13 Bullets

David Wellington's take on the vampire genre, 13 Bullets, definitely leans more toward the horror side of the mythical creature than any of the other recent works. In fact, it is by far the goriest take I've seen.Wellington does invent a new take on the vampire, and it is by far not a pretty one. The world that he paints is one where vampires are known by the general populace to have existed, as recent as the 80's, but are believed to have been hunted to extinction, and for good reason. It's not a far stretch to say that their depiction is the opposite of the Twilight series (where vampires are beautiful gods), but then this differs from Moore's or Huston's or Meyer's take in that the perspective is from the vampire hunters, not at all from the vampires. For instance, here's a quick description of your typical vampire's mouth:

Then he opened his mouth and grinned. Every one of his teeth was sharpened to a point. It wasn't like in the movies at all. It looked more like the mouth of a shark, with row after row of tiny knives embedded in his gums.

These vampires are, as usual, fast and extremely tough to kill. How tough? You have to destroy the heart, and sometimes that takes jaw-dropping measures:

Arkely limped over to the tool cases. He found what he wanted and plugged it into a junction box. Caxton could hardly believe it when he came to stand next to the vampire's side, and electric jackhammer in his hands. He shoved the bit into the vampire's chest, just to the right of his left nipple. The same place Caxton had hit him with her wooden stake [ineffectually]. Arkeley switched on the hammer and pressed down hard with all his weight.

That passage stayed with me the longest after reading, maybe even longer than the rationalization why they need coffins -- trust me it's about as ick as you get.

All in all, an entertaining read, but I'll still stick with Charlie Huston for the "A" material.