Underworld Evolution [Mass Market Paperback]

I truely enjoy this series and hope their will be another book and movie. I am not a huge fan of vampire movies, and when I heard about the original Underworld movie, I wasn't all that thrilled. I mean, a Romeo and Juliet story using vampirea and werewolves with automatic weapons? Oddly enough, it was a really enjoyable story.

Underworld Evolution picks up where the original leaves off. Selene and Michael are making their way from the battle where Selene dispatched her former mentor. Michael awakens as a hybrid, quite different from Micheal. In the course of the story, Selene learns about the history of the importals, and the truth about the history of the Eldars and the murder of her mortal family. All the while, her relationship with Michael grows.

I picked this up because I think I may have been the only person who really liked the original Underworld film, and I'm a sucker for vampire tales. Books made from films are always risky. It's hard to pack good righting into a novel hat must depend on a high action film for its entire plot. And that's what happened here.

The story picks up right after the first film, with Selene (our vampire) and Michael (now a vampire/werewolf hybrid) in flight from just about every supernatural creature you can imagine. They've done away with an elder werewolf , an elder vampire, and thrown the worlds of coven and clan into chaos. Very Bad Karma. The majority of the story is one long flight from hiding places to safe houses and back again. Worse, some new players have entered the plot.

Marc, who should have been the last vampire elder [and actually should also have found final death], is inadvertently resurrected by exposure to blood that make him a hybrid too. Only he really can turn into a bat and fly. And rip whole building to shreds. The transformed elder makes Michael look like a crosswalk guide. The other new player is Alexander Corvinus, who heads an organization which has been cleaning up after the public relations disasters of the occult set. Suffice it to say that he is not a sanitation engineer, and he plays a key part in making the story work.

Prepare for one long, running vampire fight with occasional stops for the history of these occult creatures. The writing is crisp, and lacks the overblown exclamations that other writers have used to cover up a lack of dialog or action. And yes, there is a lot of violence in the tale -- everyone in this book is a killer of one sort or another, and Greg Cox doesn't flint from pointing this out to the gaping reader. No, this isn't great literature, or even great vampire fiction, but it's an entertaining romp in the fields of night.

Here's an overview: Marcus is after Selene because in her past, a past she doesn't remember at first, is the location of a dungeon her father built. Inside is William, his brother, locked in a cage for over 600 years. Marcus is close to his bother and wants to free him (the brother was imprisoned by Viktor after a murderous rampage that was killing thousands of people and turning them in werewolves but without the ability to change back. William, himself, is always in Lycan form throughout the entire book and Marcus is usually always in his hybrid form, preferring that to the human mask he can wear.

We are introduced to a group of people known as The Cleaners, they clean up the mess the Lycans and Vampires make. They are the people who blackmail or payoff witnesses to keep their mouth shut. They have documented the history of the vampires and the Lycans and the war between the two.

Selene spends most of the book saving Michael until he dies by the hand of Marcus (violently as well), Selene discovers she loves him but it is too late. Meeting the cleaner's leader she is offered a chance to get revenge, because --although the leader had the opportunity-- he couldn't bring himself to kill Marcus.

With the help of the Cleaner's elite crew, they fly to the dungeon to try and stop Marcus from releasing William on a world not ready to understand such a creature. In a body bag is Michael, Selene can't bare the thought of leaving him behind. He lies at her side and she transforms her love for him into hate aimed at Marcus. She knows she is going up against a force much stronger than her, even with the gift from the Cleaner's leader, fighting Marcus and possibly William is near suicide. Especially when she realizes that she is too late and the two brothers are united once again...and William has 600 years of hunger to sate.

While this is happening something miraculous is happening to Michael. Dead cells are sparking to life and the genetic code is multiplying. Fractured ribs reknit themselves, ripped organs healed, a new heart blossomed and brain activity resumed.

But this new Michael is stronger, smarter and the sub-hero of this book that he is meant to be. Still, things are not easy in their battle. William is strong and smart and damn fast, faster than Selene and Michael. All the Cleaners are killed by William and they turn into werewolves to fight and destroy our heroes.

This book reads much like a movie, meaning that Greg Cox didn't add as much into the story as he did for book one. Book one is 400 pages, this is 275 with a larger font. Still, the book is a damn fine read as we wait for the movie to be released and it is a tight and entertaining read. The hours will zip by.

This book needs to be on your shelf next to the first book, which is next to the first DVD.

Sadly though, this book I feel will only be appreciated by the cult fans of the first book/movie. Of which, I am one!

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