BLOOD The Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts

by Mamoru Oshii, Camellia Nieh (Translator)

At Yokota Base in Japan, American soldiers stand guard at the brink of the Vietnam War. Although they fear the enemy outside their base, an even more dangerous enemy waits within - bloodthirsty vampires walk among them. Appearing human, the beasts lurk in secret among the soldiers, waiting for the moment to attack. Saya, a fierce and beautiful vampire hunter, is sent to lead a team of undercover agents whose mission is to decide who is human and who is not, and wipe out the vampires before they can wipe out the base. But even though Saya is a powerful warrior whose skill with her Japanese sword is lethal, her ferocity may not be enough.

Genres: Manga, Horror, Fantasy, Vampires, Fiction, Paranormal, Novels

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book that is certainly less about violence and battles with vampires but a far more introspective experiences with an underworld in which Saya the heroine from the series does play a large part in the experiences from a highschool student Rei in Japan in 1969, but she is not the star in this book.
When Rei experiences something he has no reference for he finds himself grounded due to the state he was found in, namely unconsious and covered in non human blood. He and his friends get pulled into a search into the so-called truth of missing and dead highschool students. It turns out he has entered the realm of Vampires.
A very interesting and certainly differently written book about philosophical and a possible history of vampirism from a perspective of evolution and its place within human evolution. It is certainly not written in a western style of prose and does take some time to get going.
A very satisfying read with an original approach towards the subject of Vampires and as far removed from the Twilights and Vampire diaries Vampires as possible, which is a bonus too.

[Gabriel Fequiere · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of both the Blood franchise and Mamoru Oshii, I has such high hopes for this book. And on a few levels it did. Oshii-san's penchant for lengthy, intelligent dialogue is seen throughout. Sometimes it reads like a dissertation given at the PhD level. That said, it lacks actual plot and direction. By the end of the second(long) section where everything is explained, you get the sensation that you are at the halfway point and this will finally take off. But he slaps together some half baked third act and even worse epilogue and just truly leaves you wanting so much more. His method of writing is more suited for the screen because I think it truly flows quicker. Here it just dragged and sputtered. A word of caution: if you don't like reading scientific and historic journals you might feel like you are in over your head.

[Ming Wei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book gave me more thought into what a Vampire really is, i enjoyed, in certain parts I found the book more interesting than in other parts, but in general this is a good Vampire book, I would say watch the movie first and then read this book, can't really find any major faults in the book/story line, all I can say is that I enjoyed it, for anybody interested in Vampires, I would say give this book a read. I think the cover is super cool.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was not particularly interesting. The majority of its content resembled an academic lecture rather then a vampire novel. The 'vampires' in question only make two very brief appearances. This book's sole redeeming feature was that it introduced me to the movie it was sequel to, and the anime Blood+. Both were infinitely more interesting.

[Brandi Dise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came for the horror aspect, as I love the movie. But this was so full of political and science talk, I almost didn't finish it

[Aiden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expect to gain a lot of background and knowledge that you never would have thought from something that was a hit in both the anime and manga worlds...even the movie remake doesn't match the information you'll walk away from after reading this book. There is even a philosophical side that will have you questioning your own beliefs in everything considered as supernatural.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've seen Blood: The Last Vampire, but I would say this is more like Stray Dog in feel. Politics and philosophy play in heavily. I really enjoyed it, but be aware that this book spends more time on dread and anxious paralysis than on action. It gives some interesting backstory on Saya and the Chiropterans.

[Priscilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazon.com

[Verricis · Rating 5 out of 5]

really smart and a lot of new outlooks on the idea of just WHAT a vampire really is

[Midnights · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to understand that a reader is assumed to know the ending. So, that's not what is important.

[Bibliothecat · Rating 3 out of 5]

“As far as the psychological state of a human faced with a corpse, we modern men are not so different from the people who lived in a world of ignorance and superstition.”

I read Night of the Beasts as part of my endeavour of learning more about Blood C's Saya - too bad, Saya was barely in this book. It should be said that this is by no means a bad book, but it is shockingly boring when considering that this is a supposed horror novel about vampires and monsters.

Instead of Saya, we have a high schooler as a main character: Rei. I actually found him perfectly likeable and it would have been interesting to follow the events from his point of view; he happens to be at the wrong place and the wrong time and witnesses Saya during her monster hunting. Throughout the novel, Rei struggles to come to terms with what he saw and how much of his knowledge to share with his friends.

We also have Gotouda, a detective of sorts who is rather obnoxious but in a very likeable way - I found him a really well-written and entertaining character. He enlists Rei's and his friend's help in uncovering the disappearances of other high schoolers and to find out in what way Saya is connected.

Although I am not much of a horror story reader, this had potential and could have been suspenseful. As I've read an English translation, I can only vouch for this version, but I definitely enjoyed the writing and how the characters were portrayed. The dialogues in particular were engaging and gave the characters distinct personalities. Unfortunately, the issue with this novel is that it consisted of nothing but dialogue.

Rather than blood, as the title might suggest, we get a whole lot of politics and philosophy. And I mean it, this book is barely 300 pages long and one chapter is more than 100 pages of two older men discussing the origins of humanity. And most of the rest is devoted to human history with corpses and politics I am not ashamed to admit I didn't have a clue what they were on about. Honestly, so much weight was put on all the riots and protesting - was there any point in regards to the story or was this purely a means to an end to portray the time this was set in?

Although I enjoyed the characters and saw a lot of good in the actual writing, it was sadly very boring and long-winded. It touches on a few interesting subjects from a philosophical point of view but, if I wanted to read philosophy, I would have picked up a related book rather than a supposed horror story.

[Rachel Kelly Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, although it was not what I was expecting at all. It's not a vampiric, action-packed story like the film or anime adaptations. Without giving too much away, I'll say that the book is more of a political and philosophical discussion about humanity. I found most of it intriguing and thought provoking, although it did get long-winded at times. Readers will definitely need their thinking caps and may want to look elsewhere if they want something that focuses heavily on vampires.

[Nino Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite reads, it covers very interesting topics. It utilizes its vampire genre and accentuates its plot, turning its action packed theme into a though provoking short story.

[Speedtribes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book (less horror and more mystery thriller with some vaguely horror elements) is interesting at first, until you realize that it doesn't intend to shift to the main character of the Blood series anytime soon. The first half of the story, while intriguing, has the same sort of lack of focus that have become characteristic of Mamoru Oishii's more recent films.

Heavy on psychology, sociology and philosophy with little explanation of why a given character even knows all this information -- educated sounding soliloquies abound, taking 5 or 8 pages longer than I feel is necessary to get any single point across. Granted, I do find the twisty, labyrinthine verbal plot-point-latin-historical-sociological-political-walk-throughs to be interesting and at times amusing, but they don't actually help the narrative all that much.

I stopped reading at the chapter long, deliberately obtuse thesis on the morality and scientific development of vampiric folklore as related to society at large, with a side dose of 'modern science' and random throwaway Latin.

It was amusing to see that the lack of focus that I found in the main character, who was some sort of student political activist, was actually deliberate on the author's part -- why did he fight? What political group did he belong to? Is he right wing? Why does he never say anything about what he believes in, well, other than the ennui that is Japanese teenage life?

"Pretty piss poor for a bunch of activists. Marx is rolling in his grave."

Shibino shot back angrily, "We're not Marxists!"

"What are you?"

"Well..."

"We're extremists. Do you have a problem with that?" Rei spoke up for Shibino, glaring at Gotouda. "I have a question, are you really a detective?"


You and me, kid. And oi, "I'm an extremist." isn't a particularly good answer either.

I'm amused, but in no mood to continue reading. It seems well written/translated enough that I definitely will return to it. But at the moment, it's going into my 'stalled' folder while I shift my attention elsewhere.

[Arron Cawser · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't usually like to skip pages ahead in books, no matter how boring they can become. So reading through the entirety of BLOOD The Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts was near agonising.

I really like the animated movie, to which this book is supposed to be some sort of sequel I guess, but honestly everything I liked about the movie was absent from this.

Saya, the main protagonist from the movie is barely in this book, despite being on the cover. The story centres around another character who barley approaches anything remotely interesting. Whenever he and other characters discuss things concerning the main plot they have a nasty habit of getting waaaaaay off topic for (sometimes) dozens and dozens of pages, with the reader left banging their head against the spine and wondering when something mildly fascinating might come long. Believe me, it doesn't. In fact reading this book feels like pulling your own hair out.

All of this is just my opinion of course, although I would recommend avoiding it at all costs, as its time you could spend reading something much better.

My Personal Rating: 2/10

[Hanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was clearly written by a Japanese author, you can tell by what is in it. An american editor would have ripped this book to shreds with all the extra and unneeded info. On the plus side I learned something about Israel and the Vatican that I never knew before. I am also curious about the BLOOD series (particularly BloodC). So if you enjoy Japanese novels that are in English, check it out. But since it has been out for a few years now I am sure many of you already have.

[aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

i was somewhat disappointed by this book. it is okay but it didn't have nearly enough of saya who is the main point of blood: the last vampire. without her you have a somewhat interesting story that doesn't hold up as well as i would like. don't get me wrong...it was interesting enough to be entertaining...but not enough to set it apart.

[Elyse Cabrera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly I would not recommend this book to anyone. It was not a fun read AT ALL. I actually stopped reading it like 50 pages before the end because it was dragging waaaaay too much. There was only one part that i read that actually involved some type of action with the vampire girl named Saya. I really didnt like it.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring, so very boring. Ironically, the night I finished reading it I found the movie, and it was better than the book...probably cause it was nothing like the book at all!

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot in this book. A lot of talking. Lots and lots of talking. I think that somewhere the message gets lost. We all have the chance to evolve into beasts.

[Uku · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book and it was because it wasn't about Saya. It was about politics. :/ I expected it to be about Saya, maybe explain her excistance a bit more.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the Blood series since being introduced to it as a comic book.