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So, The Fall continues the story begun in The Strain (which I reviewed here) and begins almost immediately where the last novel left off.
Our main cast (and I really should stop treating this as if it was a movie script, but I just can’t seem to) and as a reminder they are:
- flawed scientist hero
- lady scientist love interest
- scientist’s son
- old man with secret knowledge
- exterminator chappie
have not yet recovered from the shock at the end of book one which I won’t go into here, and are re-grouping to decide how they are going to deal with the big bad guy that they failed to stop and whose nefarious plan is coming to fruition. The Big Bad Plan is more extensive than anyone thought, and it becomes really, really, seriously important to discover how the vampires originally came into being, and so the search for this story’s McGuffin – an ancient text called the Occido Lumen – becomes the focus for a large portion of the book.
And that’s probably enough plot, because let’s face it, the main thing this novel has going for it is its plot, so not fair to give more away.
I’m not going to say that the writing is bad as such, but it is pretty workmanlike and totally in the service of driving the story forward. There are huge chunks of exposition throughout which were on occasions a bit distracting, as were the flashbacks (some of which at least served to give some context) and various diversions, including one to the International Space Station which, unless I missed something, didn’t really serve any purpose apart from a bit of gosh-wow-this-is-really-serious-stuff.
Having said all that I did stay up late to read the last third of the story and I will be buying the final volume just to see how on earth (if at all) they all get out of this one. But if you are planning to read this (1) don’t start here and (2) expect a certain amount of middle book of trilogy syndrome. Would still love to see it as a mini-series.
This was on my master list for RIP VI but not read as part of that challenge.
There are twenty stories in Lovecraft Unbound, which I’ve chosen as my read for RIP VI’s Peril of the Short Story, and I’m doing them in batches of five. Here are my thoughts on the first tranche:
- The Crevasse – a classic Lovecraft creepy, claustrophobic tale of unnamed things in the Antarctic – really liked this one;
- The Office of Doom – what do you think might be the consequences if you got a copy of the Necronomicon through an ILL? – a gross oversimplification of a great story
- Sincerely Petrified – can a made-up legend take on a life of its own? – interesting premise let down by really very unsympathetic characters
- The Din of Celestial Birds – don’t go into the hovel, no seriously, don’t – doh, too late – couldn’t really get into this one at all
- The Tenderness of Jackals – dark urban fantasy, but didn’t feel that Lovecraftian to me….
So a mixed bunch as you might expect, will be interesting to see what the next five are like!
I may have said this more than once before but it is a statement that bears repeating: I really, really love Stephen King. Ever since I picked up a paper back of Carrie when I was (I think) 14 I have been hooked, and although there may be big gaps between reading his stuff I almost always buy his new thing as soon as it comes out. His work is so deceptively easy to read that I find it really comforting and turn to it in times of illness and stress, which may seem weird given the subject matter but I’m not going to try to explain the unexplainable.
And this year has been a bit of a King year; when I had a really horrible not-quite-flu-but-might-as-well-have-been cold, I consoled myself with Full Dark, No Stars and Just After Sunset, and last weekend when I needed a real break from all the stuff that was going on around me I picked up Duma Key and promptly fell in love. Spent Sunday afternoon finishing it when I really should have been doing other stuff but felt no regrets; this may possibly be one of my favourites.
And its odd really that I became so attached to the protagonist, Edgar Freemantle, because he’s lots of things I’m not: male (obviously), successful in business, a parent, but still I came to be very fond of him as he struggled with his recovery from the terrible accident that kick starts this novel. He loses an arm, his wife, his old life and possibly his sanity (for a bit at least). But he gains a new home in what sounds like a beautiful part of the world, makes some new friends who will become very dear to him and rediscovers a talent for painting.
Though of course that’s where the trouble starts.
His art is a means for something to fight its way through, something of great power that has been dormant for a while. And it becomes clear that Edgar and his new friends may have been called to the island, either because of a long-standing connection (the wonderful old lady Elizabeth Eastlake) or events that have made them vulnerable and sensitive (Wireman and Edgar himself).
And there are shocks aplenty as the awfulness is identified and confronted, and the people around Edgar pay a heavy price as always happens before there is a resolution and Edgar finds peace of sorts.
It was a lovely creepy book with remarkable characters, a believable father-daughter relationship and a cracking good story. Very, very enjoyable.
And my first read for the RIP VI challenge. A successful start.
So the book slump looks like it’s officially over (fingers crossed) and on Monday last I met up with Silvery Dude after work and we headed off to Forbidden Planet on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue to have a wee look at what was on the shelves. In my case this was all about spending money in a bookshop for the first time in absolutely which is why I bought more than the Dudester who was looking for something for his holiday in France at the end of the month.
I had a list; didn’t find anything that was actually on that list but didn’t do too badly either:
- Horns by Joe Hill: “now Ig is possessed of horns, and a terrible new power – he can hear people’s deepest darkest secrets – to go with his terrible new look” – ooh, murder, revenge, nastiness (signed copy too)
- Deathless by Catherynne M Valente: Cory Doctorow says this is “romantic and blood-streaked, and infused with magic so real you can feel it on your fingertips”
- Rule 34 by Charles Stross: “so how do some bizarre domestic fatalities, dodgy downloads and an international spamming network fit together?”
And afterwards, just because I wanted to, I bought this online:
- The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan: “we survivors are bloodied, we are broken, we are defeated”
Not a bad haul at all, I think. Read any of them??
I seem to have an awful lot of reading going on at the moment; some of these books have been sitting on my table for months (if not longer) and I will at some point have to decide whether I am going to persevere or give up, but not just yet, I think:
- The Mitford Girls by Mary S Lovell – “‘I am normal, my wife is normal, but my daughters are each more foolish than the other‘ bewailed Lord Redesdale, father of the Mitford girls. Part of my Mitford obsession as mentioned briefly here.
- The Sicilian Vespers by Steven Runciman – “On 30 March 1282, as the bells of Palermo were ringing for Vespers, the Sicilian townsfolk, crying ‘Death to the French’, slaughtered the garrison and administration of their Angevin King.”
- Bone Song by John Meaney – “Tristopolis. Death’s City. Countless dead lie in the miles of catacombs beneath its streets.” Zombies and stuff in noir crime story.
- The Women of Muriel Spark and Muriel Spark – reading these as background to the great abandoned but about to be resurrected Reading Muriel Project
- Growing by Leonard Woolf – an autobiography of the years 1904 to 1911, set aside for some reason I can’t quite fathom
- The Nightmare Factory by Thomas Ligotti – to be dipped into, prose is very, very lush.
- Jigs and Reels by Joanne Harris – forgot all about this one, must finish it as I’ve enjoyed the stories I’ve read so far
- Small Avalanches by Joyce Carol Oates – another dipper
- O, Beloved Kids by Rudyard Kipling – Kipling’s letters to his children, which was intended to kick-start a Kipling fest after I visited his house in the summer; still something I want to do…..
And sad to say I’m still reading some of the books on this list, namely:
- Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk – as recommended by the Book God after an excellent lecture on engaging with China which we attended at the British Museum
- The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks – vaguely unsettling what to do if they were real guide-book
- The Virago Book of the Joy of Shopping, edited by Jill Foulston – which called out to me by name when shopping in Blackwell’s on the Charing Cross Road for a present for Silvery Dude
Bride of the Book God 