Bad Moon Rising

Wow, talk about a middle finger to your readers. Mr Maberry starts out BAD MOON RISING with a note to the readers that they could read this novel without having read the previous two. While I am a firm believer of authors bringing readers back up to speed on a series that took a year between books and a firm believer that any reader should be able to pick up a book without having to read previous installments, to announce that it was not necessary to have read the past two books made me ask, "Then why write them?" Readers of the previous two books could not have passed on the third novel because of their distinct lack of conclusion, and neither of those books stand on their own. Yes, this is the concluding novel, but don't tell everyone who invested time in the earlier fragments that their efforts were unnecessary. (For a better stand-alone trilogy, see John Scalzi's OLD MAN'S WAR, THE GHOST BRIGADES, and THE LAST COLONY)

Again, Maberry writes a fast-paced book that moves along smartly. However, he telegraphs his blows a little too easily. Everyone I thought would be a victim died with one exception from earlier books and two exceptions from this book. A couple of concepts were introduced and immediately highlighted how certain elements of the story would progress. Also some key details were dropped or lightly alluded to or never fully developed (I'm specifically talking about the dime, but there were other moments (key deaths and plot developments) - if you are going to continually refer to something, you should use it in something other than a throwaway moment.)

My major complaint was the stupidity of the characters and their incessant delays. Saul spent the entire second book moaning about what he knew and how he needed to talk to someone about it. No one could figure out that Griswold's buddies were actually bad guys until the action happens. The characters know they are sitting on a powder keg and yet they do nothing to stop the big festival. And so on. I said it before and I'll say it again - Stephen King did this same story in a third of the length with a ton more drama and horror. I cannot think of a single thing in these books that scared or disturbed me and it was almost more like a thriller with vampires.

The other element that could have been edited out were the celebrity cameos. Did we really need to see Tom Savini and Brinke Stevens fending off vampire hordes? It was cute, but unnecessary to the story.

Finally, the author in his end notes states that people ask if he will bring the characters back. I would hope not. Their story is played out and to do more would add nothing. These are not bad books, but there are better horror novels to read.