The Fall

Book Two of the Strain Trilogy

By: Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan

Narrated by: Daniel Oreskes

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

From the authors of the instant New York Times best seller The Strain comes the next volume in one of the most imaginative and frightening thriller series in many, many years.

Last week they invaded Manhattan. This week they will destroy the world. The vampiric virus unleashed in The Strain has taken over New York City. It is spreading and soon will envelop the globe. Amid the chaos, Eph Goodweather - head of the Centers for Disease Control's team - leads a band out to stop these bloodthirsty monsters. But it may be too late.

Ignited by the Master's horrific plan, a war erupts between Old and New World vampires, each vying for control. At the center of the conflict lies a book, an ancient text that contains the vampires' entire history... and their darkest secrets. Whoever finds the book can control the outcome of the war and, ultimately, the fate of us all. And it is between these warring forces that humans - powerless and vulnerable - find themselves no longer the consumers but the consumed.

Though Eph understands the vampiric plague better than anyone, even he cannot protect those he loves. His ex-wife, Kelly, has been transformed into a bloodcrazed creature of the night, and now she stalks the city looking for her chance to reclaim her Dear One: Zack, Eph's young son.

With the future of humankind in the balance, Eph and his team, guided by the brilliant former professor and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian and exterminator Vasiliy Fet, and joined by a crew of ragtag gangsters, must combat a terror whose ultimate plan is more terrible than anyone has imagined - a fate worse than annihilation.

Listen to the first book, The Strain.

©2010 Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Its a Good Listen

Kinda of a slow burn in the beginning but it definitely picks up in the best way. I liked the climax and the end. Can't wait to listen to the next book

Great second book

Absolutely cannot wait to listen to the final book. It is going to be epic.

The Bar is Raised

The Strain put new fuel into the vampire genera. No more the teen, heavy petting, high school romance. Del Toro and Hogan bring horror and thrill back...old school. Worthy of sharing shelf space alongside King's "The Night Flyer"...but greater in scope and depth! I would venture to guess the bad reviews for this book and other epic vampire tales (i.e I'am Legend), come from a "softer" now generation, those who like the teen romance vampires...or the simple minded, who find longer stories hard to follow...you know, the guys who find a video game back story hard to grasp...these folks need their "soft" rock, "soft" horror...and wait for the movie. For the rest of us, this is a good ride!

Awesome.

Very good, much better narration than the 1st in the series. Very good story can't wait for the next chapter.

vampire apocalypse

loved it dark spellbinding storytelling, smart retailing of the vampire legend del Toro nailed it

Excellent continuation of a great story

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

Friends that like good vampire tales? Hell yes!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Vasiliy Fet, I can identify with this guy. Ordinary, Blue Collar, dude that takes his job and life serious.

Have you listened to any of Daniel Oreskes’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't recall listening to Mr. Oreskes before. I've noticed some people really not caring for this guy but I think he did a fair job. There were a few words that were mispronounced and that always sucks, but it didn't happen much.

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

Dr. Nora Martinez with her mother and Zack after the train wrecks...

Awesome!

Loved it! Now onward to book 3! If you enjoy the books the show on FX is good but veers off the story line a bit but not too much I highly recommend it!

Interesting take on vampires

The second part of this series continues a short period of time where the first ends. It continues in the same storytelling style as the first part of the series, however the narration is much improved in my opinion.

The vampires history is more deeply explained and the futility in the main characters struggle is well described and easy to take in. The book is quite high paced although some of the parallel stories feels less interesting than others and this sets the book back a bit.

I would recommend this to anyone that has a liking for vampires, that are as I think they should be, intelligent, evil and relentless.

Guillermo is a genius.

Fabulous read. Rushed home to listen every night. Compelling and well written with great character development and plot.

Don't avoid because of complaints of narration

If you liked the first book and you're in for the long haul I would definitely recommend continuing on with this one. First off, I've been listening to audio books regularly for close to 10 years now and I can tell you I consider Oreskes to be a great narrator. If you go straight from book one to two it can be a bit jarring, and the production value does seem to be a bit less this time around, but it's nothing that will distract from the story. If you don't consider yourself to have a fan boy mentality, then you'll be safe listening to this.
The actual story does move at a slow pace for most of the book. The title of the book reflects some dark times that our heroes and humanity are living through and the main gist of this volume is watching them try to keep their heads above water. There is a lot more back story about the vampires and some characters and, I can only assume, that much of it is being set up for the final book.
If you picked up the first book like I did, wanting to listen to a full trilogy, then this is a must. However if you were just looking for a quick, action paced horror story you might want to think twice about continuing on with this series.
I take one star off for this book for the same reason I did with the last one. There are just enough horror movie cliches in this to make me roll my eyes and wonder if this is being written specifically for a quick translation to a typical horror flick. But, I didn't start listening to these because I wanted to learn something, I wanted a good horror story that would entertain, and it does just that.