The Strain (2009)

3.5 stars

The Strain is a new series by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. This book had a really great concept and it was quite original. The summary itself spooked me...

A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.

...and it certainly didn't stop there. This is not your average romanced vampire novel. This was a very exciting, fast paced, nail biter, edge of your seat kinda book. Not a recommendation before bedtime.

Low Point
My one main issue that dropped this novel from 4/5 stars down to 3 was the writing style... it read to me more like a screenplay where nothing was really explained, like it would be better left to an actor acting out a script. I had a hard time connecting with the characters for this reason.

This was overall a highly enjoyable novel regardless of my 3 star rating and I will definitely be continuing this series in the future.

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Review based upon book received from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review. I've read this book 3 times.

A plane arrives at JFK airport in New York City – after landing, before it reaches the terminal, it stops in the middle of the runway and completely shuts down. Dark and dead. The air traffic controller is unable to raise anyone on the plane – there is no answer by anyone’s cell phones. All the window shades are down. A baggage handler drives out to see what is wrong – there is no response, but suddenly one of the window shades goes up. Freaked out, she leaves. People converge on the plane, trying to get in, but the emergency entrance door over the wing is stuck. While they huddle under the plane, suddenly the door opens. But no one comes out. When someone finally looks in, they find a plane full of corpses. The CDC is called in – doctors Ephraim Goodweather and Nora Martinez suit up in complete HAZMAT gear and go aboard – to find that not everyone is dead. There are four survivors. While unloading the dead, Ephraim – Eph – notices that there are no flies. The dead are not decomposing like normal. Then, a day later, all the dead … disappear. What happened on that plane? Where are the dead people? And who is this strange old man who claims to know what is going on?

Hogan and del Toro re-imagine the vampire mythos in The Strain Trilogy. These are not the beautiful, brooding creatures of modern myth - and they certainly don’t sparkle. In fact, this are quite disgusting creatures, truth be told. The authors also tell a gripping story – moving at the speed of light while still managing good character and plot development. As of the posting of this particular review (you can read my very first review from 2009 on the Amazon site), I have read this book three times and it just keeps getting better – even though I typically am a fan of vampires, I can still appreciate a good story, even if they are the villains of the piece. Folks who enjoy a good horror story should definitely pick this up, especially now that the whole trilogy is available. The second book is “The Fall” and the third book, just recently released, is “The Night Eternal.” ( )

Rating: 4 of 5

Status updates -

2/7/2012, page 185: For sure a real page-turner. The "vampires" make me think of Blade II; I wonder if there will be other similarities to del Toro's films?

2/13/2012, page 401: Enjoyed the Ancient Ones aka Masters. The virus wasn't original. A lot of characters to track at first. Want to know more about slayers. ( )

I liked it, and even admire the author's attempts at revamping (pun not intended) the genre. However, I'm not as admiring of the weird vampire Master and the unique physiognomy invented in this story because it's ugly and even for the genre pretty damned grotesque. I will read the series.

3.5 stars, with a slight nudge toward 4.

I have had this book on my To-Read list for a while, but never got around to reading it until now. I'm glad that I read it because it was pretty good, and parts were very creepy. I didn't find it scary and had no problem sleeping or anything reading it, but there were parts that had a higher than average creep factor, and it was nice.

I liked that this book had a realistic baseline, and felt like it could truly happen. Don't get me wrong, I like the traditional vampire lore that is based on a curse or some evil or something, a changing of the soul that's manifested in the body, if you will... but this was different and I really liked the concept, as well as the science behind it.

There were things that I felt could have been stronger, and more fleshed out, mainly the characters. There were a few references that didn't really bear out in behavior, and some behaviors that didn't quite match the information that we had, like Setrakian's stamina, or Ephraim being a recovering alcoholic of less than a year and not craving a drink... but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I mostly didn't have any trouble liking or caring about these characters, so the little inconsistencies didn't become issues for me. Also, I feel like there were one or two unresolved issues in the story (or maybe they were resolved, but not exactly clearly?), but they didn't detract too much from the story, and could still be addressed in later books.

I also liked the writing for the most part. It had a sort of "For Everyday Use" feel, but then some parts were written in such a way as to just feel like they were more. Again though, there were sections that, for lack of a better term, tried too hard and felt a little forced or out of place. For instance, this line: "Like smoke rising up a chimney, we must force him to the roof." This, in the middle of a vampire vs human battle... I just feel like the first part of the line makes it awkward and takes me out of the story. I think of myself as if I were in the story: I'm fighting my ass off to stay alive here, I see my target, I communicate my intention in the shortest possible command to save my breath, to not waste time, to not give anything a chance to kill me while I'm waxing poetic. "Force him to the roof!" or at the most, "We must force him to the roof!". Who has time for similes in life or death situations? Sure the hell not me.

Anyway, I'm curious where this story is going to go... there was an interesting development at the end that has me intrigued...

Horror October 2011: #5 ( )