FACT: Gabrielle S. Faust is a regular contributor to Fear Zone.

OPINION: After reading her first novel, Eternal Vigilance, I believe Faust is major new talent in the literary horror field.

FACT: Norman Rubenstein already raved about this book on Fear Zone, and I interviewed Faust about her new work.

Enough is enough, right?

OPINION: Wrong! My job here is partly to turn you on to works you might otherwise miss. And as editor, I'm completely free to review anything that another contributor has already covered.

FACTS: I hate most horror novels that are written in the first person because this device usually diminishes suspense for me; I hate when authors use more passive verbs and adjectives in a single paragraph than Stephen King recommends using in an entire novel; I have no use for morose, fey, philosophizing vampires or gothic chic.

OPINION: So you might think I'd hate Eternal Vigilance, because this book has those elements in spades.

FACT: But I loved it! I devoured the entire novel during two connecting flights traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast to attend BookExpo America in L.A. I was intrigued by the pseudo comic book illustration cover, but had real doubts about the novel's post apocalyptic vampires. Then I noticed that Norm devoted more space to this freshman effort than he has to any other novel since Fear Zone debuted, and then I read another rave. So I decided to bite the silver bullet and read this sucker cover to cover. If I hated it, or simply didn't like it, I just wouldn't say anything.

And during the first 50 pages I was worried: Faust is a poet and it shows. I remember when I met Jim Muro, the director of STREET TRASH, when we started at New York City's School of Visual Arts together. He looked at my Rush concert T-shirt and said, "Rush, man--they're poets." Then he waited a beat and said, "I hate poets!" I wouldn't go that far, but I will confess I don't even understand 90% of the poems I read. Okay, make that 95%. And there was a little too much exposition in this first section of this novel for my taste; I'd prefer to have seen some of the events summarized actually depicted.

Then something magical happened: right around that 50 page mark, when Faust's morose, fey, philosophizing vampire--Tynan Llewelyn--started to learn about the political/supernatural forces fighting for global domination 100 years in the future, I found myself completely entranced by the story. I'm not going to sit here and say it's perfect; this is one of those books in which most of the characters have silly sci-fi names--no letter Q's, but plenty of T's--with no explanation, and there's not a whole lot of action (but what action there is really makes an impression).

But Faust can really write and this book kicks Major League Ass. Her stylized prose is completely addictive and I was enthralled by her characters. In many ways, this novel reminded me of The Fellowship of the Ring, especially if that book had ended with Frodo accepting his mission at Rivendell. I think I've seen Faust's three book series in the making described as a trilogy, but Eternal Vigilance is so open ended that it feels more like the first third of a single, epic novel.

When I'd finished it, I did something I've never done before: I went back to Page One (Okay, Page 13)and started all over. If you don't read this book at least once, you're depriving yourself of a unique pleasure. I'm going to have to stop giving this woman assignments so she can write the continuation!