THERE ARE REASONS WE FEAR THE NIGHT. NOW HE MUST BECOME ONE OF THEM.
Bill Ryder has a powerful destiny. He just never expected it to involve an amnesiac bloodsucker, a bunch of D&D dorks, and a hormonal witch. It's time for the gamer, geek, and legendary vampire to embrace his fate. Ordered to storm the vampire stronghold in Boston, Bill must approach the doorstep of the invincible undead warlord he's destined to face. It's his only chance of stopping Armageddon.
As his enemies stand in his way and his allies falter, the vicious beast inside of him wants out. If he stands tall and faces his fate, the world might just have a chance of surviving. If he fails, an unquenchable evil will destroy everything Bill knows and loves.
Why can't the end of the world ever be easy?.
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The Wicked Dead is the seventh book in the bestselling Tome of Bill saga, an urban fantasy series with a nasty overbite. If you like bloody fight scenes, geeky in-jokes, and breakneck-paced action, then you'll love Rick Gualtieri's latest installment in the perfect vampire series for the 21st century adult.
Rick Gualtieri loves to write adventure, mayhem, and snarky dialogue. His bestselling Tome of Bill series combines all of this into a world of supernatural danger with hard-hitting action and plenty of sharp-tongued geeky humor.
Rick lives alone in a dark, evil place called New Jersey with only his wife, three kids, and countless pets to both keep him company and constantly plot against him. When he's not busy monkey-clicking out words, he can typically be found jealously guarding his collection of vintage Transformers from all who would seek to defile them.
This is book 7 of the Tome of Bill vampire series. It's an urban fantasy novel that's rated 4.35/5.0, is 526 pages, and I rated it 5.0. I read this while traveling. It made me laugh out loud many times. It has great characters and I liked the story in this one better than book 6. In this book, Bill's Dungeon and Dragons group gets turned into vampires, he's still in love with multiple women, he's still struggling to control his inner demon, and he still has to save the world from an ubber freewill vampire, rock monsters (again) and other magic forces (you'll see). The ending satisfying enough, but it's open ended like the previous one, as if the story just goes on and on. I usually don't like this approach, but Rick Gualtieri makes it work. Good read, fun book. I recommend it.
Bill finds himself fighting the greatest threat yet, and Gualtieri keeps outdoing himself in this department. I was given an ARC copy of this, and so I read it before there was a finished project of perfection, and I still would give the story 5 stars. Gualtieri spins humor into the end of the world and it fits. While, like the last two, the humor mutes a bit as it IS leading to the end of the world, it remains. I also ruined Gualtieri's perfect search history with a question about the novel.
Reasons to read--
-Obviously, it's a continuation, and you need to know what happens.
- Strong female leads that start taking the story with them.
- Bill continues to grow as a person and vampire, which is contradicting, and it works.
- Questions are answered, and more questions arise.
Reasons not to read -
- You haven't read the others. Go rectify that.
- You don't like good characters.
- About one thing drove me nuts during this story, but I can't say what it is. And I don't know if it was fixed or not! But I still gave it 5 stars, so... you know...
I only just discovered "The Tome of Bill" and have read all the available books one after the other. They are a very entertaining take on the vampire genre, and I don't remember the last time I laughed so loudly or so often. In between the laughs there are some genuine thrills and spills too, and the whole thing is an emotional rollercoaster - scream if you want to go faster. Be prepared to care about particular vampires in the way you haven't since Spike and Angel in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - this series is like Buffy for adults, but so much better than that sounds, now I have read it back to myself.
The Wicked Dead written by Rick Gualtieri & narrated by Christopher John Fetherolf. This time around Bill and friends are put to the task of taking care of the Destroyer! Bill has to settle things with Evil Bill before facing the Destroyer. Sally was compelled by none other than Alexander the Great to forget Bill & his friends & Christie found out something that could have made her not want to be involved with Bill and friends. Once again we’re in a place sitting at the edge of our seats trying to figure out how they are going to succeed.
What are some things that I’ve enjoyed about this book? Bill is really stepping up to me, he faced his evil self, he faced the destroyer, and he actually made the decision to give up his life to save others (When I say give up his life, this isn’t a spoiler just a few times he was willing to do so). We got a full fight scene with Evil Bill to actually gauge his true strength. Gan is legendary in my book, she always comes in right when she’s needed. I was in disbelief when Alex was compelled that caught me off guard. With all the build up of him being the strongest person in the book the ending really surprised me.
What are some things that I didn’t enjoy about this book? Bill and Sally, after all these books I don’t think it was fair for Evil Bill to knock Bill out after he fought Turd. I feel like quite a few cans of conflict were opened in this book and I don’t think one more book will wrap the story up well but I could be wrong since the next book is a little over eighteen hours long. I still don’t really understand why they want Ed so bad, I get his an anomaly but what’s his purpose, I feel like Ed is more important that Sheila at this point. Bill is also getting kind of dark or numb it’s out of character for him, he kind of just shrugged the dudes he brought along to help after lying to them about what was going on.
This is the seventh book I’ve listened to from Rick Gualtieri. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, between the banter, action, conflict, and mystery I must say I can’t wait to listen to the last book. The reveal of the actual first really caught me off guard at the end of this book. Bill actually seemed a little more mature in this book as he’s realizing how serious things really are. I purchased book 1-4 via a bundle I have enjoyed reviewing these books I will continue with book 8.
5 wow, jaw on the ground stars. My reaction? Nope nope nope nope, didn't see that coming. Pretty much any of it. Still addictive as hell, yeah, but wow, this is nothing like those other trips.
Bottom line is that this book is an urban fantasy explosion to end all urban fantasy explosions. About the only thing missing was that Gualtieri passed on the opportunity to have tentacled kitchen sinks crawl in and smash around some rabid wereferrets or something. I really don't know how to track this book otherwise as so many of the layers after layers after layers we've been building up over the past ... 5? 6? 48? books came smashing together in one breath-taking and knee-buckling supernova of wowness. Otherwise put: if you like battle scenes, if you like intrique, if you like not really being sure who to trust from one page to the next, then hey, this is your jam.
I just want to end this review with my usual compliments of RG's work. His prose and editing prowress is fantastic, much better than you would expect!! at first glance with a series of books based on a nerdy vampire. The surprises he builds in are of the 'stand up and cheer like they do in that 'Avengers: Endgame'' video they're so good (and his Marvel references are very appreciated, too, to us True Believers). There are so many quotable bits in here as well - many of which I copied only to realize I was in fact harboring an illegal ledger of most of the book - that they literally are to die for. This is just damn good stuff ... and I can't wait to keep going. And after I finish this whole shebang, I'm going to go back and read all the '1/2' volumes, too. That's my quality promise from me to you ... and, no, in reality I am not an expensive health food store just making noise to get you to join our monthly coupon club. Though you really should try our fresh produce.
Far too silly, sorry. I really need to start finding some time to sleep. But it's just sooooo goooood! And yes, I'd like some good cheese with my whine... which you'll find in Aisle 7 along with many of our other everyday low-priced brand-name products.
Stay strong team, the immortal shit is about to hit the magick fan in just about every color of the rainbow! Bring your galoshes!
Bill saves the day again, and almost dies...again!
I have read TONS of vamp stories, and quirky, nerdy Bill and his Scooby gang are among the best! They are the kind of characters that you make friends with, and cry for, and laugh out loud at. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a big fat helping of sass and hilarity with their supernatural fiction.
Wow! I don't think I've given any of the previous books 5 stars but this 1 deserved it. This book was also the the funniest of all the books in the series so far. They've all been clever and funny but this one was even more so. I'm about to read the next and last book and am sorry to see it end. Oh and Tom is special in his own way. NO SPOILERS!
OMG! Can't wait to see what happens next. I've put this book down to read other series, but not because I was not enjoying it, but just because it is one of those books that you can come back to and not be completely lost. I love that about this series. I'm off to read #8 and find out what they have to do to save everyone!
Finally, some character growth to get past the snarky dialogue. It has a good pace, as well as telling you some of the back story covered in the other books. It was a good read.
I do enjoy this series, but this one wasn't as well-loved as some of the others. Possibly because there was not enough Sally time. I did enjoy some of the romantic entanglements though. Looking forward to the next book you see how it pans out.
3.5 to 4 stars. Another good book to add to this series. If you liked any of the others you should like this one as well. The series itself as a whole can be 4 to 4.5 stars. I will continue with the series.
What started out as a series of fun, laugh out loud stories, has become a thrilling, almost epic adventure for some wonderful Characters! A star off because of the ending, but I'm glad it doesn't end here. Now to plunge into the next tale, YAY!
A reasonable continuation of the series. However, it dragged on a bit, too much wandering from place to place. A tighter plot would have been preferred.
Whiny, milquetoast meatsack Bill is back in all his glory along with his motley group of friends. But once again he needs to step up, and he does it in a big way against his various enemies