Best series ever

Finally audible has this series. Love these books.
Keep them coming. Can’t wait for the next one

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4 people found this helpful

A rushed entry in the series and poor narration

I remember this particular book in a better light. When I read it the first time in '91 I thought it rivaled book one for best in the series. Listening to it now brings some of Lumley's more annoying writing habits into glaring focus. Every character uses the same slang and terms and phrases, he repeats himself a LOT and feels the need to rehash details over and over, and he over-explains every tiny insignificant detail. "As you know, I'm a Telepath, so..." and "I'm Wamphyri, so...." This tends to just get on your nerves after hearing characters tell each other this bit over and over. If Shaithis is talking to the Ferenc, why does he feel the need to remind him that he is Wamphyri and then explain the lusts and emotions of being such? I think he knows, already.

All in all it feels like Lumley was just trying to get to the end of the Harry Keogh saga. The ending feels rushed and there is way too much filler (the over-explaining and repeating himself, flashbacks, and recapping what has happened before). We've had 4 books of E-Branch's escapades, and each time he brings back a character we all know about, he has to go back and explain what that character's powers are and how they work. David Chung: "As you know, I'm a sympathetic locator, so I can take an item owned by the blah blah blah blah...." Seriously, we know already. We don't need 4 paragraphs of him explaining it to the people he has worked with for years!

Those are my complaints. You know, though, I still love this series, and I adore Harry and the ESPers. The Wamphyri are suitably terrifying and I'd love to see this series made into a movie but I doubt that will ever happen. It's time has passed I guess. I'm still going to buy the "Vampire World" books when they release on audio. I actually enjoyed those a great deal more than the original series.

About the performance.....
The narrator was very inconsistent with accents and character vocalizations. Shaithis was at first all gurgling and clotted sounding, but then in the last chapter he sounds like the Ferenc. Harry's voicings were just all over the place, and Karen did NOT sound like a Wamphyri lord should sound. She came across as a sniveling cowardly little girl. I did not like the narration at all. Also, I doubt a Hell's Angel from Detroit has a cockney accent, and some dude working in a Harley shop in Detroit most definitely does not have a British accent. Those were the most egregious violations to me. His Russian accents were pretty poor as well.

I've listened to books narrated by Michael Troughton before and they weren't this bad. I don't know if he was just trying to get it over with or was distracted or whatever. I was just very disappointed with the performance.

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3 people found this helpful

5 out of 5 stars

one of the best books in series loved these books waiting for next book in series dont keep us waiting

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3 people found this helpful

please get next in series

Loved it. Please continue to add to this series. One of my favorites of all time

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2 people found this helpful

The perfect ENDING...to the BEGINNING

So much heart pounding action in this conclusion (or is it?) of Harry Keogh's Necroscope journey.

Brian Lumley first 5 Necroscope novels changed my vision of vampires...FOREVER!
And to think...these first 5 tales SPAWNED 8 more colossal adventures still to be told.

Michael Troughton's performance was very well done.

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1 person found this helpful

like the others...

Great story and and good narrating. ALMOST as good as the first narrator. Good job to all, again.

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1 person found this helpful

Vampire Porn ?

I was a bit uncomfortable with all the vampire sex in this one — I didn’t remember the others being so full of sex — other than that - I love the series

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Rushed?

A much improved performance from the narrator, goofy sound effects are mostly gone, pronunciations are mostly on point and it is overall enjoyable to listen. If you struggled with necro 4 due to narration, 5 is a vast improvement.

The story however, now being able to hear it at my leisure seems rushed. The Johnny found arc is contrived and goes on for far too long, especially considering the previous villains' abilities compared to Johnny's, he should have been a 2 chapter toady buddy at best. The wamphyry are developed, albeit they find God and Jesus in this book which is a bit of a crutch on BL's part but there is some loose justification to the concept. Nitpicking withstanding, a fine listen and a grand improvement on necro 4.

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How Freaking Clever

Love this series. How the hell does the author come up with such fantastic imagery? The epilogue...wow!!!

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Not the best in series, but still good

There were some great parts, and this definitely an important addition to the series, but some of it felt forced. That won't stop from reading the next book in the series, though.

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