Midnight Bites: Stories of the Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine (review)

Midnight Bites: Stories of the Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine is based on one of my very favorite vampire series and all 22 of the stories in this book remind me of the author’s ability to immerse the reader in a chilling world that values humans only for their ability to produce an acceptable quantity of blood or perform menial tasks. I’m not a big horror fan, but somehow, no matter how horrific the acts described, I am still mesmerized by the struggle by humans (and vampires) who refuse to be forced into a life (with or without a beating heart) contrary to what they believe in. The charm of this series is the depiction of the ability to survive unspeakably awful events and (eventually) continue to live a useful life. This is a wonderfully chilling collection of tales about those eerie inhabitants of Morganville that fleshes out some of the books and reminds those like myself who haven’t caught up with all of the series that there are gaps to be filled in and books to be read! Visit Morganville…you’ll never leave…just like the rest of the humans…


This paranormal read is a wonderful collection of stories that remind one of all of the wonderfully quirky and dark elements of this series. The prologue to each indicates where in the series the action is taking place so this isn’t the volume to read if you haven’t caught up with all of the books because there are spoilers for earlier volumes. Those who are familiar with all of the factions and frenemies and true enemies of Morganville will get intriguing glimpses of the motivations behind some of the occurrences. I enjoyed discovering different facets of vampires such as Myrnin and Oliver, who each feature in stories that give their perspective on life with humans. And the surprise of realizing that Monica Morrell…almost…could be something other than a witch of the first order, the fun of seeing how Shane got his car ‘murdered’, seeing events from behind Eve’s Gothed-out eyes, plus a view of the love and bonding between the four inhabitants of Glass House, makes this a remarkable collection of stories.

A copy of this book was provide to me for review and a version of this review was submitted to Night Owl Reviews


Amazon link


The first four (of fifteen) titles in the series:

              

Happy Halloween!

Here's hoping you do all of the fun things you like for Halloween...I will be enjoying the bite-sized candies and keeping them all to myself, lol.


I am not terribly fond of horror stories and lots of gore and I have never been terribly enamored of zombie stories but I have to admit that I enjoyed Rachel Caine's Terminated.  My review will be at the end of this post but first I wanted to mention some other titles for those of you who like your stories a bit creepy and bloody...

Elf Ahearn (no relation, lol) has a creepy gothic tale, Lord Monroe's Dark Tower.  My Goodreads review is at this link.


                                    



Bobbi Romans' Table for Three, Hold the Blood is an ADULT title (at least, judging by the cover).  She also has a couple of fun paranormal titles in her 'Swamp Magic' series, Swamp Magic and Under the Full Moon


                                            

I had the privilege of editing a couple of titles that gave me the chills (but I warn you that I am a wimp anyway)...please be advised that these are also ADULT titles.



W. Lynn Chantale's A Perfect Getaway

                                 
 
and



Randy D. Rubin's The Witch of Dreadmere Forest



I had the opportunity to read and review Rachel Caine's Terminated for Night Owl Reviews recently.  I am behind on her other series (I love the Morganville Vampires as well as the Weather Warden series although that one I am REALLY behind on)

                   


My review:
4.5 out of 5 stars

Terminated by Rachel Caine is the exciting conclusion to the ‘Revivalist’ series by Rachel Caine. Bryn Davis was the recipient of something called Returne which has given her life but recent horrific experiences have resulted in her getting an upgrade which her allies would not be particularly pleased to hear about, especially if she shares the disturbing side effects. Patrick McCallister, her lover, had his own relationship-shattering secrets that significantly altered the dynamics of the struggle being waged against those who are trying to create a race of super-beings. The odds seem insurmountable but nobody is ready to give up the fight left. The question becomes, who will survive long enough to be victorious?

This dark urban fantasy has chilling implications about the terrible results possible when the idealism of scientific progress becomes warped by the pragmatism of those whose only goal is to be a victor. I am not a big fan of zombie stories but I have to confess that this particular tale reminds me of why I am a fan of this author. I normally read a couple of her other series with enthusiasm and already know how deftly she creates personable characters caught in untenable situations that they always somehow cope with, albeit in unusual ways, but I confess that this series had not come to my notice. Despite the fact that I have not read the prior novels, enough backstory was provided to not only familiarize me with the chain of events that lead to this exciting conclusion but also to whet my appetite enough that I want to read the other novels in the series to get a more complete picture. I can’t say that I am looking forward to the blood and violence but I am intrigued by the almost super-hero flavor inherent in having characters who are extremely hard to destroy, despite very creative attempts. Be warned, this is not a story for the faint of heart but it definitely provides a roller-coaster adventure of a read.

Oh, and I wanted to mention a couple of things I have found in my wanderings:


I found another contest with a Kindle Fire giveaway
to promote Laurence O'Bryan's book, The Manhattan Puzzle



and Sabrina York has a giveaway on Goodreads for her ADULT title, Tristan's Temptation at this link.
                                       

 

Learning tools through the library

I am always amazed by what is available through my local county library.  I treasure libraries since they have provided me with many an hour of entertainment, especially as a child when I could not afford to purchase books.  They help me keep my current book budget down to a dull roar since I am fortunate to have two different library systems to draw from (and yes, both library cards get a workout).

I have mentioned before that there are several resources that I take advantage of through the internet and my county library card number, one of which is called Freegal which allows me to download three songs per week without any piracy concerns.  There is quite a wide range of things available, including a profanity laden but hilarious recording of Robin Williams discussing the planning that went into the formation of the human body called Intelligent Design as well as the ethereal songs recorded by young Jackie Evancho and several works by some of the smooth jazz artists that I like.  I am ashamed to admit that I haven't kept up with the foreign language lessons that I started through Mango but intend to get back to them one of these days and lately have discovered that there is another educational tool called 'Ed2go'.  I am intrigued because there are a breadth of classes that can be attended at one's convenience online and I was delighted to discover that some of them address writing and publishing so I am taking a beginning class in editing.  It's amazing what is out there for free and I urge those of you with local county libraries to look into what they can offer access to, it is pretty amazing.

And, what have I been reading from the library?
Lauren Dane's poignant tale Never Enough which gives Adrian Brown's love story, the entertaining anthology Hex Appeal which includes great stories by Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, P.N. Elrod and husband and wife team Ilona Andrews , as well as the delightfully spicy Hot in Handcuffs which has tales by three of my favorite authors in their field, Shayla Black, Sylvia Day and Shiloh Walker!  Unfortunately, I have been so busy reading that I haven't written up the reviews so I will have to rectify that.  Support your local library (I tend to donate a lot of my review books to one of my local libraries but they also can use volunteers to help shelve or perform other tasks).  My sincere thanks to the dozens of authors at RWA who cheerfully donated books to help supplement the collection at the Wanda Kirk Library in Rosamond!