Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Loved it. Read it in two days and am seriously miffed that I have to wait a year for the next book in the series.
It was not as poetic as I thought it would be, but it was creative and fast paced and well written.
It was not as poetic as I thought it would be, but it was creative and fast paced and well written.
Very intense. The scenes really put you in an every day feeling of fright, and yet it all seems possible which probably makes it all the more frightening. Definitely one of those books you read with the lights on.
I like my vampire stories monstrous and vicious, with vampirism as Old World disease or New World science gone wrong, rather than romantic metaphor for pick-your-favorite intolerance. Hence my affinity for Stoker's original Dracula, its best film adaptation, Nosferatu, 30 Days of Night and Justin Cronin's The Passage. The Strain is basically Dracula retold in modern day America, with a more open ending (that's not a spoiler, friends - it's a trilogy after all) and a broader mythology. It's perfectly suited for the cable TV milieu to which it's been adapted, with a clean ka-tet of main mortals and a host of colorful supporting players. The audio version is read by Ron Perlman, whose voice and aesthetic proximity to Lovecraftian horror via Guillermo del Toro are perfectly suited for the job.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Stock man-hero of a main character, a somewhat confused take on vampirism, but an overall fun thriller.
This is basically a modern reworking of Dracula, with a healthy rip off of I Am Legend thrown in. Satarkian is Van Helsing, Eph is Harker, Kelly is Lucy. But it's pretty good fun none the less.
Although the first two thirds of the book I enjoyed a hell of a lot more than the last third. The last third turns into a bit of a rushed action movie finish, and screams FIRST IN A TRILOGY! Whilst also screaming WRITTEN TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO A SCREENPLAY PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE PLEEEEAASE MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE AND MAKE US RICH!
And the whole concept for the vampires is ripped straight out of Blade 2.
And the female characters are barely sketched in and mostly useless.
And to be honest at times the writing isn't great.
And it was unbelievably predictable, not a single surprise in the whole thing.
So. Not hugely original. And in the course of writing this review I've gone from 4 stars to 3 stars. But I still enjoyed it.
But it doesn't live up to the promise and tension of the first third.
Although the first two thirds of the book I enjoyed a hell of a lot more than the last third. The last third turns into a bit of a rushed action movie finish, and screams FIRST IN A TRILOGY! Whilst also screaming WRITTEN TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO A SCREENPLAY PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE PLEEEEAASE MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE AND MAKE US RICH!
And the whole concept for the vampires is ripped straight out of Blade 2.
And the female characters are barely sketched in and mostly useless.
And to be honest at times the writing isn't great.
And it was unbelievably predictable, not a single surprise in the whole thing.
So. Not hugely original. And in the course of writing this review I've gone from 4 stars to 3 stars. But I still enjoyed it.
But it doesn't live up to the promise and tension of the first third.
Dear Mr. Del Toro,
Please stop writing and just stick to movies. They are very good movies. Pretty please with a cherry on top, just make good movies. I know people what have said about this book; there's like six pages of quotes before the story starts. But please stop.
Or at least don't:
1. Write in fragments. Yes, okay, maybe you want to say they are intentional fragments, but there is way too many of them.
2. Don't use every single over used horror movie cliche in the first 100 pages. Granted they are riveting in terms of the whole plane plot, but honestly the whole family set-up,been there, done that. The whole relationship messy thing, that too.
3. Don't write like a movie. There are differences between books and movies. This seems like it might make a good tv series, but a good book? Nah.
Thank you.
(Enclosed is a copy of a letter from New York Times Book Review, Time, and Newsweek and sundry others.
Dear Magzine editor pooh-bah,
When asking someone to review a horror or fantasy book (or even movie), please make sure they are familiar with the genre in more than a passing way. You wouldn't look like idiots.
Thank you.
P.S. - BTW, the only time I have ever seen Morris Men in fantasy books is in [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg];s work. Can you please stop mentioning them every time you mention the word fantasy?
Please stop writing and just stick to movies. They are very good movies. Pretty please with a cherry on top, just make good movies. I know people what have said about this book; there's like six pages of quotes before the story starts. But please stop.
Or at least don't:
1. Write in fragments. Yes, okay, maybe you want to say they are intentional fragments, but there is way too many of them.
2. Don't use every single over used horror movie cliche in the first 100 pages. Granted they are riveting in terms of the whole plane plot, but honestly the whole family set-up,been there, done that. The whole relationship messy thing, that too.
3. Don't write like a movie. There are differences between books and movies. This seems like it might make a good tv series, but a good book? Nah.
Thank you.
(Enclosed is a copy of a letter from New York Times Book Review, Time, and Newsweek and sundry others.
Dear Magzine editor pooh-bah,
When asking someone to review a horror or fantasy book (or even movie), please make sure they are familiar with the genre in more than a passing way. You wouldn't look like idiots.
Thank you.
P.S. - BTW, the only time I have ever seen Morris Men in fantasy books is in [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg];s work. Can you please stop mentioning them every time you mention the word fantasy?
Overall, I found this book to be rather disappointing. Behold, a listing of my grievances:
Recommended? Only for extremely hardcore fans of vampire/zombie/end of the world fiction.
- It suffered from an excess of characters, many of them completely unnecessary to the telling of the story.
- The characters that were central to the story were very poorly developed.
- The story seemed to take forever to get moving and, once it did, it moved entirely too quickly.
- Despite this being the first book in a trilogy, I have little to no desire to read the other two books.
Recommended? Only for extremely hardcore fans of vampire/zombie/end of the world fiction.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Almost 3/4 into it and I just don't care how it ends or what happens along the way. I haven't particularly cared for a good 100 pages or more, probably, ever since the the fictional reality of the vampire pathogen was laid out. Which is a pity as the beginning was so gripping. Continuing to read is not terribly hard, the book is somewhat entertaining though I'm getting no pleasure from reading it. Based on other reviews, I think I'm wasting my time on this one and will likely be leaving it finished