30 Days of Night.

February 23, 2003 | 4 Comments

Just got done reading 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith.

I love vampire stories, so you can imagine I loved this. The basic premise is pretty simple — vamps go on a rampage in an isolated Alaskan town where the sun isn’t seen for 30 days. Run of the mill horror movie stuff - but fun none the less and the artwork is terrific.

Not surprisingly, as it reads much like a move story-board, it’s being made into a feature film with Sam Raimi producing. It should make a great flick.

Filed under: Life and Such

Comments

1. James said:

You might want to try VAMPIRE$ by John Steakley

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451451538/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/103-9158243-0994261

a fun read, the Movie “John Carpenters Vampires” was based on it, though they mangled it to all hell.

His other book “Armor” is a personal favorite if your a scifi fan.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0886773687/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/103-9158243-0994261?v=glance&s=books

Posted on February 23, 2003 07:07 PM | #

2. Moon said:

I thought the story was excellent, especially as an Alaskan who has spent time on the Arctic Slope. It was apparently that the artist went to some effort to capture the landscape and what passes as architexture in rural Alaska. I had thought myself once that a person who was trying to escape vampires might seek out the far north in the summer, when the near-round-the-clock daylight would offer some protection. I hadn’t stood the idea on its head for the winter darkness, however.

My only nit-pick was the actual “thirty days of night” thing. The sun sets in Barrow about Nov. 20th each year and rises again around Jan. 24th or 25th–which gives something more like sixty-three days of night–which is nowhere as poetic as the current title. I can grant the writer license for the sake of the story. But anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy would know any thirty days of darkness would have to be centered on the winter solstice–Dec. 21 or 22nd. So, the thirty days should have probably started in December, which could have been done with no impact on the story line.

Given the quality of the story, the authenticity of the characterizations, etc, this is a small nit indeed, and would probably escape the notice of anyone who isn’t familiar with Alaskan patterns of daylight.

Posted on May 25, 2003 01:15 PM | #

3. Archarzel said:

pity the vampire that comes to Alaska in the summers.. ;) 23.5 hours of daylight peek, i myself live in Fairbanks Ak, born and mostly raised, i too would have appreciated a little bit more authenticity with the books timeline, but my only true guff with it was that using actual time would have more than doubled the length of the story :D

Posted on June 19, 2003 06:39 PM | #