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Dark Moon Rising
Dr. James Wilcox is one of the foremost paediatric neurologists in the nation. Yet his expertise is useless in the face of his own brain tumour - the removal of which will result in James losing his senses of smell and taste and suffering from a mood disorder for the rest of his life. Then a miracle arrives in the form of Dr. Albert Stern, lauded in medical journals for his achievements in sensory augmentation in primates. Dr. Stern is more than willing to apply his radical procedures in an attempt to cure James' condition. The surgery is a success. In fact, it has the unprecedented result of heightening the rest of the patient's senses beyond normal human parameters. But there are side effects that no one could have predicted...Because something slipped into Stern's chromosome matrix. Something with a homicidal disposition and an appetite for fresh-killed meat. Something that hunts by night...
354 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
James M. Thompson
16 books26 followersJames M. Thompson was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Thompson practiced family medicine and surgery in Corpus Christi, Texas for 25 years, then retired in 1999 to write full-time. Now he splits his time between Rockport, Texas and North Waterford, Maine with wife, Terri, and their dogs, Captain MacTavish and Shuggie, and loves to hear from his readers.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 2, 2017
I received this arc from Netgalley.
After reading the description of this book, I just knew that I was going to love it. Not to be, not to be. This reads like a book by Zane, mixed with Harlequin romance and a comic book ending. Disaster! I will definitely avoid this author in the future.
After reading the description of this book, I just knew that I was going to love it. Not to be, not to be. This reads like a book by Zane, mixed with Harlequin romance and a comic book ending. Disaster! I will definitely avoid this author in the future.
March 16, 2017
Review of DARK MOON RISING
by James M. Thompson
There's plenty of meat here for conspiracy theorists to dig into, as biological and chemical weapons research expands, despite the moratorium on such research imposed when Nixon was president. A violent, egotistical, narcissist has risen in rank in the U.S. Army to become a general, and in charge of Fort Detrick, Maryland, home of USAMRIID (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases). While the stated aim is to protect and defend against biological weapons, under this general, underground research runs rife, especially into designing “the perfect soldier.” A DNA scientist is looped in, and a brilliant neurosurgeon who himself develops a brain tumour (his surgical specialty) becomes a test patient for DNA alteration, unleashing inexplicable horrors.
by James M. Thompson
There's plenty of meat here for conspiracy theorists to dig into, as biological and chemical weapons research expands, despite the moratorium on such research imposed when Nixon was president. A violent, egotistical, narcissist has risen in rank in the U.S. Army to become a general, and in charge of Fort Detrick, Maryland, home of USAMRIID (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases). While the stated aim is to protect and defend against biological weapons, under this general, underground research runs rife, especially into designing “the perfect soldier.” A DNA scientist is looped in, and a brilliant neurosurgeon who himself develops a brain tumour (his surgical specialty) becomes a test patient for DNA alteration, unleashing inexplicable horrors.
July 29, 2021
Wow. This book was bad... as in, very low quality of both storytelling and writing. Yet, I somehow managed to finish it.
The premise of this one sounds enticing enough as a cheesy horror/action type novel: A neurosurgeon is diagnosed with having a brain tumor, and comes into contact with a more advanced, experienced neurosurgeon/doctor operating a ring of illegal experiments wherein he injects animal DNA/cells into the brains of humans, resulting in them garnering the traits of animals (enhanced smell, speed, vision, strength...etc.) The patients are mostly spec-ops soldiers, and the corrupt officials have some kind of evil master-plan to create a super-army of genetically modified soldiers.
The main character and neurosurgeon, Jim, is operated on by the villainous, mad-scientist-type doctor and is injected with Golden Retriever cells in his brain where the tumor used to be. As it turns out, the Golden Retriever was a mutt and actually had Wolf DNA in his system. *Gasp*
And when the full moon comes out, Jim changes into a raging wolf-like creature.
Unfortunately, it takes us about 200 pages of this 300-pager to get to that part of the story. The first 2/3rds of the story focuses on the political drama between government agencies as one tries to expose the illegal experimentation going on, and the other continues their unethical studies. Also, there is a weird insta-love romance between Jim and one of his fellow coworkers (a young female doctor). Their relationship makes no sense and yet we get lots of scenes with them being extremely flirtatious with one another and even being intimate. There is actually a bit of gratuitous smut in this novel.
Not only that, but a lot of the political drama and scientific stuff going on in the first half of the book does nothing to advance the story and is quite boring at times. Although I finished this book, there were parts where I was speed-reading / skimming over stuff.
We get one or two very brief action sequences in the first half, and then the more climactic suspense and violence doesn't begin until about page 250, when the novel is nearing its end. And even then, a lot of the action is kind of glossed over. The author put more detail into the sex in the beginning of the book than in the action towards the end. It all felt very rushed and the conclusion was quick and convenient for our characters. So much stuff wasn't elaborated on and the "good guys" easily win and expose the evil deeds of the corrupt government and military officials within the last 20 pages.
Speaking of the characters, they were all so fake and as one-dimensional as one-dimensional can possibly be. The dialogue was corny as hell. Jim and his girlfriend were being so flirtatious with one another to the point of it being laughable. Everything they said to one another was along the lines of how badly they wanted to rip each other's clothes off. And there was no setup or believability to their relationship whatsoever.
All the rest of the characters were just as flat.
The plot requires quite the suspension of disbelief - there are a lot of loose ends and illogical decisions throughout... there is just so much stuff I can keep going on about but honestly I think I'm going to end it here.
For some reason, I finished this book, but just barely. This honestly might be one of the worst "horror" novels I've ever had the displeasure of reading. I think I took some guilty pleasure in silently criticizing this book for how poor a novel it actually is. I do not recommend this at all.
The premise of this one sounds enticing enough as a cheesy horror/action type novel: A neurosurgeon is diagnosed with having a brain tumor, and comes into contact with a more advanced, experienced neurosurgeon/doctor operating a ring of illegal experiments wherein he injects animal DNA/cells into the brains of humans, resulting in them garnering the traits of animals (enhanced smell, speed, vision, strength...etc.) The patients are mostly spec-ops soldiers, and the corrupt officials have some kind of evil master-plan to create a super-army of genetically modified soldiers.
The main character and neurosurgeon, Jim, is operated on by the villainous, mad-scientist-type doctor and is injected with Golden Retriever cells in his brain where the tumor used to be. As it turns out, the Golden Retriever was a mutt and actually had Wolf DNA in his system. *Gasp*
And when the full moon comes out, Jim changes into a raging wolf-like creature.
Unfortunately, it takes us about 200 pages of this 300-pager to get to that part of the story. The first 2/3rds of the story focuses on the political drama between government agencies as one tries to expose the illegal experimentation going on, and the other continues their unethical studies. Also, there is a weird insta-love romance between Jim and one of his fellow coworkers (a young female doctor). Their relationship makes no sense and yet we get lots of scenes with them being extremely flirtatious with one another and even being intimate. There is actually a bit of gratuitous smut in this novel.
Not only that, but a lot of the political drama and scientific stuff going on in the first half of the book does nothing to advance the story and is quite boring at times. Although I finished this book, there were parts where I was speed-reading / skimming over stuff.
We get one or two very brief action sequences in the first half, and then the more climactic suspense and violence doesn't begin until about page 250, when the novel is nearing its end. And even then, a lot of the action is kind of glossed over. The author put more detail into the sex in the beginning of the book than in the action towards the end. It all felt very rushed and the conclusion was quick and convenient for our characters. So much stuff wasn't elaborated on and the "good guys" easily win and expose the evil deeds of the corrupt government and military officials within the last 20 pages.
Speaking of the characters, they were all so fake and as one-dimensional as one-dimensional can possibly be. The dialogue was corny as hell. Jim and his girlfriend were being so flirtatious with one another to the point of it being laughable. Everything they said to one another was along the lines of how badly they wanted to rip each other's clothes off. And there was no setup or believability to their relationship whatsoever.
All the rest of the characters were just as flat.
The plot requires quite the suspension of disbelief - there are a lot of loose ends and illogical decisions throughout... there is just so much stuff I can keep going on about but honestly I think I'm going to end it here.
For some reason, I finished this book, but just barely. This honestly might be one of the worst "horror" novels I've ever had the displeasure of reading. I think I took some guilty pleasure in silently criticizing this book for how poor a novel it actually is. I do not recommend this at all.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2015
I wasn't really satisfied with this.
I get the concept of everything in the story, but the way it was presented just doesn't linger enough that I could just easily put it down and grab another off the shelf.
I get the concept of everything in the story, but the way it was presented just doesn't linger enough that I could just easily put it down and grab another off the shelf.
October 10, 2016
I got through half and had enough. I can't understand for the life of me why someone would take a perfectly good plot and ruin it with sex sex sex. I had to skip tons of paragraphs when I finally had enough. Shame though because the writing was excellent.
July 8, 2008
James Thompson has a way with making ordinary monsters into something much more scientific. I loved this book just as much as the 'Blood' series. It's too bad there's only one of them.
December 24, 2020
mediocre junk food for the brain. tries to emulate richard laymon or edward lee, just not very well.
Read
February 7, 2021Good book. Liked plot characters and all settled for now in one book
August 11, 2013
It was OK...
January 28, 2012
I found this book to be a great read. I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend it to others.
April 15, 2017
I’ll start off by saying the ideas and imagination gone into the plot of this book is incredibly creative. But the book could have been so much better.
The part I did love about the story was how creative the whole idea was. Instead of it being the classic bitten by a werewolf or animal horror, James M Thompson has taken on a completely different approach and gone with a mixture psychopathic surgeons and power greedy military generals that’s created a gripping story.
I found myself being fascinated by the enhanced soldiers, particularly the sergeant Jack Stone. He had been operated on my Dr Stern making him stronger, faster and his senses more animal like. He was extremely arrogant but that made me like him more, I also liked the fact he was a mysterious character in the beginning but he becomes more confident as the story goes on. At the beginning I found the main character Jim Wilcox to be annoying but after the operation it’s hard not to like him. You also can’t deny how cool the guy is after surgery!
One of the problems I had with book was the amount of sex. The first 30% of the book was nonstop sex. It got to the point where I honestly thought the story was going nowhere and was starting to sound like fifty shades of grey. But I would recommend readers stick with it because it does start to pick up in the last quarter and becomes the fast paced horror/thriller that was described and originally drew me in.
Overall I wasn’t crazy about this book but I did enjoy it towards the end. The book could have been so much better if it got straight into the thriller/horror side of it from the start and left most of the unnecessary romance bullshit out. For readers that enjoy science/medical horror with a combo of fantasy this book is a good read ( no pun intended haha )
The part I did love about the story was how creative the whole idea was. Instead of it being the classic bitten by a werewolf or animal horror, James M Thompson has taken on a completely different approach and gone with a mixture psychopathic surgeons and power greedy military generals that’s created a gripping story.
I found myself being fascinated by the enhanced soldiers, particularly the sergeant Jack Stone. He had been operated on my Dr Stern making him stronger, faster and his senses more animal like. He was extremely arrogant but that made me like him more, I also liked the fact he was a mysterious character in the beginning but he becomes more confident as the story goes on. At the beginning I found the main character Jim Wilcox to be annoying but after the operation it’s hard not to like him. You also can’t deny how cool the guy is after surgery!
One of the problems I had with book was the amount of sex. The first 30% of the book was nonstop sex. It got to the point where I honestly thought the story was going nowhere and was starting to sound like fifty shades of grey. But I would recommend readers stick with it because it does start to pick up in the last quarter and becomes the fast paced horror/thriller that was described and originally drew me in.
Overall I wasn’t crazy about this book but I did enjoy it towards the end. The book could have been so much better if it got straight into the thriller/horror side of it from the start and left most of the unnecessary romance bullshit out. For readers that enjoy science/medical horror with a combo of fantasy this book is a good read ( no pun intended haha )
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews