Skinners Series: Must Read and Movie Worthy Part 1

The Skinners Series by Marcus Pelegrimas is about the battle to protect the human race from the things that go bump in the night, that being vampires, werewolves, and anything in between. This series puts a new twist on old myths and the action is nonstop.

Why its a must read: 

Skinners Book 1 is called Blood Blade and it introduces Cole, the main character, being violently introduced to the world of Skinners, a group of humans that are fighting a war to keep the monsters at bay. After tragic events expose Cole to such a world he meets vetran Skinner Paige and decides to join her in the fight against the things that pray on humans. Cole gets right into the middle of the action along with Paige when an old vampire makes an appearance with a disfigured werewolf enforcing his will. The vampire wants to kill all the skinners and convince the other vampires to drain people when they feed and become more powerful. At the same time the shape-shifters are becoming restless and are encroaching on the cities that they once stayed away from. The book ends with Paige and Cole being warned that the werewolves are going to make a move for the cities and over run them.

Characters:

Cole Warnecki- Cole use to be a game designer in Seattle before he decided to make a trip to Canada for vacation. In Canada Cole meets Gerald Keeler and Brad Books before their cabin is attacked by a monster and Gerald and Brad are killed trying to kill it. Gerald instructs Cole to go to Chicago and meet Paige who must know what happened there. He also must deliver a knife that is with Gerald’s equipment. Cole honoring the dying man’s last wishes escapes from the woods and heads to Chicago

Paige Strobel- Skinner that took over Gerald’s territory when he went to Canada. She has been a Skinner for many years and her origins are unknown.

Walter Nash- AKA “Prophet”. A tracker that assists the Skinners but refuses to actually become a Skinner. He claims to have visions of the future that leads him to areas that supernatural occurrences are happening or are going to happen.

Misonyk- vampire that is attempting to convince the other vampires to join him in gaining more power and no longer hiding what they are. He enforces his will with the help of a shape shifter. He is able to do mind control better than most vampires and he is even using it against other vampires.

Henry- vampire/werewolf hybrid that was created by Misonyk and is manipulated by him.

Ace and Stephanie: Ace and Stephanie are two vampires that control a large section of the vampire business of having humans pay to be fed on.

Monsters:

Full Bloods: werewolves that are born that way. are able to shift from human to werewolf at will. they are able to change their form to adjust to the situation. They are long living if not immortal and extremely hard to kill. regular weapons do not work and require charmed or supernatural weapons. very intelligent and independent.

Half-Breeds: werewolves that were changed by being attacked by other half breeds or a full blood. They cannot change back to human form. In fact the change is so damaging and gruesome that they are in a permanent state of pain that they are constantly crazed and wild. they hunt in packs.

Nymar- vampires. Nymar is the name of the parasitic spore that attaches to the host’s heart and consumes the blood. requires the host to replenish blood to survive. they have distinguishable black marks under their skin that is the spore. Hard to kill. They are able to spit venom that if gotten in eyes the vampire is able to control its victim otherwise it will knock you out instantly if gotten into blood stream. They do not need to drain humans to survive and for the most part only take what they need from their victims.

Mongrels- shapeshifters that are not werewolves. they come in multiple forms. big cats, snakes, bears, etc. They are hard to track due to their ability to change back and forth between animal and human. for the most part they stay out of the cities. They do not like werewolves.

Nymph- female woodland creatures that are very attractive female humans. they have the ability to seduce and to create the feel of touch without actually touching you. They operate out of strip joints and use their abilities to make a living.

Weapons:

Blood Blade- a knife that is one of the few ways to kill a Full Blood. It is created by gypsies and the Skinners do not know how they work. They are enchanted blades giving them the ability to absorb shape shifter blood and only gets stronger the more it absorbs. Very few blood blades are available for skinner use and Full Bloods collect them so that they cannot be used against them.

Skinner Weapons- made out of wood and covered in various varnishes giving them a couple abilities. The skinner weapons are customized to each skinner. There are thorns on the handle of the weapons to pierce skinners hands to create a connection which allows skinners to control the shape of their weapon to some extent due to a resin made out of shape shifter blood. One of the varnishes makes the wood very light and extremely durable.

 

Why is this book movie worthy:

This book has to set up a lot of foundation for the rest of the series (there are six) but still manages to have a ton of action in it. It also contains quite a bit of comedy and a little bit of romance but not enough to take away from the true feeling of the book. The feeling of the book is the craziness of being introduced to this war that is teetering on the edge of being lost or won and your enemy is things that you thought were only in movies and books. I believe that if this book was made into a movie and there were no corners cut and it had a pretty decent budget, it would be one of the epic movies. The action will keep people on the edge of their seats, the drama will make them feel the characters pain and the comedy will make them laugh and give them a break from the dire situation that the book is.

I am a huge vampire and werewolf fan and I hate seeing what has happened to it in recent years. I can easily say that Blade and the first Underworld are the last of the great movies of the genre. Twilight has ruined these two great creatures of the night. This book series and the movies that I hope one day are made, would surely put these creatures back into the nightmares where they belong instead of romantic dreams and on posters on teenage girls walls.

This book would not be hard to make into a movie because the books are just the right length and that means that there is not a lot of information that faces the axe to be cut out. The battle scenes are often enough to keep the movie flowing forward. The scenes between the action that are important are short enough and quick enough that they can be included in the movie without taking away from the movie or loosing the audiences interest. The movie would have to take time to build up and to introduce the characters and monsters but the introductions are brief and spread out enough between the intense action to keep the audience paying attention and not lulled.

Important Scenes that are a must:

-attack in Canada (introduction of Gerald and Brad and Blood Blade and attack on cabin)

-meeting Paige and being introduced to the bad guys (Paige enforcing the rules on two vampires only to be interrupted by the appearance of Henry and Misonyk

-battle at the Diner (massacre and fight between Cole and Misonyk and Paige and Henry)

-meeting with Prophet and brief confrontation with bad guys (introduces nymphs and Prophet)

-flashback showing the origins of bad guys (this is very brief but important)

-events by the pit (making skinner weapon with a very small bit of romance on the side)

-events down in the pit (killing half breeds and seeing one change from human to monster)

-scene in car (very brief, following Henry to small town, Paige creating vest made out of werewolf fur and regular bullet proofing to protect herself from a lot of damage)

-final show down (massacre in small town, paige shows down with group of vampires and Henry while Cole fights Misonyk and protects Prophet who covers Paige.)

-Full Bloods Warning (brief but important for sequel)

-epilogue (Paige and Cole in bar with news footage showing “large dogs” in Chicago)

I only hope that my hopes are realized one day and these books are made into movies. I will be doing an article on each book as to why it deserves to be a movie. They will be shorter than this one due to this one had a lot of basics that I had to go over. But I promise that these books are a must read and hopefully one day the movies will be on the list of epic movies!

Stay Tuned!

 

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