Carrion Comfort

by Dan Simmons
636 pgs

Each year, around Halloween, I like to read a good horror story. This year I decided on Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons, which had been sitting on my bookshelf for the past few years waiting to be picked up. It's a sizable book. Which is a good thing. Simmons is a fantastic writer and he gives himself a lot of room to work in with this story.

Carrion Comfort is a vampire story, but his vampires don't have much in common with Bram Stoker's, Stephen King's, Guillermo del Toro's, and thank fully, Stephenie Meyer's versions of the creatures. Dan Simmons creatures are a select group of humans who possess "The Ability," a psychic power which allows them to control people with their minds. Using their powers rejuvenates them and allows them to live indefinitely. They use the Ability to entertain themselves and take pleasure in taking control of people's minds and using their bodies remotely to murder, rape, and anything else they choose.

Melanie Fuller, Nina Drayton, and Willi Borden are three of these creatures. Every year they meet together to boast of the assassinations and murders they've committed. It's become a game between them to see which of them has been responsible for the most notorious and creative deaths over the past year.

Saul Laski is a psychiatrist and concentration camp survivor. He has spent his entire adult life searching for the SS Officer who took control of his mind all those years ago when he was a prisoner, and from whom Saul was barely able to escape. The man's name was Oberst Wilhelm von Borchert, but Saul believes he now goes by the name Willi Borden.

Natalie Preston is a photographer in Philadelphia whose father was killed in a string of inexplicable murders which took place in one night, and she's searching for answers. She meets Saul, who traveled to Philadelphia after hearing about the murders in his search for Willi Borden, and after hearing his story and becoming convinced it's true, joins him in his search.

I mentioned at the start that this is a sizable book. (The version I read is an oversized hardcover edition with relatively small font size, and the paperback version is around 800 pages.) But it didn't seem like a long book. It could have been another 400 pages long and I'd gladly still be reading it. I've said in other reviews of his books that Dan Simmons knows how to write good books in any genre he chooses. Carrion Comfort and Summer of Night are proof that he has the horror genre down pat.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Summer of Night

by Dan Simmons
555 pgs

It's the beginning of summer break in 1960 in the small Illinois town of Elm Haven, and a small group of young boys are looking forward to long days of riding their bikes, playing baseball, and generally doing whatever they want to do for the next three months. They'll never again have to enter the huge old elementary school, which was shuttered up for good at the end of the school year. When school starts again in the fall, they'll be going to another, newer school. They have no idea that the Old Central School will play a central role in their summer, forever changing some of their lives, and ending the lives of the others.

It begins with the ringing of an ancient bell in the middle of the night. Some of the oldest of the town's inhabitants know that the ringing of the bell means an ancient debt has come due. But the boys have no idea what it means. But one by one, each of them becomes aware of sinister forces now at work in their town. Tubby is the first. He discovers a hole in the basement, crawls in, and is essentially eaten alive. Harlen is next. Seeing one of his teachers at Old Central entering the boarded-up building one night, he scales the outside and through a window, sees her talking to the ghost of her recently-deceased friend. There's the ghost of a WWI soldier that keeps appearing to one of the boys at night, and all the boys keep finding these mysterious holes throughout town. Holes large enough for a young boy to crawl in and disappear forever, or from which evil and deadly creatures can crawl out.

Based on the popularity of Stranger Things recently on Netflix, there's clearly an appetite for nostalgic horror stories featuring children, and Summer of Night would be a great reading choice for those who enjoyed it. It was written a few years after Stephen King wrote IT, and it's likely that Simmons received some of his inspiration from King's story. But he also received a great blurb on the back of the book from King (so there obviously weren't any hurt feelings).

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Fifth Heart

by Dan Simmons
617 pgs

Once again Dan Simmons has shown just how versatile an author he is. His latest book, The Fifth Heart, is a Sherlock Holmes story that fits in nicely with the chronology of Doyle's original books. The story takes place in America in between the time Doyle tried to kill Sherlock off in The Final Problem by having him go over Reichenbach Falls and then succumbing to pressure and bringing him back in The Adventure of the Empty House with the explanation that he had faked his death to fool Moriarty, his arch enemy.

It's the 1890's and Holmes has traveled to America to investigate the death of a prominent socialite in Washington D.C.. Her death occurred seven years ago and had originally been ruled a suicide, but every year on the anniversary of her death, her widower and closest friends all receive a typed letter in the mail containing only one sentence, "She was murdered."

Simmons does a masterful job of incorporating historical figures from that era into his story, Samuel Clemens and Henry James both play central roles. He also incorporates one of the largest events that took place in the country during that time--the Chicago World's Fair. Simmons is an author who has always impressed me with the apparent research he puts into each of his books, and this one is no exception. He does an excellent job of bringing to light many aspects of Holmes's life that aren't so commonly known.

I'm a big fan of Dan Simmons' books. They're never real quick reads, but that's one of the things I like about them. Simmons takes his time constructing his stories and fleshing out his central characters. By the time the pace starts to quicken and you're heading for the climax of the story, you're intimately familiar with the characters involved, and you feel emotionally connected to them and truly care what happens.

The Fifth Heart is a must-read for fans of both Dan Simmons and for those of the iconic detective he borrows. Neither will be disappointed.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Abominable

by Dan Simmons
663 pgs


In 1924 the famous mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine disappeared during their third attempt to become the first men to summit the highest mountain on earth: Mt. Everest. Mallory and Irvine weren't the only men to try to summit Everest that year, and like them, others disappeared during their attempts as well. One year later, three men want to attempt to climb it and use the guise of locating the body of Percy Bromwell, the son of a wealthy widow in England who also went missing on Everest the year before, to obtain the funding and the permission to make their attempt.

As they make their climb up the mountain, they experience all of the challenges and face the extreme conditions that Everest presents and that have prevented all previous attempts up the mountain from being successful. But they also find a challenge that they weren't expecting--someone, or something, is following them and threatens not only the success of their attempt, but their lives as well.

Just as he did with Drood and The Terror Dan Simmons uses historical events as his backdrop and then uses them as he tells his highly entertaining and exciting story. Although the book takes awhile to really grab you and suck you in, once it does, the wait is well worth it. Just like with his other books, Simmons's level of research on this one is remarkable. His knowledge of climbing and mountaineering is astounding and it adds a level of detail and depth to the story that make it one of the most captivating books I've read in quite a long time.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Black Hills

by Dan Simmons
453 pgs

Paha Sapa is a Sioux warrior who was born with a gift, one that he eventually comes to think of as a great curse. When he physically touches someone he is often able to see into that person's future, and past. His supernatural gift also may allow the spirits of the dying to enter into his body where they reside and communicate to him as a voice in his head.

At the age of ten, Paha Sapa was "counting coup" (proving his bravery by touching enemy soldiers) following the Battle of Little Big Horn when he unknowingly touched the dying General Custer. Custer's ghost entered Paha Sapa that fateful day and for the next sixty years of his life, Paha Sapa was forced to live with the voice of the dead General in his mind.

Later in his life Paha Sapa signs on as a powder man on the blasting team carving the Mount Rushmore memorial into a mountain sacred to Paha Sapa's tribe. His intentions are to one day destroy the memorial in a spectacular fashion and to do it on the day FDR visits the site to see its progress.

The book jumps back and forth in time--sometimes telling the story of Paha Sapa's life before working on Mount Rushmore, sometimes telling the story of his plans and attempt to destroy Mount Rushmore, and sometimes telling the story of Custer's life as told to Paha Sapa by his ghost

Black Hills is the fifth book by Dan Simmons that I've read. I thought the previous four were all outstanding and I consider him a fantastic writer because of them. This one missed the mark a little for me. Of the three different stories being told in the book, the only one I found interesting was Paha Sapa's life as a powder man on Mount Rushmore, and his quest to destroy what those who had destroyed his way of life were now carving into the mountain so sacred to him and his people. I thought that the story of Custer's life, as told by his ghost, was unintentionally hilarious. I don't know whether this is a direct result of research Simmons did on the man or not, but he writes him as a sexually-obsessed man who has little if anything left to occupy his thoughts but the memories of his sexual adventures with his wife.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Phases of Gravity

by Dan Simmons
310 pgs

I had no idea what Phases of Gravity was about until I started reading it. Simmons has written so many books, and across such a wide spectrum of genres, that based on its front cover, I assumed it was one of his science fiction books. I was way off.

Richard Baedecker is a former astronaut who flew to the moon twenty or so years ago during NASA's Apollo space program. But all of the dedication and devotion that he gave to his career at the time came at the expense of his family. Now, separated from his wife, and estranged from his adult son, Richard finds himself going through life with no clear direction and little motivation.

While visiting India to try to reconnect with his son, he meets one of his son's friends, a woman named Maggie, who unintentionally, and without Richard realizing it at the time, ignites a slow burning fire inside Richard which eventually rekindles his love of life and helps put his life back in order.

Phases of Gravity came as a complete surprise to me. I wasn't expecting it to be what it was, and once I started reading it, I wasn't planning on enjoying it as much as I did. The story is slow to develop, and if I had read it when I was younger, I probably wouldn't have appreciated it as much as I did. But by the end, I couldn't have been more impressed. I've never not enjoyed one of Simmons's books, and this one is further confirmation to me of just how good he is.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Flashback

Flashback by Dan Simmons

I'm now convinced that Dan Simmons could write a great book in any genre he were to choose. His catalog of books has spanned the genre spectrum and all that I've read so far, I consider among the best. With Flashback Simmons has written a dystopian novel that is going to stick in my mind for quite some time.

The economic downturn of the early 21st century was only the beginning of a downward cycle that eventually leaves the United States fractured and near total economic and political collapse. What remains of the country after the secession of Texas and the loss of power over the Southwestern portion of the country to Mexico, is a country with no future and no hope for change.

But it's flashback that has done the most damage to the country and many other parts of the world. Flashback is a drug that allows its users to relive the best moments of their lives as many times as they wish. Most Americans spend eight hours or more every day under the drug's influence - including Nick Bottom, a former Denver homicide detective who five years ago lost his wife in a bizarre car accident. He now spends all of his time and money on flashback in order to fill the void her death left him with.

Nick is hired by a Japanese tycoon to reinvestigate the murder of his son, a murder that Nick had previously investigated before he lost his job with the Denver police, but had failed to solve. Using flashback to relive suspect interviews and revisit crime scenes, Nick discovers something that went unnoticed during the original investigation six years earlier - his wife had been present at the scene of the murder minutes before it took place. In fact, when Nick begins to reinterview key figures in the investigation, he learns that his wife had spoken with many of them about the murder years earlier. What connection did his now-dead wife have to the murder, and was her death a result?

Flashback is a great book! It reminded me a little bit of some of the stories written by Philip K. Dick (Bladerunner, Minority Report). It has a gritty, defeated, and eerily plausible feel to it that I will remember long after the details of the plot leave me.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆