Sacrifice
Writing a sequel to your Bram Stoker award winning novel must be a daunting proposition, but John Everson at least tackles this dilemma head-on, by taking this sequel in a completely different direction and upping the gore and sex on display in Covenant.
Unfortunately, after a promising beginning this one still fell a little flat for me. Perhaps this was due to the stumbling pace of Sacrifice, or because the characters are suddenly dealing with the potential end of the world rather than just the fate of one small town. Maybe it had to do with Everson's over reliance on providing whole newspaper articles by way of plot development points, robbing the story of any pace it had managed to build. Or then again, it could be because I never really cared for any of the characters. Some of the survivors from the original are given such short thrift it's difficult to remember how they even were in Covenant, while Joe, the supposed hero, spends so much time making eyes at a girl almost half his age that, for me, this became his identifying character trait ...
Still, there are a number of positives that make Sacrifice readable. The monsters of the piece are creepy, the gore rendered in liberal detail, and the female antagonist is sufficiently batshit crazy and equally sexy to boot, making for a memorable villain.
Not one I'd strongly recommend, but if you like a little steam with your horror, you could do far worse than Everson and Sacrifice.
3 Hidden Pockets in Latex Catsuits for Sacrifice.
