Return to Barrow (30 Days of Night, Book 3) [Paperback]

Steve Niles (Author), Ben Templesmith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2004

30 Days of Night was one of the undisputed success stories of modern comics, spawning a bestselling trade paperback, a major motion picture deal, and the attention of thousands of fans longing for an innovative tale of terror. Now the same creative team revisits Barrow, Alaska, the town where it all began, as the long night creeps once more over the tundra. Some things may have changed, but the horror remains...

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: IDW Publishing (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932382364
• ISBN-13: 978-1932382365
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good addition to the 30 Days of Night Saga, February 20, 2006

By 

A. Sandoc "sussarakhen" (San Pablo, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return to Barrow (30 Days of Night, Book 3) (Paperback)

Steve Niles' 30 Days of Nights and its follow-up Dark Days were two vampire stories that really hooked me in and wouldn't let go. Niles' finally created a vampire tale that eschewed the Anita Blake and Anne Rice oversexually-obsessed, brooding, and nonscary vampires that became so popular for some reason. Sure Niles' vampires were still well, and sharply dressed but that's were the similarities end. His vampires in both stories were vicious, bloodthirsty, sadistic and most of evil. There wasn't anything to like about these vampires and Niles' made sure that our sympathies were with the living.

In 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow, Steve Niles brings back the series to the site of the first story and that's the Alaskan town of Barrow. A place still recovering from the events that transpired with the first story-arc. Those survivors who stayed and those who were away during the slaughter return to pick up the pieces of the town's shattered lives. But a group of vampires looking to avenge the deaths of the first group and continue their idea of using Barrow as ahunting ground have other ideas. T

There's really not much new that Niles' adds to what he's already told in the first story. The human inhabitants of Barrow must once again try to survive a vampiric onslaught by themselves with no governmental help. But this time around they know whats coming and have devised countermeasures that they hope would be enough to help them last the month-long night. This wouldn't be a horror comic if everything went as planned. They don't and things get bloody and horrific. The story continues on bloody page to bloody page until the conclusion where a twist on the forest guardian plot technique comes out of the shadows. This ending and those who make their surprising apperance gives Return to Barrow abit more of an optimistic resolution than the previous two books. Usually I would've complained that it was just so Deus Ex Machina, but it made sense and showed that not all vampires must succumbed to their killing nature.

30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow continues the fine story Niles' first started many years ago with 30 Days of Night and Dark Days. Though there wasn't much new things added in terms of ideas, the twist in the end made everything come together to give Return to Barrow its own identity from the other two. Fans of the first two books will not be disappointed.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent cap to the trilogy, March 14, 2005

By 

Mark Zieg (Kissimmee, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return to Barrow (30 Days of Night, Book 3) (Paperback)

Some series are identified from the first as "a trilogy in the making". Others start as nominal 1-offs, then spawn a sequel, and then become series only through aggregation.

The second model is arguably harder to pull off, because either (1) the author hasn't planned ahead to inject future plot threads into early stories, or (2) the author does undertake such planning, but has to disguise those incomplete arcs so that early volumes can stand on their own.

I don't know whether Niles envisioned Barrow as a trilogy from the first issue of 30 Days, but my temptation is to doubt it. Rather, I think he was as surprised by the success of 30 Days as everyone else, and had to invent the second and third volumes within the boundaries of the story already established.

That's what makes 30 Days and its sequels so enjoyable. When the first volume came out, it functioned perfectly well as a self-contained story. Then when Dark Days followed after, the series became a neatly balanced two-fer, with the plot and dialog complexities of the latter balancing nicely against the voiceless horror of the original.

And now Return to Barrow re-defines both previous volumes, by making each seem to flow with perfect precision into this final showdown. Threads we had thought fully closed were in fact only temporarily tied; the elaborate final knot had not yet been revealed. Characters we assumed complete still had one last transformation in store.

Like the undead so beautifully rendered, Niles reminds us that no story ever fully dies while it still has its head.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, October 22, 2007

By 

Steph - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return to Barrow (30 Days of Night, Book 3) (Paperback)

I'm not going to go into a long-winded review. I just want to say that I really enjoyed this graphic novel. Great story and great graphics. I also enjoyed Dark Days and 30 Days of Night. I am a 36 year old female, so that will give you an idea of the difference types of people that can enjoy this series.