Sunset Strip: from the Tome of Bill Series

Direct links to your own blog are not acceptable. If you wrote something on your blog and you want to share it here, the way to do so is by copying and pasting the work and linking to your blog. Do not make readers follow the link to read the full content. Direct links to reviews you wrote are not acceptable trade publication reviews are ok, eg. Video reviews belong in the Review Tuesday thread. Much like my Supervillainy Saga books, they're a lot of nerd references with a semi-serious take on the supernatural. Indeed, those are a good reason not to buy them even though I otherwise enjoy the series.

It follows the adventures and history of side-character Sally as she goes from a girl with a repressive family background to a troubled Las Vegas stripper to a vampire.

Bill the Vampire, Scary Dead Things, The Mourning Woods, and Holier Than Thou

It's all set against the backdrop of rescuing the sister-in-law potentially of friendly antagonist Christy from meeting the same fate Sally did as a young woman. I really like Sally, much more so than Bill, because she's a more serious character. She's suffered and been transformed by her experiences as a vampire.

There's real pathos to her losing her humanity and trying to deal with the fact she's had some of her past morality returned to her. It's also cool to see her relationship with Colin and how much betrayal and hurt there is. Las Vegas is the perfect location for a vampire story with its mixture of glitter, lies, sex, and broken promises. I'm surprised more stories don't take place there with the undead. I also like how Sally's story starts off fairly banal. She's just yet another girl in the Big City mislead by promises she might do something successful albeit not quite as trite as if she'd been in Los Angeles.

The characters of Marlene and Marc are also excellent antagonists as their connection to Sally makes her story more personal. The book benefits from the fact Sally is significantly more mature than Bill both in attitude as well as storytelling context. While Bill mostly retains his humanity despite the fact he's still running a mass murdering coven mostly by ignoring what's going on , Sally is a fully embraced fiend who we see walk the highway to hell up to the point she finally does the unforgivable or so she thinks.

You even cheer her on when she confronts her sister who assumes, automatically, Sally is a prostitute. The relationships are also surprisingly complex. Sally loves Marc, the nice and sweet boy she dated in life but is attracted to Jeff the vampire to the point she's willing to cheat on her boyfriend unaware the consequences will be horrific. Marc's anger warps him and his present self ruins the cherished memory which Sally has. Colin believes Sally could be something great as a young woman but dismisses her once she becomes a stripper to survive in Las Vegas.

Marlene is myopic about her rulership of Las Vegas' vampires, content to just run her club to the exclusive of all else. In conclusion, this is a really good book and I think not only will fans of the Tome of Bill enjoy it but that people who have no experience with the series will enjoy it. There's a decided lack of the usual offensive content accurate to pre-millennial nerds or not and Sally has more of a story arc. This reads like an excellent vampire novel in general rather than just a funny vampire novel satire. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy.

Snark aside, it was nice to return to the stories. The Bill the Vampire series is pretty straight forward urban fantasy stuff, if thoroughly soaked in snark and off-beat humor. Sunset Strip continues the story line from the last books, only without Bill. There is a supernatural war brewing between the vampires and other elements of the supernatural community. So, of course, the trip to Vegas involves so much more than facing down the Vegas coven. It was also nice to learn more about Sally; however, of all the characters we knew about in Bill the Vampire, Sally was the one that we knew the most about.

It might have been nice to explore some of the other characters, Tom, for example? I suspect some of that is that known of the other characters could have had the titillation factor of being an ex-stripper. Half of her snark was self-directed, incredulous that she was doing things like not killing people simply for being inconvenient. Sally was learning re-learning how to care for others. It was not just all power and survival.

It was good to see the development of her over the course of the series. Three and a half stars rounded down to three.

THE TOME OF BILL SERIES – The Undead Are Fun Again

Fun books, good but not great, enjoyable but not mind-blowing. Dec 08, C. Phipps rated it it was amazing Shelves: Much like my Supervillainy Saga books, they're a lot of nerd references with a semi-serious take on the supernatural. Indeed, those are a good reason not to buy them even though I otherwise enjoy the series.

It follows the adventures and history of side-character Sally as she goes from a girl with a repressive family background to a troubled Las Vegas stripper to a vampire. It's all set against the backdrop of rescuing the sister-in-law potentially of friendly antagonist Christy from meeting the same fate Sally did as a young woman. I really like Sally, much more so than Bill, because she's a more serious character. She's suffered and been transformed by her experiences as a vampire. There's real pathos to her losing her humanity and trying to deal with the fact she's had some of her past morality returned to her.

It's also cool to see her relationship with Colin and how much betrayal and hurt there is. Las Vegas is the perfect location for a vampire story with its mixture of glitter, lies, sex, and broken promises. I'm surprised more stories don't take place there with the undead.

Sunset Strip

I also like how Sally's story starts off fairly banal. She's just yet another girl in the Big City mislead by promises she might do something successful albeit not quite as trite as if she'd been in Los Angeles. The characters of Marlene and Marc are also excellent antagonists as their connection to Sally makes her story more personal. The book benefits from the fact Sally is significantly more mature than Bill both in attitude as well as storytelling context. While Bill mostly retains his humanity despite the fact he's still running a mass murdering coven mostly by ignoring what's going on , Sally is a fully embraced fiend who we see walk the highway to hell up to the point she finally does the unforgivable or so she thinks.

You even cheer her on when she confronts her sister who assumes, automatically, Sally is a prostitute. In conclusion, this is a really good book and I think not only will fans of the Tome of Bill enjoy it but that people who have no experience with the series will enjoy it. Jul 19, Michael Loring rated it it was amazing Shelves: Throughout the series Sally has been the sidekick, the character to appear when needed.

We finally get to learn her real name, and discover the circumstances around her turning into a vampire and what she was like in her human life and how she became the snarky woman she is today. The tone of this book is much different from in the previous installments of The Tome of Bill series.

This book held more of the usual tone of a vampire horror novel, but laced with the usual humor Author Rick Gualtieri is so well-known for. In her own right, Sally is a badass! I am absolutely in love with this world, and am so eager to see how it will all tie together. The ending was a very teasing way to lead into the next book, and it definitely has me ready to jump right back into the world of Bill The Vampire! Nov 12, Solace Winter rated it really liked it. I was given an ARC copy of this novel, and honestly I would normally give it 5 stars, because the writing is that damn good.

The reason for the 4 stars is that this novel focuses entirely on Sally and therefore feels like a piece of the puzzle from somewhere in the middle where you can not quite completely place it… yet. Sally has a different tale to tell, and the reader is opened up to a lot of her past and exactly what made Sally who she is today. As the Bill tales had been growing darker of l I was given an ARC copy of this novel, and honestly I would normally give it 5 stars, because the writing is that damn good.

It does a superb job at continuing the storyline from the previous novel, Holier Than Thou. This novel is not just an excuse to give Sally her backstory, though it does it without remorse and the reader is glad of it. This novel is a transition. Spoilers ahead if you have not read Holier Than Thou. This shows how things are being run without Bill. This is a needed phase, if anything, to give the reader time to ponder what the damage was they had truly caused. The stories have grown increasingly darker and had a harder reach for the humor of the first novel, but with good reason.

However if humor is entirely what brought you, you might lose interest with the dark and bloody Oct 16, Travis Mohrman rated it really liked it. This is a spin-off kind of novel from the Tome of Bill Bill the Vampire series. I knew going in that this book would have a different sort of "feel" to it than the nerdy one-liners and boob jokes of the regular Bill books. Don't get me wrong, it still had a few boob jokes whew! Basically, this story is all about Sally.

It completely opens up her backstory and gives her some serious depth. It was interesting and a good read. My only criticism is that it This is a spin-off kind of novel from the Tome of Bill Bill the Vampire series. My only criticism is that it read like many other vampire books - smart girl gets into stripping, turns into vampire, becomes surprising badass.

I enjoyed it because i was already invested in the Sally character and this world Rick Gualtieri has built, but as a stand alone novel it might seem kind of unoriginal. I don't think it's supposed to be a stand alone, though. If you happen to read this one first, pick up the first Bill the Vampire book and you'll understand much more. Now, bring on Tome of Bill book 5!!! Jan 26, Gareth Otton rated it it was ok Shelves: I decided to take a break from The Tome of Bill series after reading Holier than Thou a year and a half ago.

There is a huge amount to like about this series. Bill is awesome, the world building is fascinating and it is genuinely funny as hell. However, the entire series was starting to feel like taking a puppy Bill and kicking it over and over.

by Rick Gualtieri

This isn't something I want to see once, let alone repeatedly for four novels in a row. I'm not someone who needs a happily ever after all the time, b I decided to take a break from The Tome of Bill series after reading Holier than Thou a year and a half ago. I'm not someone who needs a happily ever after all the time, but at least a ray of sunshine now and again would be nice.

So, a year and half later and I thought I'd revisit this series. After discovering that this was a book about Sally, I was going to skip it, but then I thought twice. Being as Sally is my most hated character ever, surely it would help my enjoyment of this series if I read a book that would deal with her back story and maybe help me grow to, if not like her, then at least tolerate her a little. So I read this and I still hate the bitch! One of the most overused tropes in the Urban Fantasy genre is the kick-ass female character who has a chip on her shoulder about gender issues and whose sole purpose seems to be to either emasculate the protagonist while inexplicably being a love interest, or in the case of books where she is the protagonist, be a Mary Sue who everyone is obsessed with.

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However, in most instances, there is always at least one redeemable quality. Maybe it's that she has a heart of gold deep down. Maybe she always tries to do the right thing. Maybe she recognises that she is a hateful creature and wants to change. Sally is this character with absolutely none of the redeemable qualities.

Swap out her gender or just take away her good looks and there is no way that she would be considered one of the good guys. Her actions time and again have either only been tangentially attached to the protagonist's interests because they suit her own personal interests, or they have been outright working against the protagonist.

This is the very definition of an antagonist, or in other words, the villain. Yet, in spite of this, all of the good guys seem to overlook it. It's like they just wave their hands at their antics, laugh at each other and say, "Oh, that Sally. What will she do next? Take this book as an example. When the conflict arises, she makes it damn well clear that she is only doing this because it aligns with an interest that she has to resolve from her past, not for any altruistic reasons.

Some might say that this is just a front, that she says those things to cover up the fact that she secretly wants to do good. But where is the evidence to support that? If anything, I feel that because of her actions, any time we are told that she is doing something for the right reasons, it is an instance of an unreliable narrator.

Sunset Strip: A Tale from the Tome of Bill (Unabridged) by Rick Gualtieri on iTunes

In a classic example of why show don't tell is so important, if you tell us that Sally cares about the wellfare of Bill but never give any examples where she acts in any way to support that statement, then it simply isn't believable. Anyway, I could rant on and on about her character, but let's get back to this novel. In this novel, we explore not only how she is coping in a post-BIll coven, but also a trip that forces her to face her past and relive how she came to be who she is.

I have to say that neither story is all that interesting. The first doesn't really have much meat to the story and is a bit too deus ex machina heavy to be satisfying, where as the second story just further expands on why we should hate Sally. It's written in a way as though to give her a tragic back story, but it really doesn't come off that way.

It tries to show how she is always being manipulated and how she hates it, but she is ceaselessly doing it to other people all the time, including this very story. Could this just be one of those poetic character traits where you become the thing you hate? Maybe, but usually what makes those traits work as a character flaw is that the character is either aware of them and actively wants to change, or is shown taking efforts not to be like that but can't help being that way anyway.

She just feels like a cancer who has a habit of destroying the lives of every person she comes into contact with which if you look at the history of this series, she is actually making quite a good job of. Basically, this novel is a 1-star read that gets an extra star because Rick Gualtieri is a good writer, Sally aside.

He constantly writes stories that keep me reading even when I'm angry, and I enjoy his writing style if not always the subject matter. So overall it's 2-stars and not a triumphant return to this series for me. Jan 02, Kat Lebo rated it really liked it. Sunset Strip Tome of Bill 4.

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And, as I had speculated before starting the book, Bill himself doesn't appear until the very end, and then only by way of a cryptic phone call. As per his usual style, Gualtieri includes scads of action scenes, enough gore to satisfy any vampire loving reading, a lot of introspection on the part of his main character, and danger galore for everyone. Great characterizations, right down to the least important character in the book. Good editing and proofing.

But I did enjoy learning what makes Sally tick and how her exposure to Bill and his friends is changing her. On to Book 5 "Goddamned Freaky Monsters. Another great book Just when you think you have figured out where or who some one was and how they fit in with the grander things in the series. Bam you catch a book from right field and you need to rethink your whole views all over again. This book will make you change your views of Sally if you don't like her, if you do it will reinforce your views about what you do like about her.