The Strain (book review)

I just finished reading The Strain trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

I highly recommend it if you are in need of some good vampire fiction. It's more like "Salem's Lot" than World of Darkness, but then again, I like my vampires monstrous rather than sexy (says the Toreador fanboy.)

What I love about different vampire fiction is the different interpretations authors have of vampire lore. The source of vampires, whether it's supernatural or scientific, if any why they have weaknesses such as sunlight, silver, garlic stakes through the heart... all of these concepts can be accepted or rejected or explained in any number of ways.

Without spoiling much: The Strain of vampires are a combination of scientific and supernatural. They are monstrous and legion. There is a good combination of ancient vampires manipulating things on a grand scale while a plague of ravenous newly turned threaten to destroy Manhattan.

The books have good pacing, starting off slowly building up as the main players learn more about the plague and ramps up toward the end of book 1 and doesn't stop. Meanwhile, the reader is teased with bits and pieces of privileged information, not to be let down by the conclusion.

Wasn't Strain originally a comic series from Dark Horse?

And speaking of Dark Horse, I heartily recommend their graphic novel Bad Blood which was one of my favorite series of 2014 and especially the first issue blew my mind. (granted, the 1st issue also came out Dec 31st 2013...)

You can check samples at Dark Horse site:
www.darkhorse.com/Books/Previews/23-881?page=0


Life was hard enough for Trick Croft as a college student and a cancer patient—then the vampires attacked and slaughtered his best friend. Now Trick knows that his blood is poison to the bloodsuckers, and he will stop at nothing to eradicate them. Collects issues #1–#5 of the miniseries.

Written by Bram StokerAward winner Jonathan Maberry (V-Wars)!
*Art by Tyler Crook (B.P.R.D.)!

the first season of the tv show was okay. the dialogue was usually pretty awful, and the pacing questionable at best. the set design and use of light to set theme and mood though were amazing and the lore and history thoroughly engaging, though.

Lönkka wrote:

Wasn't Strain originally a comic series from Dark Horse?

I don't know, but that sounds probable considering the rise of comic books in mainstream media (mostly movies and TV, but in this case a TV show and book adaptation)

@self biased
I was interested in watching the show when I saw advertising for it, but I don't have cable TV, and I don't watch much TV nowadays anyway. Thanks for the input, so I will know what to expect when watching the show.

According to Wikipedia the novel is the original one (2009), comic came in second (2011) and the TV series came last.

direwolf wrote:

Lönkka wrote:

Wasn't Strain originally a comic series from Dark Horse?

I don't know, but that sounds probable considering the rise of comic books in mainstream media (mostly movies and TV, but in this case a TV show and book adaptation)

@self biased
I was interested in watching the show when I saw advertising for it, but I don't have cable TV, and I don't watch much TV nowadays anyway. Thanks for the input, so I will know what to expect when watching the show.

it has its moments where it does descend into camp and trope, but it's still definitely worth the watch despite the pacing issues. I'm told the other books pick up the tempo considerably, so i can only hope that makes its way into the show.