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

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.

Well written but at times superfluous

I saw the show, listening now to this. Since I saw season one I figure just go to book 2. It answers most questions about the origin of The Master and the ancients. I actually like the writing quite a bit but at times it is dragging and over done.

The reader for this gave it the gravitas it needed but a lack of vocal range made me go back and re listen when I found the person I thought was talking was not. This happens in normal reading too though.

Answers Open Questions from Book 1

Interesting characters that popped up in Book 1 are explained and their roles more fully revealed in the story. If you can't wait for the next season of the TV show, get a head start by listening to Book 2, or if do not want to spoil season 2, hold of the book. Based on the close ties of Book 1 with the TV show, I expect book 2 and season 2 to tell the same story.

Distracting Narration

What made the experience of listening to The Fall the most enjoyable?

I really liked Del Toro's take on vampires in this series. It's completely made up and I love it. Just enough science to be interesting, just enough human fallacy and stupidity to continue the story but not be too frustrating (governments never ever act appropriately in times of crisis in apocalypse novels so don't complain about that), and great mythology development.

What aspect of Daniel Oreskes’s performance would you have changed?

Towards the end of the book, when scenes changed rapidly, I would get lost on who was where doing what because the narrator gave no indication in either tone or pause that there was a shift.
Also, I was used to the accents and tones set by Ron Perlman in the first novel so it would have been a nice continuation if Orseke has done the same. Or made any vocal differentiation between narration and dialogue.

Any additional comments?

I really loved the narration in the first book by Ron Perlman. It's a shame he wasn't able to continue his work with the series.

Excellent Story

What did you love best about The Fall?

keeps you at the edge of your seat.

What about Daniel Oreskes’s performance did you like?

Excellent performance throughout the book.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The title is perfect.

Any additional comments?

Great story. Great characters. Great Performance.

White noise with teeth

A well told story fit to accompany you on that long drive south, or while you are toiling away in the yard.

Great new installment in the trilogy.

Just as good as the first in the tilogy, which I thought was excellent. I can't wait for the third. It's a great take on the an old myth, vampires. Not for Twilight fans, in these stories the vampires are pure evil, just like they should be.

The Narrator DOES matter

While the narration is not as bad as it could have been it was no where near the excellent job done by Ron Perlman. I too have not been engrossed in the story as I was in Part 1. Actually I have listened to several books between going back to this one. That would NEVER have happened with the first book. I cannot say that I will complete the second part. I have serious doubts as to whether or not I would purchase the next installment (if there is one). I cannot say that it was ALL the narrators fault but this Part 2 just does not captivate my imagination the way Part 1 did at the time. Maybe JUST maybe the people that put these productions together will realize that once you get it right LEAVE IT ALONE!!