V-Wars: Shockwaves

V-Wars: Chronicles of the Vampire Wars #4

by Jonathan Maberry (Editor), Joe McKinney, Jeff Mariotte

The Vampire Wars are raging. We're all infected. Anyone can turn at any time. Your ally one minute could be at your throat the next. Or you go suddenly crave their blood.
V-WARS: SHOCKWAVES chronicles the spread of bloodlust, bloodshed, and violence between the living and the undead. New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry brings the pain along with some trusted allies, including John Dixon, John Skipp, Nancy Holder, Weston Ochse, Yvonne Navarro, Jade Shames, James R. Tuck, Dana Fredsti, Jeff Mariotte, Marsheila Rockwell, Joe McKinney, Jennifer Brozek, Cody Goodfellow, and Mike Watt. The world will bleed.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Short Stories, Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

Published August 23, 2016

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[WendyB · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories here were not quite as interesting as those in the previous books. I'll still be watching for and reading the next installment. Maberry's sections are always interesting.

[Brent Soderstrum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 4th volume of the V-Wars. These are anthologies centered on Maberry's story about the ICE virus, I1V1 virus or vampire virus affecting nearly 10% of the world turning them into vampires. There are hundreds of variations of vampires based on the ethnic background of the person. Just like humans there are good vampires and very bad vampires. The virus escaped due to global warming melting the ice caps releasing it into the world. Michael Fayne was the first vampire and he is viewed as a messiah to some of the vampires. He was killed in the first volume but his body is missing.

Lots of good characters such as Luther Swann, the Crimson Queen, and various characters which come through the correspondents reports from around the world. Some of these reports are good and some not so much. I wish they were all centered more on the story Maberry set out. The ones that are are more interesting then the ones that are really just dealing with vampires fighting humans.

Joe Ledger makes an appearance and does what he does best in helping what remains of the V8 squad and Swann. Some big twists such as the identity of the Crimson Queen, the views of the President of the United State, and the identity of the leader of the Red Knights.

[Wendy Bocock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always happy to see Joe Ledger and Church show up in a story. Missed James A. Moore's stories, though (John Lei, the hopping ghost vampire), and Yvonne Navarro's Mooney Lopez story was quite brutal this go-'round.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Vampires?

Or love them, you’ll enjoy this addition to the V Wars saga. As the world tries to adapt to the new normal, factions arise that will not sit idly by when others oppose them.

Jonathan Maberry has done it again.

[Aleece · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great installment. Was hoping to hear from some more of the previous stories, but I'm glad Mooney is back.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun read in the series and appreciate the variety of vampires and stories. Not a fan of the threaded narration so went back to effort of reading all of the parts of a story.

[Monique · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting collection of horror stories by various authors. The format of the novel was annoying, I didn’t like how each story was broken up into numerous parts spaced out throughout the novel. I actually went to the effort to read each story from beginning to end before starting on the next one.

The stories were good overall with a great blend of action, suspense, world building, and scare. However, I found the stories overall didn’t have a central theme. Most of the stories were good but weren’t necessary. The best stories were by Jonathan Maberry, but his stories actually concluded the series with some truths behind the V-Wars coming to light. I also loved the addition of Joe Ledger.

Overall an okay collection of horror stories featuring a collection of monsters: vampires, werewolves and humans. I mostly just picked up the series as I love Maberry and would like to read all of his works.