I previously reviewed Night plague on its own because I couldn't find this Omnibus version. Not sure why it wasn't pulling up before. I had no idea going in that Night plague was a part of a series....can't understand why a part of a series would be added to an omnibus....that said, it read fine as a stand alone. I never realized, while reading, that there was more to the story. I never felt I was missing anything. Its a unique plot, in a genre that can become redundant at times. I will probably try to find the others in this series to read.

The Hymn.....this was my favorite of the two stories. Well written, well paced, interesting characters...including a few pretty eccentric personalities...great unique plot, all the reasons Masterton is one of my faves. Well done, once again. ( )

I don't believe I have read any Graham Masterton before this. The writing style in the two books is different enough that they could almost have been written by different authors. The Hymn is mystery thriller involving Nazis, Cults and an attempt to create a super race. It is scary, engrossing and interesting to read. Night Plague, on the other hand, is almost like a super hero comic in novel form - the kind of story I can easily imagine being made into a cartoon. The two novels are clearly aimed at different audiences, but they are both worth the read. ( )

So this is an omnibus edition, which contains:

The Hymn (aka The Burning)- a rather fantastical story about a regular guy, an old inhuman Nazi and his neurotic helper chick, a cult-like group, and a little Indian boy, in a whole crazy mess of racism (Nazi, after all) and supernatural chaos. It was crazy and not remotely realistic, but, it was original and held my attention and entertained me, so, it wasn't as bad as all that.

and

Night Plague- a little better with combining the fantasy into a more realistic environment; however I found out afterwards that it's actually book 3 in a series, so I'm not really sure why someone had the idea to bundle it with another unrelated book, and not note anywhere that it's part of a series. Personally I hate to read things out of order, so that bothered me. Fortunately it was at least written in a way that if you hadn't read the others, you don't really realize you've missed anything, and anything that needed explanation was there in the text. Anyhow it's about the "Night Warriors" and their attempt to stop a witch from doing bad stuff.
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Boy oh boy, where do we begin? Well. I think that Masterton is a creative man with lots of interesting ideas in his head. But, to be blunt, I do not think that he is a good writer. His similes are ...strange, to say the least (at one point he compares the color of a body to "decaying mackerel," I mean really! Who has an image of decaying fish readily in mind to draw up as comparison?? Or elsewhere, "black as Bibles"; because all bibles are apparently black? And a book's cover is a good item to use for depicting color??), and do nothing for the imagination. His imagery is often lacking, the speech patterns of his characters seem to shift with his moods, and in trying to portray aspects of the scene to the reader, the characters often think things that no normal person would ever think about. He also often throws out racial & prejudicial slurs - even when the characters are supposedly not prejudiced.

Now, as I said initially, I do think that his stories have some interesting plots. Each novel is over 300 pages and I did finish them, because I was curious where they were headed and how they would wrap up. I also think endings are one of the most difficult things for authors to do well, and I believe that he succeeded in accomplishing that task.

But. I just feel like his writing needs a lot more polish, and that he has plenty of prejudices that he gives air to in his writing, which really needs to stop. There will be no further Masterton works on my shelves, that is for sure. ( )