Straight Outta Fangton

A Comedic Vampire Story

By: C. T. Phipps

Narrated by: Cary Hite

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Peter Stone is a poor, black vampire who is wondering where his nightclub, mansion, and sports car is. Instead, he is working a minimum wage job during the night shift, as being a vampire isn't all that impressive in a world where they've come out to mortals.

Exiled from the rich and powerful undead in New Detroit, he is forced to go back when someone dumps a newly-transformed vampire in the bathroom of his gas station's store. This gets him fangs - deep in a plot of vampire hunters, supernatural revolutionaries, and a millennium-old French knight determined to wipe out the supernatural.

Sometimes, it just doesn't pay to get out of the coffin.

©2016 Charles Phipps (P)2017 David N. Wilson

exactly what we need

this dude is pretty legit. looking forward to a nice long series. feels like Anita Blake and Harry Dresden had a vampire baby...well Anita Blake before it became romantic porn. no offense.

Better and Better

This book is so damn funny. It doesn't get much better than Peter Stone. Poor, Black and a camp oh my. Camp and starwars quotes galore. How do you compare them. Take a listen to this amazing narrator telling this story. He brought Stone to life in a side splitting Barbie Vamp colorful world.

Stick at it

Initially I hated this audiobook. The narrator had an annoying voice and the jokes fell flat. But then the story picked up, and the narrators voice started to match the story. The narrator mispronounced many words.

So funny, you'll die!!!

Excellent take on the vampire mythos. Great and enjoyable. The pop culture references alone are worth the listen but the author tells a great story in the meantime. Well crafted, funny, reverent and believable. This is what life would truly be like if Vampires and other supernatural beings were real. The Narrator did an excellent job with the voices and the pace. Great book.

There isn't much comedy.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not really. The book sounded like it didn't know what it wanted to be. Horror? Comedy? Urban Fantasy? Mystery? And in the end, it fails to any of them properly. And thus I'm left confused about how to feel about this book. I'm mostly disappointed and feel like I was misled.

Would you ever listen to anything by C. T. Phipps again?

I'm leaning towards a No. All elements in the book were pretty mediocre. The Horror / supernatural element wasn't "horrifying". And the comedy wasn't funny; most of it being pop-culture references.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Better pacing. At times, the long pauses between sentences made me wonder whether the chapter ended mid story. And then the narrator spoke again.

Any additional comments?

I received this book for free from the author / narrator / publisher, in exchange for an unbiased review.

Hella Fun!

This story was fun and highly entertaining from the first word. The narrator did an excellent job of giving each character thier own voice.

I found the concept of vampires coming out through a government bail out to be genious. If vampires exist I suggest they read this book and take notes.

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My favorite vampire story ever.

Peter Stone, or just Stone as he likes to be called, is at a bit of a loss. Here he is, one of the mighty undead, who are finally out of the coffin after bailing out the US after a financial collapse, a Vampire and Iraq war vet, and he cant seem to catch a break. No fancy clothes, no riches, no sports cars or exotic models looking to be his thralls. Instead, he's working at a low paying convenience store, exiled from the vampire society, and his only thrall is David, who is no ones idea of a model.

He's going nowhere fast, until one day his werewolf boss tells him that someone has OD'd in the bathroom of the store. Stone checks it out, and it's worse than that. Someone has dumped a newly changed vampire in the bathroom, mad with blood lust. Well, that can't be good. After attacking Stone, she is subdued, and they discover she was an anti monster activist. They then discover she was turned by an overpowered vampire who used to be a Templar Knight who is almost unkillable, and has been hunting vampires since the middle ages. Stone takes her to see Thoth, his Creator and one of the Masters of New Detroit.

This starts a chain reaction of events, as a power play is taking place, with the Templar trying to take out the lead vampires and some lower rank vampires making moves of their own, which leads to Stone's and crew's final confrontation with the Templar and his expendable allies, with Stone being spectacularly outclassed but still struggling to win in the end.

This is the type of book I expect CT Phipps to write. Comedic, but with interesting characters, much deeper than you'd expect world building, great villains (a real strength of all his books) and a plot that just keeps racing along. Even the supporting characters are fleshed out, which is another strength of this writer. The pop culture references also fly fast and furious, everything from Twilight to Star Wars, again, something he does in all his books.

The only thing I had any issues with was the final battle with the Templar. While it had a satisfying conclusion, it was a bit quick. I suspect that might have been intentional, but it was something unusual for this author. Other than that minor point, this was one excellent novel.

Cary Hite is a revelation as a narrator. He really owns this story, literally becoming the characters. He has an awesome range of voices and tones, and keeps the narrative flow going seemlessly, never going monotone or getting boring. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is into urban fantasy or likes a good supernatural romp. You wont be disappointed.

Good story

Really enjoyed this one, the performance and the story are great. A fun new take on vampires other creatures of the night.

Great narration and chuckles to be had.

This is the story of Peter Stone, who is a vampire who has been exiled by his maker from his hometown of New Detroit, where vampires are actually quite numerous. He makes his way by working at a convenience store, not unlike a 7-11, with his boss the werewolf drug addict, and his friend and servant (someone who serves a vampire for a time until they change them).

When they find a newly made vampire in the ladies room of the store one night, one who was made and then left there alone without any of the support a newly made vampire would need, Peter steps in to help her out, and to see if he can figure out who she is and why someone would do this to her. In trying to figure it out he runs into all kinds of vampire shenanigans.

This story wasn’t too bad. It was well written and engaging enough that I never had a problem staying interested in it. I liked Peter, as a character, and I rooted for him to win the day, so to speak. This one, like the Weredeer series is full of pop culture references, some of which seemed admittedly a little out of place at times, but not too often.

Cary Hite, the narrator, was probably most of the reason I liked this book as much as I did. He was a fantastic narrator for this book, and he made every character in it come to life for me. I especially loved his narration of the character of Thoth (I dunno if I spelled that right, because audiobook) who is Peter’s maker. He’s described as having a very slight Caribbean accent, and Cary Hite totally nailed it. It was just perfectly slight. So super well done on the narration front. I’ll definitely endeavor to listen to books that he narrates in the future.

All told, I had a pretty good time with this one. It wasn’t my favorite vampire fantasy novel, but it was certainly an interesting idea to see things from the POV of a poor vampire in a city full of vampires and how he makes his way in the world.

This review is based on a review copy.

Its pretty good

A good paranormal book, vampires and werewolves and all that. Its sold as a comedy and ya it has an air of humor about it, but its not 'have to stop the book for 5 minutes because your too busy laughing to pay attention' kind of funny. Still a good book though, 10/10, would buy sequel.