The Guardian

One of my favorite horror films is The Sentinel and the book though flawed was also an enjoyable read for me. The Guardian, the sequel falls short of the first book in a number of ways.

A well written horror novel jumps into the plot either by setting the creepy tone or with some actual horrific event. The Guardian instead has a lengthy prologue spanning about fifteen years with characters whose relationship to the remainder of the novel doesn't become obvious until the book is almost over. This sort of exposition works best cinematically and perhaps coming off the production of The Sentinel Konvitz had that in mind. Unfortunately his opening scenes are confusing. In my notes I have a complaint about the many "false starts" to the show more novel.

Horror series and their box office franchise cousins often rely on reworking a set of motifs and plot devices to link all the books or films together into a larger oeuvre. Fans of a series especially will expect certain key elements in any novel or film claiming to be part of the series. The Guardian goes beyond the peppering of familiar elements and tries instead to retell the entire story but with the genders reversed. Apparently the sentinel switches from nun to priest everything there's a hand-off.

Next there's the Vatican. Dan Brown isn't the first by any means to drag the Vatican into the plot. I suppose if there's a gate that's keeping Hell shut they'd be interested but frankly the lengthy scenes of the brave priests felt tacked on. Their scenes are clearly there to raise the feeling of terror but they just didn't work for me.

The ultimate sour note for me though is the truth behind Faye and Ben Burdett's identities. The Sentinel of course has the two randy lesbians who try to corrupt the innocent (and frigid! Alison) so that she can't become the next guardian of the gate. So homophobia isn't anything new to the series but here it is taken too far. A husband and wife and their adopted son become the target of Chazen and his legions from Hell just because the wife is transgendered.

So the moral of the story is: if there is a scary priest or nun who is blind, deaf and paralyzed living on the top floor of the apartment building you plan to rent and you are either a) the opposite sex of said priest or nun or b) gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered, then run for the hills and find a better apartment somewhere else! Also avoid apartment buildings owned the the local diocese as these might be poorly disguised hell mouths. show less

I've always had a penchant for horror based on Catholicism, so when I picked up "The Apocalypse" at a BookCrossing meeting, I decided to get hold of a copy of "The Sentinel" as well and read them both. I did think I'd only read one of these books before, but I must have read both of them, since I remembered the weird neighbours from the first book, but all mixed up with the plot of the sequel.

Strangely enough, my previous read also featured a nun called Therese, although in that case it was her birth name rather than her religious name.

Sister Therese (formerly known as Allison Parker) is dying, and her successor must be manoeuvred into taking her place. But which of the inhabitants of the apartment block built on the site of the old show more brownstone has been chosen as the new sentinel, and which of them is actually a disguised Charles Chazen? show less

The very gates of Hell are about to open on the twentieth floor of an apartment building on the West Side. Evil is flourishing and soon no innocent will be safe. Through a window without curtains, an ancient blind nun sits perpetually gazing...keeping watch against the evil.

A body is found, burned beyond recognition. Then there are two more murders...strangely connected. And the discoverer of one of the bodies, a beautiful young woman, is brutally raped. Her innocent young child is exposed to horror. Her furious husband sets out on a relentless path of revenge.

In the final hour of evil, paralyzing terror is unleashed. One step beyond the very boundaries of belief is a cool, calculating, laughing priest intent on saving more lives from show more destruction. And so it begins...powerful, satanic, terrifying...a time you will never forget. The battle has already begun.

I must say that I wasn't all that sure what grade to give this book after I finished reading it. The story was certainly very scary, but I found that the horror was almost overwhelming. In my opinion, the frightening elements began to overshadow the actual story so much that this book confused me. This book is actually the second in a trilogy, so my feelings might be somewhat influenced by not having read the first book - The Sentinel - but I had to give this book a B+! show less

Pocas veces el helado aliento del terror y el temblor de la angustia han llegado a sus últimos extremos como en las estremecedoras páginas de esta novela. Si ya en su novela anterior, El Centinela, que conmovió a millones de lectores, Konvitz hacía alarde de su increíble capacidad para adentrarse en los secretos laberintos del terror y de lo sobrenatural, en esta supera sus propios límites y llega a unas fronteras en las que la distancia entre la muerte y la vida, lo soñado y lo real, el bien y el mal, se confunden y se mezclan, haciéndonos asistir, como a través de un espejo, al nacimiento de 'otra realidad'
Una monja ciega que parece observar y vigilar, un cadáver quemado e irreconocible, varios asesinatos a cual más show more misterioso, un sacerdote que trata de salvar las vidas humanas frente a la destrucción y el mal. Estos y muchos otros son los protagonistas que, a través de las páginas de este libro, luchan y se combaten, símbolos y representaciones de los poderes del infierno y de la gracia. show less