Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Carrion Comfort
Book Review: Addictive even after 4 reading!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best SciFi or Horror book I've ever read. And I've read many over the last 25 years. King, McCammon, Barker, Cussler, Asimov, Heinlen, etc. The book has a horror tone, but the "abilities" of the characters seems more in line with SciFi and "mental mutants." The amount of detail, combined with the fast pace of this book and total depravity of the characters make it nearly impossible to place down once you get past the first 15 pages. It just pulls you in. Interestingly, this is one of only two books by Simmons that I've been able to finish -- but this one I couldn't stop reading. Most writers can't seem to develop characters without the story really slowing down. But in Carrion Comfort, these sections of the story are especially captivating. I've read this 4 times over the last 10 years -- more than any book other than a couple by Niven.Book Review: An excellent "read"
Summary: 5 Stars
A well developed page turner. Highly enjoyed by all that I have recomended it to.Book Review: An outstanding epic of terror!
Summary: 5 Stars
With Carrion Comfort, Dan Simmons has proven
himself to be one of the most versatile masters of
story-telling. Exquisite writing, engaging characters
and enough plot twists to keep you on the edge
throughout this horrorfying struggle for powerBook Review: Big Disappointment.
Summary: 2 Stars
I ordered this book specifically because there were so many glowing reviews and because it was so well-compared to so many books that I like (i.e., The Stand). Simmons is also a writer about whom I've heard good things.I'm inclined to give Simmons the benefit of the doubt and try another one of his books, but if this were my only basis for judgement, I'd be extremely dubious.
First of all, I didn't care about the characters. And this despite Simmons using every emotional trick in the book to get me to care about them. We had a holocaust survivor, a determined young victim of racism who lost her father, a poor but honest local cop. It was almost ridiculous how many hackneyed tricks he pulled out the hat to try to get the readers to care about these people.
Second, the sense of timing in the book is very poor. Deaths occur at times that you can't care about them, there are long meandering plot sequences that are absolutely irrelevant. This might have been improved with some judicious cutting (this book certainly did not need to be 900 pages).
There *are* certainly some good elements in the book. I like how he played with your expectations about the villains. It's impressive that he managed to finish it at all given how sprawling the plot is.
Anyhow, like I said, I'll give Simmons another chance. But if I had to do it over again, I'd give this book a miss.
Book Review: Big action packed epic horror
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an epic horror novel. A rare genre that has some of my favorite books in it: Stephen King's The Stand, Clive Barker's Imajica, and Robert R. McCammon's Swan Song. This book deserves a place right along side of them. It has everything you'd expect from the genre: lots and lots of great characters (Melanie Fuller is as successful a study of the sociopathic mind as Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, only Carrion Comfort is a million times better story). Non-stop action from Nina's dizzying pursuit of Melanie at the beginning to Natalie and Melanie's final explosive confrontation at the end(The kid with the scalpel blades on the ends of his fingers, jeez!) and everything in between: the showdowns in Germantown and Dolman Island, holy cow! The book takes the reader from the Nazi concentration camps to the American south, Hollywood, Washington D.C., the inner-city slums of Philidelphia, Isreal, and many other places. Its truly a sprawling novel with more thrills and chills than the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I strongly recommend it.