Customer Reviews

DARKFALL

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Its always rare to find a book that is original and as compelling as Law's "Darkfall" and this is one to read if you enjoy smart horror novels. Its Christmas Eve and the employees at an office building are dancing and drinking the night away during a thunderstorm. When the caretaker of the building begins to hear ear-splitting sounds, he rushes up to find everyone has disappeared and the only sign of trouble is a severed hand. Inspecter Cardiff, an unhappy suicidal man, is called to the scene and from there the story unfolds. He has heard this story before and he has police go find a thief by
the name of Jimmy Devlin to help unlock the mystery of what has happened.

What none of them realize is that what is happening here is even more horrifying than thought. The thunderstorm isn't normal and the occupants of the building have been absorbed into the walls and floor. What is worse is that some of them are returning in monstrous form and its a struggle to survive the night. At the same time, they have to struggle with a team of secret agents being led by a madman bent on self-destruction and "enlightenment"

This is the single best horror novel I've read in years and its sure to become a horror classic. There isn't a boring moment and its viceral horror at its finest.

It doesn't get better than this.

This book plays like a made-for-TV movie on the Sci-Fi Channel. The story has great potential in the beginning, but lackluster characters lead the way into a mundane action filled ending.

Think of all of the energy one lightning storm can hold. Imagine if that amount of energy could affect the physiology of people and places? That's exactly what Stephen Laws did in his novel "Darkfall." A corporate high rise in England sits empty on Christmas Eve. Just moments before, the building had been full of office parties and employees. After a particularly harsh round of thunder and lightning, everyone in the building, except the janitor, disappeared into thin air. The police are called in, but what can they do? Hopefully find the answer to this menacing phenonmenon before anyone else disappears.

The description of this novel really does it more justice than the author did. The writing, well it was just plain bad. The plot had potential, but the author thoroughly bungled it. The entire storyline came off as cheap and fake. I was really hoping for a good mystery, but all this novel has to offer is bad writing. I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone.

I read this book after hearing that a movie studio bought the film rights to produce it, saying it was a mix between The Thing and Die Hard. Well, in theory, that's sounds like fun, but Stephen Laws did not pull it off. The mythology Laws tries to create is initially interesting, but eventually just becomes too silly.

What started out very promising, fell flat halfway through the novel. I quickly became bored with the 150+ page chase scene up and down the stairwell and elevator. Horror is about atmosphere and suspense. This was more science fiction with a comic book villain awkwardly thrown in for danger. Disappointing.

Darkfall was a disappointment indeed! It was 384 pages of mostly "When does this end?" The characters were not particularly likable because nearly all of them were bromides! Besides that overwhelming detail, none of the characters were developed at all. I know next to nothing about any of them. One of the characters had a tragedy in the family and another was imprisoned for some time. Beyond that, no other developments were made.

The story itself is about a severe electrical storm (called a "Darkfall") that, with the right circumstances, causes transmogrifications . Interesting enough alone, but the problem with Darkfall (the book) is that the beginning, middle and end of the story is transmogrified itself!! Firstly, there is no "middle" of the story! The "beginning" is just 304 pages long. And the end is 80 pages long, yet somehow manages to drag on longer that the lengthy beginning. The story just did not flow well at all. Laws tried to explain the "Darkfall" in the story through scientists and such, but I was just not convinced by his explanations. The story would have been better if the building was just plain old "haunted" instead of this "Darkfall" malarkey. On the positive side though, I was actually tweaked at one point in the book. But that was when I thought the building was just haunted. The "fear" fell flat once the Darkfall explanations began.

Darkfall was not a quick read for me; it took just over 3 weeks to read it because of its tediousness! I would recommend only the first 100 pages or so, but after that, I would just tell you the ending. So skip it if you want to read something convincing. However, if you are just too curious to skip it, you won't be *dreadfully* disappointed; but be warned that you might be at least *somewhat* disappointed.

DARKFALL has all the markings of a great read. Excellent idea. Great set up. Well drawn charcters, mystery, suspense, backstory and the general sense of unease and tension as the story builds and builds... and then walks off a ledge right about the halfway point.

Up until then, there's a fantastic vibe of doom. Of things getting out of hand, that the world may indeed be in serious danger... but all of that goes out the window when Rohmer, lead man in the governments secret research and paranormal confrontation and containment team rolls through the door. He's everything we've seen before (and since this book was first published in 1992 - he's old enough now to be a zombie - so dead he is on page). Tall, blond (mentioned many, many times), he knows more than he's saying, and he's teamed with a series of people who are weak, craven, scared, and are prone to run at all the right moments so they can be snatched up, eaten, abosrbed into walls and then scream and scream and... scream. There's a lot of screaming in this book - there's a lot of rain, thunder, lighting, banging noises, glass shattering, running, hiding, running, falling, running and I think, oh yes, more running. All within the confines of one office building. In fact, it seems as if Laws suffered not so much as a writers block, but a "writers echo" as he's locked his principals in this building and is forced to simply repeat the same kind of action one hundred different ways (really - just count how many times he has to tell you how the rain looks on the windows, or how the DARKFALL storm swirls, revolves or turns around the office building) until we reach the end... which never seems to arrive. And the suddenly it does... close book.

There's gore. There's creep. There's strange - it's all in here, and it's shame that this book centered on one building and just a handful of people. Rohmer is cardboard. Cardiff, the hero, is at first well textured and vibrant - but then reduced to simply "hero" and put through the motions. Anyone else is simply along for the ride, or to be put into harms away either to add to the body count or be saved. Typical stuff for such a book that started off so cracker-jack. Worth reading right up until Rohmer makes his grand entrance, after that... you walk alone.

the title of this review pretty much sums up what I thought of this terrifying horror book I just finished reading. Darkfall was recommended by my friend Jim Lay who's good expert on horror fiction.Laws has put himself in the league of King,Little, and Straub in this novel about strange phenomenon called Darkfall which begins with a massive storm with lightning at a high-rise building in England where some of the employees are having a christmas party and they all disappear!What the police, led by Inspector Cardiff start to investigate this incident find out is that all of people are still in the building but are absorbed into the walls! Darkfall is one of the most vicerally frightening books I've read because what happenes to the people who are victims of the darkfall will chill your blood as some of them come back as insane or hideous monsters!
Plot twists are great in this book as Cardiff and Jimmy devlin, a young thief and mysterious government scientists try to solve and survive the horrifying onslaught which is darkfall as madness, monsters and gruesome death or worst figure in this book.There are unforgettable scenes of terror in this book as you read in eager anticipation what new horrors that the darkfall will reveal to us! As far as I'm concern this book is a new horror classic that you will remember anytime you hear the thunder rumble!

It seems to me that most people don't hold horror authors to a terribly high standard of writing. Most people don't give demerits to works of horror based on the quality of the writing as much as for the basic ideas of the story. As a fan of the genre, who wants to see it excel, I judge both. Stephen Laws Darkfall has a solid, creepy premise that is undermined by weak, generic characters, poor dialogue and some spotty writing.

The story is about an office block in London from which 84 people suddenly vanish during a storm on Christmas Eve. The central character, detective Cardiff, must figure out what's happened, where has everybody gone and who can be saved. He and his officers soon experience firsthand some inexplicable phenomena, and are then joined by unit of secretive officials and scientists lead by a blond man named Rhomer.

The story itself is interesting enough to keep you reading, and that's saying a lot given that the quality of the writing tops off at mediocre, and dips below that frequently. There's a LOT of repetitive description. Rhomer is said to be wearing the same type of "half-smile" over and over again. The word "recoil" is used probably 20-30 times in the story. Thunder grumbles, claps, roars and otherwise makes its presence felt far more than is necessary (yeah, we get it, there's a storm outside).

The characters, again, are weak and cliche. Cardiff is dealing with a devestating past that has him teetering on the edge. There's a criminal who served time for a crime he didn't commit (sort of), and a dirty cop to boot. It becomes apparent early on that one of the characters that's keeping a secret is up to something. So on and so forth. The dialogue is consistently mundane (at times Rhomer's euphemisms are so obvious he might as well wink twice after each sentence), and for some... reason, Stephen Laws is fond of... using gratuitous... ellipses. It doesn't add anything to the story, and it's rather distracting. How this novel made it past editing in its current state is a wonder.

So, how can a book have all these flaws in the most fundamental aspects and still get three stars? Well, despite all of its drawbacks, Darkfall's plot was nonetheless intriguing. The mix of pseudo-science and the supernatural had me hooked. I wanted to put it down, I felt like I should put it down, but I couldn't. And it did succeed in creating some genuinely eerie moments, even though the scares and the novel itself started to lose steam in the final third of the book.

All that said, I can't recommend Darkfall, but it is reasonably entertaining, and there are worse ways to kill some time.

It's a horror story that initially grabs your attention and makes you wonder how it is going to turn out. Events are happening inside the building as well as other places. You add in a special group of people who seem to understand what's going on, but they are operating under some veil of secrecy that threatens the participants' lives. With all of this, you almost feel you got yourself a winner. However, the book's excitement dies around page 260 and the book has a 100 pages to go. I found myself struggling to finish it. I found myself no longer caring about the characters and I pretty much knew where it was going to go. I wouldn't say it's a waste of time, but if money is tight when it come to your book budget, you might want to look into other options.

A skyscraper caught in a storm is effectively blocked of from the outside world following the dissappearance of everyone inside. Something about the storm has caused people and building to merge; the result being gruesome monsters that are out to capture and absorb the survivors. Darkfall really delivers on action; it's a fun read with some harrowing situations. A little more elaboration on _why_ would give this book the 5th star.