Customer Reviews

Thunder Road

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

 

 

The tiny town of Madelyn in the California desert is experiencing a rash of strange phenomenon: unexplained lights in the sky, people vanishing, farm animals mutilated. A millenialist cult leader claiming these are the end times has his followers waiting for the Four Horsemen from the Book of Revelations to make an appearence. But none of this is exactly what you'd expect, Thorne plays on the various mythologies of UFO's, religious cults, and serial killers like a virtuoso conductor, thrilling the audience with plot twists, a fully fleshed out cast, and loads of action and violence. This epic horror novel is strongly recommended for fans of Robert McCammon or Stephen King.

While some do not know why this book was reissued at this time, it seems to be a good springboard for the next book which is based on a real Southwestern haunting.

The end of the millennium is coming and a local religious group has declared that the world with end with a scheduled eclipse. The eclipse is just a few days away and the town is getting used to seeing the Apostles around. They are also getting used to all of the UFO activity in the region. But none of that helps.

Earthquakes, serial killers, abductions, disappearances, livestock mutilations, and increased activity from the Apostles all combine in a fast-paced tale that takes us through the minds of over a dozen characters as they react to the events and discover some of their destinies.

Some things in this book go unexplained (and have a better impact for it) but most everything all ties together in the end as we see what happens when the four horsemen ride and the end of the world is here (or so they say).

At almost ten-years old this novel does show how Tamara Thorne has developed when compared to her newer books but some of her common themes were already present. So saddle up and head for the sunset and join the cast as we wait for the coming apocalypse.

Up until now, my favorite has been Haunted. Thunder Road has move up on the list. With more characters, a deeper story, and a mixture of emotions, Thunder Road will keep you guessing, wondering, and worrying about the characters. I definately reccomend Thunder Road to anyone who likes Tamara Thorne or other great Horror Novelist.

A magnificent symphony of characters and subplots that twist and tangle with each other - until they reach the impossible crescendo of theology, mythology, and murder!

Something akin to 'The Stand', Thunder Road introduces many characters with an apocalyptic undertone - but that's where the similarities end. The vast amounts of information regarding mythology, theology, and theory, and the multiple protagonists make Thunder Road move with the pace of a summer storm - a gathering of clouds, a darkening of the sky, that take cover warning in your head, and one helluva a deluge and light show. The perfect pace to bring to the reader to the climax.

The characters are intense, intricate, and interlaced with each other on so many levels that there are degrees of relationships here. Several radical character arcs made you second guess everything, and foreshadowing was done with grace. I do wish that we had seen more of our young wanna-be serial killer, but perhaps she's saving that for another novel.

The atmosphere is very 90's, when the book was originally written. You've got the feel of religious cults, UFO interest and investigations, government conspiracies, and a relaxed if not casual 'day in the life' of every level of citizen you can imagine. Expertly written to bring you into her world, Thorne's town of 'Madelyn' could easily have been the set for an Xfiles episode, complete with Mulder's belief, Scully's questions, and the smoking man's intrusions! Toss in David Koresh and Ted Bundy and you've got Thunder Road...

Because this is an older book you can see how her style of writing has evolved over the years... this one is a bit rougher around the edges but still keeps you moving along. Also because of the story being supernatural and scientific, it moves differently than a straight supernatural or horror. If this is the first Thorne you read, you'll want to read more - but if you've read the newer stuff and come back to this one, you may find yourself stumbling occasionally.

All in all, this is an excellent book - not as much horror as some would like, more like the piccolo in an orchestra.. it's there, it's wonderful, but it's not center stage. Should you buy it? Oh yeah... especially if you enjoy religious, supernatural, scientific, or action based horror.

Definitely a 4 you won't find the original, but the new version is coming out soon, get it!

I loved all of Tamara Thorne's previous novels, but I'm sorry - this one was absolutely terrible. I actually had to start scanning pages quickly because I couldn't care less about most of the characters or the storyline. UFOs, nothing even remotely scary AT ALL, many characters but only about 3 interesting ones and the rest positively boring. Tamara, this was a bad choice of a previously published work. I recently aquired 'Trickster' and 'Winter Scream' (Chris Curry and Lisa Dean) and I'm hoping they're better than this positively awful book. I'm sure the next *new* novel she writes will be better, but choosing this one among her previously published books to re-publish was a definite mistake. Perhaps she needed to buy some time....

I can't believe I read the whole thing. That isn't to say this novel was a bad read but I don't see how anyone could compare it to King. Maybe Koontz.
I found the characters very cliche and not very well fleshed out. I really can't say I'd recommend this book to anyone. I read on constantly hoping for a little more meat to the story beyond mysterious flashing lights and a all to cliche cowboy and cop character trying to rescue their loved ones. I found the ending to be very anticlimactic and the end arch of certain characters actions to be just unconvincing.
There's my two cents if it's worth anything to anyone other than me.

Combining aliens, the millenial fear that recently ran rampant, and cultic mania into a net of terror this book takes readers back to the turn of the millenium as the world waited on its ending. Livestock mutilations and satanic symbols send the residents of a small town into a battle between good and evil that may or may not have its origins on earth. Perhaps the most chilling aspect is the fact that none of the speculative horrors conjured up by the words are too unreal, much of what is written here has some basis in the newspapers.