Customer Reviews

Stranger

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

 

 

I am a first time reader of Clark's but I will definitely read more of his work! This story was very engaging and exciting. It also does not seem impossible for this to happen. Many subtle messages of perserverance, drive, etc. I highly recommend this book if you like thriller/scary stuff. Koontz fans should love this.

Well I thought the book was ok,it kept me interested init enough not to put it down,but I too thought Simon Clark could of elaborated more on Greg Valdiva's insights on he could detect "Hornets" or "Bread Bandits".Why him and what's that about him being from the "Hive",the author left me wnating to know more about that as well,other wise the ending was ok and it was a good book.

"Stranger" is a completely satisfying read from beginning to end. I agree with the first reviewer that this is better than "Blood Crazy". It had more believable characters, more realistic situations, and a convincing ending that I thoroughly enjoyed. Not everything is spelled out for the reader -- which is where your imagination takes over. My only two problems were (don't worry -- no spoilers) the two things I didn't buy... (1) the towns punishment and (2)Mel's discovery. Everything else was quite nice. However, this wasn't a scary book, but if you enjoy apocalyptic epics, this is a fun ride. Chalk up another victory for Simon Clark.

Although I've been a major fan of Simon Clark's since first reading KING BLOOD years ago, STRANGER sadly feels more like a retread than anything else. While it does have its moments, they are few and far between amongst a rather uninvolving and confusing tale of zombies that aren't quite zombies. Clark never fully explains exactly what's going on in the story as a strange plague in South America begins killing people, driving the starving survivors northwards. Exactly when the plague shifts to making people insane with rage, or why some of the supposedly infected act perfectly normal while the hero of the story, Greg Valdiva, hacks them to pieces with an ax, is beyond me. The twist revelation at the end is merely confusing (at least to me). If end-of-the-world tales are you kind of thing, Clark has done two others that are much much stronger. King Blood and Blood Crazy. I suggest you check them out instead.

This is even better than Clark's classic BLOOD CRAZY. A must for end-of-the-world-type of story fans. Loaded with inventive kill scenes, tension, and some good doomsday commentary. I believe this is Clark's first novel to take place in the USA, and he does a great job using American slang (and not British). Great job. One of the funnest horror tales I've read in some time.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book "Stranger" by Simon Clark and that I feel that overall it was a very well-written and interesting book that held my interest, although it isn't perfect. The premise of the book is that civilization has collapsed following the outbreak of a disease that makes people go crazy and creates in them an all-consuming desire to kill anyone who isn't infected. Another symptom of the disease in the early stages is that once you catch it you become extremely afraid of other people who have the disease. The disease originally broke out in South America and as a result the people who caught it in South America presumable became terrified of other people with the disease and wanted to get as a far away from them as possible so they immigrated to the United States. So what happened is two-thirds of the population of the entire continent of South America poured into the United States. Once they got here many of them would stand at the side of the road begging for bread so the Americans nicknamed them "bread bandits." As the disease progressed in them they started to go crazy and they developed an overwhelming desire to kill anyone who wasn't infected. So what happened is one day the "bread bandits" went on a rampage all across the United States and started burning down our cities, killing huge numbers of people, and destroying everyone's property. As a result our society collapsed. Except for one small town in New Jersey where the main character lives. This town in New Jersey has been fortunate enough to have been completely spared of the destruction the rest of the country has gone through. The main character, who lives in this town, has the unique ability to supernaturally sense whether or not any person he comes in contact has the disease. As a result he is the town executioner. The people of the town use him to screen any strangers who come wandering into the town for the disease. If they have the disease he kills them. Problems arise for the main character when the people of the town start to become so paranoid about catching the disease that they begin acting in irrational and immoral ways. I won't say what they actually do or reveal anymore of the plot because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might read this book.

The book was captivating, interesting, and had a good premise. It was a page-turner and I found it hard to put down. The only complaint I have about the book is the ending. I was hoping in the end the author would explain in detail the true nature of the disease and what it ultimately was transforming people into. Throughout the book the reader is kept in the dark about just what this mysterious disease is and why it causes people to turn into homicidal maniacs. I felt that by the end of the book the reader deserves a decent explanation of the disease, since the disease and its effects upon mankind form the crux of the plot. However, the explanation given by the author leaves most questions unanswered. This was disappointing. Another problem I have with the book is how easily our society collapsed. I felt that this was somewhat unrealistic. To me, it doesn't seem probable that a bunch of South American immigrants would be able to completely obliterate the entire United States in a matter of days. How could they defeat the United States military, the most powerful military in the world ? How could they defeat our law enforcement ? I know that the author says two-thirds of the population of South America had come to the United States, but I find it hard to believe that even two-thirds of South America could so easily topple our entire society and destroy the entire infrastructure of the United States. This is yet another facet of the book that the author could have explained in more detail. That said, I do recommend this book. It was a compelling, enjoyable read and as far as books with an "apocalyptic" premise go this has to be among the best.

Stranger, as of May 2011, is probably my second-least-favorite novel of all time. It holds the silver medal and will remain forever in the shadow of Sephera Giron's Borrowed Flesh. My least favorite book ever isn't a novel but a collection by John Shirley, but that isn't important. I hated Stranger. As usual, I went into it with no knowledge of what it was about. I only knew it was horror and that is what I love. This is another apocalyptic, human race on the brink of extinction, people quaranteening areas and fighting for survival and Greg Valdiva is the Stranger who will save it all. That's my horrible take on the book anyway. I didn't really get much of it. The clearest memory I have is of Greg and a girl (can't even remember her name) popping popcorn together. That is the only scene that made an impression and stuck with me and I don't even know why. Perhaps this book was a victim of outside sources ruining it for me or distracting me, but I don't think so. I read all 418 pages and was overjoyed to finish and move onto something different, and hopefully better.

I mainly read Zombie tale books and I read BLOOD CRAZY by this author and thought it was FANTASTIC!!!! I enjoyed the book so much I didn`t want it to end!! So I tried STRANGER by Simon Clark and it was a GREAT read also. I`ve never read a book with this kind of story. A sickness or virus has taken out most of the world. The people that get sick die or become crazy and the crazys run in groups trying to find and kill the normal people. With all of this going on there is one last small community that go`s on living life like nothing has changed,but something has changed!! You`ll have to read the book to find out!!! GREAT READ!!!!!

Simon Clark, Stranger (Leisure, 2003)

Back in the old days, when I joined Chapter-a-day (now DearReader), Stranger was one of the first books I had an excerpt of sent to me via email. I liked the premise and a friend of mine had been talking Clark up to me for a while (and this is the guy who recommended Simon Maginn, so I trust him implicitly), so I decided to give him a go. Of course, it then took me years to actually get round to reading the novel. I have a procrastination problem sometimes.

Stranger is the story of Greg Valdiva, a guy living in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the human race has been wiped out by a plague. In the first third of the book, he's living in the island community of Sullivan, which has survived untouched by the plague; Valdiva, through some sort of sixth sense, can tell if any strangers new to town are infected, and stop them before they can infect the rest of the town. Things go bad in Sullivan, however, and Valdiva sets out into the nearest city to see if there are any other survivors. The latter two-thirds of the book deals with what he finds out there.

A (different) friend of mine, when we were walking home from seeing Bill Forsyth's wonderful film Housekeeping, remarked that British writers should never try to do American slang. "It just doesn't come off right," he said. I disagreed with him there, but I got an echo of him saying that while I was reading this book, which is written by a British writer and set in America; there are a few too many Britticisms for these characters to really stick as Americans. Also, the book seems to suffer from attention deficit disorder a number of times; Clark jst tries to work way too much in here, and the book ends up being less fast-paced than cluttered. Still, if you're in the market for a book that gives new meaning to the phrase "action-packed" and is written by a dependable (if slightly inconsistent) author, Stranger fills the bill nicely. ***

Strangers is chocked full of action, mystery, intrigue, creepy as hell moments, strong-willed characters with concrete goals, and a
few moving, emotional moments. The ending is a little too convenient in a way, but it doesn't bring down the rest of the book.

I love apocalyptic tales; this one certainly didn't dissapoint. Clarks words flow together well to weave a story that's full of tension and angst. As for pace, something is always happening.

I recommend this to everyone - even though it DOES have holes, who cares when its this good?? Pick it up immediately!