Damned Nation

Bureau 13 #4

by Nick Pollotta

Amid the fury and chaos of the Civil War, something monstrous is feeding upon the wounded soldiers, leaving behind withered corpses broken and twisted in unimaginable agony. Definitely not the work of a vampire. U.S. Marshall Joshua Withers is ordered by President Lincoln to stop the hideous deaths. Has the South unleashed a demon from Hell? But the marshall soon discovers that the mysterious enemy has been attacking every fallen soldier in the war, both Union and Confederate. President Jefferson Davis wants the unknown fiend stopped just as much as President Lincoln. Ruthlessly hunting a dark thing unafraid of guns, fire, silver, or Holy Water, the grim marshall starts to believe that the killer is not a werewolf, vampire, demon, or anything else known in the lexicon of the supernatural. This is something new, something horribly different. And the battlefield deaths are only the beginning...

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

324 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2005

About the author

Nick Pollotta also writes as Nicholas Pollotta, Jack Hopkins, and house names James Axler and Don Pendleton.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not the first Bureau 13 book to read, but a very interesting book in its own right. This is the tale of the origins of Bureau 13 when Lincoln's butler took a silver tea tray to a werewolf and earned himself a job. And what a job, finding who or what was killing Union and Confederate soldiers in a horrible fashion. Not the job where you have to learn as you go, but you do what you need to do. By the end, J.P. Winters had assembled a decent crew that had defeated the Drell, werewolves, and zombies while only blowing up one haunted mansion. Not bad for a scratch crew! If you enjoyed the other Bureau 13 books or TriTac's Stalking the Night Fantastic, do read Damned Nation!

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appraoch this book with both anticipation and trepidation. It's been a long time since I read and enjoyed the first Bureau 13 books - and I didn't even know this one existed until a couple of weeks ago. I'm excited, but I'm also wary that I could be massively disappointed. I base this on going back and re-reading a couple of books from my early childhood - and they haven't held up.

We shall see...

Finished it. While I liked this book, there were a handful of things that struck me as terribly anachronistic. That wouldn't bother me normally, but I was constantly being pulled out of the flow of the story by things/character thoughts/sayings that sounded distinctly out of place. I'm sure ther were some of these things that did exist in exactly that form at the time of the civil war. They still pushed me out of the story.

There were also a rather large number of typos and missed tense issues. The sort of things that Word automatically "helps" everyone with. If I hit one or two in a book, I notice. This book had them all over the place. To the point where I actually had to stop at a couple of places and figure out what the author meant rather than what was actually on the page.

All that being said - It was still a Bureau 13 story. There were tons of guns, explosives, magic and dangerous beasties to use them on. It was a lot of fun to read the origins of the bureau. If you're a fan of Mr. Pollotta's work, this one is worth finding to read.

[Ed Nemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a historical book, even a fictional historical book can be a daunting prospect. However, that being said, this was a fun read. It is difficult to write a historical book and not choose a side, but the author walks a careful tightrope making characters intelligent and likeable yet still historically accurate. The Civil War is a war that people have a great deal of feelings about. This book was written very cleverly in a way that should make everyone happy.

On to the story itself: I found myself rooting for the protagonists to beat the obviously very evil bad-guys. Werewolves, demons and a plan to destroy the world is a great reason to get people who otherwise would be at each other's throats, to work together.

All in all, a fun read. Read this, and then pick up the 3 Bureau 13 books. You will not be dissapointed.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tells the story of the beginnings of Bureau 13. It is a bit more serious than the other books in the series. Wheres the other books were humorous with lots of wise cracks, this book doesn't share those traits, so in that respect it isn't as good as the others. But still a very good book in itself.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another of Nick Polotta's "bureau 13" books- intended to tell the story of the origins of the Bureau. Unfortunately, it reads a bit too much like the minutes of the RPG sessions that it sprang from.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Behold the origin story of the B13 a secret government organization. I loved this book. i thought that the civil war setting would annoy me but it was just easy to read and absolutely fantastic.

[Joseph Teller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the top as usual, but great fun and fast paced humor.