Carrion Comfort

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Mel Foster, Laural Merlington

"Carrion Comfort is one of the three greatest horror novels of the 20th century. Simple as that." (Stephen King)

"Epic in scale and scope but intimately disturbing, Carrion Comfort spans the ages to rewrite history and tug at the very fabric of reality. A nightmarish chronicle of predator and prey that will shatter your world view forever. A true classic." (Guillermo del Toro)

"Carrion Comfort is one of the scariest books ever written. Whenever I get asked the question Who's your favorite author? my answer is always Dan Simmons." (James Rollins)

"One of the few major reinventions of the vampire concept, on a par with Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot. (David Morrell)

THE PAST...

Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves...

THE PRESENT...

Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to "use" humans: read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable aggression. Each year, three of the most powerful of this hidden order meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and deliberate destruction. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul's quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the depths of mankind's attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself...

©2009 Dan Simmons (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Keeps you glued to the earphones

This offering from Dan Simmons is more of a horror thriller than a strictly sci-fi genre book. Ordinarily I wouldn't have listened to this book, but having recently listened to the Hyperion series I decided on the strength of the storyline to give it a go. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed, despite the lack of "sci-finess" (or fantasy) which I usually look for.

This is a long book and understanding Simmons penchant for long and involved descriptions, almost rambling sometimes, he still builds a wonderful and gripping story that begs you to listen to the next chapter.

Simmons provides an interesting twist on the vampire theme now so common in print and video and with this being written almost 25 years ago, the variation is quite unique. In addition he skillfully blends in historical events and presents questions of morality that help to build the depth of the main characters in the book.

The bad characters are so horrible, they are almost likeable. They do the bad things you expect and the good guys are presented with situations that question their ethics and morality. Questions that still very relevant in today's society.

The narrators do an excellent job. The point of view swaps between first and third person depending on the character, but is consistent and works well as intended by the author.

The book and historical material is deep, insightful and well researched, giving great support to the overall premise of the storyline. If you wear a tin-foil hat you might almost believe it!

Overall a great book and worth the time to listen to a great yarn from an outstanding author.

Maybe I just can’t get over ...

The repeated use of the word “n*gger,” negress,” pickaninny,” “black b*tch” or referring or comparing black people to unintelligent animals or suggesting they are sub-human made this novel a most unenjoyable read.

I understand that the use of these negative terms and ideas was to highlight 1) the time period; and 2) how certain characters felt about black people. And I can even understand that the feelings/views of the characters do not necessarily reflect the views of the author. I just found myself wanting everyone to die a bloody death. I was completely unable to connect with any of the characters and did not enjoy the story.

The storyline was creative (although some scenes were not new — an episode of Star Trek came to mind with the chess pieces), but for me (a black woman) the story was hard to read.

well written

the only gripe I have is that the old lady gets her own narrator , who is fabulous and everyone else shares the same narrator who is middling but still a good story and interesting , it feels a bit like simmons wrote a bunch of shorter novels or stories and then mxed the characters together into the larger volume ,and at least its not narrated by john lee.

Everything

This is simply an amazing book. I’m on my second listen and I’m remembering so much that I’d forgotten. I get the criticisms I’ve read in the reviews, they’re not invalid, but they don’t really matter. It’s just a stunner of a story, super intense, weird, dark, horrifying. Not perfect, but highly recommended.

Creep-fest!

This is a great read about a small group of malevolent friends who use their psychic abilities to control others in an annual contest to see who can create the most spectacular murders. The combination of blue-blood gentility and sociopathic vigor make "Miss Melanie" a great villain.

The narrators also did a great job, especially the first-person narrative of Melanie.