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Title: Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson ISBN: 0-7653-0705-7 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 17 April, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.22 (9 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: And then?
Comment: In his introduction to Midnight Mass, F. Paul Wilson explains that this story came to him in order to bring the vampire genre back to its horror roots (ie, away from the Anne Rice type and closer to King's Salems' Lot). But is the novel worth reading? I really had to trudge through this one. The story is filled with unsympathetic characters, predictable plot lines and pages after pages of boring exposition. In the end, Midnight Mass doesn't rejuvenate the vampire genre, it just makes it feel even more tired.
Father Joe Cahill is one of the few survivors of the Apocalypse. Vampires have taken over the earth and very few humans are left alive. And the ones who are are too terrified to try and stand against the new terror. When Joe returns to his parish after a long absence, he joins Sister Carol and his niece Lacey in trying to build a rebellion against the figures of the night.
It doesn't help at all that these characters feel like cardboard cutouts of better, more fleshed out people. If only Wilson could have given these characters a real history and purpose, this story would have been much stronger. We need to care for at least one character in order to make a story successful and engrossing for the reader.
Halfway through the novel, a plot twist occurs that is supposed to shock the reader and drive the story in a completely new direction. But none of it really surprised me. In fact, this plot twist was so obvious that I was disappointed to see Wilson make use of it.
And the vampires are also unoriginal and uninteresting. They are protected during the daytime by groups of men dressed in cowboy outfits. These men are supposed to be terrifying, but they drop quicker than flies. The vampires, on their part, aren't a big threat either; they all seem tame even if Wilson tries hard to make them terrifying.
In the end, Midnight Mass was a big disappointment. Wilson is capable of much better. I am a fast reader, but it took me a great deal to finish this one. I really hope that, one of these days, an author WILL write a vampire novel that WILL bring us back to the greatness of Salem's Lot, where the horrors seem to jump right off the page. As it stands, Midnight Mass isn't even close to that kind of greatness. Very little scare and very little originality makes a dud in my book. I guess I'll just have to go back to the Repairman Jack novels to remind myself of what Wilson is really capable.
Rating: 5
Summary: everything old is new again in this page turner...
Comment: I have enjoyed Anne Rice's vampiric, pained aesthetes and Tanya Huff's funny, noble vampires as much as the next reader...but loving the boogeyman or laughing with him gets old after a while. I still love Tanya Huff; don't get me wrong...though I think I have outgrown Rice. I want to be horrified by my horror these days. In this horror show of a world we've been dropped in to, it's...comforting to dwell for a time in a world worse off than our own.
I was overjoyed that Wilson (obviously one of my favortie writers if you've seen my other reviews) decided to make vampires scary again. I believe he has succeeded admirably in this page-turning thriller. Vampires have taken over Europe and are now they are sweeping across America...or they're trying to. Life as we know it has ended on the east coast. Roving bands of mortal henchemen calling themselves "Cowboys" hunt during the day for their undead masters. Wilson's vampires are eerie and scary (monsters with enough humanity to magnify their nastiness). Those few who fight both Cowboys and vampires are a great set of characters themselves: Father Cahill and his tough-as-nails niece Lacey. Rabbi Zev and Sister Carole...a seriously scary nun (who used to teach science).
The Booklist review above was right to compare this to 28 Days Later. There is a definite similarity. Really the best new take on vampires since...well...The Keep by Frances Paul himself! Why isn't this man on the top of the bestsellers lists? You'll wonder too if you give this or Sims or The Select a try.
Rating: 2
Summary: Not his best by any stretch......
Comment: Wilson tries to bring us a vampire book in the style of such classics as "I am Legend" and "Salems Lot". If you have never read these books try them instead. Also, try the very underrated "They Thirst" (one of my childhood favorites that is very similar to this book w/o all the flaws).
Don't misunderstand, Wilson can be a fantastic writer at times. The book starts off with a great deal of potential (I love the universe he created, its what he did with that universe I have problems with) but simply fails to reach it. The character development is very weak and by the end of the novel I couldn't care less if any of the main characters lived or died. I was actually starting to root for "Franco" towards the end.
My biggest complaint of the book is typical of many sci fi "they conquer the planet" type books. Most of these books have the would be conquerers fall becuase of some type of glass jaw where the invasion just crumbles if you hit them right (no matter how strong they are, like kill the queen and all the aliens die type of thing). While vampires have all the typical weaknesses, Wilson tosses in an extra one that gives humanity the edge. I don't want to spoil it but I am sure you will fiqure it out about halfway through like I did.
Basically this novel could have been great if: 1)it was about 200 pages longer (to flesh out all the characters, including a back story on the rise of the vampires) 2) removed the one weakness that allows humanity to pull back from the abyss of defeat so easily 3) then set up for future books in this universe (as it is I doubt I would spend money on a sequel).
This book is best borrowed or checked out from a library.
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Title: The Fifth Harmonic by F. Paul Wilson ISBN: 1571743863 Publisher: Hampton Roads Pub Co Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Gateways by F. Paul Wilson ISBN: 0765306905 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Crisscross: A Repairman Jack Novel by F. Paul Wilson ISBN: 1887368701 Publisher: Gauntlet Pub. Date: May, 2004 List Price(USD): $55.00 |
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Title: The Haunted Air by F. Paul Wilson ISBN: 0312878680 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 18 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Sims by F. Paul Wilson ISBN: 0765305518 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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