The Sab.

The Sab

Steve Zinger 

Authorhouse Publishing

ISBN 1418402354 $21.95 508 pages

To all those who claim vampire stories aren't original, that there are no more ways to write a new twist into this gothic oblivion, for any that still question it, read The Sab. Author Steve Zinger will set you straight and shake you up in the process. Empowering, hypnotic, frightening, and raw. Those are just a few elements that will entice you to read on, and leave you with a chill down your spine. Sometimes it's just the hint of horror that gets the adrenaline going.

With the coming of the Fall, I was ready and in the mood for something that dripped of ambience, atmosphere, and a little blood. The moment I received the book and looked at the nasty pumpkin on the cover, all fangs and a glare to stab my heart with, I knew the season was upon me, and I started to read. I had a hard time putting it down.

The Sab is the kind of story that gets you going, relies on storytelling, dialogue, and character development to reel you in. Forget shock value, this is subtle, gothic, and psychologically disturbing to the core. There are layers here, many facets to read through and it works in such a smooth way you don't realize how drawn into it you are.

The characters are real, with feelings, angst and strange visions. They exist in their own desolate worlds, half-alive, half-dead, and somewhere in between. With an unexpected common bond, they forge together. Are they strong enough to resist the urges, the calls, their ways of a dark life to save others from the vicious and wicked Sab?

Talissa, a bloodthirsty vampire is awakened from a thousand year sleep, fresh and renewed to contrive her revenge and corrupt anyone who stands in her way. She is the key, the shadow, and a cold silence of death that unlocks the demons and desires of mankind. Her role is a sort of queen of the dead; she unleashes an army to do her bidding, a wretched troupe you wouldn't ever want to meet.

This is a big book, but it doesn't drag with unnecessary words or melodrama. You are thrust head first into a plot, setting, and character rich story and the time flies. I am anxious to read other works by Steve Zinger; he's proving himself to be a solid writer in suspense, horror, and the macabre.