The Night Eternal by del Toro and Hogan

"The Night Eternal" is the last book in the Strain Trilogy and I was really looking forward to a strong ending to cap off what has been a great story. Instead I got a pseudo-religious anticlimax.
How the story ends is no great surprise (although there is always a slim chance that an author will either let the bad guys win or extract an extraordinary price from the good guys), but, in my mind, having an obvious ending puts a lot of pressure on the authors to make getting to the end good.
Instead the authors spent a lot of time going into the backstory of how vampires came to exist, building a case for Mr. Quinlan being a Jesus figure, and Eph being the hand of God. All of this gets in the way of a tight storyline and spending more time on how people react under an oppressive occupation. It also gets in the way of any character development.
The two year interlude between the action in book two and the beginning of book three has changed the characters. The change is mostly in Eph and because the changes fit in with the character's basic disposition, they don't require much explanation. Fet and Nora have also changed, but their changes don't really fit with the characters as laid out in the first two books. Little is done to smooth this over either. The reader is just left to accept it.
That said, the book is not a bad read. There are some excellent fight scenes and the writing is excellent. The mythology is not uninteresting.
If you have read the first two books, you should read this one as well. I found it disappointing, but not without merit. My sense of disappointment is likely just a matter of taste for the direction the authors took the story. I'm less interested in religious mythology and more interested in social critique.

The Fall

The Fall is the second book in the Strain trilogy. The plot follows directly on the heels of the first book. As with the first book, the writing is superb. The plot is tight and the characters are well drawn. I do have a few minor quips: there is too many instances of "something seemed off, but there was no time to process it." the grand arc of the narrative hews too closely to well worn archetypes. the authors occasionally resort to lazy plot devices.
Mostly, these quips result from my having high expectations of e authors. Del Toro is a master storyteller. For the most part, the story lives up to my high expectations. I'd be more happy if the story took some liberties with the narrative. The new take on vampire mythology is inventive and modern, and I was hoping for the same in the story arc.
I'm still eagerly awaiting the final installment of the trilogy. These books are excellent and I love a good vampire tale.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I first learned about this book from a You Tube video. Usually You Tube videos have the effect of me writing something off, this one was so insane that it piqued my interest. It shows Abe Lincoln sitting in the Oval Office as a vampire attack him. He ensuing fight scene is like something out of The Buffyverse I wasn't going to spend money reading the book, but I would take it out of the library when the opportunity arose.
Two weeks ago I got the e-mail signaling that my turn to check Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer out of the library. After my last experiment with pop culture horror writing, I was wary. Sex pot zombies, bodice ripping, or shiny emo vampire danced in my imagination. Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about.
The frame of the novel is that it is based on the secret journals of Lincoln himself. They are delivered to the author by one of Lincoln's vampire allies. The frame makes the book more interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is the mystery of why a vampire would want the truth about Lincoln's vampire slaying known. The other is the sense that the reader will get deeper insights into one of the most complex U.S. Presidents.
The writing would fit well into most books about history. The tone is balanced and slightly detached. There is plenty of "primary source" material woven into the main text. There is also a surprising fidelity to the actual events of Lincoln's life.
The vampires in the novel are of the sort I most like: slightly superior hunters, many are ruthless killers, others just want to go about their business with as little trouble as possible. They are not devoid of human emotions, but they are not as weighed down by them as humans. They are complex and believable.
The development of the alternate Lincoln is rich and still hews close to the historical Lincoln. It is not a stretch to imagine the historical Lincoln reacting to the events of the novel as the alternate Lincoln does. The Lincoln in the novel faces the same tragedies as the real Lincoln. In the book's timeline, the tragedies are perpetrated by vampires instead of more random natural causes. This gives the novel's Lincoln a target for his grief.
I also like how Lincoln's struggle against vampires is woven into the nation's history. Lincoln didn't just save the Union and free the slaves, he saved the U.S. from a far worse fate.
As a bit of light reading, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is excellent.

The Strain

I'm a fan of Gillarmo del Torro's movies, so I had high hopes for his first book. I was not disappointed. The writing is excellent, the characters are generally compelling, and the plot is tight.
The book pays homage to the traditions of the genre. It has the hero scientist with family problems, a mysterious powerful business man who doesn't care about the consequences of his actions, feckless government officials, an extintion level pandemic, and a remorseless and unstoppable villian. It has all of the elements of a romping ScyFy movie.
While it hews to the traditions of the genre, The Strain takes the Vampire mythology in an interesting direction. I like the way the book updates the mythology to play on our modern fear of pandemics. Like the newer takes on zombies, del Toro brings vampires into the 21st century.
He does it without making them sensitive emo-wienies. These vampires are truly horrible. There evolution is as scary as there final form is awsome.