Video summary

My March Horror Reading Update, including the main attraction: Necroscope by Brian Lumley.

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March Reading Update Overview

Cliff (with his dog James in the background) posts a March reading update. He breaks down what he’s read so far this month (3 books), then teases what he’ll start for “the week of weird.”

Book 1: Zombie by Marcus Slade (Marco Slade)

Cliff’s main takeaway: the series delivers intricate, highly detailed crime plots—lots of procedure and investigation—so he especially enjoys the “criminal psychology” angle.

Key plot strands he highlights

  • A maniac escapee from Germany who’s a cop killer begins targeting the Royal Mounted Police in Canada, triggering an immediate manhunt.
  • Detective Nick Craven is put on trial for the murder of his mother, creating a race against time to clear him before his reputation is ruined.
  • An overarching threat: a psycho/insider targeting elite members of the Royal Mounted Police, with roots reaching back a century—involving colonial violence and an eerie sense of an ancient curse.

Cliff calls the novel magnificent, though he mentions one section feels a bit long-winded. He rates it around 3.5/5—still very much worth reading.

Book 2: Slugs by Sean Hudson

Cliff is pleasantly surprised by this cheesy, 80s-style creature-feature. He expects gore, but finds that—beyond the gross-out fun—it’s surprisingly suspenseful and entertaining.

Highlights / jokes / reactions

  • The setting is basically sewers + ridiculous slug deaths, with horror escalating quickly.
  • An early set piece: a drunk guy passes out at home and—yep—something is waiting in the basement, leading to slug-crawling, disgusting, mutated slug behavior.
  • As they keep eating, the slugs mutate toward more intelligent, flesh-hungry forms.

Plot anchor

A health inspector named Brady teams up with a sewer expert to stop the outbreak before it wipes out a small town near London.

Cliff frames it as B-movie popcorn horror: not “perfect writing,” but fast, readable, and fun.

Book 3 (Main Attraction): Necroscope by Brian Lumley

This is the centerpiece of the video. Cliff is amazed it wasn’t on his radar when he was younger. He calls it highly original for a vampire story: vampires are present, but they aren’t the main focus early—there’s far more going on.

Big elements he emphasizes

  • ESP and special agents working outside normal structures.
  • A necromancer who extracts secrets from the dead (Cliff describes the method as extremely gross).
  • A necroscope who communicates with the dead because the dead want to be heard, making the “good side” feel different from the forced, villain approach.

Key characters / groups

  • A cold-war setup: a super-secret Russian agency using agents with special abilities.
  • The antagonist: Dragon (Cliff mentions a name variation like Dragonesi / Dragon …—his pronunciation varies). Dragon is ambitious and visits a centuries-old entombed vampire in Romania.
  • The protagonist: Harry (spelled oddly; Cliff struggles with pronunciation). He’s a necroscope trained in a gentler way. Cliff first encounters him while Harry is still at school, described as weird, blanking out in class, and daydreamy.

Structure / arc Cliff notes

  • The first ~two-thirds are backstory, showing how both Harry and Dragon learn and master their abilities.
  • There’s a clear collision course between good and evil.
  • Cliff says the ending surprises him in unexpected ways, and he’s excited to continue the series.

Cliff rates Necroscope extremely highly—5-star level—and says he can’t believe he waited this long to read it.

“Week of Weird” Start: Perdido Street Station

Cliff begins a massive book (about 800+ pages). Even early on, he says it’s already delivering:

  • A blend of science fiction + fantasy.
  • A notably strange, imaginative opening.
  • An unusual (and somewhat sexy/odd) early dynamic between a human and a female insect-like being—suggesting the book will get very weird.

He ends by promising an update at the end of the week.

Standout Jokes / Reactions

  • Frequent comedic framing around horror set pieces (especially in Slugs), including the “you can guess what’s in the basement” type of early reveal.
  • Cliff’s “main attraction” enthusiasm for Necroscope, with repeated emphasis on how gross, unique, and addictive it feels.
  • The recurring comparison of the vibe to secret agents in classic Cold War villain mode—evoking Bond-era Russian antagonists.

Personalities Appearing

  • Cliff (narrator/host)
  • James (Cliff’s dog, briefly mentioned)

Original video