The Conqueror Worms

This book is both exactly what I thought it wanted it to be, but also so much more than that.

What I wanted: a tense and fun creature feature involving gigantic worms that eat people. That box is checked for sure.

What I got instead: the giant worms are there, but so are well-developed characters I actually cared about, as well as slower-burn beginning for world building and suspense. The book also takes a turn in the second half that I was NOT expecting. No spoilers, but my jaw literally dropped open when I realized where it was going, and I immediately messaged several people I know who've read the book so I could gush about it. Like the book is instantly elevated from amazing to top 10 reads of the year.

I absolutely love the show more post-apocalyptic setup for this book. One day it started raining and then it never stopped. Such a simple yet chilling premise. The book starts some 40 days in after the rain began, and is written from the perspective of an elderly man named Teddy. Like any good creature feature we're given unnerving scenes of mysterious incidents to build up to the terrifying reveal of the mammoth worms. It's so creepy, and at the same time it does such a good job of populating the story with multi-faceted and engaging characters.

Like I said, the book takes some turns that shocked and surprised me. It also does a good job of pulling back the curtain some to show destruction on a global scale, while also shrouding the life-altering events in mystery to keep you guessing. It's not necessarily a "fast-paced" read, but it never stops moving and there are plenty of scenes involving intense action and suspense to keep the pages turning. This is my first book by Brian Keene, though I've always known him to be an author whom many consider a master in the field of horror. After reading this I can certainly see why, and I will definitely be seeking out more of his work! show less

Nobody Apocalypses like Brian Keene. Or as often. Whether by zombies (The Rising, City of the Dead, Dead Sea), a dark zone that appears on the edge of town (Darkness on the Edge of Town), a loud horn-like sound after which a large percentage of the population just isn’t there any more (Take the Long Way Home), giant crabs and miscellaneous other deep sea creepy creatures (Clickers 2-4), or any combination of the above, he does it better than anyone.

In the first Earthworm Gods book (there are 2) he does it with rain....rain and worms. At least to start. Lets just say if the land is bad, you don’t even want to hear about what is going on in the oceans.

And unlike the typical horror story where some scientist or shaman or bulked up guy show more with a shot gun kicks the monster’s butt and sends it home to whatever dark crevice or dimensional worm hole it came from, the cavalry is most likely a day late and a dollar short if they arrive at all. Keene takes these stories all the way to end.

The worms appear on the first page, folks, and the action just keeps steamrolling throughout the whole novel. Great characters if a bit (ok, a lot) stereotypical. You will care about them anyway. Naaaaasty creatures (the worms are just the beginning). Even nastier humans. Little hope of survival. Satanists on surf boards! I kid you not. Great fights, totally creepy scenes, huge doses of carnage and destruction, edge of your seat action.

A great big bag full of awesome. show less

I have nothing but the highest praise for Earthworm Gods. This story captured my imagination, as well as most of my waking hours the last two days, as I poured through this thing. Pardon the pun, but I was hooked. A little history from Brian Keene found in the Afterword of this story. If you're confused, like I was, about why there is a story called Earthworm Gods AND The Conquerer Worms. According to Keene, the story was originally published in hardcover in 2005 from Delirium Books as Earthworm Gods and quickly sold out. Dorchester was publishing Keene's paperbacks at the time and, for whatever reason, decided to change the name to The Conquerer Worms. So that's why there is all this confusion for when you're trying to buy this book. show more They are the one and the same folks and I think Keene has a voodoo doll that looks like the numb nuts at Dorchester that decided that this clusterf@#k of an idea was a good one and sticks pins in it daily. So now Deadite Press is making the Authors Preferred version of Earthworm Gods (with the correct name) and Keene endorses this whole-heartedly. And he should. This is just a wonderful story.

Keene mines H.G. Wells War of the Worlds, H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu, his grandfather and his best friend as main characters and his own nicotine addiction to form the backbone of this tale. Such personal experiences make for realistic characters and a feeling of familiarity that permeates through the story. The tale is laid out in three parts. The first introduces us to Teddy and his friend Carl, who are in their eighties. They live on a rural mountain in West Virginia where it has rained non-stop for over a month. The world is now underwater and the only places left are the very highest peaks of the earth. No lights, electricity, communications, radio, tv, cell phones, etc. Just rain, rain and more rain. Their world is starting to wash away and an ominous white fuzz is beginning to grow on living things, deer, trees, etc. Worms start piling up on Teddy's carport and the ground is beginning to rumble as a fishy, ammonia odor is evident in the air and around large "sink holes" that begin appearing. Then all hell beaks loose.

Part 2 takes us to the coast where another group of survivors are clinging to life in the top of a Baltimore skyscraper while the world is flooded around them. Attempting to survive, they try to keep away from a crazy group of "satanists" that are performing bizarre rituals on the top of a building off in the distance. Their rituals prove to be more than they appear and not only does Keene pull out his inner-Lovecraft, he also delves into his back catalog of The Rising and City of the Dead. Good stuff.

Part 3 is a marriage of the characters from parts 1 and 2 and thrusts the reader in a rain-soaked climax. Words can't express how much I enjoyed this book. For the last two days, every free moment of mine was consumed by Earthworm Gods. Keene gets my highest praises for this one. I can't wait to jump into Earthworm Gods II. My Kindle app is downloading it as we speak. show less

Rain. Dreary and dismal, invigorating and enlivening; it can be viewed as curse or blessing, as depressing or rejuvenating. Regardless, there is an interesting quandary that few people give much thought to: its ability to draw earthworms to the irresistible surface. There are plenty of theories why it happens, some more accepted than others, and it is something that Brian Keene has decided to spin into quite an interesting horror novel.

The Conqueror Worms is a post-apocalyptic tale set 40 days after it started raining...and never stopped. The ocean has overspilled its boundaries and much of the world is under water. The mountaintops - now islands - are of the few still-habitable places, but living on them comes with a price. The ground show more is soft, and the constant rain has driven earthworms to the surface. Big ones.

Of course, the idea of giant earthworms burrowing up through your kitchen floor, while creepy, is also rather silly sounding. I found it hard to be intimidating while picturing giant earthworms lacking eyes, claws, fangs, and even mouths! Especially after they were described as making 'farting' noises. But I stuck with it and eventually the author won me over, they can be pretty darn scary.

Also, there is actually a bit more depth to this novel than I first expected. I wouldn't want to spoil anything, but there is a lot more to it than simply 'giant worms eating people.' It's not a must-read, nor anything I would highly recommend, but I'd consider it 'above average' compared to other such genre fiction. If you are craving an intriguing and rather unique post-apocalyptic story, this one might be one to look for.

A side note: The Cover...wow. I read the version published by Dorchester Publishing, and I can't imagine what they were thinking. The cover depicts literal earthworms, shiny and rubbery-looking, bursting from the ground in the middle of a street with cars and people on the sidewalk who don't really seem all that interested in the giant things exploding from the ground behind them. I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but the cover can really hurt a novel if it is as terrible as this one. I kept picturing the worms in the book like the ones on the cover, and it made the whole thing all the more silly. I officially name it the worst book cover I've ever seen. Congratulations! show less

I love apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novels and this one sucked me right in. I mean, how can you not love a book about rampaging killer earthworms? The narrator of the story, Teddy, an eighty-something WWII vet, fears he is the lone survivor of a Biblical-like flood perched atop a mountain in West Virginnia. Other survivors start showing up at about the same time that they realize that the deluge of rain has woken ancient mythical creatures, and the true battle for survival begins.

This is the first Keene novel I've read but it won't be the last. The character of Teddy was so well-drawn, as were the other supporting characters, that I came to really care about what happened to them as the novel progressed and the suspense increased. The show more book kept to a nice pace, and the ending was left so that you could interpret it as a happy ending, or a horrifying one, depending on if you are a glass half full or glass half empty kind of person. Either way, it was a good read. show less

This is the perfect book to read during the winter when the weather is dreary and rainy. It gives an extra sense of potential or power to the events in the book.

The story starts off kind of simple: for some reason it starts raining everywhere at once and has been doing so for over forty days. Most of civilization as we know it has been destroyed under floods as the water level across the globe has risen. Then it gets a little crazier as giant worms, sirens and a giant squid/kraken creature appear along with people who worship them.

Up until the monsters started appearing, I was thinking of it as sort of a mother nature gets revenge or global warming beware type of novel. Once the monsters arrived, it become more of a Lovecraft story; one show more of the characters even pointed this out. As I've pointed out before, I'm not crazy about Lovecraft but all told I still really liked the book; it was almost two novellas combined into one as two different sets of characters tell their own story before combining together into a single adventure. I would like to see more of the world, especially from earlier in their reality. We join in somewhere around day thirty or so. It would be great to see things in the first seven days or so. Fortunately Keene has a collection coming out to cover exactly this. Due out in July 2008 from Delirium Books, EARTHWORM GODS: SELECTED SCENES FROM THE END OF THE EARTH is a collection of short stories based in the same world. It is also one more book that will be on my "to buy" list. show less

Mai avrei pensato che un piccolo libricino Urania potesse piacermi cosi tanto!!! un horror apocalittico veramente particolare, personaggi semplici ma interessanti suspence a mille e descrizioni credibili pur essendo un Fiction...
wooowww!!!