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Generic Vampire Novel 937 Part One - American Sexy
When cult science fiction novelist Shamus Ohio wrote his latest book, Horrorcaust, he expected it to appease his publishers and earn him a small paycheck. Instead, it re-defined the public perception of the "vampyre" for an entire generation.
With mainstream success, Shamus comes face to face with the real blood-sucking parasite: the media. Everyone wants a piece of Shamus, as the mass hysteria surrounding his novel and the fight for control of his intellectual property threaten to tear his mind and conscience apart.
When fact starts mirroring fiction with deadly results, can the writer be held responsible? Can anyone achieve mainstream popularity without selling their soul? Can any piece of fiction make the leap from one medium to another with its core intact? What exactly is Parma ham, and why do people insist on serving it with rocket? All of these questions and more will be asked, if not answered.
The first of a two-part satirical vampire novel, for people who may already dislike vampire fiction, new-media, the film industry, hyperbole, social media, the 24-hour news culture and other day-to-day trappings of post-millennial life.
Edited by Nico Reznick, with a cover by Jay Heath.
With mainstream success, Shamus comes face to face with the real blood-sucking parasite: the media. Everyone wants a piece of Shamus, as the mass hysteria surrounding his novel and the fight for control of his intellectual property threaten to tear his mind and conscience apart.
When fact starts mirroring fiction with deadly results, can the writer be held responsible? Can anyone achieve mainstream popularity without selling their soul? Can any piece of fiction make the leap from one medium to another with its core intact? What exactly is Parma ham, and why do people insist on serving it with rocket? All of these questions and more will be asked, if not answered.
The first of a two-part satirical vampire novel, for people who may already dislike vampire fiction, new-media, the film industry, hyperbole, social media, the 24-hour news culture and other day-to-day trappings of post-millennial life.
Edited by Nico Reznick, with a cover by Jay Heath.
210 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 31, 2014
4 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
C.Z. Hazard
6 books13 followersC Z Hazard has turned his hand to many things over his thirty-some years on this planet. At various points in his life, he has been a comic store clerk, a professional wrestler, manager to a rap artist, and robot-monger. He’s since taken to writing, because he really rather likes it.
His first novel, "Not In The Eye", was first released in digital format in 2013, and a face-meltingly successful Kickstarter campaign put the book in print in 2015. His second novel, "Generic Vampire Novel #937" was split into two parts for digita release. Part One, "American Sexy", and Part Two, "Horrorcaust", are available to buy on Amazon.
Hazard’s fiction is the transgressive progeny of his lifelong fascination with story and his early immersion in pop culture, which developed through adulthood into a keen interest in media trends and the fame machine that defines it. His work satirises (often brutally) the world we’ve created and the future we are set to inherit.
He’s a devotee of sci fi, a skilled Super Mario player, proponent of the Unified Sock Theory, and a highly vocal advocate of the Oxford Comma. He was also Time Magazine’s Person of The Year 2006. In anticipation of your scepticism, he challenges you to look it up.
His first novel, "Not In The Eye", was first released in digital format in 2013, and a face-meltingly successful Kickstarter campaign put the book in print in 2015. His second novel, "Generic Vampire Novel #937" was split into two parts for digita release. Part One, "American Sexy", and Part Two, "Horrorcaust", are available to buy on Amazon.
Hazard’s fiction is the transgressive progeny of his lifelong fascination with story and his early immersion in pop culture, which developed through adulthood into a keen interest in media trends and the fame machine that defines it. His work satirises (often brutally) the world we’ve created and the future we are set to inherit.
He’s a devotee of sci fi, a skilled Super Mario player, proponent of the Unified Sock Theory, and a highly vocal advocate of the Oxford Comma. He was also Time Magazine’s Person of The Year 2006. In anticipation of your scepticism, he challenges you to look it up.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 13, 2016
I am a big fan of vampire stories, I'll pretty much read anything featuring them, some can be terrible and some are incredible. My favourite vampire writers are Anne Rice and Chris Harrison, C. Z. Hazard is the latest author to be added to that list. It's not often that a writer is able to bring something new to the vampire world, most writers tend to stick to the myths but Hazard has achieved the almost impossible in this book, a new chapter in the vampire myth. I'm not going to spoil it and tell you what this is, buy the book and find out for yourself.
The title of the book is misleading, I was expecting a trashy vampire novel, ya know the type, all blood, tits and violence, instead you get a really clever breakdown of how the book publishing/movie making/news reporting world works. Our main character Shamus is a SciFi writer struggling with writers block, so he writes a trashy vampire novel as a sort of palette cleanser before he tries again on his SciFi novel. Shamus doesn't predict that the book will become and instant hit, he is soon doing book tours and meeting the idiots in the movie industry and being shocked at how the media deals with his books content. Hazard uses a few different writing techniques in this book, using news reports, forum discussions, documentary scripts and book/essay excerpts to get his story across.
One warning for you, this book ends on one hell of a cliff hanger so make sure you have book 2 lined up to go straight away.
The title of the book is misleading, I was expecting a trashy vampire novel, ya know the type, all blood, tits and violence, instead you get a really clever breakdown of how the book publishing/movie making/news reporting world works. Our main character Shamus is a SciFi writer struggling with writers block, so he writes a trashy vampire novel as a sort of palette cleanser before he tries again on his SciFi novel. Shamus doesn't predict that the book will become and instant hit, he is soon doing book tours and meeting the idiots in the movie industry and being shocked at how the media deals with his books content. Hazard uses a few different writing techniques in this book, using news reports, forum discussions, documentary scripts and book/essay excerpts to get his story across.
One warning for you, this book ends on one hell of a cliff hanger so make sure you have book 2 lined up to go straight away.
November 16, 2015
Well, of course I like it. I wrote it.
Although I am usually my own worst critic, and I would not have released this if I didn't think it had real merit and was ready for public consumption.
Ultimately, it's up to the public to decide if it's any good, I can merely say it is ready.
Although I am usually my own worst critic, and I would not have released this if I didn't think it had real merit and was ready for public consumption.
Ultimately, it's up to the public to decide if it's any good, I can merely say it is ready.
November 4, 2014
An intelligent and humorous examination of such themes as the news cycle, the movie industry, fame and the human condition.
The characters are well-realised and enjoyable to read, and the story builds effortlessly from its innocuous, lighthearted starting point to an unexpectedly dramatic climax that will leave any deserving reader hungry for the second installment. Entertaining dialogue, strong narrative and a wealth of pop culture references make this a lot of fun to read.
It's also the perfect antidote to all the godawful, ubiquitous vampire fiction.
The characters are well-realised and enjoyable to read, and the story builds effortlessly from its innocuous, lighthearted starting point to an unexpectedly dramatic climax that will leave any deserving reader hungry for the second installment. Entertaining dialogue, strong narrative and a wealth of pop culture references make this a lot of fun to read.
It's also the perfect antidote to all the godawful, ubiquitous vampire fiction.
February 4, 2016
This is a raucous, fast-paced, flat out fun novel. Best of all, it's not about vampires (really), but about how perception shapes reality. Although the book is set mostly in America with mainly American characters, the British author has a perfect ear for American speech and an uncanny understanding of American pop culture. I highly recommend this book and its sequel. If you like Robert Anton Wilson, Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K Dick, you will love this. Truly a great, thought provoking read.
June 24, 2018
Author is trying too hard to play smart, to reuse old story and plots.
The jumping from excerpts to the fiction in fiction to real life to newspaper to top secret documents, to me, shows weakness in focused writing.
Character developments are superficial, jokes are lame.
This book is definitely thought provoking for normal vampire book readers. But if you are not one, then this book is not worth reading
The jumping from excerpts to the fiction in fiction to real life to newspaper to top secret documents, to me, shows weakness in focused writing.
Character developments are superficial, jokes are lame.
This book is definitely thought provoking for normal vampire book readers. But if you are not one, then this book is not worth reading
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2016
Here we go again. Another vampire story. While many vampire tropes have been done to death, C Z Hazard's Generic Vampire Novel #937 is a refreshing novelty in the genre of vampire novels.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Shamus Ohio has written several sci-fi novels with a moderate fan base, but what has thrust this quiet Brit into the limelight is his writing-exercise-turned-novel Horrorcaust striking a chord with a young audience, particularly in the US, who are fascinated with vampires. Following Shamus along his book tour stateside, events take place that get equated with the novel , which only generates increased success for the novel despite Shamus not being particularly fond of this work.
The story was incredibly enjoyable and I appreciated how it was self-aware of the genre and tropes that have been overdone. While the story itself was good, for the love of all that is holy, please indent your paragraphs! And I found it strange to read supposedly American English news sources and conversations written in British English--while I appreciate the attempt at consistency throughout the text, this would be a reasonable case for deviating for accuracy. An aspect of the novel that was intriguing was basically having two books in one with life of the author and the story he created alternating chapters as events develop unto their convergence.
Overall, I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Shamus Ohio has written several sci-fi novels with a moderate fan base, but what has thrust this quiet Brit into the limelight is his writing-exercise-turned-novel Horrorcaust striking a chord with a young audience, particularly in the US, who are fascinated with vampires. Following Shamus along his book tour stateside, events take place that get equated with the novel , which only generates increased success for the novel despite Shamus not being particularly fond of this work.
The story was incredibly enjoyable and I appreciated how it was self-aware of the genre and tropes that have been overdone. While the story itself was good, for the love of all that is holy, please indent your paragraphs! And I found it strange to read supposedly American English news sources and conversations written in British English--while I appreciate the attempt at consistency throughout the text, this would be a reasonable case for deviating for accuracy. An aspect of the novel that was intriguing was basically having two books in one with life of the author and the story he created alternating chapters as events develop unto their convergence.
Overall, I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
April 21, 2016
First, the pull-quote; highly original. Mixes various methods of story-telling to expand a unique story. Kept me curious and I started rushing near the end, totally forgetting it was only Part 1 of a 2 parter (arggg). -jay royston, author Stoner, Unincorporated
This isn't a plot-driven book that follows a generic formula (that said, this is the 1st vampire book I've read in forever) despite the misleading title. There's a point about 1/3 of the way through the book in which there is a review of Horrorcaust (the book within the book). It was quite meta as the critique was spot-on to what I was thinking - too much backstory to the characters that was irrelevant, long passages that were difficult to justify as being needed for the story. That said, it made me curious as to this was part of the author's strategy or not.
There's a lot of social commentary that wasn't particularly needed in regards to story and too easily presented via 2 or 3 characters having arguments that had nothing to do with vampyres.
The 'author on tour' part sounded quite believable, and truly made me wonder if Hazard is a pseudonym for someone who has truly experienced book tours and such. I really liked the storyline with Ohio.
Small copy editing point - I've never seen cell phone shortened to 'phone. Must be a British thing...
This isn't a plot-driven book that follows a generic formula (that said, this is the 1st vampire book I've read in forever) despite the misleading title. There's a point about 1/3 of the way through the book in which there is a review of Horrorcaust (the book within the book). It was quite meta as the critique was spot-on to what I was thinking - too much backstory to the characters that was irrelevant, long passages that were difficult to justify as being needed for the story. That said, it made me curious as to this was part of the author's strategy or not.
There's a lot of social commentary that wasn't particularly needed in regards to story and too easily presented via 2 or 3 characters having arguments that had nothing to do with vampyres.
The 'author on tour' part sounded quite believable, and truly made me wonder if Hazard is a pseudonym for someone who has truly experienced book tours and such. I really liked the storyline with Ohio.
Small copy editing point - I've never seen cell phone shortened to 'phone. Must be a British thing...
November 20, 2015
A nimbly-paced, highly enjoyable first instalment, with well-rendered, investable characters and (at times quite frighteningly) unstoppable momentum.
A satirical comedy-horror, the humour in this book is not a million miles away from "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"; it shares a similarly British quirkiness than runs the comedic gamut, from ultra-dry to charmingly absurdist, although perhaps a few shades darker than Douglas Adams'; brand of wit.
In among the jokes and levity, however, the book has serious points to make, although these are always merged seamlessly into the narrative, so as to avoid any awkward authorial soapboxing. Astute and insightful, it reminds the reader of the real blood-sucking monsters in the world: parasitic celebrity culture; entertainment industry leviathans that squeeze the life out of intellectual properties and wring creators dry; the all-consuming mouth of the mass media.
Layered and densely textured, the book's clever use of format provides the reader with a wealth of meta-content which enriches the overall story arc and makes for an even more satisfying read.
A satirical comedy-horror, the humour in this book is not a million miles away from "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"; it shares a similarly British quirkiness than runs the comedic gamut, from ultra-dry to charmingly absurdist, although perhaps a few shades darker than Douglas Adams'; brand of wit.
In among the jokes and levity, however, the book has serious points to make, although these are always merged seamlessly into the narrative, so as to avoid any awkward authorial soapboxing. Astute and insightful, it reminds the reader of the real blood-sucking monsters in the world: parasitic celebrity culture; entertainment industry leviathans that squeeze the life out of intellectual properties and wring creators dry; the all-consuming mouth of the mass media.
Layered and densely textured, the book's clever use of format provides the reader with a wealth of meta-content which enriches the overall story arc and makes for an even more satisfying read.
November 27, 2015
Funny, incisive, densely textured and astonishingly layered, this satirical comedy-horror is the perfect antidote to insubstantial trash fiction. It's a savage analysis of the entertainment industry and the people who occupy its seats of power, an indictment of the twenty-four-hour news cycle and its legacy of hyperbole and sensationalism, and a hilarious send-up of modern day culture (and lack of it).
Great characters and plenty of rising action. Ends on a hell of a cliff-hanger that will definitely leave you hungry for the conclusion in Generic Vampire Novel #937: Part Two - Horrorcaust.
Great characters and plenty of rising action. Ends on a hell of a cliff-hanger that will definitely leave you hungry for the conclusion in Generic Vampire Novel #937: Part Two - Horrorcaust.
August 7, 2016
A highly enjoyable read, a funny refreshing take on the vampire novel. Full of wit and cynicism reminiscent of Douglas Coup land and Douglas Adams.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews