The concept of a whole town subjected to evil promises so much, yet this Straub effort delivers so little. A chemical weapon leak creates confusion in a small coastal town at the same time a recurrent malevolent presence turns up to subvert the town to it's own despicable end. Ultimately, it is not the plot of the novel nor the plethora of characters that make this such a tough read; it is the time shifting as Straub tries to paint the real-time events that actually stop you becoming engaged. Also much of the content is redundant, this book is just too voluminous. In summary, Floating Dragon offers nothing new to the horror genre, it's unoriginal and at times is poorly executed. ( )

The quaint town of Hamptead is plunged into a nightmarish world of unspeakable horror when evil arrives in the form of two very different beings--one man-made and one supernatural.

I love Peter Straub. He is an intelligent and literary man that has single-handedly helped raise the standards of horror writing. He may be writing about boogeymen, serial killers or things from beyond the grave, but he isn’t going to dumb it down.

Floating Dragon is an ambitious novel in the vein of ‘Salem’s Lot and Straub’s own masterpiece Ghost Story. A Peyton Place like town is slowly taken over by a supernatural force or perhaps supernatural forces?

It all starts with the murder of ‘Stony’ Susan Baxter in the bedroom community of Hampstead, Connecticut. After that we follow several plot threads: an accident at a chemical plant working on a project for the Department of Defense releases a (possibly sentient) cloud of nerve gas, a child actor and his wife who have moved back to his home town and Graham Williams, a retired writer who is looking into Hampstead’s past.

This is horror on a grand scale with a cast of well written characters that are more than just fodder for a monster. Straub bounces between these characters right from the beginning. It is very disorienting at first, but helps give the novel real depth.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t some sensitive character study. If anything, in this book Peter Straub pours on the horror. There is some eye-popping stuff in here. Not usually extreme or graphic, just way out there and all over the place.

In fact, one fault with the novel is that it’s maybe a little TOO ambitious. There are more ideas packed in this one book than any three books you would normally read. Peter Straub kicked out all the stops and at times you’ll feel giddy there’s so much going on.

This was my first Peter Straub book and it impressed me enough to go out and buy everything else of his I could find. However, if you were considering trying Peter Straub for the first time, I guess I would suggest Ghost Story, Mr. X or Koko to get your feet wet. ( )

Read many years ago, and I only remember the barest of details. I remember enjoying everything I read by this author, though. ( )