The Strain

By: Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan

Narrated by: Ron Perlman

Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event.

They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come. In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country. In two months - the world.

A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.

In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing....

So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city - a city that includes his wife and son - before it is too late.

©2009 Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

A gruesome and interesting take on a tired genre

Hogan and Del Toro have done a worthy job of bringing the mythical vampire back to its darker roots. This novel laughs in the face of teen stories involving beautiful vampires as objects of lust (yes Twilight, I'm looking at your pathetic crap).

The Strain explores the vampire myth from a virology point of view. Vampirism is presented wholly as a parasitic disease. It blends elements of the zombie and vampire myths together. It's a somewhat new take on the genre and the story moves along mostly well, except for some repetition of how scenes play out when the strain breaks out. The exposition is great, and the inclusion of the "Masters" - seven mysterious elder vampires from which the strain is born - is very intriguing.

I will agree with most people and say that Perlman's narration is mostly flat and lacking any punch and conviction. However it wasn't a book-ruining experience for me. I like him as an actor and found his deep voice moved the story along well. I've heard far worse.

I'll definitely be picking up the next book and am also eagerly awaiting the TV series.

Better than television?

The audiobook is good and describes the action and events well.It’s not television but you can use your imagination.That’s what’s good about reading and listening.

Terror-ific book

All in all, not your normal "vampire" book but more of an apocalyptic bio-weapon sort of book. In this case the weapon is a virus that causes one to turn into an almost mindless vampire at first. That is, one becomes almost a "zombie" type of blood-sucker that congregates with it's own kind and then attacks and feeds at night on anyone not infected. Sunlight is deadly to these infected victims/vampires.

The battle to contain this virus is the meat of this first book, and it's a page turner given that there's a very rich human involved... on the side of the vampires. That little fact provides for some great plot twists.

Five stars in all three categories from me since the narration by Ron Perlman was spot on. This was a terrific listen all the way.

By the way, I was surprised at how closely the television show followed the book. There were some obvious differences, but the show and the book are very close. I'm sure season 2 will follow book two and so on, but we'll see. I've already gotten bot the follow up books and intend to listen to them before the next TV season because I cannot wait to find out how it all comes out. Frankly, it doesn't look all that good for the human race to be anything much more than just a blood source for these "beings". But wait, perhaps there is some help. Seems there was some sort of truce broken when "The Master" decided to come to the "New World"... Hmmmmm.

Enjoyable

Enjoyable, well paced book. The narration was good. A different take on the cliche vampire story.

great

Read years ago. Great reread. It keeps you addicted to the veryend. Ron is a great addition

Great Read!

As are all Del Toro books, this was a great way to spend an evening or two curled up by the fire and avoiding what may be lurking in the darkness outside!

Painful to get through

I'll start off by saying Ron Perlman is an enjoyable and greatly versatile actor who can bring about wit like none can. As a narrator however, it took sheer willpower to get through the book. The monotone, lack of audible inflections, and annoying music snippets did not create an enjoyable listen.
The story itself had potential but, as fellow listeners noted, it quickly lost any depth and intrigue; becoming a run of the mill story with predictable directions.

Trouble suspending belief

I liked this book,liked the narrator. If I can find one fault it was that I had trouble suspending belief.

We have scores of dead people rising and yet the authorities remained dumb. We had evidence of an unusual behavior of Bacterium and yet the head of the CDC is unbelieving.

Takes way too long for the authorities to wise up to what is happening.

Not Bad

Not really a fan of this type of book but found this one to hold my interest.

A little bit of a "strain"

I enjoyed the story quite a bit, but two things were rather disappointing. First, the same stupid music that comes along sort of randomly and WAY TOO OFTEN. The second was the narrator, Ron Perlman. Although I enjoy him as an actor, his narration was one of the worst I have ever listened to.

I see that a lot of reviews talk about how good he was. I disagree. Naratives were monotonous. But more annoying were the dialogs -- I could not keep track of who was talking -- even when a man was talking with a woman.

As far as the story, it was well done. I thought the internal conflicts of the lead characters was very realistic -- imagine having your entire belief system -- what you have always believed to be true or false -- wiped out in an instant. I also liked the "explanation" of the vampires.

For the story, 4 stars, for the narration only 2 (I'd have given it only 1 if it had been anyone but Ron Perlman). So, overall I gave it 3.