Customer Reviews

Devils Night

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I never write reviews. So, with that in mind, I have to say that this book, along with "The Devil's Brood" and "Return of the Wolf Man" are some of the best reads I've had in a long time!

These books follow the formula of Universal Studio's classic monsters. If you enjoy the old Universal horror movies, then you will most assuredly enjoy these novels.

I highly recommend you seek out the first novel, "Return of the Wolf Man" then "The Devil's Brood" and finally this book! It's well worth reading.

You will enjoy this book. The first movie to feature the 'Big Three' monsters was 'House of Frankenstein' in which all the monsters appear all to briefly, and then die. This book takes us into the minds of the monsters to experience their thoughts and feelings in extended action sequences. If a sequel to those movies were made today, it would have to be more graphic and more violent than the originals. I enjoyed the bloodlust of the werewolf of London and the survival aptitude of the Frankenstein monster (I'm not sure if he could breath underwater, but if he could be drowned that easily he would have been killed long ago.) True, Dracula's daughter is no longer seeking a cure, but who wouldn't go through changes over sixty years? I only regret that a sequel hasn't been released yet.

I read parts of this aloud as examples of bad writing. This is HORRIBLE! The story is muddled. Cliches abound. The characters are poorly depicted. Where is the inner turmoil the vampire showed in the movie "Dracula's Daughter"? Why did he so strangely change the werewolf's shapeshifting nature to a method unrelated to that of the movies? Since when do Dracula and his daughter invoke Satan? If you're not going to stick to what has been established in the movies, then just write an original novel with your own material and characters. Bad, bad, bad, bad, BAD!!!

I am the author of Night of Dracula and Frankenstein: The Legacy. I do not know David Jacob's, but I have read his work and found this novel to be absolutely wonderful. He has captured the true spirit of the classic monsters, but with a new twist. I sincerely believe that his work deserves a much higher rating and that Universal Studios has selected a very talented writer to carry on with the tradition of the monsters. I would highly recommend his work. David, from one writer to another -- great job!

This was the worse book I have ever read! I cannot understand what prompted Universal to publish this? They can't be that hard up for stories, or could they? Why didn't Universal have Christopher Schildt, who wrote NIGHT OF DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN THE LEGACY write their next books. Schildt is fantastic!

I figure a great work of literature deserves 5 stars, a really good novel 4-that's what I gave all 3 installments in this series (so far). Here, Jacobs really matures from his first one in this series, and works out the bugs that were present in "Devil's Brood". You'd be lost if you started with this, so begin (if at all possible) with "Return of the Wolfman" by Jeff Rovin, after you've seen the movies. This book is almost as good as the best of the movies, I'm not kidding. Dracula is more realistic in this book, and again, this guy writes the Frankenstein monster better than anyone since Mary Shelly, without a doubt. I'll go out on a limb and say Jacobs has a very unique style of writing, and would get more respect if he wrote something other than "pulp". I get the impression this is his last installment in the series, and that's too bad if true. The complaints that he isn't true to the originals are half true-this is HIS vision, not theirs. Anyway, From "Dracula" to "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein" there is a world of difference, so why shouldn't it be the same between the movies and the books that turned up 50 years later? I'm speaking as someone who prefers Famous Monsters to Fangoria any day-these are monsters who can put the fear into you in the 21st century. I like the new Mummy movies, but these stories are much better. Read all three installments, and be prepared to save the best for last.

this book is another awful attempt to keep the universal monsters' legacy alive. the publishers should either go back to jeff rovin, who wrote "return of the wolfman" or find a new author to continue the series.

One of the problems facing readers of Jacobs' work is that their expectations are rooted in an appreciation of the original Universal Monster films. Jacobs is writing from a different perspective. His monsters are modern, post-splatterpunk versions of the Universal classics. His novels evoke the mood of the old Eerie Publication magazine-covers of the '70's, which depicted werewolves, vampires, zombies and Frankenstein Monster type creatures in vicious bloody battle. Jacobs' versions of the Monsters EAT people! They rip them limb from limb! They drool and slaver. They do all the things that deep down, you KNOW the originals were doing--"off stage". In Jacobs' version, you get to see ALL the gore and horror that the monsters were always supposed to have caused, but this time it's stage center, instead of discretely hidden. His greatest achievement is in his depiction of the landscape of the original Universal films. His "Visaria", a fictional European micro-nation, contains all the towns and castles contained in the old movies. Visaria, in some ways, has more character and personality than many of the minor characters who gasp and bleed their way through the novel. Jacobs' novels are NOT for fans of the Universal Monster cycle who are looking to find that same classic atmosphere in print. (check Jeff Rovin's RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN instead for that) They are for modern fans who cut their teeth on FANGORIA more than FAMOUS MONSTERS and have always wondered how those old films would look updated with modern special effects and CGI. You probably know which type of fan YOU are.

Talk about crushed hopes. I really loved the first book in the series ("Return of the Wolf Man", by Jeff Rovin), but David Jacob's continuation of the story simply makes me want to throw this one away.

Jacobs, a barely competant writer who seems to have English as a second language, weaves a tale of very unpleasant people doing bizarre and stupid things to each other for no apparent reason. The characters are for the most part simply cartoons (Dracula's dialogue is particularly cringeworthy, making him sound like every other comic book megalomaniac, worthy of little more than an appearence in a bad 80's Saturday morning show at best), and little explanation is given for their actions.

Actually, this book and the previous volume, "The Devil's Brood", do quite well at recapturing the spirit of the Universal monster movies. Sadly, it's the essence of the silly, stupid end of the series, when it was all just a ridiculously campy and sad monster mash with no scares involved. After reading the book all the way through (and I can't quite believe I did that), I realised that there isn't *one* normal person in the book. Everyone is either a killer, a gangster, a zombie, a mad scientist, a super-intelligent werewolf, a re-animated patchwork monster, or a vampire. It's like reading a teenager's idea of a "kewl" monster comic. Jacobs even makes the cretinous mistake of calling the Frankenstein Monster by its creators name, which is particularly annoying as he managed to avoid doing so in the previous book. The whole thing was horribly rushed, making me believe that the deadline was looming and Jacobs just phoned this one in.

With no art, creativity or effort in it, this is without a doubt the *worst* book I have ever read (and I've read some stinkers), made doubly frustrating by the fact that there are some neat ideas in it, buried deep beneath the dross. That this car-wreck of a book ever saw print is an insult to the fans of the Universal Monsters.

First and foremost, Jacobs should be ashamed of what he's done. What right did he think he had to massacre an excellent would-be series (starting with RETURN OF THE WOLF MAN)? Jacobs knows almost nothing about the monsters. There isn't even a plot. The monsters are captured by devil worshippers, wreak "havoc" and then...uh....well, there wasn't really an ending to this book. It's almost like he decided to stop writing and cut it off. This is just flat out dull. Don't get me wrong, I am a major classic monster fan. I loved RETURN OF THE WOLF MAN by Jeff Rovin. When I bought this book, I expected a worthy successor to Mr. Rovin's masterpiece(I'm not kidding, it's really good!), but this pathetic "book" was a waste of money. Period. Please Jeff Rovin, correct this horrible mistake by writing another classic horror masterpiece!