The Strain

by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan
3 out of 5 stars

I don't usually read horror-type fiction like this, but I was home sick, and it was a great distraction. I read this entire book in a day (!).

The premise is interesting: a "vampire virus" is unleashed via a planeload of people who, when their plane lands, appear to all be dead. Everyone, even the crew. Or are they?!

So the story starts off with a decent bang, and there’s a nice bit of CSI medical minutia mixed in to boot. Chaos ensues as the newly hatched vamps start wandering the city, some naked with toe tags still attached, and infect Manhattan...New York...THE WORLD ...

This is actually the first in a series, so who knows what terror still lurks. The virus itself is a huge disappointment, though (if you're a true vamp fan), because it turns its victims into drooling undead zombies who have virtually no super powers, zero sex appeal, and pudding for brains, really. The virus is parasitic and takes over the bodies, supplanting most organs, and it feeds itself by way of a razor-sharp organ (ick…where are the fangs?!) that hurls itself out of the newly undeads' mouths and into the necks of their prey. I know...WTF? Also, they poop when they eat. Was that really necessary?

Once "bitten" (stabbed?), said prey dies and then comes back to life as a new empty-eyed anteater-like zombie. And yet...I kept reading!

The hero is a doctor from the CDC (the ONLY guy who sees this virus for what it is!) who’s helped by a mysterious old Russian Jew and holocaust survivor who knows the way of Nosferatu. The old guy is a former woodcarver (but then his hands got crushed by a mean vampire) turned professor, but these days owns a pawn shop in Spanish Harlem, and the word on the street is not to mess with him...for reasons you will find out. Ok, I’ll just tell you. In addition to a very interesting walking stick, mad ninja fighting skills and vengeance in his heart, his entire basement is filled with vampire-fighting armor and weapons that he’s been building and collecting in anticipation of the day The Master returns. Oh yeah, of course there’s a Master Vampire (rogue of course) who’s behind this whole debacle. They are joined by another CDC doc (and the hero’s gf) and a large and highly experienced rat catcher/exterminator, who can think like a rat (which, it turns out, is quite similar to newly undead zombie vampires) and introduces the posse to the New York sewer system.

So, as far as action and suspense go, the book is a real page turner. As far as good literature...not so much. If it were made into a movie, I doubt I’d go see it, because there’s a lot of beheading and UV-light frying going on. But if it were done right -- say, in a Dawn of the Dead type of way, I might put it on my Netflix list.