Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll.

It's been a while since I've posted. I think Karen's epic posts have given be blog-phobia.

But in my last, totally non-epic post, I briefly mentioned Scott Westerfeld. And that made me realized that I had never blogged about The Last Days.

So, you guys remember Peeps right? The totally awesome parasitic vampire book. Well, The Last Days is the sequel to Peeps. Kind of.

You see, The Last Days is set in the same place as Peeps, NYC, and has some of the same characters, but other than that, they are very, very different.

The Last Days opens with Moz, a guitarist, watching as some random woman freaks out and starts throwing all her possessions out her apartment window. One of the things she give the heave-ho to is a vintage 1975 Fender Stratocaster, the holy grail of guitars. As the Strat hangs precariously off the fire escape, Moz plots ways to save it, and meets Pearl, who has the same idea. Pearl is an ambitious Juliard student who proposes starting a band with Moz and his best friend Zahler.

Although Moz is suspicious, he agrees, and pretty soon the two guys and Pearl are jamming. However, they need a drummer and a singer before they can be a real band. Pearl agrees to recruit Minerva, a Juliard pal who is recovering from a strange illness that's left her pale and hungry for blood. Hmmmm.... wonder what's wrong with her?

Zahler finds Alana Ray, a genius street drummer. Nobody knows that Alana can do more than just play buckets, but when the band gets together, Alana Ray sees strange and horrifying things in the band's music, especially when Minerva sings.

A sanitation strike leads to a huge number of rats in the city, and there are reports of black clad "angels" who find people like Minerva and take them away. As the band struggles to find a sound, develops crushes on each other and fights over who's in control, the city starts to fall apart around them.

What's really cool about this book is how it managed to work in details from Peeps, but really isn't a straight up sequel. I know some people might be frustrated by this, but The Last Days has it's own plot, one that stands apart from Peeps. I also liked important music is, not just to the band, but to saving the world. As somebody who needs an MP3 player instead of coffee to wake up in the morning, I can totally relate.
So even if vampire books aren't your thing, or even if you've never read Peeps, give the last days a try.

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