The Infection Has Begun

I am so excited about the release of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan' s The Strain! First off, I know I previously posted about the book here in my week of "Books I'm Excited About" posts. And now it's finally (almost) here. The book hits shelves on June 2 and it's one you'll really want to sink your teeth into (yes, my cheesy attempt at being funny while this tired). 

The book begins with a plane. It's landed and all has gone dark. Upon investigation, all of the window shades prove to be closed and the emergency exit jammed. Eventually they are able to crack it open only to discover that all of the passengers are dead. The CDC is called in, specifically Dr. Ephrailm Goldweather and his Canary project. They find four passengers who are, surprisingly (and barely) hanging on and immediately transfer them to quarantine at a local hospital. The remaining bodies are divvied up between four boroughs' morgues. Then all of the bodies disappear. Ephraim and his team are in no way prepared for the outbreak that has begun. They are joined by Abraham Setrakian, a survivor of the Nazi death camps, who has seen these creatures and battled them before. Together, they must fight the infection before the vampires take over the world. 

Yep, classic vampire horror del Toro style! Del Toro, director of such films as Pans Labyrinth and Devil's Backbone, also directed Blade II, so it's probably no surprise that I'm seeing some parallels between those icky vamps and these. There are also tones of Dracula in the tale. I love Abraham Setrakian's interludes and his stories of the strigoi, kind of wish there was more, but this is only book 1 in the trilogy, so there's time for more Eastern European folklore specifics.  

What I'm wondering now is whether this will be made into a film with del Toro directing again? He's slated for The Hobbit and The Hobbit 2 and also has a slew of stuff basically categorized as "in the works," including Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and, surprisingly, Drood. We can only wait and see what comes to pass. Fortunately, we do know that the subsequent books in The Strain trilogy will be coming in the next couple of years. 

This one is going to be BIG folks. BIG, BIG, BIG! Buy it, love it, and tell everyone about is. And, visit the really cool website for more info on the vamps, story info, an interview with Guillermo del Toro, and even a look inside the book itself.