Customer Reviews

The Keep (Adversary Cycle)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I approached this book with some trepidation - I really don't like vampire fiction and I'm not a huge fan of horror. I am, however, a HUGE fan of F. Paul Wilson. So I decided to give this book a shot. I was not disappointed.

Wilson crafts a great tale of evil being killed by evil. In the midst of the frightening conflict there are innocent people - some with the strength of will to conquer evil. A Nazi army takes over a castle-like building in Romania. When they begin to pry the decorative crosses off the stone walls, all heck breaks loose when an evil within the walls is set loose. Only a warrior without equal can conquer the terrifying evil entity in the Keep.

This is a well written story. It was full of suspense. It isn't quite a gory as I thought it would be - I was relieved. It was a well crafted thriller with a satisfying ending. This book earned permanent keeper status on my shelf. I highly recommend this book!

During the World War II a small detachment of German soldiers arrives at a remote Romanian mountain pass. Their mission is to stay at the Keep, a mysterious centuries-old fortified structure, and from there to watch over the pass. However, one of the soldiers inadvertently disturbs something within the Keep and is consequently murdered in the most horrific way imaginable. On every subsequent night another soldier is murdered under similar mysterious circumstances. The news of these murders reaches the German high command, which decides to send a group of notorious Einsatzkommandos to sort things out. Despite their initial arrogance, they too end up being stymied by an evil that seems to defy their imagination. Things become complicated with an arrival of a few outsiders, some who come voluntarily and some who had been forced to help with the investigation. It all culminates in a terrifying and brutal final showdown.

This is a fairly original variation on the theme of vampire and Dracula lore. I decided to read this book after watching the eponymous Michael Mann movie. (Which, unfortunately, has not been released on DVD yet. The movie was very atmospheric and visually intriguing, but many points of the plot development left me wanting for more information. The book fills in some of these gaps. The first half of the book and the movie are more or less identical, with only some minor alterations that don't change much in terms of the plot development. Some of the latter scenes in the book, however, are also much more horrifying than anything that could be seen in the movie. In the final part of the book we find out more about the mysterious evil presence in the Keep, its origin and its purpose. Personally, I was not too impressed with these explanations - they were not too imaginative for my liking. In fact, it might have been a good idea to leave them out of the movie version after all.

Overall, this is a well written and intriguing supernatural horror thriller that will please all the lovers of this genre.

I saw the movie before I read the book. The book is better. Did I really need to tell you that? Ras. is a really spooky dude. Get the book and get the movie(if you can find, it's not on DVD). I only have 3 F. Paul Wilson books that I haven't read yet and he has never disappointed me.

This is the scariest book I've ever read. I wish I could find a copy to read again. This novel is horror and history combined and so original you'll never forget it.The movie leaves out some of the best scenes in the book, but I love it anyway. Hope it comes out on DVD soon.

I got caught up with his book when a film review came out of nowhere and the reviewer highly criticized Michael Mann's adaption of this 1981 book. My mother had given me the book for Christmas and I had forgotten about it when this review appeared. I ordered the DVD from a Canadian film house and then I got the screenplay. To really compare notes is why I ordered the book: to see how much Mann had altered it. The book is a good read if you're into supernatural stuff. The story is about a nazi detail that holds up in a castle like structure called The Keep which is at a conjunction that is on a road that overlooks the path to the Soviet oil fields that the Germans have captured and will use to supply their tanks and other vehicles. Right away, the men hear of a legend that the crosses in the wall are made of silver and gold, so that night, two men on guard duty try to pick at it only to awaken the spirit of the vampire. It goes on a killing spree prompting the officer in charge to send a request for help to his commanding officers back in Poland. Out comes the SS with their way of running things and conflict between the different units ensue. When the SS officer tries to get a local to explain a piece of writing in the Keep, he learns that the only man who can interpret it is a Jew. He's sent for and arrives with his daughter who is the book's love interest( and sex interst with those horney Germans). As soon as the monster was awaken, our hero was awaken as well and begins a journey of a thousand miles to kill the creature. The rest of the story is what happens when they all converge at The Keep. I liked it and wrote to the author, F. Paul Wilson, asking if he would grant me, an independant film maker, the rights to film it again. Unfortunately, Mr. Wilson told me Paramount owns the rights-they never reverted back to him- so I can't shoot it the way he would have liked it to be shot. Dang!

I was drawn to this book via the arty-but-incomprehensible '83 movie adaptation directed by Michael Mann. I like "ancient evil" horror in general, and "ancient evil versus modern soldiers" especially. So the premise--which at first seemed to me rather like Nazis-vs-Cthulhu--was pretty exciting to me. The movie turned me off after about half an hour, but, intrigued, I bought the book, and read it. Or started to read it. The atmosphere is tense and foreboding and the premise artfully conceived. It all works quite well until the face of the evil inhabiting the titular Keep is finally revealed. I won't include any spoilers, but I will say that I think Wilson has committed one of the classic horror blunders by not keeping us guessing for, well, quite a bit longer than he did. Stephen King called it "opening the door." Wilson opens it too soon.

And too wide. The evil floating green cloud doesn't necessarily have to have a face in it. And if it does, in the end, it doesn't have to be just one. And it doesn't have to be a human face. Spielberg was right about the shark: These things are scarier if hinted at, rather than detailed.

Pure entertainment. My favorite book, by my favorate author. I've been reading him since the 80's and can't get enough! Read this then The Tomb and you will be hooked on F Paul Wilson too!

I first read this book over twenty years ago, when it was first released and loved it. I decided that it was time to give it another go around to see if my original opinion of it still held. Well, time has certainly not diminished the power of this book to hold the reader in its thrall. I still love this book, and it remains my favorite book by this author.

As far as horror stories go, this one is definitely up with the best of them. The author has written a riveting page turner with this tautly written, inventive tale. The author has taken some vampire folklore and given it a new twist. In the hands of this master of the horror genre, the quintessential battle between good and evil takes on a new dimension.

In Romania, deep in the heart of the Transylvanian Alps, lies the Dinu Pass. In April of 1941, a small squadron of German soldiers has been ordered to occupy a small, deserted, five hundred year old castle keep at the Dinu pass. From the beginning, Captain Klaus Woermann senses that there is something unusual about the keep. Looking as if it had just been built and inlaid with brass and nickel crosses in every corridor, crosses that the caretaker for the keep exhorts the Germans not to touch, the keep is an architectural oddity.

Soon the games begin, as an unseen force begins murdering his men. Captain Woermann sends a message to the high command. To his dismay, they respond by sending a Nazi squadron of einsatzkommandos under the leadership of SS Major Kaempffer to quell whatever local guerilla activity is, undoubtedly, responsible for the murders. Soon, these death's head troopers begin succumbing to the same fate as their German Army counterparts, and all hell breaks loose.

Enter the ailing Dr. Theodor Cuza, a Romanian Jew and former professor at the University of Bucharest. Although suffering from the ravages of scleroderma, he is ordered by the Nazis to the keep, as he is an expert in the history of the region. It is hoped that he will be able to shed some light on the mysterious keep and enable his hosts to defeat their unknown adversary.

Accompanied by Magda, his daughter, they find themselves confronted with the cruelty of the Nazis, the unexpected kindness of Captain Woermann, and something from their worst nightmares that has them call into question their deepest beliefs. Then, a mysterious red-headed stranger with piercing blue eyes appears, and nothing is ever the same again.

This is one of the premier horror stories of all time. Bravo!

My father in law lives in England and was having a difficult time finding this book. I finally found it on here (I couldn't find it in the bookstores here.....suprisingly). He loved it, couldn't put it down. He loves to read but will put down a book fast enough if it does not intrigue him. I highly recommend it although I have not read it personally.

I love F. Paul Wilson's stuff, so all I can say is another good read.