The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage by Justin Cronin
895 pages (including a glimpse at The Twelve)
Ballantine Books

This is a massive novel (book 1 of 3) about vampires and a special little girl. I had heard people complain that this book was like reading two completely different books. And it can be seen like that unless you realise there is a jump of 100 years and the author is spending a long time building the new world -- showing us what life has become.

I feel the first part is the best of the book. The characters are well developed and interesting. I especially like the way Cronin uses italics in-place of standard speech / quote marks. The first part introduces us to a young woman, Jeanette, working in a diner. She meets a flashy guy who is  out-of-state and spins her a line and gets her into bed. Then he disappears and the woman becomes pregnant. She gives birth to Amy. A few years later, the man returns. He is different and seems to have lost everything. He talks Jeanette into taking him in. They live together for a short time before he starts talking with his hands. Jeanette is a strong woman who gets rid of him and after awhile with no money she needs to get moving to a new place and find a job.

This is where the book really takes off.

Basically this is a story of a girl infected with a virus that ages her very slowly (like a vampire) and gives her a special connection to the coming hordes of blood suckers.

In the second part of the book, we meet the group of people who will journey with Amy (now aged into a teenager) across the country to a place where the virus was created. Along the way, they will suffer loss, embrace love, learn to drive and battle not just Virals (vamps) but other groups of humans formed into communities.

This is a good book with a lot of unneeded filler (in my opinion) but it is also a book that needs your attention and constant reading. I'm not a fast reader but I got through this book in 3 weeks and I enjoyed it. I want to read The Twelve but I will wait for a mass market paperback as it is the prefect size for commuting on busy trains and buses.

3 out of 5 stars

The 10 o'clock People by Stephen King

The 10 o'clock People by Stephen King
Audio Book

This was my first audio book. I had read the short story in one of King's collections (I forget which one). This audio book was sold as a stand alone awhile back when I was considering audio books but not really using them. You know, you buy something for later use but never actually get around to using it and it just sits on the Hard Drive. We've all been there. But with jogging becoming a major role in my life, I decided to download the MP3 file onto my walkman and have a listen while pounding the cold, dark streets.

The 10 o'clock people is an amazing tale of the Bat People (aliens) taking over the world. Only a few people can see through their disguises of human appearances. These people are folks who tried to stop smoking but went back to the habit and now the chemical imbalance as altered their perception field and they see the Bat Man (not the one with the cape and billions of dollars).

There is a group of resistance fighters learning as much as they can and taking out a few along the way, until a deal is reached for a truce. None of the resistance fighters are interested but the truce was a lie and the Bat Men charge into the meeting and all hell breaks lose.

The reader was over-acting the script but after awhile I got used to it and got lost in the story. I listened to this novella over two jogging sessions and was so immersed on the second day that I missed my turn point and ended up a little lost in a new area wahahaha. But that is the power of this story. The Bat Man makes me think of Lovecraft horrors (not Cthulhu of course) but others. Possibilities.

I think some books are better in audio format.

4 stars

UR by Stephen King

UR by Stephen King
Audiobook, Unabridged Audio CD
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Unabridged edition (February 16, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1442303093
ISBN-13: 978-1442303096

Recently I have gotten into audio books as I enjoy jogging. And jogging with an audio book is amazing, if it is a good tale you are listening to you can lose yourself and end up in unknown territories lol.

UR (pronounced err) is a story of a new, unknown Kindle feature which has alternative realities where writers produced many more books than in this reality. It also has a news function, local news only, and this is a glimpse into the future. A dangerous thing.

This tale is somewhere in the novelette area (like a very long short story) and is told well by the reader. But the story is boring. King takes too long to get to the meat of the tale and then it just kind of ends and the ending is kind of blah...

Maybe book form is better for this tale. It was a good idea and King posed a few good possibilities but I felt (while jogging up a hill) that he spent too much time exploring these areas.

2 stars
 

The Snuff Syndicate by Keith Gouveia

The Snuff Syndicate by Keith Gouveia
Beating Windward Press LLC
Paperback 193 pages
Copyright 2012

The back of this book tells us that it is about serial killers and an online forum they use to tell their tales. Sounds awesome, right? But it doesn't come across the way it is billed.

Keith Gouveia has had a brilliant idea (I had a similar thought last year regarding Cthulhu tales). He has written the base of a novella, the spine and ribcage. And he has 8 authors write stories to add arms, legs, and meat. And every single story bar one, are awesome, and I like how Keith uses characters mentioned in the stories as his base tale progresses.

All tales are about serial killers.
All involve murder, gory and unabashed. 
All the tales are linked by Keith Gouveia's story.

I enjoyed the tales but as with every collection (linked or not) there are a few that stand out:
Hackwork, Tipping the odds, Snuffingly Yours, and NSFW kicked major butt.

Keith Gouveia has put together a great collection with a solid base story, that is, in itself, a more than decent addition to the rest.

You won't be disappointed shelling out a few dollars on this.

Meat by Joseph D'Lacey

Meat by Joseph D'Lacey
Bloody Books UK
Paperback: 343 pages


I've read Joseph before and enjoyed his novella (I think it was Kill Crew--don't quote me on that); it was an exciting and tense read, it is reviewed here on this site somewhere.

Meat is the story of a town called Abyrne where meat is the answer to everything. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, everyone eats meat. The innards of the cattle gives power to the city. There are two major powers in the city: Parsons of Welfare (religious group) they have a lot of power and then there is: Magnus who controls the meat. Throw in, John Collins, the leader of a group of vegetarians, and a man nicknamed Ice Pick and a milker who falls in love/lust for one of his cows and you have the ingredients of an explosive novel.

That failed. Sorry. I think D'Lacey tried to put too much into the story, I got lost and there seems to be an awful lot of padding (more than character building), things were not all that clear (cattle don't have palms to my knowledge and I thought perhaps the cattle were actually humans, but that didn't seem to be the case. Things happened for reasons that were not fully explained and just kind of happen out of the blue (build up here would have been nice, especially one part of the storyline). It is a slow moving story that builds up as characters are introduced and the plot moves along.

This book didn't resonate with me. Maybe the message behind the story did not interest me.
From Amazon about the author: Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer, D'Lacey is best known for his shocking eco-horror novel MEAT. The book has been widely translated and prompted Stephen King to say "Joseph D'Lacey rocks!".

And judging by the reviews on Amazon, I obviously didn't get it.
I simply wasn't for me.

37%

The Ritual by Adam Nevill

The Ritual by Adam Nevill
Pan Horror Books
Copyright 2011
Paperback version 418 pages.

(Also a Netflix movie) 

This is my first time reading Adam Nevill. I heard about Apartment 16 awhile back but never got around to ordering a copy. I decided it was time to get a copy when I stumbled onto the Ritual. The story is about four old college friends who meet up once a year for a holiday. This year they decide to go camping. 

The book opens with the four friends on top of some rocks. One has banged up his knee quite well and the other is overweight and unfit for such a trip. Trying to make the best of a bad situation, Hutch and Luke know they have to get proactive and make a decision regarding Dom's knee and Phil's inability to keep up the pace, and Hutch (the leader) decides to take a short cut through a forest. 

Worst decision ever. 

The forest is very old--very, very old. And something is alive in that forest...and it's hungry.

Nevill has written a great tale with characters that jump off the page. I know someone like, Dom, Phil and Hutch. I don't know anyone like Luke but I could connect with him, more than the others. And there's a reason for that.

There were parts of the book that I felt were filler and Luke's anger seemed to come from nowhere, even with his explanation later. There was no hint or leaning toward it, no building frustration and annoyance. So I was a little taken aback by that.

However in saying that it was a great tale that moved at a decent pace, and kept me reading. And isn't that what all writer's want: readers glued to the page.

88%

The Collector by Daniel I. Russell

• 
  
  File Size: 584 KB
• Print Length: 344 pages
• Publisher: Dark Continents Publishing, Inc. (April 24, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007XGVM1A

Note: e-Version passed on free for review. 

First off, I didn't realize this was a series until now (LOL) as I don't make a habit of reading a series until book two or three is out, especially if the series is interlocked like Game of Thrones. But in saying that this was a good first book. It set up the characters in a fun and interesting way, we learn about the three houses in this Cul-de-sac (is that a British or Kiwi word? Nope, it's a French stolen word. It means small dead end street http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cul-de-sac) and the people that reside there. We have the usual two hoods, teenagers who think they are the coolest and badest mothers in the world, and they love to score decent weed, rob old ladies and do a spot of breaking and entering. We also have the abused wife, husband has a bad day at work as a high school teacher, comes home and pounds the living daylights out of his wife's body, trying not to go for the face (keyword: trying). Then he takes off somewhere and returns the following evening, feeling much better and apologizing. And finally we have the old lady who lives at the end of the street, who has a thousand books, many on magic and hocus pocus. Her grandson worries about her living out here all by herself, and being very rich, he decides to bring granny home to live with him. 

One night an Earthquake happens, but only in the road and a tiny crack appears. It widens and pulling himself out, the Collector shows with his pet, Montgomery. From this point forward the book becomes kick-ass good. 

The start of the book is a tad slow as the characters are introduced and their stories told but even then the writing is crisp and the reader doesn't get bored with the drama slowly unfolding. But when the Collector makes a showing, looking for the Mana, the book kicks into high gear and you won't be able to shut off your eReader. 

This is the first of Daniel's books I've read and I'll be looking for book 2.

  

4 Stars