V Wars: Blood and Fire

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir, Jamye Grant, Richard Gilliland, Roxanne Hernandez, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

It's been one year since a virus triggered junk DNA and people all over the world started changing, becoming something else, craving blood. It's been 10 months since the word vampire stopped being something from old monster stories and Hollywood movies. It's been six months since our world and theirs erupted into war, two since an uneasy peace was signed, and one hour since that peace was shattered. The war is here again - the vampire war. Our world will burn; our world will bleed. When anyone can turn, when every street is a battlefield, there is nowhere to run.

V Wars: Blood and Fire features all-new stories of the Vampire Wars by Kevin J. Anderson, Scott Sigler, Larry Correia, Joe McKinney, Yvonne Navarro, Weston Ochse, James A. Moore, and Jonathan Maberry.

The complete list of narrators includes: Gabrielle de Cuir, Jamye Grant, Richard Gilliland, Roxanne Hernandez, Stephen Hoye, Sunil Malhotra, Arthur Morey, and Stefan Rudnicki.

©2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.; 2014 Weston Ochse, Scott Sigler, Jonathan Maberry, Kevin J. Anderson, James A. Moore, Yvonne Navarro, Joe McKinney, Larry Correia

Even better than the 1st, mostly

As the headline suggests, I greatly enjoyed this sequel as the tone of the stories have shifted and we finally begin the see the emergence of the actual vampire war. Some readers complained that there was no war to speak of in the first book but there was a good reason for that: the authors had to build up to that & I hope said readers come back and give this sequel a chance.

PROS:
- Awesome cast of returning voice actors that did a fantastic job and really pulled you into this vastly divergent world.
- Some truly memorable and highly-entertaining stories such as my favourite, "The Hippo" by
Scott Sigler - I could listen to Harry & Big Baby all day! :)
Another worthy mention is James A. Moore's continuing story of the Triad enforcer that is both hilarious and a welcome change of pace from some of the darker and grittier stories that encompass this book.
- An authentic feel to the various responses by the world's governments to the vampire threat: I could see this happening in real life if something like this were ever to happen. And this continues to be a strong selling point for me: Jonathan Maberry and the ensemble of excellent authors have truly managed to craft a believable world grounded in as much science and realism as possible, making the events that unfold even more chilling.

CONS:
- I hated, absolutely hated the druergar story (sorry I forget the title and author) as I was appalled by the the horrific treatment that the main character's innocent wife and one daughter are subjected to. I understand that horrible things happen to good people everyday and I'm (mostly) fine with such depictions as long as they make sense within the narrative and don't feel tacked on and aren't overly graphic. However I feel that the level of savagery and barbarism depicted in said story utterly removes any semblance of enjoyment that could be derived from it, or at least that's how I felt - you're welcome to pick this audiobook up and judge for yourself. I just wanted to give all you potential listeners a fair warning :)

7 people found this helpful

if u liked original v wars this is a follow up

follows on v wars. enjoyable but not necessarily as good as the first book, but still a worthwhile listen

2 people found this helpful

Needs More Editing!!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Some of the stories were good. I especially enjoyed the story of Johnny Lae (sp?). One storyline was too grotesque for me, verging on torture porn.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Cut out or edit the story of Laughing Horse.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The readers were fine.

Could you see V Wars: Blood and Fire being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Not really. Too much gore.

Any additional comments?

I enjoy Maberry's writing. I especially liked the Pine Deep and Rot and Ruin series. I felt that this may have been released too quickly and would have benefited from more careful editing.

2 people found this helpful

I would not have gotten this one in hindsight

I wont buy the third one in this series and regret buying the second. I really liked the first one for story and narration. This was such a disappointment.

1 person found this helpful

Not as good as the original.

Entertaining but not as enjoyable as the original, loved Harry the Hippo though!! That said, I would likely buy the next book.
🤷🏻‍♀️

1 person found this helpful

Great Characters

Loved the variety and different points of views. The narrators provided depth and personality. I'll definitely continue to follow.

1 person found this helpful

This is a good series, especially for vampire lovers

The concept of a running anthology from several different authors and narrators to tell a story of the vampire wars didn’t sell me. I tried the first one and liked it and the second didn’t disappoint. I am committed to following this series to the end. The varied flavors from different authors give a commanding presence throughout the book. I’m officially sold on the concept that a collective can continue a cohesive and powerful story.

1 person found this helpful

Great Narration

Ive listened to the first one and am about to finish this one. The narration of these books has been so unique and compelling that it makes the listening experience really feel like you're a part of every characters story.

1 person found this helpful

Great Book Series!

Moving on to book 3! everything going on with the story, the characters, the vampire on human / human on vampire violence, the brutal reality of War, the instability of one's mind and emotions... There's so much to take in and I just want more!

1 person found this helpful

One really bad story

Normally Maberry is good for solid page turning reads and he generally delivers in this collection. The Laughing Horse story though was awful and killed any desire I had to finish the book. Unnecessarily graphic and violent and with nonsensical character motivations. And i'm not PC but off all the groups to cast as terrorists, Native Americans? Really? It's been decades since any NA domestic violence. Just a bizare story all around.