people's  blogs so that everyone who's with Book Hosts will be able to see each other's posts etc and I just really hope in time it becomes more than just a bunch of blogs but sort of a little community sort of like booklikes that will connect all of us together. How cool is that? 

Okay, it's time to stop gushing and get back to work. I need to feed my poor neglected cats. I've just been having so much fun and really like this new hosting. One last plug because they rock: http://bookhost.io/

I'll let everyone know when the transfer is complete so you'll can check it out if you want. It just seems so much faster than my old site :)

Oh that's nice.
Oh that's nice.

Awww this one is adorable. I just found it and had to share because it was so freaking cute! I found it at: http://cheezburger.com/8101270272 by beernbiccies

 

Source: http://cheezburger.com/8101270272

Dastardly Bastard (Audio Book) - Edward Lorn

Dastardly Bastard - Edward Lorn

Okay, I'm currently reading really good book at the moment that I NEED to finish and I'm really enjoying it but I just haven't had much time to read lately.  I just hate reading for a few minutes at a time, especially on a novel. I like to be able to sit down and read for at least an hour or so and I just haven't had much spare time lately :( So in between doing a few things when I had a minute or two to spare I would read a little bit on  one of Edward Lorn's short stories and I really liked them. I visited Red Adept Publishing and they had a contest to win a copy of the Dastardly Bastard Audiobook by none other than Edward Lorn (Yay!) and I entered into it. I meant to come back and get some more entries the next day or two before the contest ended. I think it had like maybe one or two days left but I totally forgot all about it. 

So I'm just now getting around to opening my email and I see a letter that said "You Have Won the Dastardly Bastard Giveaway." 

 

Yay! Winning contests is fun :D :D Yes it requires 2 smiley's 

I hardly ever win anything. I don't know how many winners they chose but even if it was a gazillion that's still cool because I'm usually number a gazillion and one lol :D 

So now I'll have something to listen to while I'm doing other things and don't have time to sit down and read a book :) It's also really cool because I've never listened to an audio book before. This is the only one I own. I haven't even visited audible.com before but it was super easy, I just downloaded their software and have the book on my computer. I've been wanting to get some audio books and if this isn't a sign then I don't know what is.

Red Adept Publishing have some really nice looking books and some awesome authors. I've looked around their site and already added several books to my wishlist. Anyway I'm just happy I won something and just want to say thank you to them along with Edward Lorn for having the contest. After the horrible months of January and February it's nice to have a bit of good luck. Now I'm off to listen to some of it while I do a bit of cleaning. I hate cleaning but maybe it won't suck quite so bad since I have a book to listen to :)

World's Greatest Dad - Edward Lorn

World's Greatest Dad - Edward Lorn

Sorry for the reblog but I totally messed this one up. I didn't even check the review box or add any stars when I originally did it. Also even though I've gone back and fixed it, my shelf still doesn't show a review or rating so I'm just going to redo it. I'm not sure what I did wrong and sorry for any confusion this might have caused :(

 

I just read this one last night and wow! I'm still thinking about it. This is the second short story by Edward Lorn that I've read. The first one was No Such Thing which I really liked. I don't normally read a lot of short stories. I enjoy them every now and then but for the most part I prefer full-length novels and I can't remember the last time I've read a short story collection although I have no idea why I haven't read more of them. They're absolutely perfect for when you just don't  have as much time to read as you would like. I've been super busy lately plus I'm still trying to get over this flu bug. My ear has been killing me and the antibiotics I'm taking make me so sick so I've just been having a hard time reading or doing much of anything lately which is part of why I decided to give No Such Thing a try. I couldn't sit down and read for a few hours like I normally do so it was perfect to just read it in my spare time here and there. So yesterday I went and checked out the rest of Edward Lorn's books and the second I read the blurb on World's Greatest Dad I bought it. I didn't even bother with the sample like I normally do. It just sounded really good plus I'd already enjoyed one of his books and even if I didn't like it that much it was only .99 cents so I didn't have much to lose but OMG was this book worth it! I would have paid so much more had I known how good it was going to be.

 

I don't want to even remotely go into the plot on this one other than to discuss what's in the blurb which is about a dad who's lost his daughter in the most horrible way and he has a chance to avenge her death when messages start appearing on his World's Greatest Dad coffee cup. I was sucked into the story immediately and felt so horrible after reading about what happened to his daughter. I'm not a dad and I can only imagine how hard something like that would be for any parent. I went from feeling horrified to being awed when the messages started appearing. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. I can't even express the range of emotions it elicited out of me. I've read full length novels that didn't draw as many emotions out of me. It was a sad yet satisfying story. I want to talk about the ending so bad but once again I can't. Just trust me this is one you don't want to miss. I mentioned in my last review of his that I think it's just so much harder to write a good short story than it is to write a good full length novel. You just don't have as much to work with and it's so hard to draw a reader in and make them care with so few pages but this book does exactly that. I cared about the main characters, their pain became my pain and I mirrored their anger. There was also one helluva twist to the story that I never saw coming. There aren't many authors that I feel have mastered the finer arts of the short story but I do believe that Edward Lorn has done just that. He is a true master of the short story and I'm looking forward to reading even more of his books no matter their length.

 

 

I love it when a book makes me feel. It doesn't necessarily have to be a good emotion or feeling either. Whether it's loathing for a villain, joy from a hero's triumph or sadness from their loss, I absolutely love it when a good book makes me feel and World's Greatest Dad did just that and so much more. I would give this one ten stars if I was able to but alas there are only five.

Jamie's Indie/Foreign Movie of the week.

 

Today's movie is a gem called Ink. I tend to gravitate towards odd or different kinds of movies and on the few occasions that I do watch a movie I always try to hunt down an indie or foreign one. I appreciate a good Hollywood flick every so often but for the most part I love smaller projects. Movies where directors have to focus more on storytelling than nonstop cgi battle sequences. Movies that have to use special effects in a clever manner because of budget restraints and movies whose creators put their heart and souls into the project and I don't think there's a movie that fits all of these descriptions more than Ink. This movie has plenty of heart and soul.

 

The movie has a 7.0 rating on IMDb and a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's the link to it at IMDb

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1071804/

As the light fades and the city goes to sleep, two forces emerge. They are invisible except for the power they exert over us in our sleep, battling for our souls through dreams.

I've chosen the shorter blurb to describe the movie because I think IMDb gives a little too much away. The director is in no hurry to tell his tale and the pacing is absolutely perfect. As the story progresses more and more layers are added to it's already rich storyline giving this one so much more depth than your average Hollywood flick. Once again I wish Hollywood would take some notes because this is how you make a movie.

 

For it's low budget the acting is superb and the visual effects are truly a sight to see. There are no cheap gimmicks here, and Ink is just as much a visual experience as it is an emotional one. The action scenes are truly amazing and shot in such a way that makes them not only fun but also very unique. And once again as much as I like the Trailer it just fails to do it proper justice. It's like having someone drive home a beat up old car but when you look under the hood it contains a jet engine. There's just so much more going on underneath the hood or cover.

 

Ink is sort of a cerebral fantasy with elements of fantasy, horror, and action and you really just can't put this film into any category or genre. It has multiple story line's running simultaneously between the real world and the realm of dreams and the story line's overlap each other until they finally merge head on during the brilliantly epic conclusion.

 

Just take my word for it and watch this film. It is so good. It made a lasting impression upon me and I think that those who are parents will be moved even more by this film than I was. I just don't know how else to describe it so I'll just throw out some words that come to mind. Awe-inspiring, beautiful, brilliant, stunning, awesome, visual, emotional, dark, light, fantasy, etc etc.

 

I'm going to do this one every Saturday and I doubt I'll ever run out of good Indie or Foreign movies :D 

 

It used to be on Netflix but I don't see it there at the moment. But it's worth buying or renting. Find it wherever you can and watch this movie. This is another one that I will watch time and time again :)

 

http://jamiesbookblog.com/jamies-indieforeign-movie-of-the-week-2/

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1071804

My Top Kindle Deals of the Week - Reloaded!

Night of Cake & Puppets - Laini Taylor The Original Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu Unravel - Calia Read Unremembered - Jessica Brody Blood Will Tell  - Samantha Young Pieces of Me - Ann Garner Nearly Broken  - Devon Ashley The Sweet Gum Tree - Katherine Allred Broken Skies - Theresa Kay The Fixed Trilogy: Fixed on You, Found in You, Forever with You - Laurelin Paige

Okay here's my Top Kindle Deals of the Week and this is how I should have done it originally. Sorry I couldn't fit all of the pictures of the books at the top but I got all of the good ones :D

 

1. Night of Cake and Puppets (Daughter of Smoke & Bone) – Novelette by Laini Taylor – $2.99

I haven’t read this one yet but I own it and I really want to read it. I love the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series and can’t wait for the last one   to come out. I absolutely adore the title of this book :)

 

2. The Original Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu – .99 cents

The Tao Te Ching? Yes Please. Easy to understand and  hard to master. In fact I don’t think anyone ever masters the art of letting go as I like to think of it. If you love philosophy or just want to learn how to be a better person than get this book. Read it, love it and learn the art and the way of harmony. I have multiple versions of this book and this one was a great addition to my library.

 

3. Unravel by Calia Read – $2.99

This one just looks really good. It’s on my soon to buy list. Go check it out, the reviews are good and blurb for it just rocks.

 

4. Unremembered (The Unremembered Trilogy) by Jessica Brody – $2.99

Arrgghh! I’ve been meaning to get this one for forever but then I forget about it. I am going to remember this time. Now what were we talking    about? Oh yeah, this book sounds great. :)

 

5. Blood Will Tell (Warrior’s of Ankh #1) by Samantha Young – $1.14

I forgot where I saw this one. I think I saw another review or maybe a friend recommended it. Another one on my wish list that’s also on my soon to buy list. It sounds like a really good dark fantasy. The main character is a soul-eater near her awakening and soon she may have to be forced to live off of the life force of others. Tell me that doesn’t sound freaking awesome!

 

6. Pieces of Me by Anne Garner – $1.99

A New Adult Romance about love and picking up and repairing those broken pieces of one’s soul. My kind of book.

read more

My Top Free Kindle Books of the Week

Creatus - Carmen DeSousa The Anne Stories: 12 Books, Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne's House of Dreams, Rainbow Valley, Rilla of Ingleside, Chronicles of Avonlea, Audiobook Links - 'Lucy Maud Montgomery',  'Timeless Reads' Deviant (Blood & Roses #1) - Callie Hart The Neanderthal's Aunt - Gina DeMarco Fashionably Dead - Robyn Peterman The Girl in the Box Series, Books 1-3: Alone, Untouched and Soulless - Robert J. Crane The Lamp: A Supernatural Thriller - Jason  Cunningham

My Top Free Kindle Books of the Week back by uhm, not really popular demand or anything so we'll just go with because I feel like it :D

Also these aren't necessarily the best books of the week that are free, they're just my top picks of the week because I'm only going to do this just once a week because I'm super lazy. 

 

And now in no particular order except for that first one that I put first because I totally like the cover but other than that they're not in any particular order :)

1. Creatus (Creatus Series) by Carmen DeSousa

This one looks really good and I love that cover. My biggest fear is that it may be too much like Twilight. I truly hope the main heroine doesn’t try to kill herself because she just can’t live without that gorgeous man who saved her. The totally hot and sparkly guy she knew for all of 2 seconds and at the age of 8 to boot. I just downloaded it and I so hope she’s just super depressed, feels so alone and wants to see her mysterious savior one last time or something. I liked Bella from Twilight but seriously, it’s pretty unhealthy to “love” someone so much that you just lay down in a forest and give up on life.

 

2. Anne of Green Gables: 12 Books, 142 short stories, and more by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Okay I have never read Anne of Green Gables but I know there’s a lot of people who grew up loving these books. This one is for all of you :)

 

3. Deviant (Blood and Roses) by Callie Hart

This is a Dark Romance that sounds nice and violent. I think I’m going to pass on this one but then again it does kind of look good. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll see what you’ll think first. I’m  not sure this one is for me but for those who love a good-dark badboy then hopefully this will be a good one. Haha I just said good-dark,badboy good. Me Jamie rock!

 

4. The Neanderthal’s Aunt by Gina DeMarco

You just have to go and read the blurb to see for yourself. The title sounds odd but the blurb is quite compelling. I just downloaded it and wish I could dig into it right this second. Sigh, too many books and too little time.

 

 

5. Fashionably Dead (Hot Damned Series) by Robyn Peterman

LMAO this one just sounds so crazy that I had to download it. I have no idea what I’m getting myself into but it should be interesting :)

 

 

6. The Girl in the Box Series, Books 1-3: Alone, Untouched and Soulless by Robert J. Crane

Three books for the price of none? Yes please! It sounds pretty neat. I hope they’re good. Just downloaded it.

 

 

7. The Lamp (The Lamp Series, Book 1) by Jason Cunningham

A dystopian thriller about some ex-boxer who was exiled, lost his fame and fortune and has returned to live as a normal guy. He’s given some mysterious item that imbues him with powers and ends up becoming a protector while the evil powers that be try to get their hands on said mysterious item/powers/whatever. I have no idea. It sounds kind of weird. I’m not really into boxing but a good author could totally make this one rock so I’m going to give it a chance and try it.

 

 

Wow now I feel bad for making that last one a crappy link. I forgot I could just copy and paste it all like this :/ I think maybe I'm going to go back and redo that other one just like this. I mean jeez I'm lazy but NOT that lazy :(

World's Greatest Dad - Edward Lorn

World's Greatest Dad - Edward Lorn

Wow, I totally messed up when doing this review here. I forgot to mark it as a review and how many stars. This is definitely a 5 star book. I just noticed it on my shelf so I'm trying to fix it. Sorry :/

 

I just read this one last night and wow! I'm still thinking about it. This is the second short story by Edward Lorn that I've read. The first one was No Such Thing which I really liked. I don't normally read a lot of short stories. I enjoy them every now and then but for the most part I prefer full-length novels and I can't remember the last time I've read a short story collection although I have no idea why I haven't read more of them. They're absolutely perfect for when you just don't  have as much time to read as you would like. I've been super busy lately plus I'm still trying to get over this flu bug. My ear has been killing me and the antibiotics I'm taking make me so sick so I've just been having a hard time reading or doing much of anything lately which is part of why I decided to give No Such Thing a try. I couldn't sit down and read for a few hours like I normally do so it was perfect to just read it in my spare time here and there. So yesterday I went and checked out the rest of Edward Lorn's books and the second I read the blurb on World's Greatest Dad I bought it. I didn't even bother with the sample like I normally do. It just sounded really good plus I'd already enjoyed one of his books and even if I didn't like it that much it was only .99 cents so I didn't have much to lose but OMG was this book worth it! I would have paid so much more had I known how good it was going to be.

 

I don't want to even remotely go into the plot on this one other than to discuss what's in the blurb which is about a dad who's lost his daughter in the most horrible way and he has a chance to avenge her death when messages start appearing on his World's Greatest Dad coffee cup. I was sucked into the story immediately and felt so horrible after reading about what happened to his daughter. I'm not a dad and I can only imagine how hard something like that would be for any parent. I went from feeling horrified to being awed when the messages started appearing. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. I can't even express the range of emotions it elicited out of me. I've read full length novels that didn't draw as many emotions out of me. It was a sad yet satisfying story. I want to talk about the ending so bad but once again I can't. Just trust me this is one you don't want to miss. I mentioned in my last review of his that I think it's just so much harder to write a good short story than it is to write a good full length novel. You just don't have as much to work with and it's so hard to draw a reader in and make them care with so few pages but this book does exactly that. I cared about the main characters, their pain became my pain and I mirrored their anger. There was also one helluva twist to the story that I never saw coming. There aren't many authors that I feel have mastered the finer arts of the short story but I do believe that Edward Lorn has done just that. He is a true master of the short story and I'm looking forward to reading even more of his books no matter their length.

 

 

I love it when a book makes me feel. It doesn't necessarily have to be a good emotion or feeling either. Whether it's loathing for a villain, joy from a hero's triumph or sadness from their loss, I absolutely love it when a good book makes me feel and World's Greatest Dad did just that and so much more. I would give this one ten stars if I was able to but alas there are only five.

 

 

 

I've been watching a lot of fan made films on Youtube lately. There's some pretty good ones out there of the X-Men like the one's from Throwback Studioz (like this one) which Grimlock turned me onto. They're also fun for a good laugh like every time Nightcrawler is running the guy does this dinky little hop that totally cracks me up.  But today I found a Star Wars indie/fan film that is very good. It has some really decent acting, the special effects are great. I mean they look better than most of the crap sci fi channel puts out. It's in French but you can click on the Closed Captions and read what they're saying. I was just very impressed. The clone troopers look very good.  Oh there's a few cheesy moments but all in all it's one of the more professional one's I've seen.  Give it a try if you're into this kind of thing.

 

The dude's lightsabers look tiny though :/ 

It's: Star Wars - Versus: The Way to Shadow by Versus Thewaytoshadow

 

,

Reblogged from Derrolyn Anderson:

This is from a year ago I think so I can only imagine how much further the technology has come but this is just absolutely amazing. I can't wait until the day that every man, woman and child who has ever lost a limb can get something like without having to empty their bank accounts. That's a pretty sweet arm to be honest.  

Reading progress update: I've read 100%.

World's Greatest Dad - Edward Lorn

OMG this story was so good. I really wanted to write my review tonight but it's getting so late and I'm just so tired. I'm going to do it first thing tomorrow after I get through shopping. Tomorrow is keep the cats happy day where I go buy them a crap load of food and buy myself some sandwiches :D I hate shopping day or better known as payday. 

But enough about my pets, you need to read this story! Seriously it just pulled so many emotions out of me. I've only read 2 of Edward Lorn's short stories but I am super impressed. Like I said before, there are full length novels that don't touch this many emotions within me and I'm not the most articulate or literate person in the world but I really think he's mastered the art of the short story. Okay, I'm going to shut up now and save the rest for my review so you don't all have to read the same stuff twice :)  Get this book though, it's sooooo good!

MS Walk 2014! Please help spread the word?

Reblogged from The Surly Dragon:

Not sure how many (or to be honest, if any) folks who follow my BookLikes blog are in the New England area, but if you are, this is a very good cause!

 

My mom and I started volunteering at the local MS office when she was diagnosed back in '94.  Although the MS Society office chapter up here is not what it once was, there is a core of folks who meet monthly and have a great support network via phone and internet. My mom and I (and many others from this gang) volunteer at the Brewer/Bangor walk which is coming up next month.

 

So far, we are at 3% of the fundraising goal of 41k.  As someone whose budget tends to be fairly tight, I understand (and feel rather dirty asking for money) if folks do not have the funds to donate, but would appreciate if the word regarding this event could be spread :)

 

For more info, you can check out the MS Walk site here:  

 

https://secure3.convio.net/nmss/site/SPageServer/pagename=WLK_MAM_Landing_Page

 

 

Reading progress update: I've read 45%.

Almost Adept - Olga Godim

Unfortunately I've had so much going on that I just haven't had time to read near as much as I'd like to. I'm really enjoying the book but there's two small things that are bugging me a bit. I'll have to wait until it's over to see how they turn out but they're not ruining the story for me or anything. The whole losing her virginity thing just seems a little bit weird to me, even with it being a more medieval and open society. I sort of wish she'd forget about that and the story move on towards more of a love type situation which will probably happen. I get why she wants/needs to lose her virginity but she already seems powerful enough regardless of what her title is and I get that she needs to be content with who she is, her body along with her sexuality to grow as not only a person but as a mage who has full control over her abilities but it just seems weird her thinking about it at a time of danger or when she's starting to possibly care for someone.  Of course she is a teenager so....:)

No Such Thing - Edward Lorn

No Such Thing - Edward Lorn

I've been wanting to read one of Edward Lorn's books for a while now and I have actually bought a couple of them but I just  hadn't found the time to read any of them yet. Then I saw a review for No Such Thing and realized it was a short story so I thought it would be the perfect way to try out his writing so I grabbed the book and dug into it last night. Now I just want to state I have sort of a love/hate relationship with short stories. Any author can write a short story but not every author can write a good short story. There's a lot of reasons for this I think. Mainly I believe it's just so much harder to write a good short story than it is to write a good novel. You just have so much less to work with and it's hard to make someone really care about a character in just a few short pages.

 

No Such Thing is sort of a blend between Horror and Science Fiction and is very much a mad scientist tale and these aren't always my favorites either. I mean I seem to be the only one who hated The Re-Animator (Yeah I know, get line and give me a good kick but I truly did not like it). But still I wanted to try this book and the first thing I realized was that I did NOT like the main character. Johan Schmidt is just a pompous jerk and that's putting it nicely. At the start of the story he's giving a lecture and trying to get some investor's to part with their money by selling them his ideas on his research and quite frankly it's just not going very well for him and then after the lecture he's approached by a woman and asked if he'd like to meet her boss Eliot Von Lennon who is a highly respected scientist with a ton of money I might add so Johan accompanies her to see what he wants and Eliot Von Lennon offers him a huge sum of money to help him with a project he has going on and the rest is just pure insanity.

 

I'd love to get into the story more but I've probably given enough away as it is. I did not like Johan, he was pretty much a slimeball who's scientific practices would be considered highly unethical and dubious even if they're not strictly illegal.  He seemed patronizing, rude, egotistical but he was highly intelligent and driven. His attitude towards women wasn't much better .... at least not in the beginning.

 

Even though I didn't like him the story started evolving and the tension set in. I found my heart rate increasing as this sense of dread just slowly overcame me. The amount of horror just kept increasing and by the end of the book I was literally sweating. I was horrified, shocked even and I thought the ending was simply brilliant. I still didn't care for Johan too much but he earned a great deal of respect from me at the end.  Mainly I love this story because of how it made me feel. It made my skin crawl, it made me forget to breathe, it put me on the edge of my seat and it totally freaked me out. You just can't ask for much more than that. So I definitely give it 5 stars. I've read horror novels that couldn't do this to me in over 300 pages yet Edward Lorn managed to do all of that in around 30 so my hats off to Mr. Lorn.

 

Oh, there was also another very short story called The Red Crayon that was included and I loved this story too. Within the first couple of paragraphs I felt for the main character and all too sadly I could really relate to him. I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to ruin it but I will say that I imagine there have been many of us who felt exactly like that at one point or another in our lives. This story had a different type of dread to it that crept in when I wasn't looking and continually increased until the very last word.

SPOILER ALERT!

A Nostalgic Moment: That old thing in the ground or Vampires on trains :D

WARNING: There could be some spoilers here if you've never read the Necroscope series.

This was the very first book I read up on top of my old abandoned train car. I've told this story before but for those of you who may be new I'll go ahead and tell it again. I had a hard time during high school fitting in and when I was around 15 we moved to a new town. It was very small and I didn't have any friends. I was also having a problem with a few of the local kids. What is it about being quite and shy that just seems to attract all of the jerks? Anyway I just got sick of the whole affair and started skipping school so most days I'd walk to town, visit the library, grab a good book and then make my way to some old train tracks that were a little ways away from the shipping yard and back in this overgrown section there was an old train car just sitting there. Each day I'd climb up on it and just lay down and read a book.

 

This particular day was literally one of the first few times I'd ever skipped school (which I strongly advise young people not to do. I regret not getting a better education) and I had seen that old train but had never gone near it. That morning I went to the library and saw this book that just looked different than anything I'd ever seen before. It was Blood Brothers by Brian Lumley. I read it was about vampires and it sounded awesome so I checked it out and made my way to that train and for the first time I climbed that ladder and sat down on top and opened a book. The rest of that day was just pure magic.

 

Blood Brothers is unlike anything I've ever read before. It takes place on a world that's called Sunside/Starside by the local gypsy inhabitants. Once humans had settlements and most live on Sunside where there are more hours of daylight than night while the vampires live in Starside which is dark more often than light. So the humans are very much like gypsies. They're become nomadic and never stay in one spot for very long and constantly keep moving to avoid the vampires which hunt them at night. They hunt them for blood, to make new thralls, to build the insides of their aeries. They are totally twisted and evil vampires. Forget Anne Rice, these guys make Lestat look like prince charming.

 

They turn humans by leaving any part of themselves within the human. It can be saliva from a bite, it can be during battle. Some will break a part of their fingernail off inside a human's eyesocket when they kill them. Some will rape those they attack. They're just completely twisted. They look like humans until they completely change and then their jaws just keep extending and giant rows of dagger like teeth extend as their mouths fill with blood. All of them have some type of psychic abilities and some of them have amazing control over their own bodies and can use metamorphosis to control them. In a latter book there's one that looks like a giant bat and can fly. Some of them can turn their arms into these air foils and use them to glide. Some have other abilities like Necromancy or the evil eye which they can use to harm or kill with a glance. It sounds crazy but trust me it works. They use their own blood and fluids to create thralls, they can create these giant gas beats and horrible beasts of war made up of multiple humans and human parts. They ride on these giant flyers made up of human parts that have been warped and grown in their vats and they wear these giant gauntlets covered in blades, fish hooks, etc that are way larger than any human fist. When they put their hands inside them they extend their own flesh to make it fit.

 

During the book you read about two gypsy brothers who are the offspring of someone everyone keeps referring to as Harry Hell-lander who came from a different world and saved the gypsies. I was starting to think this one was a sequel early on but when Nathan is transported through one of the two portals in this world and ends up on Earth and finally meets up with British Ebranch which is a government branch dealing with espionage and when I say espionage I mean ESPionage then it was confirmed that this was in fact part of a larger series. Soon after I finished the book I went to a used book store and found five more books about the Necroscope from Brian Lumley and they were:

 

Necroscope
Necroscope II: Vamphyri
Necroscope III: The Source
Necroscope IV: Deadspeak
Necroscope V: Deadspawn

 

I devoured those books. It was so cool getting to go back and read about the original Necroscope Harry Keogh who is a man that can speak to the dead. In fact the dead love him so much that they'll rise from their graves just to help him. The first book he has to fight a Necromancer, one who rips secrets from the dead and can make them feel pain even beyond the grave and it's also his first run in with these vampires. This whole series is just on a level all it's own with it's sheer imaginative world and characters.

 

I'm not doing the best of job describing it but trust me this one rocks! Some people say to stop reading after the first five books, others say the first three. I say read the first 8 books. The Necroscope plus the Vampire World Trilogy. Anything after that is just fluff and not as good but those first 8 are just amazing. There's a lot of crazy espionage, psychic powers, vampires, action, etc. That first day reading this up on that train was probably one of my favorite days ever. Harry Keogh is still my favorite character of all time and these vampires are hands down my favorite. They're mean, nasty, intelligent and they can even harm you beyond the grave. Never let one of these guys into your mind of your own free will.

 

This is also the first series that truly made me love a good series and I can remember the next few years eagerly waiting for each new book to come out. I was working 9 to 5 at a Sonic and yes I was a damn fine burger flipper. I could totally flip a burger all the way to the ceiling and catch it behind my back. Sponegebob would have been proud. I didn't make crap for a living and could barely afford anything but I remember buying each book for around twenty something bucks just because there was NO way I could wait on the paperback to come out. The only other series I'd read up to this point was the Dragonlance Legends and Chronicles but I just wasn't much of a series reader. This book changed that and I still love a good series. My old train is gone, school has been long over yet still I have these memories. Even while other memories try to bury me in their darkness I will always have these shining so brightly that I will never get lost in the dark again.

 

http://jamiesbookblog.com/a-nostalgic-moment-that-old-thing-in-the-ground-or-vampires-on-trains-d/

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