I know, because I work in a bookstore, that there were people who were extremely excited to get their hands on a copy of this book. But, was the book really something to get excited about? I decided to find out.

From the title alone, I already knew that this was book was likely to fall into the Romance genre, which is my least favorite category of books. I read the back cover, and found out that this book is made up of four short stories, by four different authors, which made it a bit more interesting. There were a lot of pages here, and I figured that since it was split into four different stories, maybe I could manage to read it. After all, if I didn’t like one story, there were three more to try! Two things made me decide I would read this book. One, it sounded like there would be at least one vampire in it, and hinted at demons and werewolves as well. That’s usually a good thing. Two, I got it for free, because I work at a bookstore. Can’t go wrong there!

By the time I was done, I got about what I expected. I asked someone I work with who also has read this book what she thought of it. She summed it up quite nicely. “Eh.”

The first story is by Kim Harrison, and is called “Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil”. I had high hopes for this one, thinking it would be something like the book by a similar name. I ended up liking this story the best out of the four. Ivy is a vampire, but a “living” vampire. She works in a CSI type place, that is run by vampires who aren’t alive anymore. Her boss is attractive, but is hitting on her, and so, she’s not interested. She knows he only wants her for her blood. The Vampire boss isn’t allowed to just take it though, without her permission, so he tries to change her mind. There are some pretty well written scenes of the two of them trying to tease the other one into giving in first. The best part of the story is the “universe” it is set in. It had witches, banshees, werewolves, and a whole hierarchy of vampires. I would like to have read more about all of that.

The second story was by Lynsay Sands, and is called “The Claire Switch Project”. Claire works in a lab with two guys she has known since high school. One has asked her out, but she declined. The other one is the twin brother of her best friend, and she is damned near in love with him. The three are working on zapping animals with some kind of laser, to make them be able to change their appearance like chameleons. Its pretty obvious where this is going. Some of it might have been a little funny, if it wasn’t so telegraphed before hand. No surprises here. I almost quit reading this story when Claire and her best friend are talking about a glamorous, sexy, popular, actor, who is in all the movies, who Sands named “Brad Cruise”! C’mon!

Kelley Armstrong wrote the third story, called “Chaotic”. Hope is a half demon who is working by day for a tabloid, and by night as a spy of sorts for some secret group. She goes on a blind date with this guy her mom set her up with to a museum for a benefit. Within seconds, its clear that two things are going on here. One, the blind date guy is boring. Two, there is someone trying to steal jewels from the museum, which Claire finds out about because she’s a half-demon who can sense chaos. The story takes some interesting twists and turns. There are a few sex scenes in the story, which seemed kind of thrown into the story, and not really essential. I would have liked to know more about the half-demons and all their weird powers instead.

The last story in the book was called “Dead Man Dating” and was written by Lori Handeland. Kit is a frumpy, chubby, studious type, who goes on a date with some guy she met on the internet. He turns out to be dead, but does show up for the date. Things go from there. Kit is rescued by a demon hunter who sounds a lot like Antonio Banderas. This story was had too much “romance novel” and not enough “action/sci-fi” for my taste. This story is practically made to order for women who are fourty-something, living at home with mom, and not dating anyone. A lot of emphasis was put on how the main character is a virgin, and things go much as you would expect. The parts about the demons were very interesting though. I might have liked the ending more if this was a longer book. As it was, it seemed kind of early for what happened to happen.

I was in the mood for an easy read, so I picked up this book. It is the novelization of the movie “Underworld Evolution”, which is the sequel to the movie “Underworld”, and I figured it would have lots of action and lots of vampires in it. I actually read the novelization of the first movie before I saw that movie, and wanted to read this one before I saw the movie it is based on. I pretty much knew what to expect before I opened the book.

I didn’t put the author’s name in the title of this post, because I couldn’t decide on which one to put. The spine of the book says: A Novelization by Greg Cox, Based on Characters Created by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, & Danny McBride, Story by Len Wiseman & Danny McBride, Screenplay by Danny McBride”. Who was I supposed to choose?

This book picks up about where the last one left off. Selene, a vampire who had been a Death Dealer for about 600 years has gone on a bit of a vengeful killing spree, inspired by learning the truth about why her family was slaughtered by vampires all those years ago before she was turned into a vampire. Michael, Selene’s ally and lover, started out this night as a regular human, but, after getting bitten by both a werewolf and a vampire in the previous book, has become a “hybrid” combination of both. Together, they are on a quest to figure out the missing pieces of the puzzle surrounding Selene’s past, and also on a quest to continue to stay alive, (or, at least to stay undead). They seem to make almost everyone they encounter in this book want to kill them.

At the same time, the last sleeping Vampire Elder, Marcus, is awakened. He has become a hybrid too (but a very different looking one than Michael did), due to some loose ends from the last book. He is on a quest to free his twin brother, a giant albino werewolf, who has been imprisoned for centuries. To succeed, he needs both Selene, and the pendant Michael wears. The reasons why are explained in the story.

There is also this CIA like group, called The Cleaners. They are headed by one man, and they basically go around and try to make sure the regular humans don’t find any proof that either vampires or werewolves exist. Why? It get explained in the story.

The story has lots of action scenes, most of which are violent and bloody, but somehow, didn’t really hold my attention for long. Too much repetition, I guess. All the buildings/boats/castles, etc. (in other words, each specific setting) blows up at the end of the scene. Selene shoots the vampires she fights in this book with her guns, and kills the werewolves by sticking a knife through their skulls, each and every time. Michael kills werewolves by ripping off their lower jaws, each and every time he battles one. And Marcus enjoys killing his enemies after first pinning them to a wall with the spikes that come out of the top of his bat like wings. He does this to each and every enemy he encounters. It gets a bit predictable.

If you are looking for a deep, meaningful, insightful read, this is not your book. If you are simply looking for an action book with battling vampires and werewolves, with a plot drawn loosely around them, and a lot of explosions, then look no further! If you are looking for something to read at work when you are on your break that you can follow while carrying on a conversation with your coworkers at the same time, then this is your book.

Now, I just have to watch the movie! I bet the special effects are wonderful!

This is the next in the series of “Year’s Best SF”. I was so much more impressed with this one than with the previous one! It has the same editor, David G. Hartwell, who once again points out that these are all examples of “Hard Science Fiction”, and who writes each little blurb about individual authors before their stories appear. Some of the authors in this one are the same as in the last one, and some are new. This book contains the Best Science Fiction Short Stories published in the year 2001. Its a much better read than Year’s Best SF 6 for a few reasons. One, each story in this book seems to be finished, which was nice. No more one or two pages of ideas presented as a whole story! Two, each story had an idea that made me think about the implications of it long after I had finished the story. Its good when books make you wonder about things! Made the stories that much more enjoyable for me. And three, each story was “full” enough to be extended into a book, if the author wanted to do so. Very good read!
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This one is slightly out of date. I think they may be on “Best SF 11″, or something close to that by now. Anyway, this book contains the best Science Fiction short stories published in the year 2000. The editor, David G. Hartwell, selects them all, puts a little blurb about each author before their story, and wrote the introduction.

The introduction is rather interesting. Hartwell comments on how the year 2000 is a BIG year for science fiction, and makes references to many of the famous stories that take place on or around that year. (Such as Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001, and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward). Hartwell also emphasizes, emphatically, and repeatedly, that these stories are all examples of “hard Science Fiction”. I have never heard that term before I picked up this book.

Anyway, these were the best Science Fiction short stories published in 2000, (at least, according to Hartwell, and whoever he confers with, if anyone). I found that I was not really interested in many of them, which was a disapointment. Maybe I’m just not that into “Hard Science Fiction”? I don’t really know. Some stories were just too technical, and didn’t seem to really go anywhere. Others presented a very interesting concept, but, then abruptly ended, sometimes after just a page or two. It would have been nice to have some of those stories expanded upon.
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This book is a collection of Vampire stories by 18 different authors, none of whom I have ever even heard of before. I think the editors anticipated Readers looking at the author list in the table of contents and saying: “Who?” because they felt the need to add little paragraphs about the authors immediately following each story. This was annoying to me. Other story collections I have read put the author information in the back of the book, where you can either look it up, or look at some of it, or, ignore it entirely if you want. With the author info immediately after the stories, it kind of comes across as a commericial break in between stories. Not something I wanted to look at, but, in my way anyway.

I was largely disapointed with this book. It feels like the editors went “Hey, everybody! Write me a vampire story for this collection! Let’s make some money!”, and most of the authors went. “Yes….well… I’ve actually been working on this totally different story. Perhaps I will just throw in a Vampire somewhere, and make it work anyway!”. The editors must have looked at what they got back from the authors, and thought, “Uh oh! A lot of these aren’t really about vampires much. I know! We will put them in chronological order! Then it will work!” And then they named the whole lot “Time of the Vampires”, thinking themselves rather clever, and called it a day. Only a few stories held my attention. Most of them I just dragged myself through, hoping they would suddenly improve. They didn’t improve.
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