Review: The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

If you're tired of the current glut of wimpy, sparkly-shiny vampires, this book is the perfect antidote. Del Toro's vampires are brutal, disgusting, ravenous monsters. No romance here, folks.

Ephraim Goodweather heads up the Canary Project, a "rapid-response team of field epidemiologists organized to detect and identify incipient biological threats." These could be biological weapons, man-made outbreaks or naturally occurring viruses that become a danger to the population. When a plane lands at JFK under mysterious circumstances, his team is called in to assess the danger.

Eph is a devoted dad, fighting for custody of his son, Zack - not an easy prospect, with a job like his. He tries to protect Zack and his ex-wife, Kelly - even her new boyfriend, Matt, But they won't listen. No one is going to listen until it's too late.

The mysterious landing of Flight 753 (Berlin to New York) is one of the creepiest things I've read in a long time. The landing is perfect...then it just stops. Sits there on the runway - no power, no lights, no engines, and every single window shade pulled down tight. The atmosphere described by the authors is so ominous that you've got goosebumps well before Eph and his team show up.

Of course, there was a vampire on that flight. An ancient evil, to steal an over-used phrase. These vampires don't just spread their disease by biting; they have other ways to get under your skin. But there is one man in Manhattan who is very familiar with this particular evil, an old pawnshop owner named Abraham Setrakian. He will join forces with Eph, Zack, Eph's partner, Nora, and an exterminator named Vasily Fet. Vasily has spent his whole life killing vermin - he may have a useful trick up his sleeve.

I loved this book! I love a good scare and this one delivers. The vamps are creepy, there is plenty of atmosphere and the story just sucks you in. I would expect no less from Guillermo del Toro (I'm a big fan of his movies); I'm not familiar with Chuck Hogan's work, but I will definitely be checking him out.

The Strain is the first book in a trilogy. It is scheduled for release June 2, 2009; you can pre-order your copy at Amazon.com.

The Terror, by Dan Simmons

I hate the cold. I really, really, really hate to be cold. Still, I have always loved tales of exploration and adventure, and I have several books about the exploration of the Arctic Circle in my library. The Terror combines a bit of history and a bit of mystery with excellent descriptions of the frozen north and a little Eskimo mythology.

The book's main character, Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, is an actual historical figure, as is Sir John Franklin. The ships, the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus, and the expedition to find the Northwest Passage were real - their adventure began in 1845 and much of the journey described in the book has been documented by other explorers. In The Terror, Dan Simmons tells his version of the end of that frozen journey.

As the novel begins, the voyage is well underway but taking a turn for the worse. The ships are iced in and the even the previous summer there was no respite, no break in the ice and no chance to either move forward or retreat to friendlier waters. They are low on food, coal and other supplies. To make matters worse, the ships are being stalked by something that lives on the ice. Crozier is convinced they are dealing with just an animal, probably one of the white northern bears they've read about. But this is more than just a bear. It is sneaky and clever and cruel. Two seamen are snatched off the deck and carried out into the night, only to be returned a day later...or partially returned. Whatever this thing is, it is a formidable enemy.

This book requires a rather strong stomach - while not overly gory, Simmons does not spare the details when it comes to the daily life of men aboard ship. Frostbite, scurvy, bad food, death, dismemberment, even cannibalism; it's not an easy living and these men are more desperate than most people can imagine.

I found the first two-thirds of the book captivating. The descriptions of the difficulties of this life and expedition are extremely well done. Crozier is a fascinating character - at one point, he has made clear plans to commit suicide, yet he has a powerful determination to survive the expedition and bring his men home safely. He is faced with every possible difficulty and every bit of bad luck you can imagine, but you really believe he is going to find a way out. The fact that this was a real expedition with a mysterious end adds a layer tragic despair to the tale that kept me glued to its pages.

In the last section of the book, Simmons turns to Inuit mythology to explain the fate of these explorers and their commander. I did not find this resolution as compelling as the physical realities of cold and hunger and mutiny. Still, the myths are interesting and through Lady Silence, the mute Inuit girl who has been living among the seamen, Captain Crozier finds an unusual route to redemption. The ending was...not disappointing, exactly, but not as satisfying as I had hoped. It is always good to see characters get their just desserts, but I would have preferred it if the men had had some understanding of what they were fighting. A mythical beast they could neither name nor really understand was just not up to the bar set in the beginning of this tale. I thought these men deserved better.

Duma Key, by Stephen King

This is the best thing I've read from Stephen King in years. Nothing he's written since The Green Mile kept me as consistently interested and engaged. (Cell was close, but possibly because I liked the idea of all those folks walking along, jabbering on their phones, being slaughtered in one fell swoop; I'm mean that way.) The early King books just grabbed you and held on until they'd wrung the life out of you, and this book had the same holding power. Duma Key kept me on edge for 18 cds, it kept me sitting in my office parking lot, counting the minutes until I had to go into the office; it kept me sitting in my driveway, listening, watching the cat sit in the window and wonder why I wouldn't come in to feed her. That is no small accomplishment.

Edgar Freemantle has a terrible accident (described in vivid detail). He loses his right arm, suffers a traumatic brain injury and his life is turned upside down. He suffers from bouts of rage and memory loss, his marriage falls apart and on the advice of his therapist, he moves across the country from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast of Florida. He takes up drawing - an old college hobby - and slowly begins to heal. He makes friends: Jack, the college student who runs errands and helps him around the house. Jerome Wireman, a marvelous character who cares for the island's only other resident, Elizabeth Eastlake - wealthy, eccentric, ancient and in failing health. She's also a key to the mystery that unfolds.

Edgar's sketches and paintings have power - both wonderful and terrible. It takes Edgar and Wireman some time to begin to understand that power and the other forces at work on the island. Isn't that always the way with a King story? There are other forces at work, things we don't fully understand, pushing us along in their path. And that's all I plan to say about the story. It is so much more fun to discover it on your own. One of the things that King does especially well, one of the things I love about his books, is the half-knowing that you have; you go forward, knowing what's coming next, dreading it, hoping that there's something else. I mean, when you read Pet Semetary, from the moment he tells the story of the Indian burial ground, didn't you just KNOW what was going to happen? You didn't know who and you didn't know when, but you knew what. In this story you know the paintings have power, you know Edgar is going to use that power - even if he doesn't completely understand it - and you know there will be terrible consequences. But you can't stop reading it.

The characters in this book are fabulous. Wireman in particular is wonderful; you want to sit on the sand and have a glass of green tea, listen to him patter on in pidgen Spanish about nothing and everything. Dr. Kamen - the descriptions are so clear that you can picture his bulk and dark skin and hear his resonant voice. The child's voice that narrates part of the story is clear and distinctive and compelling. And the storytelling? No one tells a ghost story quite like Stephen King, and this book is a return to all the things I loved about his early work. This is a book I'll definitely be recommending to friends.

You can order your copy of Duma Key on Amazon.com.

The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter

I love Angela Carter’s writing. The stories in this collection are full of atmosphere – dark and moody, sensual, sometimes playful. Here, she takes an assortment of fairy tales and reworks them with a ‘sexier’ and more ‘feminist’ slant.

If you know your fairy tales, that might be very effective. Personally, I thought her retelling of Puss-in-Boots was adorable, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember enough about the original to know what she had changed. Sadly, that was the case for a lot of these stories – I don’t recall ever reading a fable about The Erl-King or Wolf-Alice, and I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out whether I knew the stories from somewhere or not.

“The Tiger’s Bride” was probably my favorite story – the atmosphere is incredibly vivid, the young woman determined to keep her dignity and The Beast a character full of charm and mystery. I also loved “The Company of Wolves” – earlier, I was enchanted by the movie that was based on this story. And I was familiar enough with the story of Bluebeard and his unfortunate wives to cheer the great improvement in that story’s ending.

I was a little puzzled by how some of these changes could be characterized as “feminist.” It’s pretty clear in “Puss-in-Boots” when the lady in the tower conspires with the gentleman and his cat to free herself of an unpleasant husband and take control of her own affairs. But in ‘The Bloody Chamber’, the young wife marries for money and, after being discovered n the forbidden chamber, goes quietly to her doom. And “The Snow Child”? I found that positively creepy…and not in a good way.

Certainly not fairy tales you’ll be reading to your children, but all in all an excellent bedtime read…as long as you aren’t prone to nightmares.

20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

In the introduction to this book, Christopher Golden says of the author: Joe Hill is one stealthy bastard. Indeed he is. This is a nice assortment of stories - some obviously horror, some strange and disturbing, some rather sweet. The title piece read more like a love story than a ghost story. "Best New Horror" makes me think a bit about what it would be like to drop by and visit Ed Gein and family. "Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead" is bizarre and funny, while "My Father's Mask" is just bizarre. All in all, a good collection and it ends on a very high note, with one of my favorite stories in the book, "Voluntary Commitment."

In "Voluntary Commitment", Nolan is a fairly typical teenager, maybe a bit of a screw-up, with some shady friends and a very odd younger brother. Morris is a strange little boy in a world of his own, building Dixie cup towers and marvelous cardboard forts in the family's basement. The story has that feeling of dread about it - you know something bad is going to happen, you're pretty sure you know how it's going to happen, you're just waiting for the axe to fall. I worried about Morris; he seemed awfully vulnerable, you always are when no one really understands you. And the ending is what you were afraid it was going to be, what you knew it was going to be, all along.

My favorite story of the bunch was "Pop Art", a story about a kid whose best friend in high school was an inflatable boy. Yes, inflatable - it's one of those weird genetic things that skips a generation. The way everyone just seems to accept this, the practical difficulties of being inflated, the way Art is terrorized by the local bullies (easy when every thumb tack is a potential lethal weapon) ...maybe I just have a soft spot for vulnerable boys. It also contains perhaps my favorite line in the whole book: "I'm sorry, but realistically, what are the odds you're going to get beat up by the grand champion of the spelling bee?"

"You Will Hear The Locust Sing" is a great metaphor for boys growing up - all of a sudden you're a whole new creature and none of your parts will do what you tell them to and even if you want to go back, you can't. "The Black Phone" and "Abraham's Boys" are first-rate scary stuff. I enjoyed each and every one.

There is one detail that is very carefully not mentioned - not in the author biography, not in the acknowledgments, not anywhere - so I won't spoil this bit of mystery by mentioning it here. After all, if you can look at the picture on the back of the book and not see the resemblence...well, there's no help for you.

And one more thing - you've surely had friends tell you recently that when you go to the theater to see Iron Man or one of a handful of other current movies, be sure you stay to the end - all the way to the end. You don't want to miss the last, hidden treat at the very end of the film, after the credits. The same admonition applies here. Don't miss it.