Skarlet

by Thomas Emson

Paperback, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Publication

Snowbooks (2009), Paperback, 448 pages

Description

Fear grips London as dozens of clubbers die after taking a sinister new drug.But that's only the beginning.48 hours later, the dead clubbers wake up - and it's open season on the living, who are butchered for their blood.Soon, London gives a name to its terror:VAMPIRESJake Lawton, bitter and betrayed after the Iraq War, find himself fighting another battle - against the growing army of immortal hunters and their human cohorts.Lawton joins forces with the journalist who brought about his downfall and the dealer tricked into distributing the drug. And together they take on the spineless authorities, the ruthless cohorts, and the hungry dead.But the vampire plague unleashed in London is nothing to what lurks beneath the streets -Waiting to be fed . . . Waiting to be resurrected . . . Waiting to reign again over a city of human slaves . . .… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member zannyvix

I can honestly say it's not often that I get an early review book that immediately snags my attention and holds it. I very much enjoyed this tale. The characters are believable, as are the vampires, the plot is engaging, and there's just enough suspense to keep you guessing throughout the story. I

did spot a couple grammar goofs ('you're' used instead of 'your'), and a couple inconsistencies in description (the cavern is at first described as having a wooden ceiling and floor, but later the floor is referred to as rocky), but that didn't detract from my overall reading. The ending definitely leaves you wanting more!

Please note, there's a lot of profanity and a fair bit of sexist/derogatory language directed particularly at female characters in the text, and there are some overtones of an incestual relationship. though it's not an overall theme. If that kind of language and subject matter offends you, this is probably not a story for you. If you like Stoker-esque monsters rather than sparkly useless prettyboy vampires, you *definitely* want to check this book out.

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LibraryThing member MayaArb

Skarlet started out rough for me, as I found some of the dialog in the beginning to be unbelievable and coarse, but I am glad I stuck with it! The pace quickly picked up and drew me into a whirlwind ride through London's dark and devastated streets as a Vampire plague spread across the unsuspecting

and disbelieving populace. While many of the premises are trite and somewhat overdone, there is no doubt that the major themes are timely as we are definitely a world in crisis, lacking trust in our governments and facing unnamed threats from multiple corners; terrorism, drugs, disease, fear. Not to mention the recent trouble with zombie-like attacks in Florida and Texas stemming from some sort of designer drug. It's pretty easy to allow your imagination to carry you away into a world where blood-sucking maniacs are spawned by a zealot chemist's experiments with ancient DNA. With an October release date, Skarlet is sure to keep you cozily wrapped in terror as you while away your cool Fall nights.

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LibraryThing member silentq

This novel had some good ideas (Alexander the Great as a vampire killer in Babylon, a secret cult keeping the ashes of the great vampires/demons safe through the ages, snippets of other times as the ashes and the spear that Alexander wielded move through the world) but the level of writign needed

to be hiked up at least a few levels . Lots of telling rather than showing, and I found myself physically rolling my eyes and doing a hand to forehead during the laughable romance sequences. The main story is set in modern day London as a street drug named Skarlet is released into the clubbing population and starts killing and then resurrecting people as blood hungry undead (though with enough brains left to recognise old friends). The main character is an ex military bouncer at the ground zero nightclub who washounded out of the British army due to a leaked video and allegations by a reporter who we also follow. There were too many supporting characters, and we got to see a bit too much from the bad guys to keep any real tension. The last action sequence was well written and tense, but overall I wasn't a fan.

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LibraryThing member -Eva-

An ancient vampire-cult is spreading a drug through London to breed supporters, so war veteran Jack Lawton turns to unexpected allies to defeat the cult before the entire world is under their spell. Emson has a great talent when it comes to writing action - those scenes in the book are extremely

engaging - and he writes credible characters with realistic flaws. However, his decision to break up the flow of the story with a seemingly infinite amount of back- and side-flashes, especially with the huge number of narrators (some of which only appear once), was not such a great idea. The first half of the book is very confusing due to all these breaks and although the various strings do get pulled together at the end, I am not convinced that the story wouldn't have been better had it had a less complicated narrative thread. Note that this is part one of a trilogy, but although there is a cliffhanger, the story-arc of this book is closed quite satisfactorily.

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LibraryThing member klarsenmd

I received this book as part of the LT early reviewer program.

I love a good vampire novel. Not sparkling romantic vampires but the rip your throat out and drink your blood variety, so it comes as no surprise that I would enjoy this book. I found the plot to be inventive and at the same time

grounded it solid vampire lore. When a wayward drug dealer distibutes a new drug to his goth clientel, he unwittingly kills them all, just to have them rise the next night as vampires. The only thing standing in the vampires way is a band of unusual allies, a disgraced soldier, the journalist who ruined him, a bookish academic and the drug dealer himself.

This band of characters was entertaining, and their individual links to the vampires were well thought out. I liked the backstory and villains that created the newly undead, and the settings from ancient Babylon and WWI to Basra and modern day London were smoothly transitioned. I felt the syntax was occasionally redundant and if I had to read about one more "cold heavy bladder" I think I would lose it, but when taken as a quick vampire tale it achieved it's goal. Lots of blood and very little romance!

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LibraryThing member shayrp76

4 Stars
*this is an advanced readers copy*
Jake Lawton, an angry ex-Soldier accused of a horrible war crime, finds himself the target of false accusations again when a new drug, Skarlet, being distributed kills its users. When those killed rise up and bring terror to London the myth of vampires

becomes reality. When it seems that all hope is lost for humanity Jake teams up with his foes, not to prove his innocence, but to put a stop to those who are behind the evil and to save the lives of the people he has come to care for. Those who are trying to resurrect old demons will stop at nothing to rebuild their Babylon.
It’s very hard to find a vampire story with an original plot but Mr. Emson managed to do so. I will get my one big complaint out of the way first. It didn’t grab my full attention right away. That could be because it jumped around quite a bit and there were a few times that the transition from time periods blurred. The pacing did smooth out towards the middle and then I was turning pages rapidly. Besides the brief lull I did enjoy this novel.
I appreciate it when an author can make characters that I loathe enough that I want to throw the book and characters that I like enough to hope for a happy ending. A vampire novel has to have action and this one had its fair share which kept me on the edge of my seat. Mr. Emson stuck with a lot of the old tried and true vampire lore and that works well with this plot and didn’t take away from the unique story line. I absolutely recommend this one to anyone who likes vampire novels (especially about vampires that aren’t cute and cuddly).

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LibraryThing member bookwormteri

Story, good. Action, good. Plot, decent. I enjoyed the story and could see it turned into a movie very easily. Good plot, the bringing back of three ancient (and turned to ash vampires) by making sacrifices to their ashes, using a drug to turn it's users into minions (basically)...not bad. However,

I really didn't care about one single character in the whole book. I wasn't too concerned with whether they lived or died, killed or got killed. I liked the story, just didn't feel really invested in it...

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LibraryThing member Lostshadows

I could not finish this book. The basic idea for the story has promise, and some of the issues I had with this book probably were due to it being an ARC.

However, I just couldn't stand the main characters. The villains were creepy, but in an "ick" kind of way, instead of a scary one. There were plot

holes you could drive a truck through, that I don't think would be cleared up by a final edit. Plus the overall tone came off as a military ad a lot of the time.

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LibraryThing member GhostWriter57

This book held such promise....interesting twists on the tired vampire field, promising characters, good pace.
I was tempted to stop reading about 2/3 the way through. The dialogue was just terrible. (Should 'cliche cleansing' be a part of editing???)
The plot was just unbelievable - the town's

response to vampires, the 'conspiracy', the conclusion, etc.
Save your time and money....

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LibraryThing member PhilipTroy

Although I think the idea behind this book holds a great deal of promise, the execution wasn't to my personal tastes. Not a horrible book, like some I've had the misfortune of reading, but not one of my top picks either.

-PT

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