21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark, disturbing and completely mesmerizing, June 9, 2000
Imagine a modernized Brothers Grimm tale for adults. Perfect for anyone that loved The Manchurian Candidate or Jacob's Ladder. Wallace leads the reader into Poland as well as a forgotten Hamelin to face the horrors of war, a mysterious disease, and a town under siege. Gruesome and gripping, Wallace cuts to the heart of the Pied Piper tale and exposes the frightening truth--the Piper is here to save us from ourselves.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging to the end, July 17, 2000
This book was captivating from the beginning, and the author creates an eerie sense of anticipation that builds as the story unfolds.
For parents encouraging young teenage children to build their reading and reasoning abilities, this book could be quite an exciting challenge. The author has sufficient command of the power of language that he didn't have to stoop to using "strong" language to cover his own weakness. The few love scenes are fairly discreet as well.
The only small criticism I have is that the ending is not quite as surprising as the author would have us believe. Imagine sitting through a very well structured talk, only to have the conclusion be something a bit more obvious than you might have expected. Enjoyable all the same. If Mr. Wallace has more books out, I expect to read another soon.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Million Four Hundred Sixty Six Thousand and Twenty Three, June 20, 2000
As I write, the number above is the rank this book currently occupies as denoted by sales. There must have been a meeting on the "grassy knoll" of publishers to keep this brilliant work from us. The book has only recently been published here in the US, this month, but Europe has been enjoying this work of Mr. Wallace's since 1998 and in 5 languages!
The work is brilliant, for this to be a debut novel is only just this side of remarkable. The last premier of an Author that came close to this type of exciting discovery was "In The Fall" by Mr. Jeffrey Lent. The works do not share the same genre unless excellence has now been named as such.
The book moves like a wraith from the era of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church during the 30 years war to Eastern Europe as it stumbles from the nightmare of WW II into the evil existence that is Mr. Wallace's creation. The reading of this book is truly an experience, a dark and evil feeling that Edgar Allan Poe would leave a reader with. Reading this book is to almost be infected with one of the forms of dread that lies in wait for you in this work.
The seemingly few graphic descriptions of suffering almost pass you by, as unease leaves you cold and trying not to think about the implications you have read. There is nothing common in the manner the Author delivers his terror to you. Much of the book you are in a group listening to the protagonist recount his story many years after he believes he understands what it is that happened.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is as evil in the hands of Mr. Wallace as that player of pipes has ever been. His memory alone tortures those in a holding camp in Tarutz Poland, indeed it drives one expected to be the most rational insane.
When the young Doctor enters Tarutz for the first time it is as follows "the despair hit me as soon as we entered, seeping in silently through the windows, through the leather soles of my boots, the wretched earth laden with poisonous seed. If hell has a garden, an underworld equivalent of Eden, we were now there."
Fantastic writing, great story, and the talent pours from the book as from one of the masters of the 19th Century.
You will love this book!
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