13 Bullets

by David Wellington

Book Overview

The first book in the Laura Caxton Vampire series from the author of the Monster Island trilogy. All the official reports say that vampires are dead--extinct since the late '80s, when FBI agent Arkeley defeated the last vampire in a fight that nearly killed him. But when state trooper Laura Caxton calls the FBI looking for help in the middle of the night, Arkeley is unsurprised to hear that it sounds like a vampire attack. He's been expecting such...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307381439
• ISBN13: 9780307381439
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Meh

I have to say, I enjoyed this book up until about 20% of the way through. Then, it was almost as if the author got bored and just tried to pump out the rest before he lost too much steam. Other than the very last sentence that is. Which I have to say, I loved, and it aaaaalmost made it worth reading the rest of the book...almost. Yes, I like my horror books to have gore, and I feel that most of the gory scenes were done well. IF you like that sort of thing. As I said, I do, so that wasn't an issue. Most of the action scenes were also written well. Which can be a fallback for some writers. I say "most", because at the end I felt he was trying to rush it a little too much. Causing the reader to not fully understand things that were happening until about 4 sentences after they actually happened. Now, with all those action scenes, was there enough substance to the book and characters? I don't know about this one. While you get to know the two main characters pretty well (Caxton a little too well in my opinion, but we'll get to that later.), and you get to know each of the vampires stories pretty well, I just felt the other characters fell flat. I never really understood why Caxton loved Deanna so much. It seemed more of a pity relationship than anything. Which may have been the intent of the author, but, if so, why did Caxton always go on and on about how much she loved her? I didn't get it. And the ending relationship status of Caxton was bothersome to say the least. We'll leave it at that without the spoilers. Ah yes, and the dialogue. If this had been written where everyone was supposed to be in high school I would get it. As it stands, most grown adults don't talk as they do in this book. It's rather annoying for the most part. There were also some things that just didn't lineup for me. For instance, a bullet, that basically explodes and turns into shrapnel has no effect on a vampire who has just fed...but, if said vampire falls into long shards of glass, the vampire is all torn up and loses a ridiculous amount of blood. Hmm, didn't really make since to me. There are a few inconsistencies such as these throughout the book. On a note that just might be my own thing. The main character, Laura Caxton, irritated me to no end. She is such a pansy. I can't tell you how many times you think she's dying, only to find she's just over-exaggerating, and has no pain tolerance whatsoever. And some of the things she thinks about during life or death situations, I just didn't get it. I kind of understand that she's supposed to balance out the badassness of Special Deputy Arkeley, but at times it was just too much. GROW SOME BALLS WOMAN! and brains. How she survives I have no idea. Why the author allows her to survive I'm not entirely sure either. By the end of the book, if she didn't kill herself, I wanted to do it for her. Okay, enough ranting. My biggest issue with this book is that by the end I stopped caring what was going to happen to everyone involved. I finished it, but barely. not something I would suggest to a friend, and not something I would suggest to you, someone I don't even know.

Vicious vampire tale with buckets of gore

This book is a little 30 days of Night and John Carpenter's vampires rolled into one. The vampires in this novel are more animal than human. During their feedings they will destroy entire towns and when they are full they are damn near invincible. These monster vampires are able to create more fear than the vampires of old. Anyone looking for a traditional vampire tale will be surprised. This book takes the genre and turns it on its head. The human to vampire transition is completely re-invented and given a dark twist. Mr. Wellington does a great job setting up his characters and developing them throughout the story. The vampire hunters include a State Trooper (Caxton) and a Special Agent from the US Marshalls (Arkely). This book is fast moving,full of action, gore, zombies and fun. I can't wait to read the other three books, 99 Coffins, Vampire Zero and 23 Hours. This is an easy reccomendation to anyone who is a horror novel or vampire fan.

As near to perfect as you can get...

Not exactly steeped in philisophical profundity...stripped of romance...at the same time incredibly human. Combined with non-stop action, gore...an extremely high order of violence. Great characters, doesn't take a misstep anywhere. David Wellington has even outdone his Zombie trilogy. Time will zoom past and this book leaves you wanting more. Perfect for planes, trains, automobiles and scaring the crap out of yourself on a dark, rainy, windy night...like I just did.

Publisher's Weekly, "surprisingly anticlimactic finale"... What the...?!?

In reading the synopsis by Publisher's Weekly, I was reminded by the limitations of "established media." The reviewer of this publication described the climax as anti-climatic. How do I say this without giving anything away... For me, "13 Bullets" was a pretty good book BUT the ending was classic, and for me, it is what made the book stand out. I think the reviewer was expecting the predictable "blandly satisfying" ending that is typical to these types of stories. I can't describe more without giving anything away. I will say that I thought the ending was one of the most clever, ironically humorous, and memorable endings I've ever read. I've enjoyed all of Wellington's books (I had originally read them online but later bought each publication out of thanks and homage.) For me, "13 Bullets" would have been one of his least memorable books except for the ending (I'm biased towards post-apocalyptic fiction.) It was a perfect ending... along the lines of the originally published ending to Stephen King's "The Stand". In that book, as originally published, the ending was a classic which I loved. In "The Stand", the story was epic in scope and any ending would have been a quickly drawn let down (as with so many other epic books that have built up the story so much.) Yadda, yadda... most of those books have the good guys win in a conventional and spectacular way where the bad guys get what's coming to them. But in the original publication of "The Stand", King ended that novel by nuking the city because a lunatic accidentally drops a nuclear bomb down a set of stairs. How classic! To me, it seemed that King had built the story line and expectation so much that no ending would have been suitable. So, he just had it end in a stupid meaningless act... which, BTW, doesn't life usually play out that way? Of course, later on in a subsequent publication which included the insertion of the originally deleted 400 pages and original ending, the conclusion came with the hand of God dropping the bomb on the bad guys. The ultimate example of the good guys winning... but far less interesting and clever and what Publisher's Weekly would want to expect. Such is the case with "13 Bullets"... God, I'm just itching to tell the punch line! Suffice it to say that the ending is consistent with the story but it is so unexpected and so humorous and satisfying on so many levels. And unlike, "The Stand," where I describe the ending as a stupid act, the end of this book is smart and totally consistent with the slayer's character. Publisher's Weekly lacks the sophistication to appreciate it. For the ending alone, 13 Bullets deserves 5 stars. Otherwise, I would have given it a 3 and a half stars. I read it last year as well as more than 50 other books since then. The ending makes this books stand out the most. If you want a bland and predictable book, then craft your booklist from Publisher's Weekly or Time Magazine. I, however, prefer a little imag

David Wellington is the Emperor of the Undead

David Wellington burst onto the scene in 2006 with Monster Island: A Zombie Novel, a harbinger of a gritty, new, real-world approach to zombies. A year later and he's at it again with 13 BULLETS, and he does not disappoint. Wellington grabs the traditional vampire story by the throat, slices the jugular and shakes it like a rabid dog shredding a tattered chew-toy. Forget the trite and tired notions of gothic mansions, crypts, well-dressed vamps and "poor me" undead who pine away for one impossibly passionate experience after another: these vamps are nasty, dirty, brutal and hungry. You could look for the delicate, tell-tale poke-holes in a victim's neck, if you could even find the neck, that is - most times it's ripped out of the body along with bits of chest, shoulder, and most of the internal organs. 13 BULLETS is to vampire stories what lethal gladiatorial games are to formalized boxing. If you want blood, you got it. The story drags a bit in the middle - you can only see so many vamp victims before they all start to sound like a single mangled mass - but he has a surprise at the end that will totally catch you off guard. Wellington opens with a bang, guides you through one woman's nightmare, then manages to flip the script and go beyond nightmare to the deepest pits of physical and emotional hell. And don't forget the Wellington trademark ending: swarming masses of rotting corpses coming for your blood. Of course he fields an army - what else would you expect from the new Emperor of the Undead?

Pure brilliance!

David started with the undead genre, he took it, made it his own and created a universe unsurpassed by any other author or even filmmaker. His take on the idea of an undead apocolypse was both fresh and in the true sense original. The interest shown by his online following and those who discovered him through the printed novels is testiment to how he ensnares you with the pace, content and original ideas inherent to his writing. I was never keen on the vampire genre, It sparked ideas in my brain of a cursed nobleman in a castle draining the blood of pale skinned virgins and ensaring them in some silly love pact until the local villagers burned him out of house and home. But David has done it again, he has taken this overdone and tired genre and made it new and exciting, his characters are real and you feel for them and their struggle against their vampiric nemesis. The vampires themselves have been re-invented, gone are the ideas of nobility or romance, these creatures exist purely to feed, kill and cause suffering. The characters are real, Special deputy Arkeley & Officer Laura Caxton have as many flaws as us all and it makes their struggle more personal to the reader. You will not be dissapointed!