Customer Reviews

The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

After unleashing a vampire plague on New York City in The Strain (The Strain Trilogy), filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) and Chuck Hogan (The Town: A Novel) are back to finish off humanity in the appropriately-titled sequel The Fall.

While The Strain spent a great deal of time on vampire biology and the spread of the virus, The Fall gets right to the struggle against the scourge. With the city (and soon the world) falling all around them, vampire hunter and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian and his allies (which now include gang leaders, CDC researchers, an exterminator and an aging Mexican wrestler!) mount a fierce resistance to the vampire strain. Their struggle against the vampire overlord known as the Master brings them in contact with the very first vampires, who want the Master stopped for their own reasons.

If The Empire Strikes Back taught us anything, it's that middle volumes in trilogies are downers. The Fall is no exception. Our heroes get battered and beaten, and the ending is so far from happy that you wonder if there will be anything left to save in book 3. The fight goes on though, and the story is so very compelling. Del Toro and Hogan have given us some very real, very believable characters and set up a truly frightening scenario that's both a great read and one that unfolds in a very cinematic manner.

The Fall is every bit as impressive as The Strain, and is one of the absolute best apocalyptic tales I've ever read. Like The Strain, I was compelled to read this book in one sitting, and was totally enthralled from start to finish. Waiting for the final volume in this trilogy is going to be tough.

Being a huge Guillermo Del Toro fan ("Pan's Labyrinth" was easily my favorite film of the year it was released), I was so stoked to hear he was partnering to author a modern vampire epic. It is not an exaggeration to say that "The Strain" was something I was super excited to read. But, probably unlike many other reviewers here, I actually did not like "The Strain." While its early chapters were creepily ominous and the creature conception was strong and unique, I just felt like that novel lacked a bit of heart. More concerned with staging battles and set-up, I didn't particularly care about the characters. The authors introduced a massive cast but, for some reason, I was disconnected from the humanity of the tale. It's hard to appreciate an epic battle when you're somewhat ambivalent about its participants. That said, I feel that "The Fall" has more than made up for what I felt was cold about "The Strain"--and I'm pleased to look forward to the final chapter!

Picking up immediately after the disappointing encounter with the Master, we are quickly reintroduced to the primary cast. The story remains the same, but a secret agenda for the fate of the Earth is uncovered throughout the pages. Vampire hunter Abraham Setrakian is still one of the story's most compelling characters. If anyone steps to the forefront in this chapter--it is him. He is the glue that holds the disparate members of a ragtag band together--including a CDC official, an exterminator, a street tough and a retired wrestler (my personal favorite). While the Master is still pure evil, I actually preferred the human antagonist Eldritch Palmer who uses his power and money to secure a place in the final plan. His confrontations with the Master in jockeying for leverage are among the book's stronger sequences and his story line plays out brilliantly.

Because I cared about the characters, the sense of tension and horror were much stronger in "The Fall." There is an introduction of vampiric children (which I won't spoil by saying too much) that are, to me, easily the most disturbing creation yet. Del Toro and coauthor Chuck Hogan do a great job interspersing history and back story into the current mayhem. The chapter breaks are often cliffhangers which propel the reader forward at a faster and faster momentum until we reach another inevitable confrontation. Not surprisingly for an epic, we lose some major players in "The Fall"--but things seem well positioned for the final installment. But is there anything left to save?

And boy does the cast of characters in The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy know it! The war has begun - and it's not looking so good for us humans.

It's been one week and what seems like one lifetime since the incident on the tarmac. Eph, Nora, Abraham, and Fet are hard at it trying to figure out how they can stop things from getting worse. There seems to be very little light at the end of the tunnel - or even in the tunnel itself.

People are falling like flies, chaos abounds, and it's spreading faster than an STD in a whorehouse. The Master, who they failed to defeat at the end of The Strain (The Strain Trilogy), is continuing with his plan. The industrial millionaire Palmer facilitating things that are, as of yet, unknown-at least not fully. It is evil. It is creepy. It is here. The fate of humanity hanging by a thread.

The characters are rich - as in the first novel Abraham ends up being a focus, albeit more intentional in The Fall. There is significant exposition on Abraham's back story and it is a doozy. Fascinating and obsessive - his tales of the past are vividly drawn - searching, sacrificing, hunting - heartache and resolve. Things you suspect from the first novel you find the answers on all while finding out new things that leave you hanging.

Fet takes more of an active role earlier on here - not as much comedic as before but engaging anyway just for being himself. You really get the sense he's found his calling - and he's blogging which is just way too hilarious.

Gus has become a slayer for the Ancients - and he has quite the purpose along with quite the posse. There's a new guy named Angel as well - who reminds me of a certain wrestler from Angel - Season Five (Slim Set).

Then there's the government - CDC, FBI, and so on - whose side are they on and who is pulling their collective strings?

Nora and Zachary round it out- and of course Kelly Zach's mom who will stop at nothing to get to her "Dear One". Shiver--you just know nothing good is going to come of her.

The action propels this second effort just as much as the first - with the added enjoyment of you being more invested in the characters and familiar with the world thereby making your attachment to the outcomes even greater. It will carry you away - in many ways I enjoyed this book more than The Strain (The Strain Trilogy) because I'm over my initial shock at what happened and am able to, like the characters, think about where it is all going - I'm more of a long range strategic planner myself so The Fall is right up my alley. The first book was really good but there were a few times I felt it was lagging a bit and I had to push to keep reading - not so this sophomore effort - no down time at all!

I had a few small quibbles but nothing that kept me from getting lost in this novel for several hours. If I had to pick a little the constant shift in character perspective was occasionally hard to follow - reminded me of a soap opera where you get a couple lines and cut to a new story. However it is an effective way to ratchet the tension and this is a trilogy. Some things were also far fetched - trains still running with people actually buying tickets without a complete stampede? Hmm..

BUT man oh man - the last 50 pages. Amazing! Of course, just like the first, there's a cliffhanger ending. Did you expect less from the middle of a trilogy? Like Frodo and Samwise - our hero's are looking up at Mt. Doom and wondering how on earth they can win against what seems like overwhelming odds.

While there is enough in here that you could read it as a stand- alone why the heck would you? If you haven't read The Strain (The Strain Trilogy) pick it up now and put this one down until you finish. You won't be sorry!

P.S. a word regarding my expectations so you get an idea of my perspective- I did not expect this to be great literature or allegorical or even full of deeper darker reflections on humanity as a whole. I picked this novel to be entertained, to see me some great kicka%$ action - to lose myself in a story for a few hours. The Fall more than accomplished the task.

Although I had long intended to read Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's Strain novels, getting the opportunity to read and review the concluding novel in the trilogy is what finally spurred me to do so, checking the first two novels out on audiobook from my local library. Over the years I've tried to read most of the major vampire novels and I can confidently state that this is one of the very best ever written in the genre. It is also a marvelous antidote to the rather awful string of vampire depictions of recent years. The romanticizing of vampires that took place in the novels of Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton and reached its nadir in the Twilight series has led to a vast increase in the volume of vampire literature, if not its quality. Del Toro and Hogan in these wonderful books want to return the genre to its origins, in which vampires are terrifying monsters, not romanticized potential lovers for innocent young girls.

THE FALL and THE NIGHT ETERNAL continue the story begun in THE STRAIN, as The Master, the youngest of The Ancients, a group of vampires whose history extend back to Biblical times, implements his plan to enslave the human race. In these two books the group of heroes established in the first novel, Setrakian, Eph, Fet, Nora, Gus, and the mysterious Mr. Quinlan continue their struggle against the Master and his minions. In no series of vampire novels has the plight of the human race ever been so extreme or so dire.

Three things stand out in the Strain Trilogy. First, the plot is far more satisfying and complex than any of the romanticized vampire series. Second, the characters are far more believably developed than in other novels in the series. Third, the books do the very finest job of any recent vampire novels (with the exception of Dan Simmons's COLD CARRION) of developing in extraordinary detail the background mythology of vampires. Why can't vampires go out into the sunshine? The novels provide an explanation. Where do vampires come from? The novel provides the most satisfying and epic explanation. Why is silver toxic to them? Answer provided. Why do they react to crosses? Though the book does not make much of this, a potential explanation is laid down.

Never in our cultural history have vampires been so popular or so prominent in our culture. Yet never has there been so many godawful representations of our favorite bloodsuckers. The trend over the past several decades has been to make vampires less dangerous, less monstrous. This began as early as Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND, which presented a new way of looking at vampires, less religious, more secular, more scientific. Later books such as Theodore Sturgeon's remarkable SOME OF YOUR BLOOD continued the process. But gradually vampires began to be treated not as monsters, but as romantic figures, beginning in the fifties with the great series of Dracula films starring Christopher Lee and continued on American television with DARK SHADOWS. Anne Rice's novels presented them as romantic figures, dark "bad boys" for the women to swoon over, almost tragic figures. The remake of vampires was continued on TV with my all time favorite television series, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, but with characters like Angel and Spike, vampires had become more human than ever. TRUE BLOOD made vampires even more popular, but continued the trend of presenting them as less than monsters. Then came the Twilight books and movies, with vampires never this popular before, but in what might be the worst vampire books and movies ever made.

The time was ripe for a sophisticated, smart re-rendering of vampires in all their monstrous glory. The Strain Trilogy is the anti-Twilight. It is more like Nosferatu than TRUE BLOOD, yet the way it develops the foundational mythology shows that the authors recognize how high the bar has been raised in writing about vampires. By any standard this has to be one of the most remarkable achievements in literature about vampires.

My next hope is that Guillermo del Toro thinks about translating this into a television miniseries or, at worse, a trilogy of films. Del Toro is, of course, one of the world's most talented filmmakers, currently working on a variety of projects (the biggest perhaps being a version of PINOCCHIO closer to the original source material than any to date). He has also worked extensively as a screenwriter and producer. One of his earliest American films, the horror film MIMIC, bears a number of resemblances to THE Strain books, though in other ways they are very different projects. Still, I would love to see this series of books in some way translated to either television or film.

If you love the Twilight or Anita Blake books, avoid these. These will be too scary, too literary, and too dark. But if you want the very best in vampire fiction, definitely read these remarkable books.

Out of the three books that make up the Strain trilogy, this one is my favorite. It has less filler, less repetitiveness, more substance.

We have the virus spreading around the world, a parent's bond with their child, exploration of dark places, a tagger, the Ancients, additional vampire hunters, Occido Lumen, a Mexican wrestler who is an Angel, rat poison, double-crosses, children's love for their mothers, nuclear plants.

Character development was good in The Strain: Book One of The Strain Trilogy but is even better in "The Fall." We learn more about our favorite characters and the dastardly ones, also.

I'm glad I waited until all three books of the trilogy were completed before I started to read these so that I could start reading The Night Eternal, Book III of the Strain Trilogy immediately.

In the 2nd book in the Del Toro & Hogan "Strain" trilogy, the authors continue their story of vampire hunters in an NYC overrun by bloodsuckers. The first book detailed the arrival of The Master, one of seven Ancient vampires, new to the Big Apple and bringing a contagion along with him. In The Fall, the unlikely band of vamp hunters composed of an elderly Holocaust survivor (Setrakian), a CDC doctor (Eph) and an exterminator (Fet), together with some cohorts, are in search of a very old book that may contain the secret to fighting the Ancients. Meanwhile, widespread chaos is enveloping the City as the vampire plague spreads, and The Master is setting his own greater and more deadly plot in motion.

The Fall is a fast-paced novel that builds toward a thrilling conclusion that's explosive (literally) and also sets the stage for the concluding volume of this trilogy. Even more than the first book, this one seems to have "movie" written all over it, perhaps not surprising considering Mr. Del Toro's day job. There are dozens of action sequences with cinematic potential, especially a train tunnel scene where Nora, Eph's colleague and lover, tries to evade vamps while fleeing a crashed train and protecting her elderly mom and Zach, Eph's teenaged son.

There are many vampire novels out there in the publishing world. To me, what distinguishes these Strain books from the rest are three things: (1) the unique vampire creature, perhaps shaped more by Guillermo Del Toro's imagination than Mr. Hogan's; (2) well constructed action scenes (Hogan's forte); and (3) the now-apocalyptic scale of the story as it moves relentlessly along.

In the second installment of "The Strain Trilogy," Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan again take us on an intriguing ride into the world of vampire culture and history. Setrakian and Eph, the heroes of the first novel, close in on the elusive and powerful Master, an old world vampire intent on upsetting the balance of power among the ancient vampire elites. Having armed themselves with inventive means to combat the undead minions the Master has spawned, a motley crew of characters takes on the challenge of bringing to fight back to its source.

Much of the characters' likability is because they are misfits, people who just got along in civilized society but were truly made for the apocalypse - a Eastern European professor turned Brooklyn pawnbroker, an exterminator, a small-time gangster, a washed up Mexican wrestler and a CDC whistle blower. The primary oddity of the book lies here as well when we see the exterminator start an online blog about the events in NYC. While this may be sensible in some respects as the first novel involved an extensive cover-up and accurate information was scarce, it still seems a bit contrived. The blog excerpts themselves are not engaging. Perhaps this can be understood as realistic since the exterminator can't be expected to be a good writer. But if this is the case, his writing shouldn't appear in the book. After all, we still have to read it. And furthermore, it's a vampire novel. Realism is not something we have to have at every turn. That said, the blogs are short and generally unobtrusive to the story and other contemporary and technological elements work well.

The book follows the heroes paths as they cope with the ever-widening vampire scourge. Along the way, the role of the other ancient vampires begins to come to light and contains hints about the direction of the third novel. Overall, the action swings back and forth throughout the novel as the pieces are put into play. Expect a showdown in book three that may be worthy of Hollywood.

Let me get it out in the open first : The Fall is much better than its first part , The Strain .
I gave The Strain a 2-star in its review , and here , I must say I think it warrants a 3-star .The authors has made an effort in making the characters humans, and you may actually feel for them when they are faced with adversities and obstacles and partings .
Here the interactions among characters are livelier,more believable , and actions more detailed . I just wished they will do away with that made-for-movie mentality and really write it like a book . That will indeed make this a 4-star read . Hope for the 3 instalment .

A horrific virus has been unleashed in New York, creating savage vampires that hunt indiscriminately. Civilization has pretty much crumbled, leaving anarchy in the vampires' wake. There is only a small group of people that oppose these powerful creatures, including former CDC employee Ephraim Goodweather and his son, elderly Abraham Setrakian, Nora Martinez, and exterminator Vasiliy Fet. They are the only thing in between the strigoi and total human annihilation. The story continues just after the group failed to destroy the Master, the powerful vampire behind the epidemic. Setrakian hopes to obtain a book from the 17th century that could give him the key to destroying all the vampires, but every time this book has surfaced, disaster has followed, and it costs millions of dollars. To make things worse, Eldritch Palmer, a very rich and sickly man, is giving the Master his full support and Ephraim's ex-wife turned vampire is stalking the small group of heroes to turn her loved ones. Through all these obstacles, can Ephraim and his hodgepodge group save the human race?


Usually, the second book of a trilogy drags and falls flat, simply succeeding in setting up the characters for the grand finale. The Fall is not the typical second book. It is just as compelling as the first book, but very bleak. The vampires Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan created aren't your standard tall, dark, handsome, or sparkling types that have become popular in recent years. They are disgusting and their only interest in humans is for food and transmitting the virus so it will spread as far as possible. This view of vampires is refreshing since there are so few truly dangerous vampire stories out there. I like that the physiological changes from human to vampire are described in detail. It lends a sense of realism to a usually fantastical creature.

There are a few new things in this novel that I found particularly interesting and made the novel compelling. The first is the concept that human love is corrupted and changed in the conversion from human to vampire, leading the new vampire to infect their loved ones with the virus. It makes the epidemic all that more devastating that even love isn't safe from these brutal vampires. This theme recurs throughout the novel and proves to be toxic to the protagonists. Vampire children are introduced when children blinded by the eclipse are kidnapped and turned to be troops that don't rely on eyesight to fight the enemy. These creatures are incredibly disturbing and difficult for the humans to deal with since they still appear to be children. Another new addition is the small group of original ancient vampires that oppose the Master because they view vampirism as a great gift to be given with discretion to only the most deserving. They gather and fund a small army of gang members and other random people to join the fight against the Master. It makes sense that vampires wouldn't want to overtake humans because their food source would be extremely depleted and a situation like in the film Daybreakers may ensue. In that group of fighters is an interesting character named Angel, who is a retired wrestler. He goes from an old, washed up has-been to a fierce fighter again. He experiences a kind of rebirth. His interesting past and drive to fight despite his age made him my favorite new character.

The Strain Trilogy brings vampires from the romance genre they've settled in back to their true horror roots. The Fall is a worthy follow-up to The Strain. This series is addictive and I seriously can't wait for the final installment, Eternal Night, to come out.

Nobody else today does vampires like Guillermo del Toro -- gross, nasty, parasitic monsters with stinger tongues and bloody eyes.

So unsurprisingly, you won't find any sparkling hotties in the second book of the Strain Trilogy, "The Fall," in which Del Toro's talents mesh seamlessly with those of thriller/mystery author Chuck Hogan. It's deliciously, horrendously dark and gruesome, although it takes some chapters to really launch itself off the ground.

A week has passed. New York is crumbling as vampires overrun it every night, and the human population is STILL semi-unaware of what's going on. Abraham Setrakian's little group is in hiding, especially since the newly vampirized Kelly is determined to grab her son Zach. And to make matters worse, a rich, dying man is willing to buy his own immortality via the Master.... an immortality filled with mindless animalistic horror, but whatever.

But as Eph, Fet and Nora battle the vampires in their own small way, another force is rising: the Ancient vampires who want to stop "the unclean strain spreading so promiscuously through your people." And the only way to stop all vampires worldwide may lie in an ancient book that details the way to destroy the Master... and without it, humanity is doomed.

"The Fall" is a nightmare -- crumbling civilization, an intelligent and monstrous villain, and humanity slowly being devoured by sucker-tongued monstrosities. I can't think of any other series that I would like to be in any less, because the entire world is about to become a giant vampiric petri dish. And it. Is. Awesome.

The one downside: it takes some chapters for Hogan and Del Toro to build up all that tension; it was actually kinda boring and confusing near the beginning. But fortunately, once the momentum starts building again, Hogan and Del Toro paint the blood-colored nightscape with with gore, hardcore action, astronauts and a nuclear meltdown (YES! Top that, Twilight!). Not only does del Toro carefully crafts a sweeping, epic backstory for his vampires across the world and time, but he also brings up some interesting questions about where the vampires came from.

And fear for the characters, because things are getting pretty dark for them. Elderly Jewish pawnbroker Setrakian is fleshed out even more, as we see the decades of vampire-hunting. Eph is struggling with the fact that not only is his ex-wife now a vampire, but she's determined to do the same to their son Zach (who is understandably kind of upset).

And we're introduced to a wonderful new character in Angel, an aging Mexican ex-wrestler who now does full-time vampire-slaying. This is quite possibly the coolest character in the whole series.

Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro's "The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy" is a solid middle chapter to this brilliant horror/adventure series. And it's going to get much darker before the dawn!