When I was putting together my pool of books for the RIP Challenge this year my Bookman handed me Brian Keene’s The Rising and suggested I might like it. He had read it not long ago and found it entertaining. And I thought a little zombie fiction could be fun.
I took the book to work and read most of it during my all too short lunch breaks. It began well, especially since the premise–the world’s largest super conductor ripped a hole in the fabric of the universe and allowed demons to possess the bodies of the dead once their souls had departed–corresponded with the Hadron Collider coming on line. The writing itself was not good, clunky sentences, cliches, some pretty bad dialog, but I thought as long as the story stayed good I could overlook the bad writing. It is a zombie book after all, can’t expect Nobel Prize quality.
Unfortunately about a third of the way through the story took a turn for the worse. By this point there were so many different characters doing so many different things in so many locations and the story jumping around between all of them that I had a hard time keeping track of it all. Eventually all the characters that are still alive end up together in the same location for a battle of the living against the dead.
The story picks up again when the battle starts but unfortunately, the ending ruins it all. There is no conclusion to the battle, we leave it in progress with the living humans not likely to be the victors. From the battle in progress we jump to Jim whose story is really the only main drive in the book. Jim lived in West Virginia and was holed up in a bomb shelter when his cell phone rings. He was so shocked and terrified that his phone rang he didn’t answer it. The call was his eleven year-old son Danny crying for help. Danny lived with his mother and step-father in New Jersey. Danny said he was hiding in the attic and please Daddy, come save me. Then the cell phone battery dies and there is no electricity to recharge it. So the entire book, in spite of too many characters and all the jumping around, is really about Jim trying to get to New Jersey to save his son before it is too late.
And when we come to the end, there is Jim running into the house where Danny lives, armed to the teeth. And that’s it. Cliff hanger of the worst kind. There is a sequel but I will not be reading it to find out what happens.
While the book was not that good, I still kept reading until the bitter end. I am not sure why. Maybe because it was a nice escape during lunch. There were some interesting elements–zombie squirrels anyone? Or zombie birds? Zombies attacking from the air is like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds on steroids. What was most disappointing is that I could see how the book could have been really good. There is so much potential in it unfulfilled. That coupled with the cliff hanger ending left me angry.
So much for zombies. I am a little over halfway through The Terror by Dan Simmons and that is a good book.
“While the book was not that good, I still kept reading until the bitter end. I am not sure why.” — I know the feeling. I guess sometimes you just want to finish what you start. Maybe it’s not quite bad enough to toss aside…or it’s so bad you just have to keep reading to fully grasp how really, really bad it is, all the while asking yourself, how did this get published?
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Sorry that this one didn’t turn out well. To suffer through bad writing and end with a cliff-hanger is unfair!
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That’s too bad. I keep wanting to read I Am Legend (which I guess is vampire, not zombie) but am afraid of the whole end-of-the-world scenario. But I think I’ll avoid The Rising. 🙂
The Terror is SO GOOD. I am hoping to finish it before Friday, I’m about 4/5 through. It’s a huge book but is really good, isn’t it? It’s making me say grateful prayers every night for my warm bed and full tummy.
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Oh that ending is just appalling. Makes me feel there ought to be the equivalent of a war crimes tribunal set up for authors who abuse the trust of the reader!
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This sounds like a really bad movie. If this book sells well I am sure it will become a very bad movie.
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Oh, how disappointing! I usually keep reading too, though, especially if the book is short and a fast read. A 1,000 page novel I might give up on, but something I think I can race through I keep going with. I do hate not finishing things, even if that feeling doesn’t make much sense!
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wil, that’s it exactly. And by the time I realized how bad it was I was half way through so I might as well finish it. There is also something to be said for the pleasure of suffering through it. And not only did it get published but it also won an award!
jenclair, if the ending wasn’t a cliff hanger I could have been more generous in my feelings of the book, but in the end, the end ruined it.
Daphne, I am Legend is campy and total pulp but it is enjoyable because of what it is. Plus it is really short so even if you don’t like it you haven’t wasted a lot of time. You are zipping through Terror! I’m not going to finish by Friday. Stupid midterm studying has gotten in the way.
Litlove, I like your idea. But would there be any readers who could be impartial in their judgement?
Ed, it is most likely destined to be a really bad movie because the book has sold well and the author is fairly popular.
Dorothy, I’ve gotten better at being able to abandon books but this one I couldn’t let go of. I was like the people in a bad horror movie that walk around in the house without the lights on and you know things will go bad but you keep watching and they keeping stumbling around in the dark.
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Typically if I am really not enjoying a book I will stop but every once in a while you just have to read until the very end because you are just sure it’s going to get better! ha.
Oh well, sorry this zombie book wasn’t all that good. Maybe the next one 🙂
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It sounds a bit like Stephen King’s book Cell (which I didn’t finish.) I wonder if, after all, zombie tropes are exhaustible…?
I’m afraid I really didn’t like The Terror, but I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
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