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The Light at the End

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You know you're getting older when all your favorite songs are labeled oldies, the sports figures you admired are playing in "Old Timers Day" games, and some of the books you've read are now considered "classics." It's distressing to realize you're not immune to the passage of time, and also that your prior perceptions about what was worthwhile might have been misguided, if not outright wrong. The flip side of this particular coin is rereading the favorites of your youth and finding that they still stand up. In recent years I've had that experience with many of Stephen King's earlier works. This past spring, I experienced it with the new Stealth Press hardcover reprint of Craig Skipp and John Spector's The Light At The End.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this work, a brief summary is in order. The book focuses on two characters, punk/goth vampire Rudy Pasko, and the man who has vowed to kill him, the aptly named Joseph Hunter. Rudy, a jerk and a loser in life, gains his vampiric powers by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, stumbling upon a grisly subway massacre perpetrated by an evil ancient entity. Sired merely to amuse that entity, Rudy starts to groove on his new powers, using them to push back against a world he's always hated. The massacre, coupled with Rudy's high profile activities, brings him to the attention of Hunter, a hulking, gruff, compulsive do-gooder looking for something to hit after the death of his beloved mother. Their anger brings them into conflict, and also drives the horrific events to come. And they are horrific, even if they seem a little tamer to me due to the passage of time and to changes in my perception of what should be labeled "extreme."

In 1986 The Light at the End stood at the center of the then-raging debate of splatterpunk v. quiet horror (thank goodness we all realized the genre was big enough to include works from all points in the spectrum -- now if we could only stop talking about whether horror is dead, thriving, comatose or irrelevant). Skipp and Spector, striding through the horror community like the rock stars they emulated, championed a more visceral, high energy, in-your-face kind of horror than that to which we were accustomed, pushing out at the boundaries. They had their progenitors of course: folks like Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Jack Ketchum and the young upstart Clive Barker (whose "The Midnight Meat Train" seems to have inspired Light's grisly opening sequence). This book, considered with works such as S. P. Somtow's Vampire Junction, seems in hindsight to have been almost a seminal influence on later writers. One could make the case that the stylish Light made splatterpunk more acceptable, paving the way for writers as diverse as David Schow, Nancy Collins, Poppy Z. Brite, Christopher Golden, Ray Garton, Rex Miller and Edward Lee, giving them permission to go over the top in their own writing (although, in Garton's case, it may just have validated over the top work he'd already published, like Seductions). It was a no holds barred style of storytelling that has trickled down to movies and television, as evidenced by the work of folks like Joss "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Whedon, whose character Spike bears more than a passing resemblance to Rudy.

This was and remains a swift paced, high-impact book, long on action, but also on character development -- Rudy's anger is tangible, as is Hunter's grief. The supporting cast is well developed, and the New York City backdrop is effective -- Skipp and Spector's New York vividly captured much of America's perception of the city as a cesspool. Yes, they do show signs of their relative inexperience at the time (for instance, a number of chapters end with annoying tag lines like, "That was the last time they would see him alive"), but these are easily overlooked when compared to the overall quality of the narrative. This book can be enjoyed by "old farts" and "whippersnappers" alike, either reliving fond memories or creating new ones. Kudos to Stealth Press for bringing it back in this handsome hardcover.

Thanks to Skipp and Spector, we have come to know the dark truth about what lurks in the subterranean realm of New York's sewers. When I first read this book nearly 20 years ago this backdrop, coupled with a fresh and innovate plot quickly made it one of my favorite horror stories. Not all vampires are romantic. What would happen if a local jerk happens to meet up with the kind of evil that turns subway trains into bloodbags, and is 'drafted' into a new world. You would get a jerky vampire, of course, and Rudy Pasko is just as unpleasant dead as he is alive.

From his subterranean demesne Rudy sets about being nasty and all that stands between him and world dominion is strange cast of characters that include truck drivers, messengers, students, game players, and would be writers. That and a few forces even bleaker than Rudy himself. Badness is due to happen, not all will survive, and the tunnel turns out to have a few extra kinks. Spector and Skipp write in a helter-skelter style that catches the edginess of life on the fringe of New York City - out there where the glamour doesn't ever go.

For all the adventure of pushing the limits of horror Skipp and Spector remember that what scares you are the things you can't get used to, not a continuous flow of gore and the result is a story that is both chilling and magnetic. They are not by any means the first to use graphic imagery (Straub's Floating Dragon still haunts me today) but the are the first to bring nitty gritty characters into the spotlight and make this story as much about them as it is by the world's most offensive vampire.

A great deal of 'aura' has grown up around this book. Most of this concerns its role in the horror genre and as a source for the 'splatterpunk' as a writing style. To some degree this is true, but much depends on your definition of splatterpunk, a term which was originally coined by David Schow and arose more from George Romero's films than written literature. Skipp and Spector's own definition can be found in the introduction to the hard cover edition. The bluntest definition is a radical relaxing of what society considers good taste and a tendency to make heroes out of folks who would normally be villains and bystanders.

The odd thing is that, despite the graphic violence of The Light at the End, it never really lapses into bad taste, and the ragtag group that takes one the world's uncoolest vampire are quite sympathetic in spite of their flaws. So Skipp and Spector in their first (and I thing their best) effort were openers of the way more than the darkest of practitioners. This alone is the book worth searching out and reading if your taste runs to the grimly humorous. In the authors' later work the need to be unnerving began to erode the desire to have a good story. But this time they were spot on and its well worth hunting up a copy. Whether you care about it's significance to literary history or not.

"The Light at the End" is vampire horror at it's best. This novel is slick and sophisticated, written for an audience that is no longer satisfied with being spoon fed the same old plot. Fortunately, this novel has been re-released only recently in hardcover by a new press Stealth Press. (www.stealthpress.com). Finally this classic is again in print. New York is the type of city that anything can happen in. In this novel, we are taken into the world of "what if" when an old world vampire comes to see the sites and leaves the city with a legacy of it's own in the form of a nihilistic young artist turned vampire, with an ax to grind. This novel steps out of the splatterpunk stereotype with it's gritty and realistic characters and a willingness to take chances with plot and its readers. There is no neat and tidy package from this author- he takes the story around with a realistic unpredictability and a tangible sense of fear. Bloody, yes, but the violence is not the star of this novel by far. Read it for the plot. Read it for the intense, razor sharp writing style, just don't expect to put it down.

First off, if you are sick of the Anne Rice vampires who have a cheesy accent, and whine and complain about the "dark gift" of being a vampire, then this book is for you. The vampire in this book is anything but whiny. However, if you like your vampire books with a ruthless vampire that kills without compassion, morals, or even a second thought, then this book is for you.

Skipp and Spector have a very strong writing style. Strong in that this is a real page turner filled with violence and gore around every turn. For example, just wait till you read what happens in a movie theater.

This book is pretty much out of print. I was lucky enough to find my copy at a used bookstore. I urge you to go out and hunt for this book. I can promise you that you won't be sorry.

If you like your vampires to kill without reason, then you have to start this book. You'll love every page. That I can promise you.

This book was suggested to me by a friend who said it was the scariest book he'd ever read. I kid you not, this book was creepy! Besides it's scary side, it has incredible detail and descriptions, a great, flowing storyline, and characters that you can picture vividly in your head. This is, quite easily, one of the best books I've ever read. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes vampires, horror novels, or likes to be scared. You'll jump and gasp with every turn of the page!

I believe John Skipp and Craig Spector never quite got the recognition they deserved. "Light at the End" was both applauded and dismissed as "splatter punk" at the time, but it's a story that has much more merit than that. Yes, the authors paint a harshly realistic picture of what might happen if vampires infested New York -- and it ain't pretty. But there is a richness of characterization in this story that works to balance the gore. I rank this one right under Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" as a story that continues to haunt you long after you put the book down.

With "The Light at the End," Skipp and Specter create a down and dirty vampire story on the streets of the big city. Though not as good as King's "Salem's Lot" or Robert McCammon's "They Thirst," it still beats Anne Rice's wimpy interview with a vampire series by a mile. Gross and engrossing, this is not your grandfather's vampire story.

Skipp and Spector incredibly combine a character driven thriller with cutting edge hack and slash horror. Their take take on vampires, realistic rather than romantic, provides for a terrifyingly believable plot. The characters are endearing, so much so I found myself attatched. This adds to the suppense of who lives and who dies. {with this one you never know} This is one of the few books I can read over and over. It inspired me to go back to the typewriter. For scarier try The Bridge, skipp and spector For a near religeous experience try Animals, skipp and spector

The author team of John Skipp and Craig Spector come together for a novel that "grabs you by the throat" and lets go only after you close the cover. At times, the story followed me into my sleep. The authors do an outstanding job detailing the attacks. They never let you in on what is really causing the murders. If horror is your "fave" give this novel a gander and I promise you will not be disappointed.

Somewhere along the line, the tracks ended, stopping at a thick brick wall. No further passage was possible. This was as far as you could go. Then, a new train entered the dark tunnels, piloted by John Skipp & Craig Spector. Brother, believe you me when I say that that wall came DOWN! Full speed and damn the rules, they punched the hole, blasting aside all conventions of what horror fiction could be, changing the world of horror forever. It was so fresh and different that a new term had to be invented to describe it - Splatterpunk. If you've read the other reviews for this book, it won't spoil too much to say that this book does indeed deal with vampires. But don't go in expecting a tall English gentleman creeping into gothic bedchambers through windows. Don't expect bodice-ripping pretty boys to tickle the ladies loins instead of raising the ice in your spine. These aren't sparkly teen vampires more concerned with love than with when to bust out a fang or two. Please. This book will show you just how nasty and viscious vampires can be; and it's an image that won't soon fade from your mind. Nor will you want it to. You will want more, and thankfully, there is more. You can catch this title and other Skipp and Spector classics now on E-books - if you've got the guts. If not, the authors will be happy to hand you some! Call this digital resurgence Splatterpunk 2.1, and climb aboard. Fear is just around the bend...