Book: The Strain
ISBN-13: 978-0061558238
Author: Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Series: Book One of The Strain Trilogy
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Contemporary Horror / Thriller
Release: June 2, 2009
Length: 416 pages (Hardcover)
Verdict
After years of enjoying director Guillermo del Toro’s films, it came as no surprise to me when I cracked open his first literary endeavor, The Strain, to discover that it unfolded just like a big budget movie.
Rarely have I read such a cinematic story. Every scene, every setting, every action sequence reads like a summer blockbuster, from the Langoliers-like suspense of the setup, down to the Invasion of the Body Snatchers-esque cliffhanger. That is both the book’s greatest strength, as well as its most notable shortcoming, depending on whether or not the reader is a cinemaphile.
On one hand, The Strain is a horror film between two covers, which makes for great reading on weekends when Hollywood’s offerings fall flat. On the other hand, as a fan of epic fantasy series, when I pick up a novel, no matter the genre, I hope for a deeper experience than I would get at the theater.
The deciding factor is that The Strain puts the horror back into vampire. There are no glittery hardbodies or angst-ridden souls in this book. Del Toro’s vampires bear more resemblance to George Romero’s zombies than the vampires of any recent media franchise, and that’s sure to come as a breath of fresh air for male audiences.
Synopsis
Official:JFK International Airport, New York City: Seated corpses faced in row after row. No evident trauma. No nosebleeds. No signs of poisoning. They were seated as any normal passengers would be, chairs in full and upright position, still waiting for the fasten seatbelt sign to be turned off at the airport gate…
What took the lives of an airplane full of people?
Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, Head of the Center for Disease Control’s New York team, is racing to find out, but little does Eph know that the nightmare is only just beginning.
Abraham Setrakian is an elderly Armenian professor who understands the darkness that is descending. Many years ago, in the hellish barracks of the Treblinka extermination camp, he faced a horror more terrifying than death itself.
Before the next sundown Eph, Setrakian, and a motley collection of heroes must undertake the ultimate fight for survival. Should they fail, New York will be lost. And the rest of the world will follow…
Review
The Strain follows some of the best traditions of both horror and science fiction. The influences of some of the greatest works of both genres can be seen in Del Toro’s narrative, including Dracula, I Am Legend, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Day of the Triffids. The rich allusions keep the novel interesting for the high-browed literati, while the rest of the audience can lay back and be swept along by the suspense.
The Strain starts with a bang. A Boeing 777 lands at JFK International Airport and stops dead. There’s no contact with the tower, no movement, and no sign of life. No sign of life, that is, until the emergency hatch pops open…
When epidemiologist Dr. Ephraim Goodweather is called to the scene, he discovers a plane filled with corpses and not a single clue as to how they died. In the cargo hold, he finds a enormous cabinet full of soil. From there, the plot thickens, and the story passes from horror to suspense to alien invasion to zombie horror in rapid succession. Interwoven through these rapid shifts in flavor is an older, more traditional tale of a Russian man who survived Nazi ghettos to commit his life to pursuing the ancient evil his Bubbeh told him of when he was just a boy.
The Strain is a well-balanced mixture of horror and science fiction, drama and thriller. It has a very broad appeal and will likely be enjoyed by all genre fans.
Note: Ron Perlman is a terrible audiobook narrator. I recommend reading this book manually for the full effect.
Similar Books
If you enjoy The Strain, you may also enjoy these very similar series:
Further Information
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The Great Geek Manual » Review: The Strain | CheapAirportParking said
am July 6 2009 @ 12:30 am
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The Great Geek Manual » Review: the Strain said
am July 8 2009 @ 6:45 pm
[...] On one hand, The Strain is a horror film between two covers, which makes for great reading on weekends when Hollywood’s offerings fall flat. On the other hand, as a fan of epic fantasy series, when I pick up a novel, no matter the genre …Continue [...]