I really like that paranormals are at their peak right now. I know some people wonder when there will be too many vampire books, but let's face it, there's just so much you can do with the subject. I mean how many serial killer books can you have? An infinite number in my mind because there are always new spins on the same old story, making it fresh and new and exciting. Vampires are open to even more creativity if you think about it. I mean you could have a vampire serial killer if you wanted. There are mean nasty vamps and there are smolderingly handsome vamps. There are manipulative vamps and even overweight vamps. I think The Strain is definitely going to be a stand-out, totally original vampire books. First off, Guillermo del Toro has a hand in it and the man is just freaking awesome. Chuck Hogan, known for his crime novels The Standoff and Prince of Thieves, co-authors this first book of a projected trilogy.
Here's some info from the product description at BN.com:
A Boeing 777 lands at JFK after a flight from Berlin and is on its way to the gate-when it suddenly goes dark. Just stops dead. The control tower loses contact with the pilot and all electrical activity shuts down. No movement or communication from inside. Nada. An emergency crew gathers, everyone watching the silent plane now bathed in floodlights. Then a sliver of black quietly appears on the fuselage. It's a door opening from within.
Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of the CDC's New York team, enters and finds a cabin looking like a winged graveyard where everyone appears to be dead. As he begins to remove bodies for transport to the morgue, four victims are discovered miraculously alive-and relatively unscathed apart from complaints of disorientation and a strange soreness.
But this is just the beginning
At the same time, Eldrich Palmer, director of the global Stoneheart Group, monitors the JFK scene on TV from his sickbed in Virginia. Pleased with what he sees, he sends for a helicopter for immediate transport to a Manhattan penthouse. In Queens, Eph's ex-wife Kelley and their 11-year-old son ready themselves with the rest of the Eastern United States for the first total lunar eclipse in more than four hundred years. In a pawn shop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps named Abraham Setrakian takes it all in. He knows that his time has come, that a war is about to begin, and that the Master is Here.
So begins anescalating battle of epic proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected the four survivors begins to ravage the city. Eph-guided by Setrakian, and joined by Vassily, a exterminator, Nora, Eph's CDC colleague, and Gus, a Harlem gangbanger-fights his way through the next horrifying days, determined to save his wife and son before the Master succeeds in his unholy mission.
Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of the CDC's New York team, enters and finds a cabin looking like a winged graveyard where everyone appears to be dead. As he begins to remove bodies for transport to the morgue, four victims are discovered miraculously alive-and relatively unscathed apart from complaints of disorientation and a strange soreness.
But this is just the beginning
At the same time, Eldrich Palmer, director of the global Stoneheart Group, monitors the JFK scene on TV from his sickbed in Virginia. Pleased with what he sees, he sends for a helicopter for immediate transport to a Manhattan penthouse. In Queens, Eph's ex-wife Kelley and their 11-year-old son ready themselves with the rest of the Eastern United States for the first total lunar eclipse in more than four hundred years. In a pawn shop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps named Abraham Setrakian takes it all in. He knows that his time has come, that a war is about to begin, and that the Master is Here.
So begins anescalating battle of epic proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected the four survivors begins to ravage the city. Eph-guided by Setrakian, and joined by Vassily, a exterminator, Nora, Eph's CDC colleague, and Gus, a Harlem gangbanger-fights his way through the next horrifying days, determined to save his wife and son before the Master succeeds in his unholy mission.
I am so excited! Now we all know that this is not del Toro's first foray into vamp world. In 1993, his film Cronos was a vampire flick that's a little different from what you might be used to. And then there's Blade II.
I haven't been able to really find any info on the inspiration for this project, but it does look as though del Toro was in talks with FOX back in '06 about producing a dark fantasy series about vamps called The Strain.
The Strain hits shelves on June 2 and promises to be one of this summer's blockbuster titles.
1 comment:
I have this in my review pile and I can't wait to start it!
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