The Light at the End

By: John Skipp, Craig Spector

Narrated by: Chet Williamson

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

The 25th Anniversary Edition of the Original Splatterpunk Novel.

An adrenaline-charged tale of unrelenting suspense that sparks with raw and savage energy... The newspapers scream out headlines that spark terror across the city. Ten murders on the New York City subway. Ten grisly crimes that defy all reason -- no pattern, no m.o., no leads for police to pursue. The press dubs the fiend the “Subway Psycho”; the NYPD desperately seeks their quarry before the city erupts in mass hysteria. But they won't find what they're looking for.

Because they all think that the killer is human.

Only a few know the true story -- a story the papers will never print. It is a tale of abject terror and death written in grit and steel... and blood. The tale of a man who vanished into the bowels of the urban earth one night, taken by a creature of unholy evil, then left as a babe abandoned on the doorstep of Hell. Now he is back, driven by twin demons of rage and retribution.

He is unstoppable. And we are all his prey... unless a ragtag band of misfit souls will dare to descend into a world of manmade darkness, where the real and unreal alike dwell in endless shadow. A place where humanity has been left behind, and the horrifying truth will dawn as a madman's chilling vendetta comes to light...

Filled with gripping drama and harrowing doomsday dread, The Light at the End is the book that ushered in a bold new view of humankind's most ancient and ruthless evil; a mesmerizing novel from two acknowledged masters of spellbinding suspense.

©1986 John Skipp & Craig Spector (P)2012 David N. Wilson

Loved it

If you like your vampires gritty and violent this is for you
Well narrated and a splatterpunk classic highly recommended
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

Greatest Horror Novel Ever

Or close enough. It should rate up there with all-time classics from Frankenstein to It. And exactly the right narrator. Just try and ever forget Rudy Pasco and Joseph.

Ugly Vampires

What I liked: Narration. Very clear, very even, flows.
The setting. Authors describe NYC extremely well, Always see it clearly in the mind's eye.
Concept. The concept of the vampire plot is good, and original for the time it was written.
Technique. The writing is excellent, you always know what the characters want and where they are in space, and what they look like. Descriptions are super vivid, cinematic.

What didn't work so well for me: Too many characters. Very difficult to keep track of them all. And they all seem to have the same weight in the story. So storytelling here suffers from clutter. I get why the authors do it that way, they want it to seem like a horror movie, where characters are introduced just to then get killed. This adds to suspense and dread in a movie, but in a book it doesn't work as well. Still, I think this book will be very satisfying to certain readers. It is dated firmly in the 1980s, and there are references to 80's popular culture that may be over the heads of younger readers. A couple of respectfully rendered LGBTQ characters.

A phenomenal story phenomenally acted.

This audiobook will have you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Couldn't recommend it more especially for the 80s nostalgia. Great great great audiobook. I am definitely going to check out more works by these authors and this narrator.

Entertaining

While the story lacked anything original, it was still an entertaining Vampire story including all the cliches. The narration and acting are superb.

I have rarely liked a vampire story this much.

The book has it all: compelling characters who you believe are real, great pacing, excellent scares, and really evocative metaphors. loved this. I will be reading more by them.

Surprisingly fun story

I would say I wasn’t sure what I was getting in for with such a long book but I really enjoyed the build up and the characters.
Only one downside I found and this contains a spoiler, I wish the big final vampire would have been dealt with or even mentioned by the main characters. He went untouched.
Other than that I found it a very good book and loved seeing the vampire get what was coming.

Expectations and Outcomes

As a voracious reader, I always try to explore fringe genres, but my heart is forever with the well-written books with believable and fleshed-out characters, human drama and serious choices both characters and readers have to make.
Horror is one of those borderline cases when an exceptionally well-written novel with flawed but interesting characters and an insight into the psyche of a human mind cam enthrall me. Unfortunately, I believe this is not a case. I gave this novel three stars, but this rating is only valid within the frame of splatterpunk fiction (a literary genre characterized by the explicit description of horrific or violent scenes). In the bigger frame of fiction, this novel deserves only two stars.
The novel is definitely abundant in scenes of violence and gore, and some of them are truly repulsive if you look at them objectively. On the other hand, everyone knows, objectivity in portrayal is not the most laudable adjective. The subjective perception is everything in fiction. The more you can relate to it, the more memorable the writing is. This is what this book lack. Despite the gory and grisly scenes, they did not stir any feelings of fear or repulsion. The setting was a traditional one for a vampire story. I am very well aware that we do not have many choices when it comes to the time of the events in a horror novel, but the nights in the novel, although they harbor ugly scenes of murder, do not create the natural spooky, creepy feeling. Night is just a time when most of the events took place in this novel, and the dark enigma of the wee hours till dawn is totally non-existent.
The other thing that is only attributable to the zeitgeist, but still quite unpleasant is homophobia. The evolving values of today's world warp my interpretation and leave the tangy, bitter and unpleasant sediment in the wake of the book.
To counterbalance my negative arguments, I still want to justify my choice for three stars (again only within the frame of this genre). First and foremost, the vampire Rudy is a nasty, ugly being from the very beginning. He does not suffer from the complex of modern vampirism – I am a vampire, but I want to be a good guy, and I am conflicted, and my soul is torn apart by my intentions and true identity. He is rotten through and through. There is not a morsel of goodness in him. This is how monsters should look like.
Surprisingly, the books also provides an interesting insight into the philosophy of nihilism. Although the premise for this view is interesting and appealing (our world is non-cognizant, and we will never learn what is good and what is evil, and justice is not inherent in our universe; thus there is no point in trying to better the world around us), but the development of this idea leads to acts of terrorism and extremism as well as to the utmost egotism and gratification. This is clearly manifested in Rudy, the human being and the vampire. It is rarely a case when such a complex idea could be clearly explained and put into the appropriate context.
The most memorable moment in the novel has nothing to do with the imaginary horror, but with our human history. The character with the Holocaust past narrates the story of his experience, and this is the most disturbing moment in the whole books. I find it both enlightening and nonsensical. It is a story that is harrowing in its nature due to our own ability to acquiesce to the dogma and doctrine of ethnic cleansing; a reminder of that kind even in the most grotesque context is always a necessary reading experience. Conversely, the setting for the Holocaust survival story is the most bizarre one – who would anticipate this story in a horror novel about vampires? Consequently, it does contribute to the jarring discrepancy of ideas within the book.

Chills and thrills

Where does The Light at the End rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the top ten.

What other book might you compare The Light at the End to and why?

Probably one of Dean R.Koontz's.

What about Chet Williamson’s performance did you like?

It went well with the story,keeping it moving.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

No.

Not for me

Would you try another book from John Skipp and Craig Spector and/or Chet Williamson?

I don't think I would.

What was most disappointing about John Skipp and Craig Spector ’s story?

Seemed to float along without any character developement. I lost interest.

What three words best describe Chet Williamson’s voice?

Just plain regular.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Light at the End?

Lots of the in-between filler scenes.

Any additional comments?

Maybe someone else would like it, but I didn't. Didn't finish listening to it.