V Wars: Night Terrors, the third book in the V Wars series, was released in October 2015. It probably is not totally necessary to read the first two in the series before Night Terrors but it would help. I did read V Wars first and now Night Terrors. I did not realize I was missing the third book, Blood and Fire so I did get a little confused on one point. Like the original Night Terrors is written by several authors, Lucas Mangum, Jonathan Maberry, Jeremy Robinson, John Everson, Larry Correia, and Tim Waggoner. Each author is responsible for writing one or more of the fifteen different stories that make up the whole.

The premise of the V Wars books is that a piece of dormant human DNA somehow become activated creating vampires and werewolfs. The first book dealt with the original event and its immediate aftermath. V Wars: Night Terrors takes place at least eighteen months or more after the original event. A war has broken out between the “beats” (normal humans) and the “bloods” (vampires). It is not that simple though. It is not just human vs. inhuman. Some humans work with vampires and some vampires with humans. Some are trying to eradicate the others while some are trying to find a way to coexist.

I did enjoy Night Terrors but not as much as the original V Wars. One reason was there was more sex. I thought it was unnecessary for moving the story forward. It just seemed to be gratuitous, like the nudity in Game of Thrones. The other problem I had was the types of vampires. In V Wars, there are vampires, period. There are the beginnings of an introduction to specialization within the species but in Night Terrors it explodes. There were so many different types of vampires with different abilities and exotic names I could not keep them straight. At all. Just mentioning what type of vampire one was did not tell me if it was sun sensitive, extra strong or drank life essence instead of blood. It was just too much to keep track of for me.

I did enjoy what I perceived as social commentary. In one story, “A Day in the Life” part 9, the action centers around the man who produces vampire reality shows. His biggest hit follows female vampires who live in the Hamptons. They discuss whether to have their fangs gold tipped and if chinchilla blood really the best. Think of Real Housewives of wherever gone horribly wrong and you get the idea. He also produced shows that were vampire on vampire violence, even an Amish Vampire, which he admitted was totally scripted.

The production values were perfect. The narration was excellent. I think Stefan Rudnicki sounds like the author Benjamin Percy and had to check the credits to see who it was narrating. Gabrielle de Cuir and Stephen Hoye were fantastic. Jamye Meri Grant was great. The only problem I had was Sunil Malhotra. He has a lovely voice but at times he spoke too softly. I would need to back up, raise the volume and then lower the volume after that particular passage. Overall it was an excellent audiobook. I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars overall: Plot 4, Performance 5, Production 5, and Attention holding 4.

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review”
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