30 Days of Night by Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.24 You Save: $17.75 (99%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of 30 Days of Night
Book Review: A Movie Pitch of a Comic
Summary: 2 Stars
As many have commented, this graphic novel owes absolutely everything to its concept. Basically it can be boiled down to your classic one-sentence movie pitch: "Vampires invade Barrow, Alaska in the winter when the sun won't come up again for a month." And really, given the extremely poor effort put into following through with, you know, an actual plot, I sometimes wonder if Steve Niles was really ever that interested in the comic or if he was making a play for Hollywood all along. (He's worked in the industry before, as a sound mixer for 2002's "Picture Perfect".) So it's utterly unsurprising that the movie IS, in fact, already being filmed for a 2007 release, and will feature Josh Hartnett and Melissa George.
I'd heard so much critical buzz about this book for months that I finally had to pick it up, and sadly, my respect for critics has now been seriously diminished. The art is murky, self-indulgent, and confusing, reminding me of some of the worse excesses of Bill Sienkiewicz from back in the day. The character designs are sloppy and often you have no way to distinguish one vampire from another, which is a serious drawback in some of the scenes where key bad guys are fighting each other.
And there's utterly no investment made in any but two of the human survivors, not even to the cliched level of the WWII combat movie, where at least we had the stereotypes of the country rube, the Italian guy from the streets, the bookworm, the college boy, and so forth. Here we just basically have Victim 1, Victim 2, et cetera.
This is just a colossal disappointment all the way around with nothing to recommend it but the brilliance of its concept. Of course, it's spawned several sequels already, so what do I know?
Book Review: A Steve Niles' tour de force
Summary: 5 Stars
30 Days of Night is the best horror comic I've read in quite awhile. I have to look back to the Clive Barker Night of the Living Dead comic series from the early 90's to find one as good as this story. This take on the vampire story by Niles' owes alot to Romero's zombie films and the action in Barrow really shows it in full, blood-red glory. I am pysched to hear that it will be turned into a film very soon.Book Review: A brutal, horrific and gore-filled vampire story: Amen!
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, Steve Niles has written a vampire story that goes a long way to making the vampire genre a true horror genre instead of the velvet and lace which the Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton have turned them to.
Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night has the brutal and gore-filled stylings of Clive Barker's Books of Blood short stories. This is a story that is told with a minimum of fuss. In fact, 30 Days of Night is one of the leanest horror stories I have ever read. From the first page and panel of this graphic novel to the final one, Niles' pulls no punches and takes the breaks off this horror rollercoaster.
The plot is very simple. A group of vampires have decided to gather in Barrow, Alaska during its yearly 30 days straight of perpetual night due to the Earth's rotation. This monthly long darkness for the population of Barrow has been a part of their lives to become routine. Cell phones, radios, and other modes communication makes the eerie month easier to live through. But the gathering of undead have other plans.
The moment the night begins and the vampires arrive the story becomes one nonstop grand guignol bloodbath that doesn't hold back or slow down to give the reader a breather. Nobody is saved from the undeads' brutal and savage assault. Its not all the time an author has allowed kids to be fair game in addition to the adults.
Niles' really created a taut and fast-paced story that seems to be beg to be turned into a film. The good news is that Sam Raimi of Evil Dead and Spider-Man fame has optioned the graphic novel to be turned into a film. Steve Niles' himself will be writing the screenplay for this film treatment. I can't think of anyone else who can do a better job.
30 Days of Night is a great and scary ride that gives me hope for the future of horror. Steve Niles is one writer of horror and the supernatural that is very close to taking the reins of king of horror. Make sure to read with the lights on, or better yet in the daytime.
Book Review: A little disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
After hearing from one of my friends how great this book was and that I should definately read it, I had to see what all the fuss was about. I thought the story wasn't bad, but it was a tad bit boring. Also, the artwork just didn't do it for me. I'm not saying it was bad or anything, I mean, I know there's people who like this type of artwork, and I'm not trying to offend it in any way, but personally, it just didn't work. For me, this book was just alright.Book Review: A review for first storyline...
Summary: 4 Stars
Just when I thought there is nothing left after reading Moore, Gaiman and Keith (considering US published titles), I got into this series. Story is better every issue and artwork is very unorthodox considering today's biggest publishers, yet great in my opinion. I got this one and two sequels and I am continuing to read it. If you like this trade, get it's two sequels, it's first storyline in this innovating take on old themes. If you read stuff for art and like it, get all you can get :)