"The Fall" Book 2 of "The Strain Trilogy" by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

"The Fall"
Book 2 of "The Strain Trilogy"
by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Read by Daniel Oreskes
Produced by Harper Audio
Approx. 11.5 hours.

The teaming up of del Toro and Hogan to create this trilogy has turned out to be a pretty haunting affair. "The Strain" (the first book in the trilogy) introduced the horror world to a different view of vampires. This time around the heroes are not the vampires or are the vampires the subject of lustful desire, instead the mythology of vampires returns to the dark horror of life stealing blood suckers to be feared and staked or in this case killed with silver. Some other twists that del Toro and Hogan have added are; instead of fangs the vampires have stingers under their tongues, the spreading of vampirism is through parasitic virus-like blood worms and that there are seven "Ancients" that basically are the leaders of the vampires and have been around for centuries.

The story behind the "Ancients" is where this book focuses. The first book told of the spread of the strain of virus turning New York City back to ground zero, this time for the spread of vampires.

The heroes are Abraham Setrakian, a proffesor from the old world who has been hunting vampires since before World War II, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather a formerly with the CDC, he was listed as a criminal when he tried to alert the world of the vampire invasion, Eph's Son Zach, whose mother was turned and is now hunting him, andFet an exterminator who now has a new form of vermin to hunt.

Setrakian has revealed to all that he has been hunting "The Master" for most of his life and that "The Master" is responsible for the sudden influx of vampires in the New World. The Ancients have all been around for centuries and have maintained their anonymity, so why now do they become public and seek to ponentially wipe out their food source? The secret lies behind the Master.

Setrakian, Fet, and Eph join up with a battle force from the Ancients in order to prevent The Master from completing his plans. Using silver weapons and UV lamps to battle the vamps the various skirmishes lead up to one big battle with The Master. A new character brought into this story takes part in the final battle and has some great fighting styles throughout the book. His name is Angel and he's a former wrestler turned movie star, not a normal wrestler but a Luche Libre, a masked Mexican Wrestler. His movies usually had him pitted up against vampires, but nothing like he's experiencing now.

The reader, Daniel Oreskes, does a great job of reading this book, his voice adds to the drama and horror underlying the story and at the same time he is able to allow the listener to discern between who is talking/thinking by subtle vocal changes.

The nice thing about this audiobook, in that it is part of a trilogy, but del Toro and Hogan write enough of the backstory so that if you were to jump in with this book instead of the first or that a long span of time passed between books, you wouldn't be lost in what is going on. Don't get me wrong though, read the first book, because both of these stories have some great storytelling of epic proportions.

"The Strain" Written by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

"The Strain"
Written by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Read by Ron Perlman
Produced by Harper Audio
approx 13.5 hours.


Let's start this review out by saying, "Whow," that would be the combination of whew and wow together. The whew from the the tension filled time you will spend listening to this audio book. The wow from the exclamation you will expel from listening to this re-imagining of the world of vampires. Guillermo del Toro, creator of such films as "The Devil's Backbone," "Blade II," "Hellboy" (I & II) and "Pan's Labyrinth," has teamed up with author Chuck Hogan (author of "The Standoff" & "Prince of Thieves) to create "The Strain." This book is part one of what is slated to be a trilogy. I will attest to the idea that this audio book can be treated as a stand alone book with great action and a conclusion, but there is a cliff hanger that will leave you wanting more, thus the trilogy will be absorbed by me.

Ron Perlman, who you may know as the star of the "Hellboy" movies or maybe as "the Beast" in the TV series "Beauty and the Beast," does a very nice job of performing this book. At times he almost seems monotone in quality but that is easily justified by the idea that he is allowing the listener to make the story in his mind. Don't get me wrong, monotone is necessary in some areas, but Ron Perlman delivers the action with a punch, slows down just right for the tense moments and keeps the voice quality different for each character. He does a smash-up performance in the voice of Professor Abraham Setrakian, a survivor of a Holocaust death camp and now vampire hunter.

The story begins in a post-9/11 New York City where a Boeing 777 has landed at JFK airport. The landing is perfect and without event, however once the plane begins taxiing it just merely stops and loses all power. The air traffic controllers need the strip for other planes to land and after repeated attempts at communication send a baggage cart out to investigate. The driver of the baggage cart sees a dead airplane with no lights anywhere and all the widow shades closed. The drive gets the feeling of being watched and immediately flees. Everyone suspects a hi-jacking or possible bomb but when the team arrives to investigate they find everyone on the plane dead.

Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of CDC's rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, is ordered to get his team on the plane and investigate. What he finds is a strain of parasite that could lead to the extinction of mankind.

That strain of parasite is what is delToro's & Hogan's re-imagining of vampirism. Vampires are all controlled by parasites. In this book there is more than just attacking vampires, there is a war being waged. Who will survive?

For the 13 plus hours it took to listen to this audio book I was completely enthralled by the great story telling, the complex story line and intense drama and thrills. This has got to be one of the best vampire books I've heard in a long time. Bram Stoker had me scared, Stephen King's vampires had me startled, Anne Rice had me wanting to become a vampire, but after this one...I'm carrying silver and keeping an eye over my shoulder.