Book 42: Night Plague by Graham Masterton

This is the third book in the Night Warriors series. It was by far my least favorite. The opening would be pretty uncomfortable for any guy to read. There is a plague that is unleashed by this witch and it infects people by spreading through dreams. The descendants of the Night Warrirs who fought the witch hundreds of years ago have to get their powers and team up to fight her again and stop the plague. It took 2/3 of the book before they even found out that they were Night Warriors. I probably should have liked it a little more. It had some good horror elements in it, but it took me near forever to actually get through it. I would read it for a little and then put it down for a week and read something else instead. But then again, I did finish it, so that's gotta count for something.

Book 41: Death Dream by Graham Masterton

I found the second and third books of the Night Warriors series one day in the Half Price Bookstore, so I picked them up. Now if I could only find the first one somewhere.

This was ok. A demon is manifesting through a young boy and killing anyone who is around him while he sleeps. The boy's father get messed up by the demon, but eventually finds out he is a Night Warrior and he joins together with others to fight the demon and try to save his son.

Overall, it was ok. I liked the 4th book better and I have a real nostalgic spot for the first one, but it's probably been almost 20 years since I read the thing.

Book 40: The Policy by Bentley Little

I think I need to take a break from the straight horror books for a while.  This book was a good story, but it didn't make me enjoy it.  It was uncomfortable to read, especially in the first half.  I don't know exactly why.  But, once again, Bentley doesn't disappoint if you want flat out horror.  There is a huge insurance company that runs all the other insurance companies in the world.  They have a supernatural aspect to it, and they end up destroying the lives of this group of people in Tuscon.  The finale was pretty cool in a large scope sci-fi/horror way.

Book 39: The Inhuman Condition by Clive Barker

This one is a collection of short stories. A couple were good like The Inhuman Condition and The Body Politic. Both of those had interesting main plot points. The first had a string of knots that when unraveled unleashed a problem. The second was all about people's hands rebelling against their bodies. However the last couple of stories in the book pretty much were perfect examples of my problems with Clive Barker's writing. He's too literary. Down, Satan! was very short which was good, but he's commenting on man and our ability to be evil and it's just too deep for my shallow mind. The same with the last story, The Age of Desire. It's all about a man who is experimented on and the drug he takes amps up his sexual desire beyond belief. Sort of an interesting hook, but there's a little too much introspection and thinking about it. I'm more of a Blockbuster kind of guy. Just show me what happens and hit the action points quickly. Philosophical I ain't.

Book 38: The Ruins by Scott Smith

This book was pretty awesome. I ripped through it quickly which says something since it seems to take forever for me to get through a book anymore. Four Americans go on vacation in Cancun and they end up in trouble when they go to an old ruins/mine in the jungle. It's pretty straight-forward horror, but the language and style that the author uses is pretty unique. I don't know how to describe it - simple, but descriptive maybe. The ending was also unexpected. I didn't really expect it to wrap up like that, but it was well done. There was a movie made in 2008 and 'll have to rent that eventually and see if it compares.

Book 37: The Barrens and Others by F Paul Wilson

14 short stories here with a couple being a play and a TV episode script. I enjoyed this book. There's only one Repairman Jack story in here, and it's pretty short and simple. A few other stories stood out. Batman's enemy, the Joker, is featured in a solid story. The Barrens, the main story, is modeled after a Lovecraft tale and it is probably the highlight of the book.

Book 36: By The Sword by F Paul Wilson

More Repairman Jack. It's slowly getting toward the big ending. Very slowly. The books are good, but they're getting pretty repetitive. I'll keep reading them though. I am looking forward to the updated version of Nightworld that will supposedly follow after all the Jack books are finished.