Carrion Comfort (1989)

by Dan Simmons

Series: Carrion Comfort (intégrale)

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2,122	51	7,541	(3.85)	81
"CARRION COMFORT is one of the three greatest horror novels of the 20th century. Simple as that." --Stephen King"Epic in scale and scope but intimately disturbing, CARRION COMFORT spans the ages to rewrite history and tug at the very fabric of reality. A nightmarish chronicle of predator and prey that will shatter your world view forever. A true classic." --Guillermo del Toro"CARRION COMFORT is one of the scariest books ever written. Whenever I get the question asked Who's your favorite author? my answer is always Dan Simmons." --James Rollins"One of the few major reinventions of the vampire concept, on a par with Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot. --David MorrellTHE PAST... Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi's themselves...THE PRESENT... Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to 'use' humans: read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable aggression. Each year, three of the most powerful of this hidden order meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and deliberate destruction. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul's quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the depths of mankind's attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself...… (more)

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English (48) Spanish (1) Italian (1) French (1) All languages (51)

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Showing 1-5 of 48 (next | show all)

There's already a blood bath by page 50 and a main character is killed off half way with the whole thing becoming more and more preposterous. (

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kitsune_reader | Nov 23, 2023 |

Of the Dan Simmons that I have read I must say that this is my favorite. (

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everettroberts | Oct 20, 2023 |

Good but quite an odd duck.

The general plot and various climaxes are the stuff of thrillers, but the rythm and length of the book aren't really those of a thriller. It's a pretty massive book and you spend 90% of that time in protagonists' and antagonists' heads building up to those and experiencing them in minute detail, sometime from multiple perspectives.
The choice of characters is pretty archetypal (a bit unfortunately ?).
Most of the antagonists are also pretty fun choices for an author who later did such a political U-turn, there's a televangelist, an old maid who lives 200% in the past and can't even /see/ the individuality of people of color she interacts with because in her head they're all still slaves and servant material, all pretty thoroughly roasted. (

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Jarandel | Sep 24, 2023 |

I was going to say that I didn't like it. But I did finish it, and I didn't think the time on it was wasted. Most of the time anyway.

Kindlegohome | Oct 22, 2022 |

Decent mainstream supernatural thriller that has one major flaw, it is way too long. There is about a 400 page novel here dragged out by Simmons to 800 page epic length. The pacing at times is plodding for a thriller. One example, the final chess game is so corny and drags on so long and does nothing to advance the story except eliminate bothersome characters. I kept expecting Austin Powers to jump out.

The idea of "mind vampires" isn't particularly novel, but Simmons may have done it first. I don't know. However, [a:China Miéville|33918|China Miéville|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1243988363p2/33918.jpg] did it better in [b:Perdido Street Station|12366974|Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)|China Miéville|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1313246856s/12366974.jpg|3221410] and even [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] made his mind vampires much more three dimensional in [b:Doctor Sleep|16130549|Doctor Sleep (The Shining #2)|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362415596s/16130549.jpg|17851499]. Except for Tony Harod, Carrion's vampires are two dimensional characters. (

)

Gumbywan | Jun 24, 2022 |

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Belongs to Series

Carrion Comfort (intégrale)

Belongs to Publisher Series

Gallimard, Folio SF (500)

L'Échiquier du mal (intégrale)

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Canonical title

Carrion Comfort

Original title

Carrion Comfort

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Washington, D.C., USA

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Los Angeles, California, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

"Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, despair, not feast on thee;

Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man

In me or, most weary, cry I can no more..."

—Gerard Manley Hopkins

Dedication

This is for Ed Bryant

First words

Saul Laski lay among the soon-to-die in a camp of death and thought about life.

Quotations

All humans feed on violence, on the small exercises of power over another, but few have tasted—as we have— the ultimate power.

Harod couldn't tell if he was seeing biceps or triceps; they all seem to flow together, like gerbils humping under a tight tarp.

Justice is required… It is demanded by the millions of voices from unmarked graves, from rusting ovens, from empty houses in a thousand cities. But not revenge. Revenge is not worthy. (Simon Wiesenthal)

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Carrion Comfort was published in France as L'Échiquier du mal in multiple editions. There was a single volume (combined with the main Carrion Comfort work), a two volume set and a four volume set. The boxed sets are combined into the main Carrion Comfort work, but the individual volumes should not be combined together.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Morrell, David

Koontz, Dean

Stephen King (Carrion Comfort is one of the three greatest horror novels of the twentieth century. Simple as that.)

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

813.54

Canonical LCC

PS3569.I4725

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Carrion Comfort

▾Book descriptions

"CARRION COMFORT is one of the three greatest horror novels of the 20th century. Simple as that." --Stephen King"Epic in scale and scope but intimately disturbing, CARRION COMFORT spans the ages to rewrite history and tug at the very fabric of reality. A nightmarish chronicle of predator and prey that will shatter your world view forever. A true classic." --Guillermo del Toro"CARRION COMFORT is one of the scariest books ever written. Whenever I get the question asked Who's your favorite author? my answer is always Dan Simmons." --James Rollins"One of the few major reinventions of the vampire concept, on a par with Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot. --David MorrellTHE PAST... Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi's themselves...THE PRESENT... Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to 'use' humans: read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable aggression. Each year, three of the most powerful of this hidden order meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and deliberate destruction. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul's quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the depths of mankind's attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself...

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Book description

THE PAST... Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi’s themselves…

THE PRESENT... Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to 'use' humans: read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable aggression. Each year, three of the most powerful of this hidden order meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and deliberate destruction. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul’s quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the depths of mankind’s attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself…

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