Duncan Wallace

I bought this because of the reference to Pans Labyrinth which was pure genius from start to finish. The Strain is far from it. The narration was really irritating and, as others have said, monotone. No sense of excitement or emotion in the reading. The writing did not live up to expectations. Too many examples of people dying at the vampires hands followed a set pattern and became formulaic. I was saying to myself, 'Yes, yes, get on with it. Boring.' The music at each chapter was exactly the same and I have never been so irritated by a piece before. I was getting relieved to get near the end when low and behold it's a triology. Very disappointing and if it had been half the story that Pans Labyrinth had been it would have been 10 times better than this effort. I was also thinking that this has pretty much been done/said before and was a bit cliched. Nothing really new and surprising. The point when they are fighting the Vampire Boss, and what happens at that point is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard/read even in this story.

Like a few comments before, I really liked the action parts with covert ops but the preaching presidential candidate speech was just too much. Seemed like it was trying to be everything to everyone and became too thinly spread to be really good. The secret organisation too; bypassing the constitution and just about everything else with all the good guys spouting its worth...mmm...really?

Quite honestly, this book could have been a disaster, so important is Owen Meany's portrayal but Joe Barrett did an absolutely stunning job. The narration was spot on. Thank you. Thank you. I loved it from start to finish.

I love this book. It's brilliant, to the point, honest and it's about time somebody pointed out the obvious paradoxes and crimes that derive from religion. Please file the bible under 'fiction'.