Ararat

Perfect for the heart of winter, this high-altitude psychological horror at the top of the mountain has a bit more going on than most of its ilk. That's to say, I LOVED the ancient history poking its head up out of the landslide. :)

It's a pretty classic horror romp, too, moving well beyond the usual thriller aspects and diving, head-first, into some rather great and surprising twists that make me feel like I'm back in a comparative religion course, shaking hands with devils, and dealing with cancer all over again.

Fun, simple, and multidimensional. We get in the heads of almost everyone, and that's great because it is, at its core, a closed-room mystery, too! :)

There are certain books that are cinematic - meaning when you read them you feel like you're watching a movie in your head. Then there is this book which feels like it was conceived as being a movie or a screenplay then written down half-heartedly as a novel. I have probably never read a worse thriller in my life. The premise is extremely strong, and everything about the setup is a great hook, but the way the author handles it is disappointingly childish. Every other sentence is someone ignoring another character, or coming between two characters or shouting down others. The tension is very contrived and juvenile.
The ending is supposed to be a twist, but it only feels like something slapped on just for giggles. Very very disappointing.

Ararat starts on the mountain of the same name, the fabled resting place of Noah’s Ark. When an avalanche reveals a new cave, the race is on to be the first to explore the site. Getting there first is not the dangerous part though. What lurks inside is.

Adam Holzer and his fiancee Meryam Karga are adventurers, authors and documentary makers. When they win the race to the cave and the right to explore the ark, the mysteries begin. When they discover a sarcophagus with an ancient creature inside, one with horns, things get decidedly worse.

Christopher Golden does a wonderful job of creating a slow-building tension that invades you as you read. The kind that will have you jumping at sudden noises and seeing faces in shadows. One of the show more clever things Golden does is have a multinational and multi religious crew exploring the ark. Many are scholars in different disciplines and some are native guides. This mixture fuels the discord that would naturally occur in a discovery of this magnitude. The sense of unease is magnified in the face of a blizzard which traps the crew inside the ark with no hope of escape even if there wasn’t an evil presence trapped with them. When people begin to go missing, natural paranoia ratchets up, in some cases into blind panic.

Golden’s use of shifting first person narratives helps you get to know a large and interesting cast of characters. Along with Adam and Meryam, there is Ben Walker from the National Science Foundation accompanied by linguist Father Cornelius Hughes and U.N. observer Kim Seong as well as native mountain guides Feyiz and Hakan. These, as well as other characters, each have their own agendas and fears which fuel the conflicts. The sense of foreboding present at all times leads to a lot of self-examination especially as they are increasingly unsure of who or what they can trust.

Ararat is an entertaining thriller with steadily mounting tension and horror. It also manages to be thoughtful in its exploration of how different cultures and religions inform both our faith and our fears. Highly recommended read.

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book show less

After an earthquake in Turkey, a massive opening is revealed in the side of a mountain, and the ship discovered inside that opening is the setting for Ararat.

Adam and Meryam, an adventurous engaged couple, lead an expedition to explore what is thought by many to be Noah's Ark. Their team includes archaeologists, representatives of Turkey, mountain guides and a priest, among others. Once up the mountain and inside, they discover what seems to be some type of coffin. Is this really Noah's Ark? What's in the coffin? More importantly, will the team get out alive? You will have to read this to find out!

Ararat raced along barely letting me catch my breath. As the team's investigation into the ship and its contents progressed, the story show more became darker and the tension hummed. The main characters were all complicated which added a lot to the atmosphere, especially towards the end. Once I hit the second half of this book, it became impossible to put down and I finished it in one shot. By that time, I had developed real feelings for a few of these people and I just had to see what happened to them, and let me tell you, that ending? I can't remember reading a more satisfying finale than this in a long, long time. Bravo!

A tale of isolation, frigid temperatures, snow, and something unknown; I can't help but be reminded of one of my favorite horror movies of all time, (based on a novel by John Campbell), called The Thing. This novel is slightly more complicated, but the atmosphere and the tension are there in spades, and what horror fan doesn't love that?

Ararat is everything it promises in the synopsis and more. I cannot think of anything that could have been done better, because this book is already perfect. My highest recommendation, most especially to fans of The Thing, or The Terror by Dan Simmons. Ararat is a MUST READ!

Available on April 18th here:Ararat: A Novel

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!* show less

Do you remember a long time ago when the movie Alien was first released and the impact it had on you, as the horror unfolded, and how gradually Ripley and her crew were destroyed by a creeping evil. The tension and fear was created by the not knowing...not knowing who or what had entered the good ship Nostromo or where it would strike next...and when it did strike (which it surely would) there was nowhere to go...Ararat has had a similar impact on me, having absorbed the 300+ pages in two sittings resulting in a very restless night of sleep where I to encountered my own demon (I kid you not!)

Meryam Karga and Adam Holzer are two high risk documentary makers and with the support of the Turkish government, have agreed to investigate a show more strange large cave newly revealed following a recent avalanche at Mount Ararat in Turkey. So setting off with a diverse crew of adventurers and guides "who knew the secrets of the mountain better than the curves of their wives' flesh" they make swift progress and soon enter the exposed cave where a discovery is made....a strange inverted wooden ship. This ancient relic is believed by many to be the last hiding place for Noah and his motley bunch of travellers when God decided enough was enough and he destroyed the world by flood...."He'd only been in the ark for hours and already felt the tension of the place. It wasn't just the mountain or the creaking of the timber as the weather shifted." A bitumen covered casket is exposed containing a cadaver..."The fingers were inhumanly long, curved into hooks, by the millennia it had spent dead in the box. The skin stretched tight over its chest had a purplish-gray hue. It had withered and there were spots in which the flesh had caved in. Bone showed through in various places on its skull and one cheek had crumbled to dust. The eyes had sunken to dried berries in its head. The horns were pale, dusty white, like ivory elephant tusks...."

"The thing's got horns. It's not human"..In the story of Noah a demon or beast found residence in the hull of the ship and killed two of Noah's sons and a granddaughter. Is the same fate now destined to befall this expedition? If a demon has been released how will it manifest itself? So with bad weather closing trapping the explorers, and seemingly blocking any hope of escape the Karga/Holzer expedition has little choice but to withstand the unpleasantness that the beast will surely unleash....To say much more about the course of the action would spoil a rattling good story. There are shades of "The Exorcist" here and just like the adventurers the reader is frightened and alarmed as no one can tell what the demon will do next or how he plans to spread his evil once released. As the weather improves those "remaining" realize the only hope for survival is to escape the torture that is Mount Ararat and so a bid for freedom must be made. Will they survive? will they destroy the demon? The last part of this adventure is unsurpassed in its excitement and the final revelation is truly brilliant...possibly leaving the way open for a sequel? This story has greatly disturbed me and has truly made me understand and appreciate the value of the written word. I do not often have sleepless nights following my reading adventures but this book has been an inspiration and it is a joy to know that there are some damn good horror/supernatural thriller writers out there! Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for supplying me with this gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written. show less

Sometimes you just want to read a straight up, balls out, unpretentious, no bullshit 80s-style horror novel...and that's pretty much what Chris Golden delivers with ARARAT. Added bonus: If, like me, you grew up in the 70s and were fascinated by the TV series In Search of...or the 1977 film In Search of Noah's Ark, you're really going to love this book. Add a solid bit of The Keep, a scoop of both Alien and The Thing's paranoia, with a dash of Fallen thrown in for good measure and you've pretty much got the gist of ARARAT.

An earthquake/avalanche uncovers a hidden cavern on Mount Ararat, a site long considered to be the legendary resting place of Noah's Ark, which brings a group of disparate souls up the mountain to investigate. What show more they find seems to confirm the existence of the Ark, but judging by the ancient corpses and scratch marks on a door that cannot be opened, Noah brought more than just samples of animals and plants on his vessel. The discovery of a strange sarcophagus, containing the desiccated corpse of a nasty horned thing doused in bitumen brings up more questions than the discovery of the ark itself. Who, or what, was it, is the all-consuming question for the researchers. And, as they try to learn about it, that, of course, is when the researchers start disappearing...

While there's not a lot I'd consider fresh here, there's a great deal of pleasure to be had, as Mark Twain put it, in "a good story well told" and Golden is definitely a good storyteller. His lean, but purposeful, no-frills prose, drives the story and will keep you flipping pages at a manic pace. Don't get attached to any of the characters, as Golden doesn't play favourites and you never quite know if your fave will make it through. It's been a good stretch since I've read an old school horror/thriller like this one, but I'm glad I did, as it was a real joy for me from start to finish. show less

Review Copy

After an earthquake in the mountains of Turkey, a new cave is uncovered on Mt. Ararat.

"They spotted a cavern up on the southeast face that wasn't there before. Big one. Geologically, it shouldn't exist."

The news reaches documentary adventurers, and engaged couple, Meryam Karga and Adam Holzer who were eager to be the first to the site so they could potentially control the project. They are not alone on their quest and when the Turkish government finally gives their permission to start the climb, they are off on their journey.

Their nearest competitor was Armando Olivieri, the leader of a group of Arkologists—the people who believed the biblical version of the story of Noah's ark and had dedicated their lives to finding its show more resting place.

Other key players in Golden's intricately constructed story include Feyiz and Hakan, guides to the region of Mt. Ararat. Ben Walker supposedly working for the National Science Foundation, but actually for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). There's also Kim Soeng, a UN observer, and Father Cornelius Hughes, an expert on ancient civilizations and languages.

What is found in the ark causes those assembled at the site, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Atheists alike, to question their beliefs and leaves them shaken enough to become confrontational with one another.

The current of hostility running under the surface of almost every interaction in the cave could have been ascribed to any number of origins. Most of these people had been crammed together inside the ark for weeks, unable to get truly warm or comfortable enough for a deep restorative sleep. The Kurdish guides and workers shot one another suspicious glares, some kind of fracture withing their own group. The project foreman, Hakan, seemed to hate pretty much everyone on general principle. And that whole stew of animosity existed even before they brought religion into the mix.

Ararat is truly the stuff great motion pictures are made of. Action, adventure, a love story, and a killer that seemingly can't be stopped. And, a story that keeps the reader guessing all the way to the terrifying conclusion.

Available in hardcover, e-book, and audio CD formats, from St. Martin's press.

From the author's bio - Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Snowblind, Dead Ringers, Tin Men, and so many others. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. show less