Sudden Death Overtime, by Steve Vernon

Well unfortunately this is going to be a shorter review because Sudden Death Overtime is a novella rather than a full-length book so there's just not as much material to review. Sudden Death Overtime is an e-book by Steve Vernon which I initially picked up because Vernon said it was the story of an aging Canadian hockey team who takes on a gang of vampires. I figured, "Why not? I don't hate the Cincinnati Cyclones and I like people fighting vampires. Certainly could be interesting." And it is...interesting. Just not quite in the way I expected.

Sudden Death Overtime, at least as I found it, is more a book about getting old and accepting death rather than being about fighting vampires. Much of the story's focus was on the characters like Fergus, Leo, and Sprague and their thoughts about leaving the world behind. Which comes to the one problem I have with the story, the vampires seem to lack motivation. They come to a remote Canadian town and start picking off people, specifically old people, but we never find out why. I'd say maybe it's a metaphor for death but I got the distinct impression the vampires were very real in this book. If anyone else reads this story let me know what you think.

If you've got an hour to spare and are interested in seeing some old geezers fight some vampires, Sudden Death Overtime is definitely worth a look. Be warned though that there's plenty of graphic imagery so this book isn't for the easily offended.

-Kalpar.