- Hardcover: 405 pages
- Publisher: Cemetery Dance Pubns; Signed edition (30 Mar 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1587670798
- ISBN-13: 978-1587670794
- Product Dimensions: 27.2 x 19 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,328,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Decent premise, missed opportunity, slightly anaemic...,
By Chintan Nanavati "Chinhealer" (Staffs, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Midnight Mass (Mass Market Paperback)
A frustrating book, this. It jumps straight into the action, it has some likeable characters, its pace is breathless and, occasionally, thrilling, and I gobbled it up in a few short reading sessions. So F Paul Wilson was doing something right. Unfortunately, for my taste, he was doing a helluva lot wrong too. The whole thing felt like a very lightweight read. It is a relatively short book - quite feasibly the start of a series or trilogy or whatever - which cries out to have been twice or thrice as long. In the hands of a Stephen King, this story would have been an epic. It would have taken its time to build up, to create its vision of a post-apocalyptic world overrun by vampires, to do more than merely sketch out its characters. And, above all, it would have been scary. Terrifying, even. But so many elements of Midnight Mass are really half-baked. In spite of some horrific violence in the book, I was left feeling completely short-changed when it came to the evil characters. The vampires themselves were largely toothless. Maybe that is a consequence of over-familiarity or even overkill - if vampires are as numerous as portrayed in the book, they lose a lot of the mystery, the feeling of the unknown, the uniqueness that marks out Bram Stoker's Dracula as - still - the finest example of the genre that I know. Having said that, Richard Matheson was able to create an incredibly oppressive and horrifying tale in I Am Legend even though that modern classic has a similar premise to Midnight Mass and is even shorter in length. But, again, Matheson's vision seemed very believable. Whereas Wilson's premise that the vampires easily rampaged through largely non-Christian areas of the world like China and India and the Middle East since those populations wouldn't have access to enough crucifixes or knowledge of vampire lore is ridiculous. As is the idea that, out of a world population of more than 6 billion, only a motley crew of decent, smalltown East Coasters have the wherewithal, the God-fearing resolve and heroism to properly resist the vampiric hordes.
F Paul Wilson is obviously a populist writer who, perhaps, has more in common with Dean Koontz than King. But, like Koontz, he seems overly concerned about thrills and spills and pace to particularly worry about creating interesting, multi-layered characters. There are too many stock types in this novel. And, in the case of the cowboys, they all seem to be denim-clad, Heavy Metal-loving, sexually voracious, murderous buffoons. That aspect of the novel really grates. And having Slipknot's Iowa, for instance, as the soundtrack to their violence is neither cutting-edge nor anything other than a monumental cliche! And, really, the writing itself is really perfunctory. With nothing distinctive about it at all. So, the more I think of it, the more exasperated I become at the many inadequacies of this really insignificant contribution to the vampire genre. Hell, even the Twilight and Tru Blood series contain more invention and interest and gravitas than the barely acceptable quasi-screenplay that is Midnight Mass.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A BLOODY GOOD VAMPIRE TALE...,
By
This review is from: Midnight Mass (Mass Market Paperback)
This is an interesting spin on traditional vampire tales. It seems that vampires have come out of their shells and come into power. They are literally taking over the world. With Eastern and Western Europe under their control, and India and the Far East under their domination, vampires are now making inroads in the good old United Stated of America.
These vampires are aided by collaborators known as cowboys, humans who have been promised immortality if they do the vampires' dirty work for them. Cowboys round-up humans, as if they were cattle, for their masters to feed upon, and these hungry hordes of vampires seem unstoppable, as major cities in the United States succumb to their might. When vampires arrive in a small sea side town in New Jersey, the going gets rough, as they meet resistance from an unusual group of humans: a nun with a secret mission, a disgraced priest with a bit of a drinking problem, his gay niece, and a rabbi. Together, they each do their bit to thwart the advancing horde of vampires. What happens to each one along the way makes for a page turning vampire tale. This is definitely a book worth reading, if one enjoys vampire stories. Though very traditional in terms of vampire lore, there are enough twists to make it seem fresh and interesting. Though not as good as the author's other vampire tale, "The Keep", which is a masterpiece, this is a good enough yarn to keep the reader turning the pages until the very end. It will not disappoint.
5.0 out of 5 stars
What an adventure ride,
By
This review is from: Midnight Mass (Mass Market Paperback)
First let me start by suggesting that something was missing - Jack. I know, but if it works for Clive Cussler it would have worked brilliantly here. Clive Cussler fans will know what I mean, he adds himself in a page, I was not expecting to see FPW, but I was half expecting to see Jack or at least his name mentioned as the book was partly set in New york. But that is a minor thing.
FPW sticks to vampire lore very well, garlic, steaks (not the red meat type!), crosses and daylight etc etc. But he introduces a brilliantly novel way of killing many of them in one go. I am not spoiling it. There is a great story, it was easy to follow, of revenge in the book and a twist, also quite sad and touching in places. He doesn't pull many punches in how brutal the vampires and their "cowboy" slaves are, some is quite hard hitting. There is scope for a follow up, so that is a hint there Mr Wilson, a sequel please. Though with a rank of 550,000 in Amazon's UK book sales that may not happen, that is a shame... Mind you that is a lot better ranking than my mums book, Cats' Tails from Amazonia (OK - I know, sneaky!!). I highly recommend this book to any vampire lover or any FPW fan. As good as any book he has written. Mr Wilson, you have a wonderful talent, thank you for sharing it with us.
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