Imagine a creepy old castle in 1940s Transylvania, one that is being used to house Nazi soldiers.  Now image that something has been living (imprisoned) in that castle for centuries, something that is hungry to start feeding again, something that could be called a vampire but is unique enough to really be its own creature, though one that may have been responsible for the vampire myths surrounding the area.  Now imagine that

the only person the Nazi’s can turn to for help is a local folklore expert, a Jewish folklore expert.  Now imagine that this in only the beginning of an ageless battle between good and evil, one that may be settled within the castle walls, or one that may continue, the end result unknown.

Sound interesting?

F. Paul Wilson is most known for his Repairman Jack books, and rightly so since they tell the continuing story of one of fictions coolest main characters.  What most people don’t realize, however, is that the Repairman Jack books connect to the Adversary Cycle books, of which The Keep is the first story and that if one wants to fully understand and appreciate the story of Repairman Jack, one needs to read these books as well.  A few years ago doing this wasn’t such an easy task since most of the non-Repairman Jack books were out of print.  Now, however, Tor is putting the books back in print, the next of which, Reborn, will be out this fall -- I bought this one last year through an Internet dealer who was asking over thirty dollars for a very used paperback copy, which just goes to show how in-demand this series has become, and now am looking for the next two in the series because I really can’t wait for Tor and want to read them now.

Now, if you are someone who has read all the available Repairman Jack books and didn’t realize this other series existed, don’t fret, you can still go back and enjoy The Keep, you will just know more than most about the cosmic war that is going on, more even than the author himself knew back when he sat down to pen the novel in the early eighties.