Carrion

Product Information

Everyone's character was perfect for Carrion Comfort. The story is very well done, but there were a few problems I had with it.

A horror book with only one disemboweling and characters that redefine sadism. It was a very solid 4 stars and easily pushing 4.5. A truly fantastic book and now I want to read anything Simmons has written. Willi Borden, also known as Wilhelm Von Borchert, a Nazi Oberst, an Officer in the SS, later reinventing his identity as a Hollywood producer and powerful user of 'The Ability'. I say all this not to criticize the book (as you can see, I rated it 5 stars) but to explain why it took forever to read it.If you like books like Gone Girl and Before I go to Sleep and you love authors like Angela Marsons, Kathryn Croft or Rachel Abbott you will be gripped by this brilliant and dark psychological thriller. Tony Harod, a powerful Hollywood producer with minor use of 'The Ability' which he can only use on females. He often helps The Island Club with hopes of becoming a member. If I were to put my issue into words, I'd still have a hard time, because its faults were also its strengths. It was unpredictable. Carrion Comfort is touted as one of the greatest vampire novel's of all time and I still can't get my head around that. The villains in this tale aren't your traditional vampires. They come across more as regular people, well sociopaths, who have the ability to mind control the general populous. Some of them refer to this as feeding but really it never came across as something that they needed to do to survive. So kinda vampire-ish but not really to me.

There's lots of places where the novel easily deserves a 5 star, just on reflection, alone, and since this came out nearly 30 years ago I'm not going to fuss too much over spoilers. Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life." The timelines of the story in 1940s Poland and Israel, and as well as The United States in the 1980s are framed within and often reference actual events being directly or indirectly manipulated by characters with 'The Ability':

I despair at the rise of modern violence. I truly give in to despair at times, that deep, futureless pit of despair which Hopkins called carrion comfort." La línea de tiempo que se usa para presentar la trama también es muy atractiva ya que no es precisamente lineal; cada poco se devuelve en uno o dos días para explicar algún acontecimiento, por supuesto desde la perspectiva de otro personaje. Obliga al lector a estar muy atento, sobre todo porque los primeros dos tercios de la novela (650 páginas aprox.) transcurren en apenas dos semanas. The villains in Carrion Comfort are some of the best I've come across in a horror book. As unique as they are terrifying. You'll never look at your grandmother the same way again lol THE PAST... Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi’s themselves... Finally, there was a very, VERY memorable scene for me. Something I don't think I'll ever forget... The WWII chess game where Saul is introduced to the Oberst. It was such a surreal scene, and like I said, it is one I won't soon forget. The impact the scene has on the entire novel, and how it lets you know how much evil people can be fraught with, was just astounding.

I don't want to spoil anything but I will say that Saul was my favorite character. He was so well written, I never doubted his authenticity one bit. Rob Gentry and Natalie Preston were equally good. I'm glad I re-read this, but my god it was long. There was so much, by my older and jaded eyes, that I think could have been cut right the hell out, but it was a horror novel first and foremost, and having a long build-up before the missiles come and destroy the island (or whatever) is still what we seek in the style. Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years—2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York—one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher—and 14 years in Colorado.Do you like mind-vampires that look, feel, and act like Donald Trump, Conservative Religious Nutsos, Concentration Camp Masters, or quiet, unassuming matrons who take on entire inner-city gangs? Reavley says "I think people are at their most fascinating when they are faced with life's real horrors." This is what I love to write about.

Otra aspecto que me llamó mucho la atención es que normalmente el argumento de las novelas tiene un norte claro (descubrir al asesino, saber quién está tras de la conspiración, quien ganará la batalla, si el héroe se quedará con la princesa...) Sin embargo, en este libro, el autor empieza a desmadejar acontecimientos que absorben a los personajes, envolviéndolos en una seguidilla de sucesos y revelaciones que los supera. No saben a qué se enfrentan, ni cómo seguir. Incluso hay un momento en la novela en que el único objetivo es sobrevivir. Carrion Comfort is concerned with mind vampires, people who can enter the consciousness of any person and control their actions completely, like a puppeteer. Complete control, one from which there is no defense mental or physical, is certainly a frightening subject, and the opening set in 1942 Chelmno is pretty much stellar.The story then fast forwards to 1980 and we are introduced to a powerful trio of these creatures. Willi, Nina, and Melanie have been acquaintances for centuries. They play a game where they use mortal pawns to commit heinous acts for points and then meet up to tally the results. This is the premise that starts the story and it turns out to be a crazy one indeed. Part horror, part spy novel, part mystery and even adventure. It sounds strange that a book can have all those elements but this one certainly does. A complaint would be that the book did feel too long...did Simmons not hire an editor? This doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the book, but it could have done with some serious editing. I especially don't really enjoy "action" scenes where people are just running around for ages and hiding in different locations - this kind of thing is great for the big screen, but can be hard to follow when reading. I almost dropped a star because there is some extraneous material here that could have been excised and the mind-blowing story would not have suffered, but I savored every one of the words, so I feel that would be wrong. This book is one of the best horror story , that I listened and read , ( when I couldn’t listen), this year.