Carrion Comfort

De: Dan Simmons

Narrado por: Mel Foster, Laural Merlington

"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 the question asked 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 Nazi's 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…

© 1989 by Dan Simmons. ℗ 2011 by Brilliance Audio.

Extremely dated, but not too bad

My previous experience with Dan Simmons was his remarkable "The Terror", which stands head and shoulders above anything else I read last year. CARRION COMFORT is a much earlier work, more than 20 years ago, and both the writing and the story reflect badly on the 1980s. The story is fine - nothing totally weird in the realm of horror fiction - good versus evil, absolute power corrupting absolutely, etc., etc., and the storytelling is mundane and acceptable. The characters are many and fleshed out well by the two (male and female) readers, making a 40 hour long audiobook fairly easy to follow. There is a great deal of dated racism in the book, making for some very squirmy moments for me, and I don't believe it would find a publisher today without some heavy rewrites. The non-white characters are very cardboard, very thinly balanced between "Whatchoo Talkin' Bout Willis?" and "Gonna Cut Me Some Whitey Bro". The young black woman who is a sort of love interest is typical of lame-ass females in most of these types of novels - if we start discussing sexism in horror fiction we'll never be finished! Anyway, there is no excuse for this book being so amazingly LONG, because the language isn't particularly florid or memorable, and the actions scenes are many, but could well have been edited down to a few. I don't mind devoting 40 hours to an audiobook, but I know that once I reach the end (on Pt 4 of 5 now) I'll forget this one as soon as I begin another.

Waaay Too Long

This book would've been far better had it been at least half this length. As it was, I eventually started to get bored, which could've been avoided with extensive editing. Hours and hours of descriptive action were mind-numbing. Still, I gave it a 4 for the good parts that did hold my interest. The narration was superb or I would never have been able to last this one out, even speeded up to 1.75.

Brilliant.

Narrator was wonderful and spoke well. Storyline was ridiculously fantastic. A long book and nothing should have been abridged. All information was well needed and placed. Would tell everyone I come across to read this book.

Engaging story…but not scary.

It was a good, engaging story albeit long. The concept of the mind vampire/control is not new, however this gives it an interesting spin.

My concerns more regard the laws regarding these mind vampires, that seem to be extremely fluid. Can they control neutral or not? Does it keep them younger or not? Do they need to see their target or not. The applicability seemed to change to suit the need. Which obviously is fine but seemed like lazy writing in that regard.

The voice acting was superb. The audio is outstanding.

Maybe I am getting old

Any additional comments?

I must be getting old, but at one point I just couldn't listen any more. I have kids and the horror that the author was able to inflict even on fictional children I just could not stomach. I couldn't finish the book.