19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rain Rain Go Away..., May 4, 2006
This review is from: The Conqueror Worms (Mass Market Paperback)
As I began reading this book I could not help but think of Dean Koontz's THE TAKING. The two are similar in theme and share some descriptions. This book is told from the point of view of an old man living in the Appalachians. It has been raining continuously all over the world for more than forty days. What isn't flooded is damp. Mold and fungus are growing on everything. It is not imagined that things could get any worse. But they do.
The continuous rain has driven giant worms to the surface. First they are only as big around as dogs. But larger and larger worms show up. These worms are not content with drawing nourishment from the dirt. Instead they have taken to eating anything that moves; birds, cows, people. Then, unlike most horror novels, the cast begins to grow and we get glimpses of what has been going on elsewhere. We also get glimpses of what might be causing the destruction.
As with the earlier novels I have read by Brian Keene, the action does not stop until the last page. I do not know if this tale will be followed up as THE RISING was followed by CITY OF THE DEAD, but this one has a more satisfying ending than THE RISING although not as final as in the later. Since the book opens just as things are really getting bad, there is little time wasted on a slow build. Instead it starts pretty fast and picks up speed. If you liked his earlier books, you are sure to like this one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Page Turning Fun, May 7, 2006
This review is from: The Conqueror Worms (Mass Market Paperback)
This book (my 4th of Keene's) was fun from beginning to end. Starts off in the thick of things and picks up speed from there. While I was reading it, it more than once reminded me of some of Stephen King's earlier work. While Keene is certainly not the stylist that King is, you can tell he's having fun. Moreover, he's able to generate a sense of tremendous devastation and destruction through the eyes of only a handful of characters. Keene does not appear to hold anything back and his stories are that much more enjoyable for that fact. While I wish all of the ideas introduced were tied-up or explained, this was a terrific read that has me waiting anxiously for Keene's next.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Water, water every where...Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea..., June 13, 2006
This review is from: The Conqueror Worms (Mass Market Paperback)
Brian Keene's follow-up to his one-two punch to the gut that are The Rising and City of Dead is another apocalyptic yarn. A story that posits the question of what would happen if suddenly, without warning or much ado, it just started raining all over the world and it didn't stop. Keene's The Conqueror Worm does just that as he puts the reader right in the thick of things as the world slowly, but surely drowns under the unnatural torrent that's continued unabated for over forty days.
Where in his two previous major novels, Keene used a new twist on the zombie apocalypse scenario, in the Conqueror Worm he goes abit more Biblical with a heavy touch of Lovecraft in creating the post-apocalyptic world where octogenarian protagonists Teddy Garrett and Carl Seaton will have to learn to cope and survive. Soon, Teddy and Carl are joined by Kevin and Sarah who survived the crash of their helicopter due to the insane actions of another survivor, Earl Harper. Just like his two previous zombie novels, Keene starts CW with the apocalyptic event already under way and close to its fruition. Keene deftly interweaves brief passages from Teddy's own memories of scenes that led up to the current events. Keene doesn't overdo the details, but gives enough description of how the incessant torrent of rain quickly floods and drowns all coastal cities and islands. The first part of the book pretty much has Teddy, in his own words, describing for the reader just how things have worst during the 40+ days of nonstop rain. There's a matter-of-factness to Teddy's narrative as someone who has lived a long life and who doesn't fear that the world may be ending, but that he may die alone and under nicotine withdrawal.
The novel takes a sudden about face once Kevin and Sarah show up. It starts off the second part of the novel where we're told through Kevin's point of view just where he and Sarah came from and their own trials and tribulations in coping with the encroaching and expanding ocean. This part of the novel introduces the Lovecraft aspect of the story and tries to give a reasoning to what has caused the world to slowly drown around civilization. It's surely the faster paced of the two storytellers in the books. Where Teddy's narrative was gradual and slowly building up to the nightmare waiting for the survivors beneath the soil, Kevin's narrative is faster with more of a sense of manic to the surroundings. It's also where the supernatural finally breaks through the logic and reason that Teddy tried to hold onto in the first part of the book. As enjoyable a read as Kevin's story turned out, I thought it broke abit too much from the pace begun by Terry in the beginning of the novel. Kevin's story could easily have been told briefly and effectively without having to dedicate almost one-half the novel's lenght to its telling. Better yet, it could've made for another novel, but that's a fans wish and opinion in hope Keene re-visits the world of the Conqueror Worms.
The novel soon shifts back to Teddy's story and from there on its a fast-paced charge to a Lovecraftian ending that should satisfy any horror fans. This climactic sequence brings forth both the matter-factly sensibilities of Teddy's narrative and Kevin's supernatural themes into one and Keene pulls it off dramatically. I could easily see this novel being adapted as a film much easier than Keene's previous zombie novels. His characters of Teddy, Carl and Kevin were more fully developed and the plot itself, though silly when one breaks it down to its basic components, has a sense of doom to it that gives it some realism. Keene has slowly become the master of the apocalyptic genre and The Conqueror Worms just cements that fact. The ending of the novel is slightly vague as Keene seems to like his novels to be, but it does offer a tiny bit of hope. Hope for his readers and fans that his visit in this drowned-out world wasn't a one-time thing.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
