The Fallen (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Dream labyrinths: Nightmare corridors of sleep..." (more)
Key Phrases: Harold Crawford, Perry Holland, Quincy Sleep (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Saul's Run is a great place to raise a family. Life is good, folks live to a ripe old age, and there hasn't been a violent crime in nearly a generation. It's almost as if some force were protecting the God-fearing folk of the Run from harm...

Henry left the quiet town almost a decade ago-after his mother's tragic death and a terrible falling-out with his father. Ever since, he has shut out his memories of the Run. He has tried to not think about the day his mother died. But now-after the startling news of his father's suicide-Henry is coming home...

Home, where his former girlfriend is waiting on her dying mother and her living dreams.

Home, where his boyhood friend is mysteriously drawn to something inside an abandoned mine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Signet (November 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451207637
• ISBN-13: 978-0451207630
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #256,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic First! Truckdrivers LOVE IT!, February 19, 2003

By	Ty Cobb (Texas) - See all my reviews

It takes a bunch to impress this old country boy, but Dale Bailey has done it. Over the years, working in a truckstop and driving eighteen wheelers, you read a bunch of horror and SF books that all read and sound the same. Well, not the Fallen. I was blown away by how well-written this book is! Every chapter played on my mind's eye like them midnight flicks at the all-nite drive-in here in Texas. Full of dread, wonder, and suspense, Bailey's book puts alot of these new fangled spooky writers (and some of the older ones too--you listening, Dean Koontz?) plumb to shame. I hope he does a sequel. Heck, make it a series. These characters are made for a more drawn out story they are so well developed. And the mystery involved is so deep and profound that you'll be thinking about it for days after you finish it wondering if you really saw what you thought you saw. It reminds me of HP Lovecraft where the hero only gets a glimpse of the monster, but it is enough to send his hair white. Bailey does this with the Fallen. A great first book and I cannot wait to get in something else by him!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fallen Soars, November 11, 2002

By	Jack Slay (LaGrange, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Every once in a while there comes a novel that incorporates the best of several genres, that crosses and blends and makes startlingly new. The Fallen is one of those rare treats, a murder mystery, a contemporary fantasy, a meditation on religion. The cherry on top: the book is beautifully written, a musical tumbling of words.

Fans of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction already know Dale Bailey, author of such stories as the Nebula-nominated "The Resurrection Man's Legacy," Touched," "The Anencephalic Fields," and "Death and Suffrage," In his first novel, Bailey returns to his beloved West Virginia Appalachia, the hardscrabble lives of miners, and makes it as heart-breaking as Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha, as gritty as King's Castle Rock.

When his father supposedly commits suicide, Henry Sleep is called back to his hometown, the sleepy mining hamlet of Sauls Run. Upon return, Sleep discovers secrets by the dozen: murder, intrigue, and something utterly fantastic. Henry, his ex-girlfriend, and a cancer-riddled newspaper reporter unite against the forces that hold Sauls Run, venturing deep into the Appalachian mines. What they discover is a wonder that could quite possibly change their world.

This is an amazing first novel, one that introduces a marvelous new writer, one who simultaneously handles words like silver and forges a wonderful story. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss The Fallen!, November 10, 2002

By A Customer

If you read only one book this year, let it be this one. The Fallen is a good, engrossing story -- part suspense, part police procedural, part horror/fantasy, part philosophical thriller. Its characters are psychologically complex, doing what is understandable but not predictable. When the protagonist gears up for his fight against evil in the final pages, don't assume you know the rest. You don't. If Henry Sleep has trouble loading a gun, you can bet he is not the typical mass market paperback hero. And this is not the typical mass market paperback. It is literate and sure to make you think if you are so inclined, but entertaining enough to keep you happy if you are not. Don't miss this one!