Tale of the Dead Town

This book would definitely make a great anime movie. The story is action-packed and full of unexpected twists and turns. However for me it was not as exciting as the second and third novel, may be because of the fact that it was all action and no feelings. I personally like to see a softer side of D. As much as I love reading all Kikuchi's novels I still don't understand why D enjoys hunting Nobles and protecting humans despite of the fact that humans are always trying to kill him one way or the other. Maybe we'll find out by the end of 17th novel...

This story literally blew me away. No matter what I thought was going to happen, every other page just surprised me again with a new plot twist. This story was just excellent, and definately worth buying to be read over and over again.

One of my very first exposures to Anime came in the late 80's and the wonderfully atmospheric Vampire Hunter D. Oh sure I had seen Robotech and Speed Racer and the like, but this was truly unlike anything I had ever seen before. Dark Horse Press and Digital Manga Publishing have joined together to bring the fantastic Vampire Hunter D novels to American audiences for the first time. Originally written some 20 years ago by Hideyuki Kikuchi, "Tale of the Dead Town" is thus far the fourth book in the series to be released. As the story opens, D comes upon a lone biker out on the frontier defending an injured teenaged girl in what remains of her family's RV from a flock of Dragons. Only D's intervention saves the pair but the girl, Lori Knight, is badly injured, and her parents are killed. Along with the biker, Pluto, D leads them to a great city that hovers several feet off the ground on a large disk. D has been hired by the mayor of the town to seek out and destroy the vampire that attacked his daughter. Lori's suffered radiation poisoning causing her to lose her hearing and speech. D soon finds out that Lori and her family once lived in this floating town but left recently. D finds that the Knight's old house has been locked up tightly by the town's sheriff, but D manages to get inside and finds a secret laboratory that lori's parents used. And he also encounters something else...a shadowy shape that quickly flees from the Hunter. D is hardly welcomed by the townspeople who consider the dhampir to be just as much of a threat as any other vampire. Soon a body turns up, completely drained of blood. Everyone believes it is obviously the work of the vampire and yet an investigation of the body shows no bite mark at all. And yet, not longer after the body is buried, it rises from the grave, intent on killing D. D now finds himself not only hunting a vampire, but also trying to solve the mystery of how the man turned into a vampire without being bitten. And what is the secret to the experiments the Knights were working on and why did they flee the safe haven of the town. Tale of the Dead Town is much like the D anime, more of an adventure story with horror elements to it. In the postscript to the story, Kikuchi talks about how he was influenced, in particular by the Hammer Dracula films and Christopher Lee. This is reflected in his writing although the character of D is vastly powerful and you really get the feeling that not much can challenge this avenger of the night. Tale of the Dead Town skillfully wove both a horror and a mystery tale and sprinkled it with liberal action scenes to make for one heckuva enjoyable story. Kikuchi's prose is quite colorful and descriptive. It's a quick read at 167 pages and as a bonus the first chapter of the next book, "The Stuff of Dreams" is included as a preview. Reviewed by Tim Janson

The first thing that should be said is that this novel is not 300 pages long like some sources say. The book itself has a total of 201 pages and the last 30 consist of a preview for volume 5 as well an afterword by Hideyuki Kikuchi, meaning that the TALE OF THE DEAD TOWN ends after a mere 168 pages. I read this book in one afternoon. That is meant as clarification and not criticism, though maybe the publisher should be a little more honest with their press releases. I finished this book in one sitting not just because it is more a novella than a novel. It's also a really entertaining, action-packed, cinematic read. Reading this book really was like watching a movie and I think this is mostly because of how Kikuchi writes. His books seldom feature interior monologues or philosophical musings. Instead, the story is pushed steadily forward by action scene upon action scene in an almost breathless fashion. I think this guy would make a great screenplay writer as well, if he isn't one already. I tend to enjoy the "new" VAMPIRE HUNTER D stories a bit more than those I am already familiar with from the animated movies - i.e. volumes 1 and 3. Though those do contain their share of differences and surprises, I know the overall stories by heart by now. Since books 1 and 3 are now behind me, I am eagerly awaiting D's future adventures, especially since I know the books will get longer again as the series progresses.

This is the first Vampire Hunter D novel I've ever read, but it won't be the last. This book will probably only appeal to a limited number of people, but if you are one of them you will probably end up loving it. Early on the book's genre-y goodness comes oozing off the page. By page nine, the impossibly beautiful half vampire hero has rode in on his cyborg horse to fight off dragons attacking a motor home. At first I was worried that the book wouldn't be able to continue after such a high-point, but luckily the author has a vast imagination and a lot more ideas to use. The basic plot is that D is hired by the mayor of a mobile floating city to come and kill a vampire that is hiding somewhere in town. I don't want to say anything more about the plot, one because I don't want to spoil anything and two because it's a bit of a mess. But while it falls apart near the end, the journey along the way is filled with exciting action scenes, a few good moments between D and the minor characters, and bizarre fun stuff that could only happen in this book (i.e. a out of nowhere reveal near the end that a character's actually a cyborg). The translation reads excellently. There's a nice use of alliteration sprinkled throughout the book, and while it's tiring to hear for a 1000th time just how beautiful D is, Hideyuki Kikuchi goes to great lengths to describe things which helps when the story's placed in such a futuristic/fantastical world. I had a lot of fun reading this book, more fun than I had in a long time while reading. There were a few instances of swear words, and some gore, so I would recommend this for 13+. I would also recommend it for people who want something a little different from their fantasy or sci-fi books.