It is the story of a vampire infestation that starts in New York with the landing of a commercial flight that suddenly goes dark shortly after touchdown. Fearing that this might be a terrorist attack or hijacking, the TSA and FAA proceed to board the plane only to find that the crew and passengers are dead.
This leads to the CDC being called in and the entrance of two main characters, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and Dr. Nora Martinez. I may be wrong about the last name of the second character as they are often referred to by their first names. Once their investigation begins, things begin to speed up as they are presented with an unknown biological or chemical weapon. What isn't known to them is that someone has arranged for an ancient vampire to be transported to the U.S., and this vampire has plans of his own, which include creating a vast army of vampires to start the eradication of the human race.
There is a lot more to it than that but I don't want to give away any spoilers. Aside from Ephraim and Nora, we also have Abraham Setrakian, a WWII death camp survivor turned vampire hunter, playing Van Helsing to Goodweather's Harker; Vasily Fet, an NYC pest control officer (rat catcher; sorry, no small but viscious dog); and Gus Elizalde, a street thug of sorts. There are a number other characters that don't take center stage for long during this book, such as Eldritch Palmer who has made a deal with the devil.
There are definitely influences from previous vampire books and films, including Del Torro's own work on Blade II. The descriptions of the vampires will likely remind people of the mutated vampires and the UVC mine is also a reminder. Other potential sources include the Necroscope series in the sense that vampirism is explained in biological fashion, which, when you consider the main character is an epidemiologist, is understandable. It also seems a little reminiscent of 13 Bullets and 99 Coffins in that these aren't your goth, angst ridden vampires. These are monsters, pure and simple, and sometimes feel more like a zombie plague.
None of this is bad. The book really grabbed me. I read it in three days, which is like a whirlwind for me. It moves along a good pace and rarely slows down more than needed. There is definitely more to be learned about the vampires and we are given some clues and glimpses, such as there are seven vampire masters or ancients. Three in the Old World, three in the New World, and one rogue. And that they exist in clans but definitely not your V:tR clans.
I think this would be good inspiration for a Hunter: The Vigil campaign if you were using Nightstalkers but didn't want to use the WoD vampires.
The only disappointing part is that I have to wait for 2010 and 2011 for the sequels. So if you're looking for a good book where the vampires are the baddies and maybe looking for some new ideas, you should give it a try.
