I've always been a fan of del Toro's work, so I wasn't surprised to find the opening premise of this vampire novel a wholly refreshing and fun take on the traditional myth: bio-toxic vampirism. 

From here, we get a great opening investigation, some political posturing over the degree of the threat to New York where a plane (no wooden ship for London!) has landed with its undead passenger. This is not the disco vampire of Fright Night or the glittery messes of Twilight and teen horror romances. This is the real thing: old and merciless.

But after these initial pages, what were clever takes on the tradition simply fell to rehashes of tradition: an old German (Jewish) vampire killer, coffin hunting, and the like. And to rehashes of all B-level horror stories: government conspiracies, secret cabals, the son endangered, the wife kidnapped to torment the hero, the inevitable journey into the dark to confront the Master . . . and absolutely no surprises or innovations along the way. Stoker's Count who visits London has more nuance (and varied character responses to him) than del Toro's ghoul (whose name has already escaped me). In other words, a solid premise turned very, very lazy. 

To say that it reads like it is filmed is too easy. It does. What again is initially some interested character wrestlings with challenges resolves to a long (long, long) series of action sequences as they track down the Critter. The TV series has only the advantage of the space to expand the storytelling (which it does well) and the ability to visualize everything as the author (also del Toro) intended: and since these are mostly action sequences anyway, nothing is really lost.

To argue that the book is the first of a trilogy is not to defend this volume, which many readers have argued is actually the best of the three in terms of its plausibility. I'll take their word for it. This was thankfully a quick read, asking very little of readers but escapist pleasure, but it was not so quick (400 pages) that I will finish the series.