Carrion Comfort

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Mel Foster, Laural Merlington

Length: 39 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

"Carrion Comfort is one of the three greatest horror novels of the 20th century. Simple as that." (Stephen King)

"Epic in scale and scope but intimately disturbing, Carrion Comfort spans the ages to rewrite history and tug at the very fabric of reality. A nightmarish chronicle of predator and prey that will shatter your world view forever. A true classic." (Guillermo del Toro)

"Carrion Comfort is one of the scariest books ever written. Whenever I get asked the question Who's your favorite author? my answer is always Dan Simmons." (James Rollins)

"One of the few major reinventions of the vampire concept, on a par with Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot. (David Morrell)

THE PAST...

Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves...

THE PRESENT...

Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to "use" humans: read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable aggression. Each year, three of the most powerful of this hidden order meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and deliberate destruction. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul's quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the depths of mankind's attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself...

©2009 Dan Simmons (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Great Story

This was an excellent book and it was read very well. My 2nd Dan Simmons, much better than expected. I bought it because it was on sale for $0.99, it was worth way more!

Had me screaming and kicking...hard to stop listen

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

YES! If you like to think and look at all options..think you know what might happen and then Dan Simmons throws a curve ball everytime!.... you my friends will love this book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Carrion Comfort?

Melony is the most horrific babyish insane mind vampire of the whole group. I loved the end when she is showing again her paranoia and hunger...and she thinks she is ALWAYS right...downright creepy.

Which character – as performed by Mel Foster and Laural Merlington – was your favorite?

Tough..loved Willie. He was almost as awful as Melony. Nina played a short wicked part but was forever the fear of Melanie. For evil I choose Melony.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Tough again. Sol's memories of the concentration camps..his whole life's purpose and internal struggles and all the wonderful people who came together with Sol to kill the minfmd vampires.

Any additional comments?

Natalie the "negress" and all the dated predjudiced terms I forgot I grew up with were reminders of what is always possible to happen again at any time.Hatred and evil has always been around and sorry to say will be. People who can manipulate and be charismatic are the true mind vampires that the author writes about. I believe using politicians..Hitler...and the holocaust are the perfect canvas for Dan Simmons to paint his "mind vampires" who are real but not in the supernatural way. That was just a tool for his novel...or a novel tool. :)

A long listen but well worth it

This is the 1st novel I've listened to from this author and I found it very enjoyable. It was genuinely scary. I was a little reluctant to start such a long book but it was well worth it.

This needs to be a movie!!

This was an amazing book that I stumbled across by accident and I'm so glad I did. I can't believe this book came out 30 yrs ago and still feels so relevant and original. It's a brilliant concept with great storytelling and action. It makes you question what if all the terrible shit that's happened throughout history is really from people like the characters in this story and the 2 narrators really brought this story to life...5 star performance!!

Great story and performance

I enjoyed this story a lot, but I can’t say enough about the performances of the 2 narrators. Their voices and accents for all characters were great!

Dan Simmons characters are deep

I must admit I am a Dan Simmons fan and then I enjoy his sagas. this book does a great job of turning a very dark and cruel game into a metaphorical chess game between two superpowers.

The characters he uses are very in-depth and it's very easy to sympathize with every single one of them at different times.

it is a long book, but it's definitely worth the audible credit. this may just be me, but I don't know if I would classify it as horror as much as dark psychological.

Keeps you glued to the earphones

This offering from Dan Simmons is more of a horror thriller than a strictly sci-fi genre book. Ordinarily I wouldn't have listened to this book, but having recently listened to the Hyperion series I decided on the strength of the storyline to give it a go. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed, despite the lack of "sci-finess" (or fantasy) which I usually look for.

This is a long book and understanding Simmons penchant for long and involved descriptions, almost rambling sometimes, he still builds a wonderful and gripping story that begs you to listen to the next chapter.

Simmons provides an interesting twist on the vampire theme now so common in print and video and with this being written almost 25 years ago, the variation is quite unique. In addition he skillfully blends in historical events and presents questions of morality that help to build the depth of the main characters in the book.

The bad characters are so horrible, they are almost likeable. They do the bad things you expect and the good guys are presented with situations that question their ethics and morality. Questions that still very relevant in today's society.

The narrators do an excellent job. The point of view swaps between first and third person depending on the character, but is consistent and works well as intended by the author.

The book and historical material is deep, insightful and well researched, giving great support to the overall premise of the storyline. If you wear a tin-foil hat you might almost believe it!

Overall a great book and worth the time to listen to a great yarn from an outstanding author.

well written

the only gripe I have is that the old lady gets her own narrator , who is fabulous and everyone else shares the same narrator who is middling but still a good story and interesting , it feels a bit like simmons wrote a bunch of shorter novels or stories and then mxed the characters together into the larger volume ,and at least its not narrated by john lee.

Maybe I just can’t get over ...

The repeated use of the word “n*gger,” negress,” pickaninny,” “black b*tch” or referring or comparing black people to unintelligent animals or suggesting they are sub-human made this novel a most unenjoyable read.

I understand that the use of these negative terms and ideas was to highlight 1) the time period; and 2) how certain characters felt about black people. And I can even understand that the feelings/views of the characters do not necessarily reflect the views of the author. I just found myself wanting everyone to die a bloody death. I was completely unable to connect with any of the characters and did not enjoy the story.

The storyline was creative (although some scenes were not new — an episode of Star Trek came to mind with the chess pieces), but for me (a black woman) the story was hard to read.

Everything

This is simply an amazing book. I’m on my second listen and I’m remembering so much that I’d forgotten. I get the criticisms I’ve read in the reviews, they’re not invalid, but they don’t really matter. It’s just a stunner of a story, super intense, weird, dark, horrifying. Not perfect, but highly recommended.