Vampire$

By: John Steakley

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Suppose there really were vampires. Dark, stalking, destroying. They’d have to be killed, wouldn’t they? Of course they would. But what kind of fools would try to make a living at it?

In best-selling author John Steakley's vampire classic, one tightly knit band of brothers devotes itself to hunting down the monsters that infest the modern world—for a price. An exciting blend of horror and western genres, Vampire$ is a twenty-first-century Ghostbusters with an edge.

©1990 John Steakley (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“This is exciting and surprising stuff….a real genre-bender that keeps the best elements of both.” ( Locus)

“Gives a closer, longer look at violent vampire-hunting than anything else to date, often at a breathtaking pace.” ( Vampire's Closet)

Novel that puts vampires in their place...

...As blood sucking fiends, who can only fake human sexuality to feed and control. John Steakley is one of my favoite writers and story tellers. I am glad audible released his two books to date.

Gritty, emotional, a great train ride...

Half baked

There is a really strong idea for a cool vampire book, or even a series in here. But the great ideas are brief and the reader is left with a lot of unresolved questions. The stuff we want to see is glazed over to favor drunken ramblings of the protagonists.

Champions Eternal

I very muched enjoyed this John Steakley "Vampires Inc." story narrated by Tom Weiner. The other book "Armor" by the same author and same narrator is one of my all time favorite books and audio books, and Vampire$ brought back that same kind of excitement (perhaps only 90% as much as Armor, but 90% of best is still better than almost everything else).

I was particularly grateful to John Steakley for bringing to life another incarnation of his Jack Crow and Felix characters. I view them much like the Champion Eternal characters of Michael Moorcock where Moorcock made several incarnations of the same anti-heroes (Elric, Corwin, Hawkmoon, etc.). Vampires is basically a new incarnation of the same wonderful anti-heroes that Armor had but in our world instead of the future.

At first I thought, "Gosh this sounds a lot like John Carpenter's Vampires" but with much more character development. I looked up imdb and saw that Steakley wrote John Carpenter's Vampires. But as I progressed in this book I was grateful to learn that this is not only more complex, it's a totally different story (and way better). For one thing, John Carpenter's movie doesn't even have the Felix character, and for another thing the this book takes advantage of Steakley's strength which is character develpment and battles with ones self rather than with evil.

good story

While the story was good to listen to it was hard to follow because the narrator seemed to read and double speed and often his infliction was kind of messed up.

same characters as Armor

it's almost a rehash of Armor.
A Jack Crowe and Felix adventure, but very enjoyable and entertaining listen.

The quintessential vampire novel

I've read or listened to this many times over the years. Steakly has a unique voice and characters that you care about. This novel, with its pure evil vampires ruined me for any romantic or sympathetic portrayals that have been so popular.

Full of Nostalgia.

What did you love best about Vampire$?

This is a reread from back when I was in High School. Now that I have ...matured a bit more, some of this is a little grating. But it was fun!
Full on action and vampires. Gotta love it.

Who was the most memorable character of Vampire$ and why?

Cherry. For sure.

Any additional comments?

DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE. JUST. DON'T.

Great.

I read it in paper form eons ago… now returning it’s still fantastic. The movies are terrible … basically irredeemable.
But the audiobook is really well done … there’s absolutely no explaining why the narrator thought that Little Cat had a New Jersey accent, and a nasal problem… (he didn’t and he doesn’t) but aside from that one bizarre choice, it’s perfect.

What a relief

From the sappy Twilight franchise, but as a previous reviewer said, reminiscent of John Carpenter's Vampires, was not a big fan of the film but this book was OK, a bit too much about the hunters, not enough about the vampires.... better yet...try Interview with a Vampire or Salem's Lot.

.....ARMOR Coda. Felix is Back!.....

As a fan of Steakley’s military SF novel ARMOR—and realizing that Steakley only managed to complete this one final book before his untimely death—I was compelled to listen to VAMPIRE$. It is true that the main character from ARMOR, Felix, reprises his role as the reluctant warrior in this second book. But there is scant evidence to connect the Felix here with the Felix of the earlier book save for his struggle to overcome fear and his incredible aptitude for destruction in the face of impossible odds. One wonders if John Steakley would have continued in this vein; reprising Felix in this same role in a number of different genre stories, had his career not been cut short. Alas, we will never know. Fortunately Steakley did leave us with this fine coda to the sometimes profound and sometimes paradoxical Military yet Anti-War novel ARMOR. I like to think that Steakley is exploring the very nature of heroism through Felix the fearful juggernaut that is always expecting death but lives to fight another day.

Along the way in VAMPIRE$ we get a rousing action novel with vampires that are but repulsive and yet irresistibly seductive. One of the things I have come to appreciate about Steakley’s work is his fondness for paradox.

Tom Weiner, fittingly, is one of those paradoxes. He has a tender softness in his voice when portraying female characters; a boyish jocularity when voicing the jester Cat; and delivers Felix with the appropriate nervous confidence that his character demands. His flexibility in performing multiple character voices is contrasted by his intransigent, almost overbearing, through the narrative sections. He never becomes the voice in my head. His narration in between dialog scenes gives the book an intensity that I would have missed reading it own my own. I recommend him highly. And if you haven’t yet heard ARMOR go and get it. You can thank me later.