Customer Reviews

Tower

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

 

 

The Tower proves once again that Simon Clark is one of the top 10 horror writers working today. I've read a ton of haunted house type books, and thought I've seen it all. However, Clark's originality has added even more layers to the genre. There were two specific ideas in this book that I had never read before in horror that really impressed me (a horror twist involving an echo and reflections in a window). The story was so fast paced I finished this book in 3 days. Clark's writing is superb and his characters are interesting and relatable.

My only complaint is with Leisure Books, the publisher. I've been a devoted fan of the company for years and it's time I put my foot down. This book has a TON of spelling errors that are inexcusable for a professional publishing house. They seriously need to FIRE the copy editor for letting these errors get to the printer. If that's not bad enough, on page 241, there is a character talking about someone else with the same name! Guys! Wake up! This is not high school. This is embarrassing. Please contact me and I'll do a better copy editing job for free. Seriously. Anyway, Simon Clark is not at fault for this problem, but it definitely takes you out of the story when things are spelled incorrectly.

I got this from a book club so it wasn't something I went out and purchased by choice. I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did.

This book is pretty much your typicial tale of a group of people stuck in a "haunted" house. This time around its a band. This sort of turned me off.. I tend to hate when authors stick in musicians in order to show off their musical knowledge (the author actually wrote stuff for the band U2). However, as the book progressed, the characters became likeable and the plot sped on at a furious pace. The chapters are short which makes it go by even faster.

Honestly, the plot and story itself aren't even too original. But its the characters and the way its written which makes it exciting. One thing I also noticed from Simon Clark was his sort of relaxed prose style. His "third person" point of view isn't dry, sometimes its sarcastic and uses slang. (I don't know if that made sense..).

This would be a good book to read when you have an evening free. You won't be disappointed. (The ending, however, may strike people as rather corny if you think about it.. But while you are reading it, Simon Clark makes it make sense).

Simon Clark is one of the best post-apocalyptic horror writers working today, as evidenced by BLOOD CRAZY and STRANGER. Now, he tries something different, putting a twist on the classic haunted house theme. Admirably done.

Simon Clark is one of my all time favorite horror writers and he tackled the "haunted house" story with a brand new and thoroughly riveting approach. He creates a layered story that I personally find a challenge to read. It's not that the story is hard to follow (Clark is very clear in his writing style) its just that his mind is so twisted you never know where he's going to take you.
If you liked DARKNESS DEMANDS, then you'll love THE TOWER.

This has to be one of the w o r s t books I have ever read- I struggled through most of it, hoping it would pick up. Some parts of the story were mildly entertaining, as when the characters imagined their own deaths. But the author never really seemed to pick up any steam with this story as I hoped he might- I kept waiting for it to get "good". It read like a bad slasher book and it seemed like he was just trying too hard. Overwritten, and with a totally unbelievable (and completely stupid) ending, even for a fictitious story. the characters were flat, the only one I ended up caring about was the dog! I felt cheated by having spent my time on this one. I don't think I will bother to read anything else by Mr. clark again- he is highly overrated.

The Tower is my favorite Simon Clark novel by far. Well, that's not really the best way to put it. It is the only Simon Clark novel I even like but I like it quite a lot. Maybe I'm a bit biased because the main characters are members in a rock group and I can relate to them, but it has a different feel than the other Clark books I've read. It is, quite simply, yet another house story. All right, haunted tower story. The band become its house-sitters, and plan on using it to get some new material written and practice, but the Tower apparently doesn't enjoy their music because...well you'll have to read it for yourselves. Maybe I'm the crazy one because, as of May 2011, the Tower has an average rating of 2.9. I don't get that when a novel as mediocre as Blood Crazy earned itself a 4.11. Oh well, I recommend the Tower for horror fans.

I loved this book right to the end , the characters becoming people I cared about which leads me to the only critisim I ahve of the book. The Czech seemed to be someone Clark could have developed more instead of killing her off almost at the beginning, I am sure Fisher should have tried harder to find her than he did but overall a good read. Incidentally I come from Clark's part of the world and his atmospheric description of the wild country of Yorkshire the feeling of remotness remarkable in such a small island brings it all back to me.

I bought this book before I read the reviews and was worried that it was going to have been a waste of money. I was shocked at how great a read this is. It really gave me the 'bump in the night' feeling. I couldn't put it down and my heart jolted every time I heard a noise while I was reading it. Ever time you think you know what's going to happen and the dreaded feeling of 'you just walked into a stereotypical chapter that will wreck the book' creeps up on you, your surprised. Yes, the publisher should have never printed it with as many typo mistakes as there are but I'm glad they did. I've already passed it on to some of my fellow book lovers and all of them love it so far. If you can get past the bad editing, I highly recommend you read this book!!

Ever since I've picked up my first Simon Clark book, I've sought out everything he has written. The Tower was a satisfactory read which I finished in one day. This is a good "haunted house" story. The characters are interesting, and I found myself hoping they all escaped the horror of The Tower.

I've been on Holidays and I picked this up from a pile of books my Grandad had borrowed from the library. I really personally liked it as some light entertainment... But halfway through it I was starting to think the writer was sexist, wrote about a character he couldn't even form or imagine, and a dog lover. These things continually niggled at me, not to mention the number of people actually changed throughout the novel when mentioned how many people were left and was always wrong! Personally whether the editor died or not the book should have gone to another editor, because unfortunality there's a lot missing in the book. Not even missing it just doesn't make sense. One of the Characters Sterling, it was never mentioned he ever arrived at all and when ever mentioned he had the most short lived paragraphs ever. It got to the point where they could have killed him off and not told you what happened to him. I'm also saying its sexist or the Author got some odd kick out of killing of the female characters or torturing them. Which I guess is fair enough. Not only that, there really wasn't a large description of the evil, why did it trade two lives for one man? When the killer had to trade two lives for the pain? The book insinuates a lot but doesn't further explore the ideas it first puts out.
I dunno, I liked it, it was fun to read at the time but it left a bad hang over.