The Fisherman

By: John Langan

Narrated by: Danny Campbell

In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.

©2016 John Langan (P)2023 Tantor Media

Awesome Cosmic Horror Book

Fantastic Book, I can´t believe has so little reviews in Audible. I am on my second listening of the book. The Narrator is great and the whole premise of the book is really good. Starts slow but from the mid onwards the book catches steam and really delivers. The first part of the novel is all a good setup for the horror that will appear after. I really recommend it!!!

Descriptions, descriptions and more descriptions

Liked the story, disliked the overfocus on descriptions. The book is far too "wordy". You do get a sense of Lovecraftian horror here and there, but it is hard for the mind not to wander when the story drones on without progressing

The narrator and the story are extremely dull

The story soon delves into a past timeline, that takes up most of the book and is very bland and dull, which is only exacerbated by the monotonous reading of the narrator. I was really stoked for this book, but I'd pass if I were you. The middle part is kind of like gothic horror, which I normally like, but this was really boring and it was hard for me to focus.

Competent but boring

There’s nothing I strongly dislike about this book, I just found it incredibly boring. I normally tell friends what I’m reading, but with this book there’s nothing I feel like talking about. The plot unfolds as any horror fan would expect it to, but very slowly. I didn’t care about the characters. The book does a good job of depicting grief but nowhere near as devastating as Pet Semetary, which it kept reminding me of. Somehow Stephen King’s novel has tension, dread and heart even though you know what’s going to happen from the start. I think maybe the difference is that King’s book is driven by character, terrible personal choices and interpersonal tensions, whereas Langan’s relies heavily on descriptions of horrible things. In real life or a movie the horrible things would scary, but in a book I personally need something … deeper.

It doesn’t help that the main character is mostly just a witness/bystander.

The narrator is fine but doesn’t vary his performance for different characters.