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Blood Bond: The Hanging Road (Blood Bond)
William W. Johnstone
Manufacturer: Pinnacle
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ASIN: 0786018712 |
Customer Reviews:
william w. johnstone.......2007-06-26
this is for all the dealers for all of w.w.j books. i have not had a real bad experience and all his books, i have read, are exactly what i am looking for.
thank you
le
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- A must for Vietnam Vets
- A must for Vietnam Vets
- A Good Synthesis, but Weak Conclusion
- A Good Synthesis, but Weak Conclusion
- Blood Road
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The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War
John Prados
Manufacturer: Wiley
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- Running Recon: A Photo Journey with SOG Special Ops Along the Ho Chi Minh Trail
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ASIN: 0471254657 |
Amazon.com
"The Trail undeniably lay at the heart of the war," writes John Prados in the introduction to The Blood Road. The Vietnam War cannot be understood properly without considering this elusive path from North Vietnam to South Vietnam, which helped the Viet Cong defeat the armed forces of a much more powerful country. "Building the Trail or hiking it became the central experience for a generation of Vietnamese from the North," says Prados. The Trail--known as the Truong Son Strategic Supply Route to the Communists and as the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the Americans--was composed of more than 12,000 miles of roads and paths, and it remained open throughout the course of the conflict despite American efforts to close it. When the Nixon administration ordered attacks on Cambodia and Laos, the goal was to destroy the Trail and its supply depots. Prados suggests that the result of the Vietnam War might have been different if the United States had somehow managed to shut down the Trail, even though he also acknowledges the extreme difficulty of succeeding at this task. The Blood Road offers a fresh look at an old debate, and marks a welcome contribution to the literature on the Vietnam War. --John J. Miller
Book Description
"Enormously illuminating. . . . John Prados can lead a reader, from the 'battle buff' to the expert, through the series of campaigns near the DMZ and along Route 9 better than any other author I have read. . . . His understanding of the decision-making process in Hanoi is nuanced and sophisticated
. . . . A first-rate book from a first-rate scholar."âRobert K. Brigham, Vassar College
"The Blood Road records all sides of the story, from the trials of Vietnamese soldiers in the wild, to the heroism of Americans trying to save their buddies against impossible odds, to the desperation of antiwar activists who feared that a conflict out of control spelled doom for a great nation, to the machinations of diplomats and generals scheming to get their way. This book is the tale of a fulcrum that turned the balance in the Vietnam War." âJohn Prados, from his Introduction
Could the United States have won the Vietnam war if it had been able to cut off the Viet Cong from their North Vietnamese support by severing the Ho Chi Minh Trail? Acclaimed historian John Prados tackles this crucial question in an elegant, unprecedented, and exciting work of historical scholarship.
Built as a vital gateway inside a divided nation, the Ho Chi Minh Trail embodied the dreams and aspirations of an entire people. As the North Vietnamese struggled to open and sustain The Trail, the American and South Vietnamese forces struggled to close itâa life-and-death contest that tells the intricate and dramatic story of the Vietnam War in microcosm.
The Blood Road recounts this complex story with unprecedented depth and clarity. The Ho Chi Minh Trailâwhose flow of troops, civilians, and armaments became the lifeblood of a long campaign toward violent victoryâwas Hanoi's only connection by land to South Vietnam. Ultimately comprising more than twelve thousand miles of roads and paths through some of the world's harshest geography, The Trail and the epic struggle behind building and crossing it became the central experience for an entire generation. Graves filling 72 military cemeteries in Vietnam stand as silent, grisly testimony to the notorious road's devastating toll.
Aided by formerly secret government documents, and previously unavailable oral histories, memoirs, and interviews, Prados explores all sides of the conflict, providing details of the action in Hanoi and North Vietnam and avoiding the narrowly focused battle histories, atomized individual accounts, and overly general visions dominating previous histories. Prados considers each of the multiple perspectives that shaped the conflict: the struggle of the Vietnamese soldiers in the jungles, the heroism of American troops, the highly influential antiwar protests of the period, the intricate machinations of the generals and diplomats, and the lingering impact on the people and governments of neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
Customer Reviews:
A must for Vietnam Vets.......2002-10-17
This is a must-read for all Vietnam veterans and students of the Vietnam War. Author Prados outlines why we were never able to interdict the flow of troops and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos into South Vietnam. As a veteran of C-130 flare missions searching for trucks over the Trail, I now understand why our task was often so fruitless
A must for Vietnam Vets.......2002-10-17
This is a must-read for all Vietnam veterans and students of the Vietnam War. Author Prados outlines why we were never able to interdict the flow of troops and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos into South Vietnam. As a veteran of C-130 flare missions searching for trucks over the Trail, I now understand why our task was often so fruitless.
Sam McGowan
Vietnam Veteran, author of "The Cave", a novel of the Vietnam War.
A Good Synthesis, but Weak Conclusion.......2001-06-08
John Prados, a veteran writer of military history, has attempted to write the first detailed scholarly examination of the role of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Vietnam War. The Trail, dubbed the "Blood Road," was a vital pathway through the jungles of Laos and Cambodia that enabled the North Vietnamese regime to conduct a protracted guerrilla struggle in South Vietnam. Without the Trail, the indigenous Viet Cong in South Vietnam would have been virtually on their own. Nor is Prados content just to examine the history of the Trail; rather, he poses the critical question: could the United States have severed the Trail and thereby achieved a military victory in Vietnam?
There is no doubt that The Blood Trail has historical value. Prados has pulled together high and low-level accounts from both sides to produce the first real synthesis on this subject. Unfortunately, far more is promised than is delivered by this book. One major problem is the over-focus on Washington strategy sessions by Bundy, McNamara, LBJ, et al. It seems that every book written on the Vietnam War has to detour into the Oval Office, no matter how much this ground has been trampled before. The only germane aspect of these familiar policy debates is the issue of whether the insurgency in Vietnam would be handled with diplomatic or military means. Prados shows that severing the canal by a variety of military means was the preferred option.
Although the Americans tried everything from ground attacks, bombing, mining and raiding, they could not sever the Trail. Thus Prados concludes that, "the truth is that the war fighters lost their gambit". Well, that's rather obvious Dr. Prados, given that we lost the war. Unfortunately, by asserting that we couldn't sever the Trail by military means (which actually is not proven, only that the means employed did not work), the author leaves the reader high and dry. What then should the United States have done about the Trail? Abandon South Vietnam in 1964? Negotiate surrender? How could we have known that interdicting the Trail would fail if we did not try it? There is nothing worthy of being called a conclusion here. I also believe that Dr. Prados overstates the effect of severing the Trail in any case. Even if the US military had successfully interdicted the Trail for say 6-12 months, thereby disrupting the enemy build-up, Hanoi would merely have asked for a temporary cease-fire. They could then use the period of cease-fire to repair any damage to the Trail.
I think Prados misses the boat on this one. The Vietnam War was not an exercise in military logistics, whereby if we had severed the enemy lines of communication their war effort would have collapsed. Prados has been influenced too heavily by Jomini and Clausewitz, instead of Mao. First, the enemy would always find a way to get some troops and supplies into South Vietnam, no matter how painful we made this to them. Even if we stopped 80-90% of the troops and supplies - a real success - the remaining 10-20% would probably be enough to keep a low-level insurgency burning in South Vietnam. The war was not about logistics, it was about motivation and protracted struggle. The fact is that as long as Hanoi's leaders remained committed to victory, they could outlast any temporary US military successes. The United States never intended to adopt a large-scale, open-ended defense of South Vietnam for decades on end. Thus, the Trail was probably not as critical to victory or defeat as Prados makes out.
A Good Synthesis, but Weak Conclusion.......2001-05-31
John Prados, a veteran writer of military history, has attempted to write the first detailed scholarly examination of the role of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Vietnam War. The Trail, dubbed the "Blood Road," was a vital pathway through the jungles of Laos and Cambodia that enabled the North Vietnamese regime to conduct a protracted guerrilla struggle in South Vietnam. Without the Trail, the indigenous Viet Cong in South Vietnam would have been virtually on their own. Nor is Prados content just to examine the history of the Trail; rather, he poses the critical question: could the United States have severed the Trail and thereby achieved a military victory in Vietnam?
There is no doubt that The Blood Trail has historical value. Prados has pulled together high and low-level accounts from both sides to produce the first real synthesis on this subject. Unfortunately, far more is promised than is delivered by this book. One major problem is the over-focus on Washington strategy sessions by Bundy, McNamara, LBJ, et al. It seems that every book written on the Vietnam War has to detour into the Oval Office, no matter how much this ground has been trampled before. The only germane aspect of these familiar policy debates is the issue of whether the insurgency in Vietnam would be handled with diplomatic or military means. Prados shows that severing the Trail by a variety of military means was the preferred option.
Although the Americans tried everything from ground attacks, bombing, mining and raiding, they could not sever the Trail. Thus Prados concludes that, "the truth is that the war fighters lost their gambit". Well, that's rather obvious Dr. Prados, given that we lost the war. Unfortunately, by asserting that we couldn't sever the Trail by military means (which actually is not proven, only that the means employed did not work), the author leaves the reader high and dry. What then should the United States have done about the Trail? Abandon South Vietnam in 1964? Negotiate surrender? How could we have known that interdicting the Trail would fail if we did not try it? There is nothing worthy of being called a conclusion here. I also believe that Dr. Prados overstates the effect of severing the Trail in any case. Even if the US military had successfully interdicted the Trail for say 6-12 months, thereby disrupting the enemy build-up, Hanoi would merely have asked for a temporary cease-fire. They could then use the period of cease-fire to repair any damage to the Trail.
I think Prados misses the boat on this one. The Vietnam War was not an exercise in military logistics, whereby if we had severed the enemy lines of communication their war effort would have collapsed. Prados has been influenced too heavily by Jomini and Clausewitz, instead of Mao. First, the enemy would always find a way to get some troops and supplies into South Vietnam, no matter how painful we made this to them. Even if we stopped 80-90% of the troops and supplies - a real success - the remaining 10-20% would probably be enough to keep a low-level insurgency burning in South Vietnam. The war was not about logistics, it was about motivation and protracted struggle. The fact is that as long as Hanoi's leaders remained committed to victory, they could outlast any temporary US military successes. The United States never intended to adopt a large-scale, open-ended defense of South Vietnam for decades on end. Thus, the Trail was probably not as critical to victory or defeat as Prados makes out.
Blood Road.......1999-12-02
As a participant in the air activity over the trail in 67&68,I was hopeing for more information regarding the ground activites during this period. In actuallity, there is little information about either. Onr glareing error is the authors continuing referance to all FAC aircraft as Ravens. The Ravens came into being in 1967 and were working days, flying from within Laos itself. In most cases when the author is calling the FACs Ravens, they were actually Nail or Covey FACs, flying from Thailand. Still waiting for a book that covers the construction crews, maintainers, truck drivers and GUNNERS that were a brave and awesome group.
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Blood Road: The Mystery of Shen Dingyi in Revolutionary China
R. Keith Schoppa
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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ASIN: 0520213866 |
Book Description
Blood Road is a complex mix of social history, literary analysis, political biography, and murder mystery. It explores and analyzes the social and cultural dynamics of the Chinese revolution of the 1920s by focusing on the mysterious 1928 assassination of Shen Dingyi--revolutionary, landlord, politician, poet, journalist, educator, feminist, and early member of both the Communist and Nationalist parties.
The search for Shen's killer details the contours of revolutionary change in different spatial contexts--metropolitan Shanghai, the provincial capital Hangzhou, and Shen's home village of Yaqian. Several interrelated themes emerge in this dramatic story of revolution: the nature of social identity, the role of social networks, the political import of place, and the centrality of process in historical explanation. It contributes significantly to a new understanding of Chinese revolutionary culture and the 1920s revolution in particular. But Blood Road remains at base a story of people linked in various relationships who were thrust, often without choice, into treacherous revolutionary currents that shaped, twisted, and destroyed their lives.
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- Take this account with a grain of salt
- .... sad and cruel events
- Sour grapes
- a brief historical background of the author
- La cause chrétienne
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From Israel to Damascus : The Painful Road of Blood, Betrayal and Deception
Robert Maroun Hatem
Manufacturer: Vanderblumen Publications
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ASIN: 0964430436 |
Book Description
From Israel to Damascus. The painful Road of Blood, Betrayal and Deception. This book has been written by Robert Maroun Hatem, known as Cobra. Cobra currently resides in France as a political refugee. In pursuit of honor, justice, and a free morale, Robert Maroun Hatem, broke the code of silence about the unacceptable, the world of tragedy, corruption, crime and darkness under which Lebanon exists (today).
Customer Reviews:
Take this account with a grain of salt.......2006-11-22
The problem with this book is its author. Robert Hatem, who goes by his nom de guerre Cobra, was once member of one of the many warring Lebanese tribal mafias who - along with his former boss and warlord Elie Hobeika - committed the worst of acts during the Lebanese civil war. When Cobra fell out with his boss, he wrote this book which looks more like a book of confession and repentance.
Now since Cobra is no writer, and since whoever took down his memoirs wrote them in bad unpunctuated English with wrong dates and spelling, the book should not be treated as a reference in its domain.
True that the author has been a witness to most of the events that he cites, yet an undermining tone in this book makes it sound like cheap propaganda in which Cobra tries often to provoke his Christian compatriots by claiming that the reason for his breakup with his master was because Hobeika had abandoned the "Christian cause" in Lebanon.
Now why did Cobra breakup with Hobeika more than a decade after Hobeika's betrayal in 1985 is a case in point and undermines the credibility of the author. Perhaps, the breakup was nothing more than one of the many mafia style breakups that took place among the Lebanese warlords and their gangs. Hobeika himself was killed in 2002.
Cobra's book was banned in Lebanon. It contains a host of names and details of corruption and fraud from behind the Lebanese political mafia scenes. Whether Cobra's claims can be verified or not is hard to determine. However, his account should be taken as one point of view on these issues.
.... sad and cruel events.......2006-10-26
The book is written in poor English.
When you access it to grasp the head of its principles, you will soon be disappointed to discover you have only the feet.
Living the episodes described in this book was more electrifying.
The author has waved before our dazzled eyes `events couched in blood' and you can never appreciate their importance or understand the meanings of their contents unless you have actually lived the profound effect of such eventualities to the limit, up to the extremes of human endurance.
Internecine fighting in the Lebanon has indeed been sad, futile, and mutually destructive.
Much of it (not all) was based on the dogmatic judgement of what the strategy of `fight'- between bothers - was all about ...... determined to march against the `enemy' without hesitation..... but!!! Which enemy???
The interests of Lebanon was occasionally forgotten, abandoned, discarded and the irony of the matter is that everyone thought , by fierceness and ferocity, they were virtually preserving Lebanon's interests
Sour grapes.......2005-04-14
When I first heard about this book way back in late 1999, it was already banned in Lebanon. I then could read the book online at www.israeltodamascus.com for free, before the site's IP was also banned for over 2 years by the country's ISP's - upon the government's request. The site then completely disappeared.
Anyway, this book definitely posed great threat to many known players in the Lebanese political scene, and even some of the most powerful Syrian and Israeli figures. No doubt Cobra handled Elie Hobeika's (aka H.K.) dirty work, and many believe his accounts of the events during his being H.K.'s 'shadow' are sadly true...
Although Cobra expresses remorse on so many occasions, but it's hardly believable. If he had remained his boss' dog, would he have went public with his story? This book is nothing but sour grapes, the information it contains is unreliable and you can hardly call it a biography.
If you are able to ignore the bad grammar and spelling mistakes, this book is a good read when keeping in mind that the author contributed to and witnessed the Lebanese war's greatest atrocities.
I gave this book 2 stars, only for the interesting information it contains although unfounded and extremely subjective...
a brief historical background of the author.......2004-04-12
People looking at the rating I've given this book will quickly label me as a fanatic Lebanese Christian. Be that as it may, I for one have made researching an author's background a habit of mine before I read any book. That way, I get to piece together a certain picture in my head concerning the content of a book, since the author's character greatly affects his writings. In the case of Robert hatem, aka "cobra", that wasn't necessary. I've been unfortunate enough to have made the acquaintance of cobra on many an occasion prior to his infamous book publishing. I feel it is my duty to give you, the potential buyer of this "book", a brief historical background on the author. Cobra is an illiterate man, who was picked off of the streets by the deceased elie hobeika, trained to become both a fighter and a bodyguard to elie hobeika who was appointed head of the Lebanese Forces' intelligence service in 1980. From the first day Robert hatem was recruited by elie hobeika, he was on the payroll. Not only that, but elie hobeika entrusted cobra with the task of protecting his family, and cobra was even allowed to sleep in the hobeika household! one day, cobra was given a mission; to kidnap a millionaire by the name of roger tamraz. Roger tamraz is by far, hands down, the Webster's dictionary definition of human filth. robert baer mentions tamraz in his book "see no evil". You can always refer back to that. back to cobra. after his release, tamraz made a deal with cobra. as it were, cobra wasn't too happy with the fat paycheck and the security his master was protecting him, so tamraz persuaded cobra to write a book that would scandalize and besmirch elie hobeika's name. But robert hatem did a lot worse than that; he mentioned the names of many decent ladies of high stature in the Lebanese society, saying that elie hobeika had had numerous affairs with them. Countless families were torn apart by this monstrosity. But it doesn't stop there; tamraz wasn't the only one who financed the book, amine gemayel, former president of the Lebanese republic(by virtue of his brother, the late president bachir gemayel) was the arch-enemy of elie hobeika. the latter's popularity and power was growing, and amine gemayel, a thief and a scoundrel if Lebanon had ever known one, wanted to put an end to his rival's popularity. To sum it all up, this book is a biased, completely untruthful, and low attempt at documenting the biography of elie hobeika and his involvement in the Lebanese war. it is a story of the maronite christians' struggle to displace any potential rivals to power.
La cause chrétienne.......2000-02-02
Après t'avoir vu sur Al Jazira hier...On se moquait de toi en contrepartie de quelques Dollars. Après avoir lu tes bêtises dans ce chef d'oeuvre qu'est "From Israel to Damascus"....J'ai su pourquoi la cause chrétienne est par terre...Cobra, je te rappelle que mieux vaut une bouche cousue qu'un cul ouvert....Bavard comme une pie tais toi....Les gens se moquent de nous, qui avons cru en une cause pure et juste...Pas de toi ni de ton maitre qui avez toujours su ce que vous faites...Réveilles toi, mieux vaut tard que jamais
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Sterling Point Books: General George Patton: Old Blood & Guts (Sterling Point Books)
Alden Hatch
Manufacturer: Sterling
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ASIN: 1402731868 |
Book Description
He remained firmly in the center of the action and at the center of controversy. That’s what made General George S. Patton America’s most colorful military leader and an endlessly fascinating subject. He’s as dynamic on the page as he was in life in Alden Hatch’s lively, accessible biography, which chronicles Patton from his early days growing up in Southern California to his triumphant march into Germany in World War II. With his iron-clad will to win, unique personality, and fearlessness, Patton’s a hero who will keep kids turning the pages to find out more.
Customer Reviews:
Feedback.......2007-01-10
The book was good but it didn't catch on with our grandkids like we hoped.
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- Interesting and Horror
- Fast-paced, vivid, compelling
- van Belkom is improving... slowly.
- Intriguing idea, but not executed well
- lifeless vampire story
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Blood Road
Edo Van Belkom
Manufacturer: Pinnacle
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ASIN: 0786015632 |
Customer Reviews:
Interesting and Horror.......2005-04-13
I like this book it's great it has a lot of action and I was always anxious to see what happens next because it shows not to run away from your problems. It shows not to hitchhike & take rides from strangers. This is a horror book. The main character Amanda Peck is stupid of taking rides from strangers, what was she thinking. Did she even ask herself if she should take this ride, you never know if someone is crazy or not, she didn't even know him. I hate the way that Amanda had stayed with her boyfriend when meanwhile she was getting beating up with bruises. I also hat that her boyfriend gambles all the money away.
Fast-paced, vivid, compelling.......2005-01-26
Edo van Belkom turns in another of his signature fast-paced, vivid, and compelling modern horror novels. He's a past Bram Stoker Award winner and Aurora Award winner, and you can see why in this taut tale. The pages just fly by in this loving homage to all the vampire stories van Belkom clearly grew up enjoying. Sink your teeth into this one -- you won't be sorry!
van Belkom is improving... slowly........2004-08-04
Edo van Belkom, Blood Road (Pinnacle, 2004)
Edo van Belkom's Scream Queen is the epitome of the empty calorie novel; you can read it in one gulp, it's momentarily satisfying, and an hour later, you've forgotten it existed and are hungry for something else. His newest offering, Blood Road, is a bit more nutritious, but still qualifies as beachwear.
There's a serial killer preying on the highways of Canada. He just dumped his fifth body in a farmyard outside Parry Sound, a small village in Toronto. Coincidentally, a waitress in Parry Sound has had it with her alcoholic, abusive boyfriend (because, after all, all abusers are alcoholics-- cf. The Butterfly Effect) and wants to get out of town. So despite the murders, she heads for the highway and sticks out her thumb.
You can see the collision course a mile away.
That's the problem with emotional-shortcut writing (e.g., "all abusers are alcoholics, and all alcoholics are abusers"); it tends to lead to predictability. When you're used to using emotional shortcuts to get your point across, when you have to actually work with foreshadowing, it comes off as clumsy and amateur. That Amanda and the serial killer are going to meet is one example (the nature of the serial killer, which is obvious from reading the back jacket, but not revealed until about a hundred pages into the book, is another-- but there is an amusing twist to it); the book abounds with others.
In other words, van Belkom still has some (okay, a whole lot of) cliché and predictability problems. But one major improvement over Scream Queen is that his characters are less two-dimensional. The minor players are paper-thin, but the majors have gone from cardboard to masonite.
It's simple, it's readable, it's relatively silly. It'll take more than an afternoon to get through this one, but you'll still be left with a sweet aftertaste and a rumble in the belly. It'll take about two hours this time. But it's getting better. ***
Intriguing idea, but not executed well.......2004-06-13
I usually avoid books and movies about vampires. I plan on reading Bram Stoker's "Dracula" some day, and I might peruse a few other notable titles in this huge genre at some point, but I am not particularly a fan of the vampires. I blame writers and filmmakers for my lethargy about this topic. Far too often, unoriginality rules the roost when it comes to vampires. I am weary of hearing about or seeing yet another dapper duffer lounging around a castle luring in the virginal girls from the village for another night of seductive bloodletting. I recently saw a couple of good movies about vampires, Jean Rollin's "Fascination" and Mark Pirro's "A Polish Vampire in Burbank," but those two films took a different approach to the topic. So did Edo Van Belkom's "Blood Road," a mass-market paperback about a Dracula type roaming the highways in a sixteen wheeler. Still, I ended up reading the book more due to its setting (Canada) and the idea of trucking serving as a central plot point. I like reading anything about our neighbor to the north, and I always thought a horror story set in a trucking environment would make a good story, so off I went for a few hours with Van Belkom's book tucked securely under my arm. I also gave the author a chance since I enjoyed a short story of his included in a horror anthology called "The Darker Side."
Amanda Peck dreams of one day leaving her pedestrian existence in Parry Sound, Ontario for life in the big city. Her wearisome job as a waitress at a truck stop, slinging hash while chatting with guys named Cookie, just isn't doing it for her anymore. Too, her live in boyfriend Ron Stinson, a one time up and coming hockey star who has since fallen into a pit of alcoholism and gambling, is wearing a little thin. When Amanda returns from work one day to find Ron again gambling away all of their money, she decides to strike out on her own. Leaving her trailer far behind, Peck hitchhikes out to the highway with only the haziest idea of where she is going. After accepting rides from a couple of truckers, Amanda decides that what she is doing is downright ridiculous and starts the trek back to the trailer. Big mistake. On the way home, Peck accepts a ride from Konrad Valeska, a repulsive yet somehow magnetic figure who drives a fancy black truck for a company called Tucana Northern. Amanda isn't in the truck for long at all before she realizes the folly of her situation. Valeska is a vampire who cruises the highways of Canada picking up hitchhikers so he can feed. He straps his latest recruit to a special table kept in his cab, feeding on her blood at his leisure through a needle and tube device. Valeska foregoes the usual bite method because he is old and his fangs are rotting (!).
Vampire Valeska possesses a few of the traits we usually associate with Dracula. He can hypnotize his victims, responds negatively to holy water and crosses, avoids the sunlight, and must feed on human blood to survive. That last item is where the whole trucking scheme fits into the picture. By constantly staying on the move, Valeska can abduct and dispose of bodies over a wide area, thus eluding the authorities in an age of instantaneous computer communications and wanted posters. The police are on to the vampire, though, as five bodies found on the side of the road bring in the local cops. The corpses, mysteriously drained of their life giving fluids and ravaged by wolves, present an ongoing threat. Constable Sharpe, the cop on the case who loves his coffee as much as he thrives on bringing in the bad guys, knows Canada has a serial killer on its hands. At least he thinks it's a serial killer until Amanda Peck escapes from her captor and tells her weird story to the disbelieving police and her doubtful boyfriend Ron. What follows could well give the young lady the title "Amanda Peck, Vampire Killer."
The best element of "Blood Road" is the whipsaw fast pacing. This book movies so fast for its 300+ pages that I felt like I read it in a couple of hours. You won't wait around for anything important to happen with this story. I liked the Canadian environment too although the tale could have just as easily unfolded in the United States. Regrettably, the good is too often marred by the bad. Plot holes so huge you could drive a truck through them (no pun intended) spring up throughout the book like noxious weeds. Perhaps the most noticeable moment when I went "huh?" occurred when Sharpe investigates the trucking company where Valeska works. The cop goes there, asks a bunch of questions, and learns Valeska will probably show up to load his truck at some point in the near future. Away goes Sharp, off to investigate another angle of the case, AND HE DOESN'T ASSIGN ANY POLICE OFFICERS TO WATCH THE TRUCKING COMPANY! And this is after he suspects Konrad's involvement in the unsolved murders. Sure enough, Valeska stops by the yard, commits a crime, and continues cruising on down the highway without a care in the world.
Still, I couldn't help but like the book despite this problem and a few others-like inadequate character development, the obsession with coffee, and the rather tame conclusion. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to read another one of Edo Van Belkom's books in the future, but I fervently hope his other works avoid the problems found in this one.
lifeless vampire story.......2004-05-16
Hitchhiking waitress meets vampire trucker, reader meets Sandman.
And that about sums it up. This novel is too generic. This novel has about zero originality, from the stereotyped characters to the paint-by-numbers plot. If this were a movie, it would be one of those low-budget, late-night time-fillers that air in the wee hours hours on USA or SCI-FI.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent!
- Intriguing!
- Ms. Wiesner did this story so well...
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Flesh and Blood (Gypsy Road Series, Book 2)
Karen Wiesner
Manufacturer: Hard Shell Word Factory
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Software
ASIN: 1582001111 |
Book Description
Book 2 of the Gypsy Road Series:
Rod, JoJo, Jon and Blackie--
4 gypsies on a solitary road...
until love throws a fork in their path.
After risking her heart once and learning to regret it, JoJo Summers finds it necessary to live her life as a paper doll. No emotions, no danger and no pain.
Randy Briggs is the one man who can change her mind, if he can just break down ten years' worth of her defenses. Getting through to JoJo means uncovering the demons in his own past. But Randy believes in true love and intends to make JoJo a believer too. His only ace in the hole is that she underestimates the power of love.
Just when JoJo takes the first step in risking her heart to Randy, her past comes back to haunt her, in flesh and blood. . .and then her heart isn't the only thing she's in danger of losing.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent!.......2001-04-18
"Starts off with a bang and keeps you hooked! I found myself ordering out for pizza instead of cooking so I would not have to stop. EXCELLENT!" -- Huntress Reviews
Intriguing!.......2001-04-18
"Ms. Wiesner has crafted a very readable story. The plot and subplots take intriguing twists, keeping the pages of FLESH AND BLOOD turning."
3 Stars ~ Scribes World Reviews
Ms. Wiesner did this story so well..........2001-04-18
"Karen Wiesner has a knack for turning stereotypes around. It's her heroines who've learned life's hard lessons and guard their hearts against love, and the heroes who love and heal them. A refreshing change. Ms. Wiesner did this story so well that I didn't know until almost the very last page how it would turn out."
5 Hearts! ~ Writers Club: Romance Industry News
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