The Strain Trilogy

I read The Strain. I liked it for the most part. Weird coincidence that the beginning was the same as the pilot of Fringe, but whatever.

How is the The Fall so far? Better, worse, the same?

I'm reading The Strain now. I like it, especially compared to a lot of the new horror I've read recently. Seems pretty obvious what was contributed by Del Toro and what was contributed by Hogan.

Except for the ending, I really liked The Strain. I read from numerous places that the book was originally proposed as a show at Fox, but was turned down. So it's entirely possible that the showrunners on Fringe pilfered the idea from the script that was being shopped around.
Haven't read through The Fall yet because I'm backed up on my reading list, but I did get to meet del Toro at a signing 2 weeks ago. I can't emphasize enough how down to earth and friendly this guy is to his fans. Class act all the way.

I read The Strain, but haven't gotten around to The Fall yet (though I have a copy of the book waiting for me back home, so I should be getting to it in a couple of months). I really liked the story, and the opening of The Strain was great (I loved the prologue and everything with the plane), but I wasn't too keen on the prose or the actual plot. It's not terrible by any means, but I was expecting so much more.

Like I said, though, I enjoyed the story quite a bit, and the authors did a really good job of establishing a creepy, apocalyptic atmosphere. Thus, I am looking forward to reading The Fall. I just hope it's a step up from the previous entry.

It's been a while, but in The Strain, it seemed like they treated vampirism as being kinda mystical, but then it turns out it's a virus or bacteria or something. It seemed a little odd.

Eh, it's been a while since I read it, but I got the feeling from the way Setrakian was acting. Was the thing with the coffin of dirt strictly necessary if it's a virus?

Man, I need to read it again. I might just be misremembering.

I've read both and enjoyed them immensely. It would make a good miniseries on cable, methinks.

They don't treat it as a Virus in The Fall. Quite a bit of mysticism here with regards to the Vampire's origins.

I'm also reading The Fall now. Definitely jumps in a bit quicker than The Strain did. Anxious to see where this one goes, although preparing myself for aggravation at the inevitable cliffhanger ending.

Weird. I keep hearing about how people didn't like the end of The Strain but while the buildup to it couldn't avoid the usual tropes of the genre, I definitely liked the revelations at the very end. It put under a pretty clear light just how much our heroes are up against.

Im about ten pages away from the end of The Strain now, Its taken me months to read it, didnt really hit me as a page turner until the last 100 pages or so.

Anyone else find the part in the sewer under ground zero eerily simlar to Blade 2? I mean there was even an ultra violet bomb for gods sake.

Just finished THE FALL. Really enjoyed it. Good pace and the reveal of the master plan is fascinating and well handled, especially the way the Nazis and nuclear technology is tied to the creatures’ history. Things are looking bleak by the end though.

Looking forward to THE NIGHT ETERNAL.

The whole thing is just recycled Del Toro ideas from BLADE II and MIMIC. It really just feels like Del Toro threw Hogan some of his old ideas and told him to run with it. Really profoundly lazy.

I gotta say, I was digging this at first, but by the end, it just felt tired and rote. Nothing new here. The characters were practically one dimensional -- the wise old man, the righteous doctor turned slayer, the salt of the earth exterminator. Any potentially interesting characters (like the Hispanic criminal) were either killed or sidelined for later. Maybe this all pays off in a richer story down the road, but as a stand-alone story "The Strain" is wholly unremarkable.

Nice to see I'm not alone in this. I would also add that the dialogue is at a level usually only approached by Syfy channel original movies. I only finished The Strain because my faith in Del Toro persuaded me that there had to be something great lurking in the book's finale. And we know how that turned out.

No. They created a rough outline for the entire story and then each wrote individual chapters – without seeing what the others wrote. Del Toro has been fascinated by the biological working of Vampires for decades, well before BLADE 2.

This wasn’t a lazy rushjob for him. They wrote it when he was on downtime from planning THE HOBBIT and he says it is the most enjoyable work he has done recently.

Well, it's too bad then that the end result is so stunningly mediocre. Guess novels aren't his medium.

Well at least THE FALL has a Mexican Wrestler Vampire Hunter in it. But yeah, I am not impressed by both these books.

Finished The Fall today, and I loved it even more than The Strain. The blind kid vampires were an inspired and freaky addition. Literally said "oh FUUUUCK" aloud when they first rose from the dirt. Can't wait for Night Eternal.

The nuclear meltdowns were a nice touch.

May check out the sequel now. Didn't like the first one at all. It isn't horrible but it's very hacky, to use a word I disdain.

Just finished the third book. It's okay i guess.

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

All in all i liked Nick's book better.

 

Edited- Okey. Dokey. 

Edited by felix - 11/17/11 at 6:05am

Hey watch the spoilers Felix, thanks.

I read all of these in about a week. If you're going to read them, do it that way. It's very easy to tell that Del Toro did little of the actual writing, as Hogan's purple prose is hard to get through at times. However, I found the books to be pretty effective in spots -- the way NIGHT ETERNAL opens (diary entry) freaked me out, as did the stuff with the little girl from the first book, and all the shit with the son is pretty upsetting  -- and there are very creative touches here and there. I'd say THE FALL is the best of the three, as NIGHT ETERNAL gets very very repetitive near the end, and the STRAIN is just putting the pieces into place. I also thought the repeated, extensive Holocaust metaphor in a pulpy vampire series was a bit off-putting and sort of offensive. I didn't see the point of it beyond using it as a plot device. Hogan and GDT are trying to say some stuff about the nature of evil, that I get, but honestly? Should have gone with a better coauthor.

 

But if we're going to compare it to GRIM REAPER END OF DURRS, I'd say that Hogan's weird obsession with 9/11 that doesn't really go anywhere trumps Alten's bug-fuck crazy conspiracy theories.

I haven't held my breath while reading a book in a long time.  Dug the hell out of Night Eternal.  BUT.... 

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

He's special because he's kind of a dipshit. :D

There was an Italian horror movie from the 80's called (among other things), "Nightmare City" which started with a mysterious aircraft landing at an airport and not responding to radio signals beforehand. It goes in a slightly different direction after the plane is opened, though you could say the net result is more or less the same.

I wouldn't mind reading the first book in this series, but I get the feeling having been blown away by The Passage may leave the legs being cut out from under Del Toros attempt at a monstrous apocolypse for me.

The Passage sucks, too.

I disagree.

I thought The Passage was very well done.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, despite the fact that the twilight/true blood spawned vampire-mania sweeping the U.S. is getting tiresome.  I think the fact that Cronin is not coming from a horror background was a huge plus, he's a talented dude.

The Passage was a cracking read to rival King at his best. That's not something everyone is into tho. I can also see it's insane popularity, and being about vampires, could turn a lot of people off before they've even read a page, which is a shame because it very much transcends being 'just another vampire knock-off' as so many lazy publishers seem to be churning out these days.

^ Just added The Passage to my book wish list - sounds like a good read, though quite long.  As for the Strain Trilogy, read all three and enjoyed them enough, easy and very quick reading, ignoring some of the dodgy dialogue in all three books, not bad reads at all.  Plus the hard back book covers look quite nice on the shelf together.

 

Definitely agree with the comment about Blade 2 though, thought of Blade 2 an awful lot through the trilogy, especially the first book.

Agreed, very similar to The Stand in some respects, but I don't see that as a negative.  If Cronin can avoid a giant hand of god killing all of the vampires to end the 3rd book, and maybe develop Fanning (patient zero) into a threatening villain similar to Flagg, he's got a real shot at beating King at his own game.

Well King adores The Passage actually, I love that he's so happy to give props to another writer playing in his epic fantasy-horror sandpit...

 

 

 

 

King has horrible, horrible taste, though. 

Sure, not delicate and refined like yours Brendan.

I enjoy a good, pulpy thriller or pop lit novel as much as the next guy. You're talking to a guy whose favorite book of the 2000s was about a former porn star on a roaring rampage of revenge. Whose favorite movie is STREETS OF FIRE. It has nothing to do with having refined or delicate taste and everything to do with the fact that 90 percent of what King recommended in his EW column, whether it was literature or movies or music, was shit. He's an author I like a great deal -- hell, I'm thinking about writing an honor project next term about his work -- but when I see his pull-quotes on a cover, I tend to dismiss them. He doesn't have a very good track record.

I don't think King's tastes are horrible but rather disappointly MOR.

 

I enjoyed The Passage despite its bloat - but the guy could definitely use a ruthless editor.

I like a lot of King's books, especially the earlier half of his work but the biggest pile of books I've never finished were all recommended by him. Considering I finish just about everything, that's saying something. 

 

(Just my opinion, obviously)

I loved the books, especially the Fall... I have to say that the ending of The Night Eternal just felt entirely half a**, though. I don't like drop off endings, and that is all that it was.

 

I have to give Hogan and Del Toro credit, though, because I haven't found a vampire book in years I genuinely loved. Typically I'll read maybe 30-50 pages a night, and this series (The Strain Trilogy) had me reading 100-150 pages a night and wanting to stay up even later to continue reading.

 

In regard to Del Toro and Hogan recycling from Blade 2, stealing (or so it seems to be implied here) material, or just being generally similar to other stories-- It's going to happen. Compare King on any level to Lovecraft and the similarities are astounding. My favorite example would be Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls vs. King's (Jeru)Salem's Lot... It's not a matter of similarities sometimes, it's a matter of how cleverly a similar concept can be used and blossom into something different... Which does occur with the vampires in The Strain trilogy in book 3 The Night Eternal.

I finished The Night Eternal a few hours ago and I count myself in the disappointed group.  I really enjoyed The Strain and to a lesser extant, The Fall but this was a really weak cap to the series.

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)