Ratings45
Average rating3.7
"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...
Reviews with the most likes.
Carrion Comfort is an action-adventure thriller with supernatural elements. The novel is loaded with social and political commentary. It is not enough that the powerful evil beings Simmons created can control others with their mind and feed off incredible violence, but they are also racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic etc. (One of the main villains was a Nazi; another is a racist old southern lunatic; a third is a Harvey-Weinstein type Hollywood producer.) The heroes who dare to fight them (with incredible violence) are underdogs representing historically oppressed groups. It's not meant to be subtle (I'm guessing). While superficially epic and action packed, it was really boring at times. It felt very long and scattered compared to Simmon's [b:Song of Kali 3979 Song of Kali Dan Simmons https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1165368440l/3979.SY75.jpg 1623747], which explored similar themes but was tight and focused. All the various plans and schemes and betrayals and confrontations in Carron Comfort get jumbled up and lack trajectory.
Big book, maybe a bit too big. It has interesting layers and lots of good scenes. Multiple interesting characters. Even though I do feel that it was too long, the overall plot was something I was interested in seeing through to the end. Horror aspects come from various violent, even disgusting and quite horrific scenes, which don't appear too often.
There were areas of slow burn and scenes with a faster pace. It was quite unbalanced from that point of view. Too much slow sections with not a lot of pull. It took me surprisingly long to finish. Still overall ok. Like said, they could've edited it for much more balanced package.
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