Book Review – 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead

Author: Steve Niles, Jeff Mariotte
Cover Artist: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: Pocket Star
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2006

For FBI Special Agent Andy Gray things never looked bleaker in 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte, a vicious and ghastly dive into a ruthless world of vampires. While working on a case together, his partner Paul Norris goes missing for some time and then is discovered drinking the blood of animals. He is subsequently shot to death by other members of the FBI. Or so they thought.

Andy Gray’s partner has now turned into some kind of monster and escaped. Andy wants answers. In his search for clues, he begins to see that all arrows point to the mysterious town of Barrow, Alaska, where a similar occurrence happened several years back. This event was later published under the fiction label as a book entitled 30 Days of Night. But as the horrific consequences of Paul Norris’s wake show, it should have clearly been placed in the nonfiction section.

30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead is based off a graphic novel series of the same namesake, which, after searching my box of forgotten comic books, I discovered I had a couple. There’s some really original artwork in these pages. So just to set the record straight, the novel is a book about another book which is all based on a comic book series. According to the Author’s Note, this novel takes place after the short story “Agent Norris, MIA” which was originally published in the anthology 30 Days of Night Annual 1. Got it?

Yeah, me neither, but don’t worry about the whole timeline of things. I can safely say that the book is fully capable of being read as a standalone adventure.

30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead does one thing excruciatingly well: burning scenes and specific images into my brain that don’t seem to want to go away. Niles and Mariotte do not stray away from being graphic, or let alone, darn cruel. Paul Norris is a character you’ll learn to hate just as passionately as Andy begins to.

One thing I wished for, but did not come true was that vampires were going to be handled in a less stereotypical way. Still different from say Anne Rice’s critters, the vampires found here are bloodthirsty, sexual demons with little care to anything else. I’m not trying to put this archetype down as it works very well in some cases, but I’m always looking to read something different.

There’s also a moment that should have had a stronger reaction from Andy, but didn’t. I can’t describe this event as it’s heavy with spoilers, but I felt like he handled the whole thing wrongly. Maybe Niles and Mariotte missed this section during edits, and just pushed through it to get to more action and blood. It would have made Andy a stronger character if he was ever allowed to wallow in a bit of his misery.

Still, it’s both a fun and dark adventure, filled with frightening undead, a decent hero, and a cinematic ending that would make any Hollywood executive proud. Speaking of that, a movie based on the comic book series (but not the book about a book based on the graphic novel series) will be hitting theaters sometime in 2007.

Be ready for the movie and check out 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead!

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