Friday, June 10, 2016

Night Things: Undead and Kicking

Author - Terry M. West (Night Things, Turning Face)
Release Date - 2016
Genre - Horror
Format - eBook (Review Copy)

Rating (out of 5):
     This year has been very unique for me.  I typically read a book or two a year but this year I am knocking out a book in just a few days.  Mostly I have been working through the 26 volumes of Vampire Hunter D while mixing it up with the works from other authors that I enjoy like Kevin Strange, David Moody, and Terry M. West.  West is an author who really makes me excited to read again.  His stories are always fascinating which makes it easy to read.  Earlier this year I read West's story Night Things: Dracula vs. Frankenstein.  It was the second entry in his Magic Now series.  The story was amazing and full of so many possibilities.  West saw that as well and followed that up with his newest story Night Things: Undead and Kicking.  West knew how much I enjoyed the Magic Now series and was kind enough to send a copy my way for review.  Thanks Terry!
     The story takes place sometime after the events of Night Things: Dracula vs. Frankenstein which is now being referred to as Zday.  We follow Carol who is a social worker and night thing sympathizer who works with them so they can get integrated into society alongside humans with little to no incidents.  However, her place of employment is attacked and she is killed along with everyone else in there except one person.  She then awakens in the lab of Dr. Herbert West who has been running tests on her corpse.  He is working on the horde frequency which inhabits all zombies and the reason they can never be with more than three of their kind.  His test is a success and she is able to control the zombies making her very unique.  Sadly, this new telepathic power has also awakened West's nemesis Edmund Wraight who happens to be a living creation of the old ones.  He wants to use Carol to control the undead but king of the night things, Johnny Stucke, has to stop him or a new war will rage in his city.
     West is one hell of an author with an even more impressive imagination.  Most of his stories, until the Magic Now series, have been very unique and horrifying to say the least.  However, his Magic Now series is still a dark and serious tale but it tosses in some horror cliches with some monsters from myth and legend.  That is what is so exciting about the Magic Now series.  Anything and everything is possible and West uses that to his advantage.  The story for this one is a horror fan's delight.  It mixes so many horror legends and myths ranging from the classic literary beasts like Frankenstein's monster and Dracula with the likes of the creations of H.P. Lovecraft and all the other things that go bump in the night.  Even with the story he followed in this sequel he still has so many other avenues to follow.  This universe West has created is endless.  The characters that West has created are amazing.  Turning Frankenstein's creation into a big city mobster was a stroke of genius and it was only fitting to have his personal doctor be Herbert West considering how Bride of Re-Animator turned out.  Though this Herbert West is the Lovecraft incarnation and not the Stuart Gordon it still makes sense.  It was also brilliant how West was able to mix Jack the Ripper and Lovecraft's the old ones into a character.  Finally, this is another easy one to read from the one of the best authors in the game.  The writing style is simple, the words are not too complex and the story flows smoothly for the most part.  The story is broke up into parts where we jump from character back story to character back story.  It kind of broke the story up and took away from the impact.  It would have been helpful to have these backstories already established before this tale even began.  Overall, Night Things: Undead and Kicking is yet another masterpiece from the brain pan of Terry M. West.  The story is brilliant and the universe he has created is absolutely amazing.  I can not wait to see where West takes us next in the Magic Now world!

No comments:

Post a Comment