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The Strain

I’m feeling like I need a little horror to round out the year. I usually group horror with sci-fi and fantasy and consider it the same genre. I’ve done sci-fi already this year and in most circumstances that would give me enough of a fix to cover the whole genre, but this has been a different year. Different mostly because this whole Girl With the Dragon Tattoo thing has raised the bar for surreal action and excitement.

Sure, I’m looking forward to reading standby fiction authors like Sue Grafton and James Lee Burke, and I know I’ll have a great time doing so, but I just felt the need for something different and a little more mindless. This is due partly to the fact that I’m reading six books right now, five of which are non-fiction or instructional/self-help. It’s just not pretty and I’m angry that I got myself into this situation. I found myself not wanting to read because I didn’t know which book to pick up. Really stupid. In the end, I gravitated to this book because it was the simplest, resulting in me only finishing one book in December.

It wasn’t a bad book, but I’m not sure if I’ll read the whole trilogy. It’s a vampire book, pure and simple. I’ve never read a vampire book but I loved the movie I Am Legend (which inspired me to read Richard Matheson’s 7 Steps to Midnight), so I keep trying to find some cool horror books. But they just leave me with an empty feeling. Maybe horror is just a genre that works better on the screen rather than in a book.

** PLOT KILLERS FOLLOW **

Regardless, if I do read the next one, I’ll have to remember this:

  • Ephraim, Nora, Fet, Zack, and Setrakian are in Kelly’s house recovering from the big battle with the Master (who got away, despite being exposed to the sun).
  • Kelly (Ephraim’s ex and Zack’s mother) is a vampire and will reappear based on my keen analysis of some foreshadowing.
  • New York City is overrun with the plague.
  • A group of vampires (called The Clan, based in Pennsylvania) appears to be poised to fight back against the Master’s incursion in New York. It appears they have recruited Gus Elizalde to aid them somehow.
  • I can’t remember what happened to the rich dude who brought the Master to New York. Oh well, I don’t think it matters.

All in all, not that great really. But I can see myself reading the next one if I’m looking for some horror later in 2011. But it’s also just as likely that I forget all about this.