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Forever Twilight #1
Darkness Falling
Zombie monsters struck from the mold of countless drive-in B movies supply mayhem and gore in Darkness Falling. Their onslaught is heralded one day by a predawn flash of unearthly light that cuts off middle-American everyville Jesman's Bend from communication with the outside world. When four employees of local radio station KMRT investigate, they find the town mysteriously depopulated, apparently in the middle of regular routines. Familiar folk reappear shortly afterward, all wearing concealing sunglasses and gloves and driven by malignant alien motives revealed when they descend en masse upon the terrified foursome . . .
File Under: Science Fiction [Zombie Apocalypse | Bodysnatchers | They Return ]
e-book ISBN: 9780857661708
File Under: Science Fiction [Zombie Apocalypse | Bodysnatchers | They Return ]
e-book ISBN: 9780857661708
400 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2002
7 people are currently reading
382 people want to read
About the author
Peter Crowther
194 books41 followersPeter Crowther, born in 1949, is a journalist, anthologist, and the author of many short stories and novels. He is the co-founder of PS Publishing and the editor of Postscripts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
August 30, 2011
Peter Crowther currently looking in the window and everything outside are all things bright and beautiful. Well, everything seems fine, people are walking, cars are beeping and animals are buzzing like any ordinary days. Then, a beam of light appears. In a second everybody gone even animals that are busy doing their jobs, and the world is in chaos. Perfectly destroyed and only few are given the chance to survive.
Books lately are too prophetical, it seems that authors are trying to write something about the future or maybe they are trying to trend with readers. Trying to predict things that we thought won't happen in the present, something gore and merciless. Readers are evolving so do the books that are published and soon the whole contemporary things will change into nightmares and ends.
I don't know where to start, this book is full of existing thoughts and I think the author is playing with the characters. Does anyone here have tried Left 4 Dead? Reading this was like playing that zombie game, well, the game is better and love the blood splat around the screen not like the book, which supposedly better than the game. The book is too confusing to read, had slow plot, too many boring conversations and characters are just appearing randomly.
As a reader, this book had the quality to become bestselling. No, I'm not here to make things good in the ear. The book had a promising plot and story but the book wrote in a crappy manner. Hey, have you kill the zombie yet? Ugh! And why does Peter Crowther have to name those zombies? I mean he is naming them and explaining their clothes although they are dead. I think that is his style, to make things detailed although the story doesn’t need them and making it longer.
The Darkness Falling is the first book of The Forever Twilight Series and republished by Angry Robot. I can't wait to read the second and the rest of the book in the series. Hey, when are you planning to publish the second one? It seems that you write novels very slow and you write short stories like a running ostrich. I don't mean to rush you but do you think it is time for you to publish another book?
This book reminds me of Gone, reading thick books that only happened for days and it was like reading the first chapter or chunk of the whole book. Well, compare to any zombie novels (this is my first time and who the hell I speak with zombie novels), I mean post-apocalyptic book, this is better than any books that I read. Not because I hate apocalyptic or dystopian things but because the style manages to pop although not dark, the story telling won't put me to sleep, a page turner. Exactly.
So the book started with few characters in the plane to Denver and in few seconds something terrible happened and rays of light appeared and when the character woke up. Everything was gone and few left to survive. So these are the first group of characters to know more in the story. Second, a murder happened in a house by a teenage guy and when he came out to deal with the dead body everyone is gone. Yeah, so they bring a killer in their group without knowing it.
Third, a female schizo or maybe not, can hear voices and so on and calling her mama, soak in a rain and went to a place to sleep. That's all and she came by a theater and again met these creepy zombies with weird movement and met with the group. Fourth, a group of people investigating a town and a light appeared and people disappeared. So their journey continues. In lastly, in the near end of the book they'll meet two kids and no further details because they only appear like 5 to 10 chapters before ending. I told you, this book is written like the first 5 chapters of a whole book. Everyone appearing randomly.
I have also issues with the characters, they seem to have different personality which I appreciated but most of them have psychological problems. I don't know why he came up with those ideas and I love his zombie characters, they look cooler than the usual zombies we read with sun glasses and gloves. I like to recommend this book to those readers who likes to play zombie games, not only that, but also to those people who love reading zombies. I have few friends with zombie taste! When the world ends, nobody knows when or nobody knows who'll survive till the human race collapse.
Thanks to NetGalley for sharing and accepting my request of this book as well as to Angry Robot who keep publishing weird books and never cared to be angry to me. I wish so.
Review posted on Old-Fashioned Reader .
Rating: Darkness Falling by Peter Crowther, 3 Sweets
Challenges:
Book #236 for 2011
Books lately are too prophetical, it seems that authors are trying to write something about the future or maybe they are trying to trend with readers. Trying to predict things that we thought won't happen in the present, something gore and merciless. Readers are evolving so do the books that are published and soon the whole contemporary things will change into nightmares and ends.
I don't know where to start, this book is full of existing thoughts and I think the author is playing with the characters. Does anyone here have tried Left 4 Dead? Reading this was like playing that zombie game, well, the game is better and love the blood splat around the screen not like the book, which supposedly better than the game. The book is too confusing to read, had slow plot, too many boring conversations and characters are just appearing randomly.
As a reader, this book had the quality to become bestselling. No, I'm not here to make things good in the ear. The book had a promising plot and story but the book wrote in a crappy manner. Hey, have you kill the zombie yet? Ugh! And why does Peter Crowther have to name those zombies? I mean he is naming them and explaining their clothes although they are dead. I think that is his style, to make things detailed although the story doesn’t need them and making it longer.
The Darkness Falling is the first book of The Forever Twilight Series and republished by Angry Robot. I can't wait to read the second and the rest of the book in the series. Hey, when are you planning to publish the second one? It seems that you write novels very slow and you write short stories like a running ostrich. I don't mean to rush you but do you think it is time for you to publish another book?
This book reminds me of Gone, reading thick books that only happened for days and it was like reading the first chapter or chunk of the whole book. Well, compare to any zombie novels (this is my first time and who the hell I speak with zombie novels), I mean post-apocalyptic book, this is better than any books that I read. Not because I hate apocalyptic or dystopian things but because the style manages to pop although not dark, the story telling won't put me to sleep, a page turner. Exactly.
So the book started with few characters in the plane to Denver and in few seconds something terrible happened and rays of light appeared and when the character woke up. Everything was gone and few left to survive. So these are the first group of characters to know more in the story. Second, a murder happened in a house by a teenage guy and when he came out to deal with the dead body everyone is gone. Yeah, so they bring a killer in their group without knowing it.
Third, a female schizo or maybe not, can hear voices and so on and calling her mama, soak in a rain and went to a place to sleep. That's all and she came by a theater and again met these creepy zombies with weird movement and met with the group. Fourth, a group of people investigating a town and a light appeared and people disappeared. So their journey continues. In lastly, in the near end of the book they'll meet two kids and no further details because they only appear like 5 to 10 chapters before ending. I told you, this book is written like the first 5 chapters of a whole book. Everyone appearing randomly.
I have also issues with the characters, they seem to have different personality which I appreciated but most of them have psychological problems. I don't know why he came up with those ideas and I love his zombie characters, they look cooler than the usual zombies we read with sun glasses and gloves. I like to recommend this book to those readers who likes to play zombie games, not only that, but also to those people who love reading zombies. I have few friends with zombie taste! When the world ends, nobody knows when or nobody knows who'll survive till the human race collapse.
This game is out of control! Everyone love this game and the gang can't stop playing Left 4 Dead 2 since a friend of mine introduce the game. Hey stop that, help! Gah, Spitter!
Thanks to NetGalley for sharing and accepting my request of this book as well as to Angry Robot who keep publishing weird books and never cared to be angry to me. I wish so.
Review posted on Old-Fashioned Reader .
Rating: Darkness Falling by Peter Crowther, 3 Sweets
Challenges:
Book #236 for 2011
March 15, 2013
Darkness Falling chronicles the struggle of several survivors as they realize they probably should have paid attention to that last zombie movie. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and genre savviness is nowhere to be found.
I checked out about halfway through the first act. I love reading on my tablet, but it’s so easy to get into the rhythm of tapping to turn the page, skimming through each page as you slowly realize that no, it doesn’t get better. I hoped, in vain, that something would magically change about this book—that an actual, complex character would show up, or that we would get any kind of explanation for what was happening. Instead, it was more random running, and yelling, and conversation, and things that might zombies or aliens or zombie-aliens. And I just didn’t care.
I will hand it to Peter Crowther: he has tried not to retread any single path. At the beginning, when Ronnie’s wife and others disappear from the plane in a flash of light, I nodded and said, “Rapture. This must be a Rapture story!” Later, as the disappeared began returning and acting on autopilot, I said, “Ah-hah! This is a zombie Rapture story! Now we’re talking!” Matters just got more confusing from there, though. So, while Darkness Falling combines several well-used tropes to create an interesting new mixture of problems for its protagonists, it doesn’t quite make the combination work. Crowther is a good author who manages to create tension and suspense as his different groups awaken to the new reality of their situation and desperately struggle for survival.
A great author, however, would be able to do this while simultaneously dropping clues about the story behind the crisis. I’m not even asking for a full explanation by the end of the book—it’s OK to keep the reader in the dark, as long as one leaves enough hints that an invested reader could start making educated guesses. (Observe, for instance, the level of speculation surrounding the various mysteries in A Song of Ice and Fire. It is practically an entire academic sub-field now; soon enough universities will be able to issue degrees in Westerology.) Crowther neglects this side of the writing for the pulse-pounding, heart-thumping thriller aspects. And I can grok the need for thrilling speed, but I still need that deeper mystery.
I also need characters who mean something to me. Despite its thrilling second and third acts, Darkness Falling builds with all the speed of a sloth stuck in molasses. Crowther alternates among three or four different groups of protagonists, such as Ronnie and Angela (soon to joined by Karl) on the plane; Virgil and his victims; Rick and Geoff; and so on. As the event—whatever it is—happens, each of these groups discovers how alone they are and struggles to survive, finally meeting up towards the end of the book. Until then, however, there is a lot of duplication of information and dialogue, as various characters in each group go through the same, “Oh shit” moments of introspection. If Crowther had made his groups more diverse, included a wider variety of people from different countries, genders, and backgrounds, then this might have been more enlightening. Since most of the characters are from the same general socioeconomic background, their reactions and personalities are just so similar that it gets repetitive.
Overall, I struggled with an oppressive sense of ennui as I read Darkness Falling. I’m getting rather bored with the zombie apocalypse. I’m certainly done with reading about tough-as-nails small-town Americans banding together to survive disaster. There is just nothing, nothing at all about this book that stands out, grabs me, and urges me to keep reading. It’s either so bland and standard as to be uninteresting or so broad and uninvestigated as to be unintriguing. Why should I want to learn anything more about this darkness phenomenon if it means I have to wait until the next book? I’ll go read a book about zombies exploring space, thank you very much. (Is there such a book? Call me!)
I read several reviews that compare this book to a Stephen King novel. I can see why, and an unexpected consequence of this experience is that I now have more respect for King’s writing. I didn’t love Under the Dome ; its characterization was weak and stereotypical, and the book was far too long. Regardless, King still knows how to write at a level that, at least in this book, has eluded Crowther. I didn’t necessarily like his characters or even find them that convincing, but I still remembered most of their names. And his story, even if not awesome, still made a kind of twisted sense. I can’t say as much for Darkness Falling.
Oh, and I’m not crazy about books whose titles are X Falling, where X is anything from “darkness” to “mutant bear politicians”. The only thing worse is X Rising. (I groaned when I turned the last page of this ebook and saw that the sequel was called Darkness Rising. I see now that the title is instead Windows to the Soul. Thank goodness for small favours.) I’m not sure who started this awful trend, but if I find out, I will … write a sternly worded letter of some kind.
This has been a somewhat scattered review because, to be honest, not enough of the contents of Darkness Falling have stuck with me in the less-than-24-hours since I finished reading it. This isn’t the kind of bad book where I become so furious that I begin taking notes and bookmarking quotations to use later on in an excoriating review. No, I’m afraid this is the other, less enjoyable kind of bad book that is merely bland and just not for me. Would it be for you? I’m not sure, but even if zombie-alien-Rapture-small-town-apocalypses are on your to-read list, there is probably a better example somewhere out there.
I checked out about halfway through the first act. I love reading on my tablet, but it’s so easy to get into the rhythm of tapping to turn the page, skimming through each page as you slowly realize that no, it doesn’t get better. I hoped, in vain, that something would magically change about this book—that an actual, complex character would show up, or that we would get any kind of explanation for what was happening. Instead, it was more random running, and yelling, and conversation, and things that might zombies or aliens or zombie-aliens. And I just didn’t care.
I will hand it to Peter Crowther: he has tried not to retread any single path. At the beginning, when Ronnie’s wife and others disappear from the plane in a flash of light, I nodded and said, “Rapture. This must be a Rapture story!” Later, as the disappeared began returning and acting on autopilot, I said, “Ah-hah! This is a zombie Rapture story! Now we’re talking!” Matters just got more confusing from there, though. So, while Darkness Falling combines several well-used tropes to create an interesting new mixture of problems for its protagonists, it doesn’t quite make the combination work. Crowther is a good author who manages to create tension and suspense as his different groups awaken to the new reality of their situation and desperately struggle for survival.
A great author, however, would be able to do this while simultaneously dropping clues about the story behind the crisis. I’m not even asking for a full explanation by the end of the book—it’s OK to keep the reader in the dark, as long as one leaves enough hints that an invested reader could start making educated guesses. (Observe, for instance, the level of speculation surrounding the various mysteries in A Song of Ice and Fire. It is practically an entire academic sub-field now; soon enough universities will be able to issue degrees in Westerology.) Crowther neglects this side of the writing for the pulse-pounding, heart-thumping thriller aspects. And I can grok the need for thrilling speed, but I still need that deeper mystery.
I also need characters who mean something to me. Despite its thrilling second and third acts, Darkness Falling builds with all the speed of a sloth stuck in molasses. Crowther alternates among three or four different groups of protagonists, such as Ronnie and Angela (soon to joined by Karl) on the plane; Virgil and his victims; Rick and Geoff; and so on. As the event—whatever it is—happens, each of these groups discovers how alone they are and struggles to survive, finally meeting up towards the end of the book. Until then, however, there is a lot of duplication of information and dialogue, as various characters in each group go through the same, “Oh shit” moments of introspection. If Crowther had made his groups more diverse, included a wider variety of people from different countries, genders, and backgrounds, then this might have been more enlightening. Since most of the characters are from the same general socioeconomic background, their reactions and personalities are just so similar that it gets repetitive.
Overall, I struggled with an oppressive sense of ennui as I read Darkness Falling. I’m getting rather bored with the zombie apocalypse. I’m certainly done with reading about tough-as-nails small-town Americans banding together to survive disaster. There is just nothing, nothing at all about this book that stands out, grabs me, and urges me to keep reading. It’s either so bland and standard as to be uninteresting or so broad and uninvestigated as to be unintriguing. Why should I want to learn anything more about this darkness phenomenon if it means I have to wait until the next book? I’ll go read a book about zombies exploring space, thank you very much. (Is there such a book? Call me!)
I read several reviews that compare this book to a Stephen King novel. I can see why, and an unexpected consequence of this experience is that I now have more respect for King’s writing. I didn’t love Under the Dome ; its characterization was weak and stereotypical, and the book was far too long. Regardless, King still knows how to write at a level that, at least in this book, has eluded Crowther. I didn’t necessarily like his characters or even find them that convincing, but I still remembered most of their names. And his story, even if not awesome, still made a kind of twisted sense. I can’t say as much for Darkness Falling.
Oh, and I’m not crazy about books whose titles are X Falling, where X is anything from “darkness” to “mutant bear politicians”. The only thing worse is X Rising. (I groaned when I turned the last page of this ebook and saw that the sequel was called Darkness Rising. I see now that the title is instead Windows to the Soul. Thank goodness for small favours.) I’m not sure who started this awful trend, but if I find out, I will … write a sternly worded letter of some kind.
This has been a somewhat scattered review because, to be honest, not enough of the contents of Darkness Falling have stuck with me in the less-than-24-hours since I finished reading it. This isn’t the kind of bad book where I become so furious that I begin taking notes and bookmarking quotations to use later on in an excoriating review. No, I’m afraid this is the other, less enjoyable kind of bad book that is merely bland and just not for me. Would it be for you? I’m not sure, but even if zombie-alien-Rapture-small-town-apocalypses are on your to-read list, there is probably a better example somewhere out there.
December 26, 2016
Hoo boy! This is a good one! Haven't read anything similar in years! I'm not talking about subject matter though, I'm talking about writing style. LOVED it. I've never read anything by Peter Crowther before and if I'm honest I've never even heard of him before this book caught my attention but right from the very first page of the prologue I felt like I was meeting an old friend after a long absence.
Why? How? Because it's like this guy is channeling my coming of age book hero, Stephen 'The Man' King! It's uncanny!
They both have this 'way' of writing. It's like the books are written in a first person POV but with a third person narrative. I can't explain it, I'm positive there must be a term to describe that writing style but I just don't know what it is. There are a lot of inner monologues where someone will be describing how they're feeling or what they're thinking but they use words like 'he' or 'she' to describe themselves instead of 'I'.
Ack! I just can't put it into words...all I know is that I associate it with King and I like it.
So anyway, the book...
Darkness Falling is the first part of the Forever Twilight trilogy. I think it's considered to be Science Fiction but it's also probably easily slotted into the Horror genre. Maybe Apocalyptic fiction too. To keep with the King connection I'd compare it to having a bit of 'The Langoliers', 'The Stand', 'The Tommy Knockers'..actually, I could probably find a lot of bits from a lot of novels to compare this to. It's quite hard to pigeon hole. Invasion of the body snatchers with zombie aliens is kinda close.
It's very character driven and the whole story is told via multiple 'survivors' and while I love all that, it was a bit frustrating to get caught up in one person's story only to have the chapter end and have to remind myself of a new person's story-to-date and catch up with their portion again for the new chapter. I'll admit to enjoying the story of some characters more than others too, which made things all the more frustrating when a really good bit ended and I had to get through a character I wasn't enjoying as much to get back to the good stuff. It's all good, I just really wasn't that 'connected' to the radio station guys (and gal), which is a pity because they're sort of central.
There a LOT of name dropping scattered throughout. Pop culture, movie references, actors, etc and it's not that it bothered me exactly it just got tedious after a while. There's a section where one of the characters 'Ronnie' tells the character 'Karl' that he looks like the actor Paul Giamatti. Now, while that would have been great for me to get a visual of how Karl looks, I actually have no clue who Mr Giamatti is. Fail!
It felt like lazy writing. There's that mantra for writers that I've seen mentioned here and there, "Don't tell me, show me", but here 'showing' me involved a side-step to Google images to find out what Karl looked like. In case anyone is as un-savvy as I am, Giamatti the one who played the Ourangatang in Planet of the Apes.... I think.
Did I mention how scary it is yet? No? Well, it's scary. I had to stop reading it at night and lay it aside to finish during daylight hours. I'm not a huge devourer of the horror genre any more and don't claim to be an authority on what constitutes a successful scare but all I know is that when reading certain bits my brain was saying "No no no no no...omgomgomgomg". I think I'm probably quite wimpy as far as 'easily spooked' goes but to coin a Disney rating, it's worse than "mild peril".
I won't spoil anything by going into a deep analysis of the story line. I'll just end by saying - I LIKED IT!
Why? How? Because it's like this guy is channeling my coming of age book hero, Stephen 'The Man' King! It's uncanny!
They both have this 'way' of writing. It's like the books are written in a first person POV but with a third person narrative. I can't explain it, I'm positive there must be a term to describe that writing style but I just don't know what it is. There are a lot of inner monologues where someone will be describing how they're feeling or what they're thinking but they use words like 'he' or 'she' to describe themselves instead of 'I'.
Ack! I just can't put it into words...all I know is that I associate it with King and I like it.
So anyway, the book...
Darkness Falling is the first part of the Forever Twilight trilogy. I think it's considered to be Science Fiction but it's also probably easily slotted into the Horror genre. Maybe Apocalyptic fiction too. To keep with the King connection I'd compare it to having a bit of 'The Langoliers', 'The Stand', 'The Tommy Knockers'..actually, I could probably find a lot of bits from a lot of novels to compare this to. It's quite hard to pigeon hole. Invasion of the body snatchers with zombie aliens is kinda close.
It's very character driven and the whole story is told via multiple 'survivors' and while I love all that, it was a bit frustrating to get caught up in one person's story only to have the chapter end and have to remind myself of a new person's story-to-date and catch up with their portion again for the new chapter. I'll admit to enjoying the story of some characters more than others too, which made things all the more frustrating when a really good bit ended and I had to get through a character I wasn't enjoying as much to get back to the good stuff. It's all good, I just really wasn't that 'connected' to the radio station guys (and gal), which is a pity because they're sort of central.
There a LOT of name dropping scattered throughout. Pop culture, movie references, actors, etc and it's not that it bothered me exactly it just got tedious after a while. There's a section where one of the characters 'Ronnie' tells the character 'Karl' that he looks like the actor Paul Giamatti. Now, while that would have been great for me to get a visual of how Karl looks, I actually have no clue who Mr Giamatti is. Fail!
It felt like lazy writing. There's that mantra for writers that I've seen mentioned here and there, "Don't tell me, show me", but here 'showing' me involved a side-step to Google images to find out what Karl looked like. In case anyone is as un-savvy as I am, Giamatti the one who played the Ourangatang in Planet of the Apes.... I think.
Did I mention how scary it is yet? No? Well, it's scary. I had to stop reading it at night and lay it aside to finish during daylight hours. I'm not a huge devourer of the horror genre any more and don't claim to be an authority on what constitutes a successful scare but all I know is that when reading certain bits my brain was saying "No no no no no...omgomgomgomg". I think I'm probably quite wimpy as far as 'easily spooked' goes but to coin a Disney rating, it's worse than "mild peril".
I won't spoil anything by going into a deep analysis of the story line. I'll just end by saying - I LIKED IT!
November 12, 2009
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
Regular readers know that in the last year, I've ended up becoming a pretty big fan of PS Publishing, a British small press headed up by Peter Crowther and specializing in challenging New Weird literature. And so that's why I was so excited to recently receive the first two volumes of Crowther's own "Forever Twilight" series of novellas (put out not by PS itself, but by Drugstore Indian Press and Subterranean Press respectively); because if Crowther can bring that strikingly original an eye to literature as an editor, I thought, he's bound to do the same as an author himself, as I settled back and prepared myself for something along the lines of the exquisitely strange Robert Freeman Wexler or Sebastien Doubinsky. But alas, after getting through these two short books, I was reminded of a realization I've been making more and more since opening CCLaP (and especially since participating in Nanowrimo this year and writing my own first creative project in over half a decade), which is that the creative side of the arts and the administrative side require two almost completely different sets of skills, and that excellence in one does not automatically mean excellence in the other.
Although to be clear, let me emphasize right away that these books aren't actually bad -- they're solid little thrillers, in fact, that fit right in the middle of the quality scale when it comes to the horror genre -- which ironically is my main complaint, that for a guy who specializes in putting out utterly original work by others, his own stories are only middling ones that touch on just about every stereotype the genre even has. It's essentially an ongoing single narrative about a series of strange events that befall the planet over the course of a couple of random nights, where during one blinding flash the vast majority of the human population suddenly disappears, and then a day later some of them just as suddenly reappear, but now with all of them wearing aviator sunglasses and exhibiting zombielike behavior and converting their cars into futuristic hovercrafts and able to kill just through touch alone; the first two books so far in the series, then, take place in and around the Denver area, telling the stories of a handful of people who end up not affected by either of these events (including a sassy radio DJ, a psychotic serial killer, an adorable seven-year-old girl who just happens to be psychic, and more), with the explanation for what has happened apparently being saved for future volumes in the series.
Yeah, starting to sound an awful lot like an amalgamation of Stephen King novels? That's what I thought too, part of the reason I ended up kind of disappointed by these books; and in fact the similarities don't stop there, with Crowther's books also sharing the same frequent dips into immature personal styles, a penchant for too many minor pop-culture references, and even
don't say it Jason don't you dare say it or the creepy crawlies will come after you they'll come and they'll eat you all up
crappily-written inner-brain monologues. And again, this is not necessarily too terribly bad a thing, especially if you're already a fan of Stephen King (which I admittedly am not), just that it's disappointing from the aspect of them being nothing special, pretty much the same kind of so-so mass-alien-abduction tale that genre fans have already read a hundred times.
But my biggest complaint, though, is in the serial nature of these books' overall storyline; that since the entire eventual series is quite obviously going to follow only one giant narrative plotline, it means that these first two volumes are all set-up and with no payoff on their own. And this is something that really irks me about modern serial-publishing experiments, and is the main difference between them and the Victorian masters they are emulating; because older serial authors like Charles Dickens and the like knew how to make each part of their projects a satisfying tale unto itself, almost more like a series of self-contained stories that only then added up to a giant uber-narrative by the end, while modern serial tales tend to simply be one big traditional novel only doled out to the audience a little at a time, almost like taking the audience members hostage for daring to read the first volume to begin with, forcing them to have to continue buying future installments in order to get any pleasure whatsoever out of all those Act One volumes they slogged their way through at the beginning. And if that's the case, I don't see much of a point in publishing the tale serially in the first place, and would prefer that the author just save it all up and put it out as one uninterrupted 800-page novel or whatever.
So, not exactly an official pass on the "Forever Twilight" series today, but not exactly a big recommendation either; if anything I would call them for hardcore horror fans only, although those of you who are hardcore horror fans will find these perfectly delightful. Although as an editor his books are not to be missed, as an author these two novellas can unfortunately be skipped over by most who are only casual fans of this particular genre.
Out of 10: 7.2, or 8.2 for horror fans
Regular readers know that in the last year, I've ended up becoming a pretty big fan of PS Publishing, a British small press headed up by Peter Crowther and specializing in challenging New Weird literature. And so that's why I was so excited to recently receive the first two volumes of Crowther's own "Forever Twilight" series of novellas (put out not by PS itself, but by Drugstore Indian Press and Subterranean Press respectively); because if Crowther can bring that strikingly original an eye to literature as an editor, I thought, he's bound to do the same as an author himself, as I settled back and prepared myself for something along the lines of the exquisitely strange Robert Freeman Wexler or Sebastien Doubinsky. But alas, after getting through these two short books, I was reminded of a realization I've been making more and more since opening CCLaP (and especially since participating in Nanowrimo this year and writing my own first creative project in over half a decade), which is that the creative side of the arts and the administrative side require two almost completely different sets of skills, and that excellence in one does not automatically mean excellence in the other.
Although to be clear, let me emphasize right away that these books aren't actually bad -- they're solid little thrillers, in fact, that fit right in the middle of the quality scale when it comes to the horror genre -- which ironically is my main complaint, that for a guy who specializes in putting out utterly original work by others, his own stories are only middling ones that touch on just about every stereotype the genre even has. It's essentially an ongoing single narrative about a series of strange events that befall the planet over the course of a couple of random nights, where during one blinding flash the vast majority of the human population suddenly disappears, and then a day later some of them just as suddenly reappear, but now with all of them wearing aviator sunglasses and exhibiting zombielike behavior and converting their cars into futuristic hovercrafts and able to kill just through touch alone; the first two books so far in the series, then, take place in and around the Denver area, telling the stories of a handful of people who end up not affected by either of these events (including a sassy radio DJ, a psychotic serial killer, an adorable seven-year-old girl who just happens to be psychic, and more), with the explanation for what has happened apparently being saved for future volumes in the series.
Yeah, starting to sound an awful lot like an amalgamation of Stephen King novels? That's what I thought too, part of the reason I ended up kind of disappointed by these books; and in fact the similarities don't stop there, with Crowther's books also sharing the same frequent dips into immature personal styles, a penchant for too many minor pop-culture references, and even
don't say it Jason don't you dare say it or the creepy crawlies will come after you they'll come and they'll eat you all up
crappily-written inner-brain monologues. And again, this is not necessarily too terribly bad a thing, especially if you're already a fan of Stephen King (which I admittedly am not), just that it's disappointing from the aspect of them being nothing special, pretty much the same kind of so-so mass-alien-abduction tale that genre fans have already read a hundred times.
But my biggest complaint, though, is in the serial nature of these books' overall storyline; that since the entire eventual series is quite obviously going to follow only one giant narrative plotline, it means that these first two volumes are all set-up and with no payoff on their own. And this is something that really irks me about modern serial-publishing experiments, and is the main difference between them and the Victorian masters they are emulating; because older serial authors like Charles Dickens and the like knew how to make each part of their projects a satisfying tale unto itself, almost more like a series of self-contained stories that only then added up to a giant uber-narrative by the end, while modern serial tales tend to simply be one big traditional novel only doled out to the audience a little at a time, almost like taking the audience members hostage for daring to read the first volume to begin with, forcing them to have to continue buying future installments in order to get any pleasure whatsoever out of all those Act One volumes they slogged their way through at the beginning. And if that's the case, I don't see much of a point in publishing the tale serially in the first place, and would prefer that the author just save it all up and put it out as one uninterrupted 800-page novel or whatever.
So, not exactly an official pass on the "Forever Twilight" series today, but not exactly a big recommendation either; if anything I would call them for hardcore horror fans only, although those of you who are hardcore horror fans will find these perfectly delightful. Although as an editor his books are not to be missed, as an author these two novellas can unfortunately be skipped over by most who are only casual fans of this particular genre.
Out of 10: 7.2, or 8.2 for horror fans
June 28, 2011
Review reprinted from http://seriestracker.wordpress.com/20...
Darkness Fallen, the first in the Forever Twilight series, by Peter Crowther is the first in a new series. But it felt like it should have been the first few chapters in one book, not the first book in a series.
I made the mistake of reading a review by someone else of this book. Now I can’t find anything original to say. But I guess that’s fitting since the book too wasn’t very original. At least not to someone who has read Steven King’s various versions of the end of humanity as we know it (or has seen the TV versions of the same. Or really, has seen any number of flicks on the SciFi network (and yes, totally off on a tangent, I refuse to use the rebrand of that network since since then, it totally sucks!)). Not to mention the repetitive nature of the book itself. The narrative style, where we get the events from different characters, in this case made for a very repetitive book since we got the aftermath of the flash from everyone, we got the sense of desertion after the flash from everyone, we got the realization that everyone else for some reason disappeared when the flash happened – after the flash – from everyone…. See how that gets annoying?
The plot looks like this: there’s a bright all consuming flash of light and most of the world disappears in that instant. Except for the few who don’t disappear. And, with the first character we meet there’s an airplane involved (“The Stand” sound familiar?). We don’t know why they aren’t “taken” but each of them comes to realize that there is something going on and they don’t know what. Then, 24 hours after the first flash, wham! There’s another flash and everyone (although I am not sure it is everyone, but it doesn’t really matter, at least not yet) is back. But they are different. They are all zombie like. And, the individuals and small groups of those who weren’t taken the first night slowly come together. And they slowly discover some weird things about those who have returned (in my head, I dubbed them the “originals” and the “remakes” as far as groups go. Because remakes are never as good as the originals).
When the book ends, the story is really just beginning. And after 416 pages, that’s sort of an accomplishment itself. See, as I see it there are two different types of serials: those with an overall story arc, but individual stories which are concluded in some way in each book (think Harry Potter) and those which simply march towards the conclusion of the overall story arc (think… Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel). I prefer series in the former category, but can enjoy a well written series that fits in the later category (hence the reference to the outstanding Flamel series). Problem is, so many series in the latter category are not well written.
When the character development is all there is and there is no plot, I can’t enjoy it. There needs to be both. The plot that existed in this book could be summed up in 3, maybe 4, sentences. Despite the nature of this type of serial, there needs to be more to the story arc than that. I can sum it up this way: there’s a bright light, most people disappear, then they come back zombielike. I need more! I need more to make me feel invested in the story so that I come back for the next installment. Often, character development can make up for the lack of plot development, by having great characters that a reader gets attached to. Then, I can get pulled into something even if the plot isn’t sufficient. But here…
…the character development should have been better given how much time we get with each of the few “main” characters. Ronnie, for instance, is likable, but that is all. He’s one of the originals. His inner dialogue was awful, his development started out promising but as soon as the light happened, his development hit a wall. Then, when we see the other characters, their stories, while different hit the same wall (and some of them never really had much development before that) when the light happened. And after the light, well, their experiences were just too similar. It felt very repetitive. Even the quirkiness of some of the originals – the little girl who is psychic, the resident serial killer, and the multiple personality Sally – were really not all that interesting, nor did they add to the story. At least not yet. And since this was really all set up and no plot, no teasers of what is to come, it is hard to look forward to seeing if anything will come of those folks and their uniqueness.
I felt more like I was reading the script for a movie – since so many of the details would be background and all scenery and therefore the 400 pages would be the first 30 minutes of a movie. But when I pick up 400 pages, I want a story, not a tiny tiny little portion of the beginning of it.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t read this. It’s just that I would personally prefer to wait until all the installments are published (since this seems to be one of those series that should have just been one long book, but the publishers don’t make enough money (however, not every story should be a serial, no matter how much the publishers may want it to be) that way and since serials seem to be more popular then ever I don’t think we will be seeing an end to them) so I could read them all at once. There were a few starts to interesting ideas here (the alien influence, the little centipede creatures, the flying cars, and the notion that there might be another light and more changes in the future), so it wasn’t a total waste. But again, I would wait for other installments and read it all at once. The cover promises that this is book 1 in the Forever Twilight series. I don’t know out of how many, but I will wait to read 2 (and any subsequents) until we get the final book in the Forever Twilight series.
Darkness Fallen, the first in the Forever Twilight series, by Peter Crowther is the first in a new series. But it felt like it should have been the first few chapters in one book, not the first book in a series.
I made the mistake of reading a review by someone else of this book. Now I can’t find anything original to say. But I guess that’s fitting since the book too wasn’t very original. At least not to someone who has read Steven King’s various versions of the end of humanity as we know it (or has seen the TV versions of the same. Or really, has seen any number of flicks on the SciFi network (and yes, totally off on a tangent, I refuse to use the rebrand of that network since since then, it totally sucks!)). Not to mention the repetitive nature of the book itself. The narrative style, where we get the events from different characters, in this case made for a very repetitive book since we got the aftermath of the flash from everyone, we got the sense of desertion after the flash from everyone, we got the realization that everyone else for some reason disappeared when the flash happened – after the flash – from everyone…. See how that gets annoying?
The plot looks like this: there’s a bright all consuming flash of light and most of the world disappears in that instant. Except for the few who don’t disappear. And, with the first character we meet there’s an airplane involved (“The Stand” sound familiar?). We don’t know why they aren’t “taken” but each of them comes to realize that there is something going on and they don’t know what. Then, 24 hours after the first flash, wham! There’s another flash and everyone (although I am not sure it is everyone, but it doesn’t really matter, at least not yet) is back. But they are different. They are all zombie like. And, the individuals and small groups of those who weren’t taken the first night slowly come together. And they slowly discover some weird things about those who have returned (in my head, I dubbed them the “originals” and the “remakes” as far as groups go. Because remakes are never as good as the originals).
When the book ends, the story is really just beginning. And after 416 pages, that’s sort of an accomplishment itself. See, as I see it there are two different types of serials: those with an overall story arc, but individual stories which are concluded in some way in each book (think Harry Potter) and those which simply march towards the conclusion of the overall story arc (think… Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel). I prefer series in the former category, but can enjoy a well written series that fits in the later category (hence the reference to the outstanding Flamel series). Problem is, so many series in the latter category are not well written.
When the character development is all there is and there is no plot, I can’t enjoy it. There needs to be both. The plot that existed in this book could be summed up in 3, maybe 4, sentences. Despite the nature of this type of serial, there needs to be more to the story arc than that. I can sum it up this way: there’s a bright light, most people disappear, then they come back zombielike. I need more! I need more to make me feel invested in the story so that I come back for the next installment. Often, character development can make up for the lack of plot development, by having great characters that a reader gets attached to. Then, I can get pulled into something even if the plot isn’t sufficient. But here…
…the character development should have been better given how much time we get with each of the few “main” characters. Ronnie, for instance, is likable, but that is all. He’s one of the originals. His inner dialogue was awful, his development started out promising but as soon as the light happened, his development hit a wall. Then, when we see the other characters, their stories, while different hit the same wall (and some of them never really had much development before that) when the light happened. And after the light, well, their experiences were just too similar. It felt very repetitive. Even the quirkiness of some of the originals – the little girl who is psychic, the resident serial killer, and the multiple personality Sally – were really not all that interesting, nor did they add to the story. At least not yet. And since this was really all set up and no plot, no teasers of what is to come, it is hard to look forward to seeing if anything will come of those folks and their uniqueness.
I felt more like I was reading the script for a movie – since so many of the details would be background and all scenery and therefore the 400 pages would be the first 30 minutes of a movie. But when I pick up 400 pages, I want a story, not a tiny tiny little portion of the beginning of it.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t read this. It’s just that I would personally prefer to wait until all the installments are published (since this seems to be one of those series that should have just been one long book, but the publishers don’t make enough money (however, not every story should be a serial, no matter how much the publishers may want it to be) that way and since serials seem to be more popular then ever I don’t think we will be seeing an end to them) so I could read them all at once. There were a few starts to interesting ideas here (the alien influence, the little centipede creatures, the flying cars, and the notion that there might be another light and more changes in the future), so it wasn’t a total waste. But again, I would wait for other installments and read it all at once. The cover promises that this is book 1 in the Forever Twilight series. I don’t know out of how many, but I will wait to read 2 (and any subsequents) until we get the final book in the Forever Twilight series.
October 12, 2009
"At a little after 3.15, the whole world had turned white, just for an instant, and then everything had gone back to normal." But of course it didn't. Everyone has gone, zapped out of existence in the middle of the night, and the four people left at KMRT are all that's left. Till the light flashes again, the next night, and then things get really strange.
A review by me of this book is a bit redundant, given the glittering literary stars lined up on its first few pages to praise it! Ramsey Campbell says it's "as intensely menacing and gruesome as any George Romero film", while Tim Lebbon calls it "a masterpiece of suspense and dread". Michael Marsall Smith, Paul McAuley, Stephen Baxter and Sarah Pinborough are among the others lavishing praise.
For me Ian Watson nails it when he says it "reminds me ... of Stephen King's novella 'The Mist'". This could easily be read as a very well done pastiche of Stephen King. The small group isolated at a radio station is reminiscent of The Fog, while the mysterious disappearance of the rest of the world and the tension between safe-in-here and dangerous-out-there reminded me of The Mist. Add a dash of 1950s sf cinema (think Invaders from Mars) and you have a tasty concoction.
At one point I began to wonder whether the book was set in the fifties (the CDs would say not) - a hysterical woman gets slapped across the face, not once but twice, by two different male characters (Johnny on p. 87 and Rick on p. 117). Not something you see in books so often nowadays. And the first occasion comes just after Johnny lets her open the door to danger – just because he doesn't want to worry her.
The plot is the story's main weakness. It relies upon the survivors spending the daytime (very sensibly) turning the station into a secure little fort, and then (unbelievably stupidly) going out for a walk in the pitch black night at 3.11 am, and coming a cropper. Why didn't they wait till morning before investigating? Geoff said, "My view is that two of us walk down into town, while it's dark. That way, maybe we can find out some more." Johnny, "verbalizing everyone's thoughts", asked who should go. You'd have thought at least one person would be thinking, a four mile walk in the middle of the night during a worldwide catastrophe is a stupid, stupid idea!
But if the plot is flawed, the ideas, atmosphere and action are terrific. And it is as scary as the luminaries above say; it gave me nightmares for two consecutive nights. The sequence with the telephone is the most frightening thing I've read since the railway scenes in The Witnesses Are Gone, from the same publisher. The desperate struggle to survive at the end was thrilling, and left me eager to read the sequels from Subterranean Press.
I reviewed this from a pdf ARC, so I wouldn't normally point out mistakes; there was one that could be confusing to readers if it makes it through to the final version, though. In one key passage I think the wrong brother's name is given (p. 75, fourth para, Geoff for Rick), which had me puzzling for ages about what was going on.
A review by me of this book is a bit redundant, given the glittering literary stars lined up on its first few pages to praise it! Ramsey Campbell says it's "as intensely menacing and gruesome as any George Romero film", while Tim Lebbon calls it "a masterpiece of suspense and dread". Michael Marsall Smith, Paul McAuley, Stephen Baxter and Sarah Pinborough are among the others lavishing praise.
For me Ian Watson nails it when he says it "reminds me ... of Stephen King's novella 'The Mist'". This could easily be read as a very well done pastiche of Stephen King. The small group isolated at a radio station is reminiscent of The Fog, while the mysterious disappearance of the rest of the world and the tension between safe-in-here and dangerous-out-there reminded me of The Mist. Add a dash of 1950s sf cinema (think Invaders from Mars) and you have a tasty concoction.
At one point I began to wonder whether the book was set in the fifties (the CDs would say not) - a hysterical woman gets slapped across the face, not once but twice, by two different male characters (Johnny on p. 87 and Rick on p. 117). Not something you see in books so often nowadays. And the first occasion comes just after Johnny lets her open the door to danger – just because he doesn't want to worry her.
The plot is the story's main weakness. It relies upon the survivors spending the daytime (very sensibly) turning the station into a secure little fort, and then (unbelievably stupidly) going out for a walk in the pitch black night at 3.11 am, and coming a cropper. Why didn't they wait till morning before investigating? Geoff said, "My view is that two of us walk down into town, while it's dark. That way, maybe we can find out some more." Johnny, "verbalizing everyone's thoughts", asked who should go. You'd have thought at least one person would be thinking, a four mile walk in the middle of the night during a worldwide catastrophe is a stupid, stupid idea!
But if the plot is flawed, the ideas, atmosphere and action are terrific. And it is as scary as the luminaries above say; it gave me nightmares for two consecutive nights. The sequence with the telephone is the most frightening thing I've read since the railway scenes in The Witnesses Are Gone, from the same publisher. The desperate struggle to survive at the end was thrilling, and left me eager to read the sequels from Subterranean Press.
I reviewed this from a pdf ARC, so I wouldn't normally point out mistakes; there was one that could be confusing to readers if it makes it through to the final version, though. In one key passage I think the wrong brother's name is given (p. 75, fourth para, Geoff for Rick), which had me puzzling for ages about what was going on.
Read
September 15, 2011DNF. Life is too short to force yourself to keep reading.
I requested Darkness Falling from NetGalley because I liked the premise: Four people inside a radio station find they may be the only normal people left alive after a strange bright light turns the rest of the town in pod-people zombies. I like zombies. But well-over 100 pages in, imagine my surprise when I have yet to see the walking undead. What I did see was nothing like the blurb... except the white light.
The story actually follows about nine or 10 people, scattered in or around Denver. Three are in a plane when the rest of the crew and passengers disappear. My mind went straight to The Langoliers and never left. There is the obvious dismay and confusion that follows, then more of the same once they get the plane to the ground. At the same time, we see the event from the perspective of a serial killer, a schizophrenic and the promised radio station crowd, respectively. It is incredibly drawn out. We get a lot of characterization, which can be a good thing, but it was just too much.
I was most annoyed by the exact same revelations over and over again, such as "Why would people close the doors behind them?" when everyone is trying to figure out where the town went. You know what? I would never ask that question, yet the folks in the book did, over and over and over. Another annoyance: a movie or literary reference every five seconds. One or twice could create some common ground between the characters and the audience, but we're talking like 50 different references.
So, back to the zombie thing... I'm more than a 1/3 of the way into the book and I start questioning myself about whether this was really a zombie book after all. So I go to Goodreads and discover two things: 1) While the zombies do eventually make an appearance, the book is basically the set up installment for the series, with no resolution; and 2) It was originally released in 2002... part 2 didn't come out until six years later and there is still no word on number 3. So I sat there thinking to myself, why on earth would I keep reading this book? Then I turned off my nook. Like I said, life is too short, even if giving up on a book makes me feel like a failure.
*After posting this review, a reader shared the following information with me: "Parts 1 and 2 that you mention were originally published as limited edition novellas, and they are included as *part* of Darkness Falling. Darkness Falling is essentially novellas 1 and 2 rewritten with additional material. The second novel in the trilogy is due in September 2012, and the third volume a year later." Thank you, Stevie J, for correcting my error.
**ARC Provided by NetGalley
I requested Darkness Falling from NetGalley because I liked the premise: Four people inside a radio station find they may be the only normal people left alive after a strange bright light turns the rest of the town in pod-people zombies. I like zombies. But well-over 100 pages in, imagine my surprise when I have yet to see the walking undead. What I did see was nothing like the blurb... except the white light.
The story actually follows about nine or 10 people, scattered in or around Denver. Three are in a plane when the rest of the crew and passengers disappear. My mind went straight to The Langoliers and never left. There is the obvious dismay and confusion that follows, then more of the same once they get the plane to the ground. At the same time, we see the event from the perspective of a serial killer, a schizophrenic and the promised radio station crowd, respectively. It is incredibly drawn out. We get a lot of characterization, which can be a good thing, but it was just too much.
I was most annoyed by the exact same revelations over and over again, such as "Why would people close the doors behind them?" when everyone is trying to figure out where the town went. You know what? I would never ask that question, yet the folks in the book did, over and over and over. Another annoyance: a movie or literary reference every five seconds. One or twice could create some common ground between the characters and the audience, but we're talking like 50 different references.
So, back to the zombie thing... I'm more than a 1/3 of the way into the book and I start questioning myself about whether this was really a zombie book after all. So I go to Goodreads and discover two things: 1) While the zombies do eventually make an appearance, the book is basically the set up installment for the series, with no resolution; and 2) It was originally released in 2002... part 2 didn't come out until six years later and there is still no word on number 3. So I sat there thinking to myself, why on earth would I keep reading this book? Then I turned off my nook. Like I said, life is too short, even if giving up on a book makes me feel like a failure.
*After posting this review, a reader shared the following information with me: "Parts 1 and 2 that you mention were originally published as limited edition novellas, and they are included as *part* of Darkness Falling. Darkness Falling is essentially novellas 1 and 2 rewritten with additional material. The second novel in the trilogy is due in September 2012, and the third volume a year later." Thank you, Stevie J, for correcting my error.
**ARC Provided by NetGalley
Read
January 14, 2012DNF.
I didn't want to stop reading it in the sense that I didn't want another horror novel to fail but I really just couldn't take it anymore. That blurb? It's misleading. Up to the point where I stopped reading, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the way through, not only was it from the POV of the radio people, but there was also some guy on a plane, a crazy old lady that talked to voices in her head and a serial killer. And they were all interpreting the same thing for far too long.
I was kind of wondering where the story was going right form the beginning when it started rambling on about this guy's wife and how he hated her and she was causing problems for him on the plane. This was one hell of a tangent that went on for far longer than it should have before the creepy element happened that zapped everyone away. Then that same zap moment was replayed from the POV of the crazy lady with an equally long tangent of backstory, the serial killer and all of his gross idiosyncrasies and the radio station people with more of the same. It's like I was stuck in the Twilight Zone, reliving the same damn moment over and over and over again. Or is that Groundhog's Day? Probably both.
The plot just stalled out for me and when actions actually started to get repeated amongst the characters (like serial killer and the radio people busting into people's empty houses) I just put it down. The characters were unnecessarily effed in the head, I felt like a hamster in a wheel reading and, personally, I could tell that it was someone only familiar with the stereotypes of Southern accents creating the accents in the story. I was right in assuming that since the author is British. Very cliche, podunk accents that one thinks of when they think of a Southerner, not necessarily what it really is.
Plus the author had a heinous habit of name dropping like crazy. I couldn't go a chapter without multiple references to books, authors, musicians, movies, actors and whatever else you could think of. And then he referenced Kent State, and needlessly mentioned the riots that happened there seemingly just to prove that the author himself knew about them, because it was irrelevant to anything that was going on. That just hammered the nail into the forceful coffin for me. I was done. I couldn't be bothered to make my way to the end if I had to slog through endless repetition and constant pop culture references.
This one had some great potential but it was far too scattered and directionless for my tastes. It breaks my heart when horror novels turn out to be turds but I'll carry on.
I didn't want to stop reading it in the sense that I didn't want another horror novel to fail but I really just couldn't take it anymore. That blurb? It's misleading. Up to the point where I stopped reading, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the way through, not only was it from the POV of the radio people, but there was also some guy on a plane, a crazy old lady that talked to voices in her head and a serial killer. And they were all interpreting the same thing for far too long.
I was kind of wondering where the story was going right form the beginning when it started rambling on about this guy's wife and how he hated her and she was causing problems for him on the plane. This was one hell of a tangent that went on for far longer than it should have before the creepy element happened that zapped everyone away. Then that same zap moment was replayed from the POV of the crazy lady with an equally long tangent of backstory, the serial killer and all of his gross idiosyncrasies and the radio station people with more of the same. It's like I was stuck in the Twilight Zone, reliving the same damn moment over and over and over again. Or is that Groundhog's Day? Probably both.
The plot just stalled out for me and when actions actually started to get repeated amongst the characters (like serial killer and the radio people busting into people's empty houses) I just put it down. The characters were unnecessarily effed in the head, I felt like a hamster in a wheel reading and, personally, I could tell that it was someone only familiar with the stereotypes of Southern accents creating the accents in the story. I was right in assuming that since the author is British. Very cliche, podunk accents that one thinks of when they think of a Southerner, not necessarily what it really is.
Plus the author had a heinous habit of name dropping like crazy. I couldn't go a chapter without multiple references to books, authors, musicians, movies, actors and whatever else you could think of. And then he referenced Kent State, and needlessly mentioned the riots that happened there seemingly just to prove that the author himself knew about them, because it was irrelevant to anything that was going on. That just hammered the nail into the forceful coffin for me. I was done. I couldn't be bothered to make my way to the end if I had to slog through endless repetition and constant pop culture references.
This one had some great potential but it was far too scattered and directionless for my tastes. It breaks my heart when horror novels turn out to be turds but I'll carry on.
February 5, 2012
First of all, I gotta say I got this book free from goodreads and was really really stoked about it. I waited and waited day after day for the mailman to deliver this puppy into my paws so I could sink my teeth into a post-apocolyptic book with zombies in it. What better way to spend hours and hours of usually droll time. Then I actually started to read...
First of all, the writing is horrible. The first few chapters make you scratch your head and re-read the same sentence four or five times just to try to follow through with what he's talking about. It's literally like trying to look to the bottom of a lake, through all the mud and particulates. He has this tendency of veering off in the middle of a sentence to something that has absolutely nothing to do with what's on hand, only to return in mid thought to the beginning of the sentence.
Second, if you're overseas, and you want to write a book based in America to appease to American readers, have an American company edit it. Trying to continue reading through all the British english really interupts the story. Time here is told with a colon. It's not 3.30, it's 3:30. It's not a foot locker unless you're in the millitary. It's not a boot, it's a trunk. And what the hell is a cement apron??? This doesn't even begin to cover all the stuff that takes away from the reading.
Thirdly, this man has a serious focus on a certain member of male anatomy and just loves to make all the men in the story out to be chauvanists and the women out to be dainty little things that couldn't make it through life without someone holding their hand. Maybe that's how things are in his head but it's sickening to read.
I stuck through the book and the writing does get better as it goes. He does do some good character development and it seems to be maybe something you could actually enjoy. Sadly, no. I was a few pages short of half way through the book before the zombie/alien whatevers finally shower up. Without giving away the entire story, I'm going to say, these creatures do not even begin to leave you satisfied and the ending is left totally open.
I give it one and a half stars. The half is just because I did finish it. This is supposed to be book one of a 3 part series. I most definately won't be looking for the sequels to this one and will most likely pass by his name in the future.
First of all, the writing is horrible. The first few chapters make you scratch your head and re-read the same sentence four or five times just to try to follow through with what he's talking about. It's literally like trying to look to the bottom of a lake, through all the mud and particulates. He has this tendency of veering off in the middle of a sentence to something that has absolutely nothing to do with what's on hand, only to return in mid thought to the beginning of the sentence.
Second, if you're overseas, and you want to write a book based in America to appease to American readers, have an American company edit it. Trying to continue reading through all the British english really interupts the story. Time here is told with a colon. It's not 3.30, it's 3:30. It's not a foot locker unless you're in the millitary. It's not a boot, it's a trunk. And what the hell is a cement apron??? This doesn't even begin to cover all the stuff that takes away from the reading.
Thirdly, this man has a serious focus on a certain member of male anatomy and just loves to make all the men in the story out to be chauvanists and the women out to be dainty little things that couldn't make it through life without someone holding their hand. Maybe that's how things are in his head but it's sickening to read.
I stuck through the book and the writing does get better as it goes. He does do some good character development and it seems to be maybe something you could actually enjoy. Sadly, no. I was a few pages short of half way through the book before the zombie/alien whatevers finally shower up. Without giving away the entire story, I'm going to say, these creatures do not even begin to leave you satisfied and the ending is left totally open.
I give it one and a half stars. The half is just because I did finish it. This is supposed to be book one of a 3 part series. I most definately won't be looking for the sequels to this one and will most likely pass by his name in the future.
October 5, 2012
Okay first I will tell you I listened to this story, unabridged, during a road trip, so that may have clouded this story for me.
This story actually pissed me off, not from stuff that happened in the book but by how utterly stupid things were.
Firstly, the author is obsessed with bodily functions. At least half of the characters either shit on themselves or pee their pants, not exaggerating. Sometimes it happens more than once. No one dies with dignity, except maybe Jim, there is always the stench of their bowels relaxing as they die or a loud fart. Even the zombie aliens pee themselves.
All of his female characters are completely worthless and mostly stupid. One character can see that zombie aliens are slamming their heads into the door to get in and still tries to let them in because they look like neighbors. The wife, Melanie, I think, just snivels the whole time.
There is no way this author has fired a gun. Hand guns almost knock people over and they fire shotguns with ease. They are also shooting them in the direction of little kids, amateurs who've never fired one before. In real life those kids would be dead. They also would have all been deaf after unloading so many rounds inside a house. Authors, it's called research.
Horrible over summarizing, every character has to give witness to events so things move an snail pace, even more so considering they are complete idiots. and it also felt like if this was a movie, it would be playing in slow motion.
Almost none of the characters act in any way that makes sense and I am taking into account that half of them are certifiably crazy, which I assume will be explained in the sequel (God help us).
The only thing worse than getting through this story was realizing it doesn't end at the end of the book, it's even a complete book within the series. The only resolution at the end of the book is that they didn't die and they still know noting.
And why the hell would they take the keys out of the ignition of the get away vehicle?
This author needs a better editor, and to meet real women.
This story actually pissed me off, not from stuff that happened in the book but by how utterly stupid things were.
Firstly, the author is obsessed with bodily functions. At least half of the characters either shit on themselves or pee their pants, not exaggerating. Sometimes it happens more than once. No one dies with dignity, except maybe Jim, there is always the stench of their bowels relaxing as they die or a loud fart. Even the zombie aliens pee themselves.
All of his female characters are completely worthless and mostly stupid. One character can see that zombie aliens are slamming their heads into the door to get in and still tries to let them in because they look like neighbors. The wife, Melanie, I think, just snivels the whole time.
There is no way this author has fired a gun. Hand guns almost knock people over and they fire shotguns with ease. They are also shooting them in the direction of little kids, amateurs who've never fired one before. In real life those kids would be dead. They also would have all been deaf after unloading so many rounds inside a house. Authors, it's called research.
Horrible over summarizing, every character has to give witness to events so things move an snail pace, even more so considering they are complete idiots. and it also felt like if this was a movie, it would be playing in slow motion.
Almost none of the characters act in any way that makes sense and I am taking into account that half of them are certifiably crazy, which I assume will be explained in the sequel (God help us).
The only thing worse than getting through this story was realizing it doesn't end at the end of the book, it's even a complete book within the series. The only resolution at the end of the book is that they didn't die and they still know noting.
And why the hell would they take the keys out of the ignition of the get away vehicle?
This author needs a better editor, and to meet real women.
August 3, 2011
Darkness Falling is the first book in the Forever Twilight series. It starts off as just an average day, and then there is a blinding, white light. Afterwards, there are only a few people left. Everyone else is just gone. As the survivors are trying to figure out what happened and come to terms with the fact that the people around them have disappeared, there is another flash of light. This time all those people are back, but they aren’t what they appear to be.
I knew that I would probably like this book before I even read it. The premise is something that really appeals to me. It has a cool story and some very interesting characters. It starts out introducing you to some of the key players. All of them have a defining flaw or issue, and some of them are just plain crazy. Then they are thrown into this life-altering situation and it was really cool to see some of them rise to the occasion. Virgil really stood out to me as one of my favorite characters to read. I would definitely describe him as a ‘creeper’, but knowing the reason for why he’s so screwed up made me feel sympathetic towards him. I was really rooting for him and look forward to seeing more of him in the next book.
Now, this book does have some gore in it. Well, there’s no ‘some’ about it. While I wouldn’t say that’s normally my cup of tea, it actually added to the whole feel of the book for me. During those parts I kind of shook my finger in mock scolding, but I was secretly really enjoying it. I could picture the action and shoot-em-up parts in movie form, especially the climax at the very end.
One other thing that I think this author did a superbly good job of was a feeling of building suspense. Darkness Falling builds momentum as it goes, and I ended up really liking it.
I knew that I would probably like this book before I even read it. The premise is something that really appeals to me. It has a cool story and some very interesting characters. It starts out introducing you to some of the key players. All of them have a defining flaw or issue, and some of them are just plain crazy. Then they are thrown into this life-altering situation and it was really cool to see some of them rise to the occasion. Virgil really stood out to me as one of my favorite characters to read. I would definitely describe him as a ‘creeper’, but knowing the reason for why he’s so screwed up made me feel sympathetic towards him. I was really rooting for him and look forward to seeing more of him in the next book.
Now, this book does have some gore in it. Well, there’s no ‘some’ about it. While I wouldn’t say that’s normally my cup of tea, it actually added to the whole feel of the book for me. During those parts I kind of shook my finger in mock scolding, but I was secretly really enjoying it. I could picture the action and shoot-em-up parts in movie form, especially the climax at the very end.
One other thing that I think this author did a superbly good job of was a feeling of building suspense. Darkness Falling builds momentum as it goes, and I ended up really liking it.
October 27, 2011
If you're looking for a horror novel, something to scary you in the wee hours of the night, this isn't the book. I'm not saying I disliked it, but it definitely was not as fulfilling as I would have liked. Darkness Falling reads much like a Stephen King novel, maybe too much but without the impact you get from a King story. It was enjoyable enough that I finished it, but it had zero "Wow" factor.
Also, the zombies of Darkness Falling are a little difficult to take seriously. Albeit, they aren't your typical zombie. I don't have a problem with that--new ideas are refreshing. But the sunglasses and gloves?
Also, the zombies of Darkness Falling are a little difficult to take seriously. Albeit, they aren't your typical zombie. I don't have a problem with that--new ideas are refreshing. But the sunglasses and gloves?
October 29, 2017
This was another book on CD that kept me entertained on my long work commute. Unabridged! The narrator did a great job with the character's voices. This is so not my typical genre, just a thrift store buy. I really liked it! I do wonder where the author is from. I mean, who calls the overhead bins on an airplane lockers? Or bathroom stalls cubicles? He also likes the word "myriad" , but kudos for using it correctly. If you are an alien zombie thriller reader, this is for you.
December 11, 2018
What I thought was a book about zombies, turned out to be about aliens. Either way, not my cup of tea. I didn't even like the way Book 1 ended. Maybe someone who is into Sci-Fi will like it better. Great story, I just didn't care for it.
September 2, 2017
this is one hell of a kickarse book it reminds me of a young Stephen king but I'm having trouble getting the other two books in the trilogy
March 28, 2020
I loved it. Great characterisation, wonderful writing and so atmospheric. It's a book for the end times.
April 11, 2021
Thoroughly engrossing. I was hoping for more "fleshing out" of the characters. I am disappointed that there is no adequate follow up book.
October 2, 2011
It was a typical all-American backwater – until the night the monsters came.
When four employees of KMRT Radio investigate an unearthly light that cuts off communication with the outside world, they discover that something has taken the place of their friends and fellow townfolk, and imbued them with malign intentions. Little do they know, the phenomenon is not unique to the town of Jesman’s Bend…
Last year when I visited FantasyCon 2010 in Nottingham, I picked up a short story collection called Zombie Apocalypse. I loved all the tales included, undead shufflers being a particular favourite of mine, but especially enjoyed the entry written by Peter Crowther. I was surprised by how much his writing put me in mind of Stephen King’s early work. Both authors seem equally blessed with the same gift of being able to convey a wealth of insight into their characters in a few scant chapters. Since then, I have been looking forward to the opportunity to read something else by him. When I heard that Angry Robot were re-releasing Forever Twilight as a trilogy (previously released as a duology in 2002, called Darkness Darkness), this sounded like the perfect place to expand my knowledge of Mr Crowther’s work.
Book one in the trilogy, Darkness Falling, has the characters based in a local radio station, and though their narrative was interesting, I was more engrossed with another couple of people the book follows. Firstly, there is sociopathic killer Virgil Banders. Happily going about his horrific hobby of mummifying his victims he wakes from sleep to learn the vast majority of people have disappeared. When they return Virgil discovers he is no longer top of the psychopathic food chain. The reader is immediately posed the question what would a killer do when all the rules have changed? Not a character that you are going to necessarily empathize with but engrossing none the less.
The other character that caught my attention is at the complete opposite end of spectrum, a total innocent, a little girl called Angel Wurst. She is left behind when her parents disappear and Crowther dangles just enough hints throughout this first book to suggest that her journey will be key to the whole story. Angel appears to have some sort of sixth sense and she can see through Virgil’s attempts to ingratiate himself into the main group of survivors.
Darkness Falling has a wonderful B-Movie-esque feel about it. I wouldn’t dream of ruining the story, but anyone who has ever marveled at the cold war paranoia exhibited in the likes of Invasion of The Body Snatchers will feel right at home here. There are also some referential nods to television shows like The Twilight Zone and The Invaders, which are guaranteed to raise a smile. The reason(s) behind the sudden global shift in humanity is never fully explained so this sets things up nicely for the next novel in the trilogy. I am certainly keen to find out what happens to the disparate group of survivors.
I was lucky enough to attend an event early this year and I got to hear Peter Crowther perform a reading taken from Darkness Falling. I think it was fair to say that the entire audience was totally entranced. This is the mark of a master storyteller; to be able to write something that resonates with many different people and leave them all hungry for more.
As a final thought, I can’t write a review of this novel without making mention of the evocative cover art by Vincent Chong. He created a marvelously creepy cover for Gary McMahon’s The Concrete Grove and he has done so again here. The large group of people wearing dark glasses in the dead of night reminded me of the John Carpenter classic They Live. To paraphrase Rowdy Roddy Piper “I have come here to chew bubblegum and read Darkness Rising...and I'm all out of bubblegum.”
When four employees of KMRT Radio investigate an unearthly light that cuts off communication with the outside world, they discover that something has taken the place of their friends and fellow townfolk, and imbued them with malign intentions. Little do they know, the phenomenon is not unique to the town of Jesman’s Bend…
Last year when I visited FantasyCon 2010 in Nottingham, I picked up a short story collection called Zombie Apocalypse. I loved all the tales included, undead shufflers being a particular favourite of mine, but especially enjoyed the entry written by Peter Crowther. I was surprised by how much his writing put me in mind of Stephen King’s early work. Both authors seem equally blessed with the same gift of being able to convey a wealth of insight into their characters in a few scant chapters. Since then, I have been looking forward to the opportunity to read something else by him. When I heard that Angry Robot were re-releasing Forever Twilight as a trilogy (previously released as a duology in 2002, called Darkness Darkness), this sounded like the perfect place to expand my knowledge of Mr Crowther’s work.
Book one in the trilogy, Darkness Falling, has the characters based in a local radio station, and though their narrative was interesting, I was more engrossed with another couple of people the book follows. Firstly, there is sociopathic killer Virgil Banders. Happily going about his horrific hobby of mummifying his victims he wakes from sleep to learn the vast majority of people have disappeared. When they return Virgil discovers he is no longer top of the psychopathic food chain. The reader is immediately posed the question what would a killer do when all the rules have changed? Not a character that you are going to necessarily empathize with but engrossing none the less.
The other character that caught my attention is at the complete opposite end of spectrum, a total innocent, a little girl called Angel Wurst. She is left behind when her parents disappear and Crowther dangles just enough hints throughout this first book to suggest that her journey will be key to the whole story. Angel appears to have some sort of sixth sense and she can see through Virgil’s attempts to ingratiate himself into the main group of survivors.
Darkness Falling has a wonderful B-Movie-esque feel about it. I wouldn’t dream of ruining the story, but anyone who has ever marveled at the cold war paranoia exhibited in the likes of Invasion of The Body Snatchers will feel right at home here. There are also some referential nods to television shows like The Twilight Zone and The Invaders, which are guaranteed to raise a smile. The reason(s) behind the sudden global shift in humanity is never fully explained so this sets things up nicely for the next novel in the trilogy. I am certainly keen to find out what happens to the disparate group of survivors.
I was lucky enough to attend an event early this year and I got to hear Peter Crowther perform a reading taken from Darkness Falling. I think it was fair to say that the entire audience was totally entranced. This is the mark of a master storyteller; to be able to write something that resonates with many different people and leave them all hungry for more.
As a final thought, I can’t write a review of this novel without making mention of the evocative cover art by Vincent Chong. He created a marvelously creepy cover for Gary McMahon’s The Concrete Grove and he has done so again here. The large group of people wearing dark glasses in the dead of night reminded me of the John Carpenter classic They Live. To paraphrase Rowdy Roddy Piper “I have come here to chew bubblegum and read Darkness Rising...and I'm all out of bubblegum.”
November 14, 2011
One of my favorite sci-fi movies from the mid-20th century is Invasion of the Body Snatchers, so when I checked the back cover of this book I realized I had an immediate want to read it. Whether aliens, zombies, or whatever the monster is, the concept of losing your identity and becoming part of a collective is frightening.
Darkness Falling starts off with a flash of light, piercing bright to a painful degree, and in its wake all but a few people disappear. Gone. Like a Rapture. Ronnie in particular, a disgruntled husband, has his world turned upside when his wife (and everyone else except two others) vanishes in mid-flight as they sit next to each other arguing. Ronnie's two companions in the aftermath are a little girl named Angel with an apparent quasi-clairvoyance and a cartographer in the cockpit with a tenuous knowledge of how to fly. After they crash land into a Barnes & Noble, something I found especially poetic given today's publishing climate, they exit the plane and find the world--or at least Denver--is absent of any human life. Actually, all life seems to be gone. Birds, bugs, everything.
Other characters are highlighted in the story, as their paths converge. There's the foursome holed up at a small radio station who venture out and find vehicles and buildings empty, as if abandoned a la Chernobyl, engines running and appliances humming. As they try to piece things together, they wonder if their proximity to the radio tower may have spared them from disappearing too, and worry if another flash of light will occur.
Then there are a couple of, shall we say, eccentric characters: Virgil, a serial killer with an affinity for wrapping his victims in fabric like a mummy until they suffocate; and Sally, a woman with some form of multiple personality disorder, with a head full of children's voices representing all the kids she wish she could call her own. These two, along with the sporadic mind-reading of the little girl, really amp of the 'weird' factor in this novel, and give the whole plot a smorgasbord of Twilight Zone elements.
And when the people who disappeared come back; sporting Bono-style shades and work gloves, and amble around as if they're just learning to walk or like puppets on strings; all bets are off.
On one level the book is a really exciting read with a rewarding level of mystery and menace. The action doesn't let up very often, especially as all of the characters near the point at which they all meet. On another level though, the book is aggravating. 'Book 1' is clearly emblazoned on the cover, so I expected some level of "tune in next time, folks!" but the novel left off feeling unfinished. I basically felt like I'd read the first act of a three-act story. Allusions to tensions within the whole group go unresolved and there are no real answers provided about the nature of the zombie-ish people who reappeared and started hunting the survivors down. The story was originally published years ago as a series of novellas, so maybe that explains it. Another irritant was the blocks of narrative that appeared more than once, but I'm willing to pass that off to the idea that I read an ARC copy of the book (I didn't see advance review copy or uncorrected proof printed anywhere on the book, though).
It's a good start to what I suspect will be a very entertaining saga, but even after four hundred pages I felt the book needed more, namely Book 2. I wonder how long readers will have to wait for that to come along.
Darkness Falling starts off with a flash of light, piercing bright to a painful degree, and in its wake all but a few people disappear. Gone. Like a Rapture. Ronnie in particular, a disgruntled husband, has his world turned upside when his wife (and everyone else except two others) vanishes in mid-flight as they sit next to each other arguing. Ronnie's two companions in the aftermath are a little girl named Angel with an apparent quasi-clairvoyance and a cartographer in the cockpit with a tenuous knowledge of how to fly. After they crash land into a Barnes & Noble, something I found especially poetic given today's publishing climate, they exit the plane and find the world--or at least Denver--is absent of any human life. Actually, all life seems to be gone. Birds, bugs, everything.
Other characters are highlighted in the story, as their paths converge. There's the foursome holed up at a small radio station who venture out and find vehicles and buildings empty, as if abandoned a la Chernobyl, engines running and appliances humming. As they try to piece things together, they wonder if their proximity to the radio tower may have spared them from disappearing too, and worry if another flash of light will occur.
Then there are a couple of, shall we say, eccentric characters: Virgil, a serial killer with an affinity for wrapping his victims in fabric like a mummy until they suffocate; and Sally, a woman with some form of multiple personality disorder, with a head full of children's voices representing all the kids she wish she could call her own. These two, along with the sporadic mind-reading of the little girl, really amp of the 'weird' factor in this novel, and give the whole plot a smorgasbord of Twilight Zone elements.
And when the people who disappeared come back; sporting Bono-style shades and work gloves, and amble around as if they're just learning to walk or like puppets on strings; all bets are off.
On one level the book is a really exciting read with a rewarding level of mystery and menace. The action doesn't let up very often, especially as all of the characters near the point at which they all meet. On another level though, the book is aggravating. 'Book 1' is clearly emblazoned on the cover, so I expected some level of "tune in next time, folks!" but the novel left off feeling unfinished. I basically felt like I'd read the first act of a three-act story. Allusions to tensions within the whole group go unresolved and there are no real answers provided about the nature of the zombie-ish people who reappeared and started hunting the survivors down. The story was originally published years ago as a series of novellas, so maybe that explains it. Another irritant was the blocks of narrative that appeared more than once, but I'm willing to pass that off to the idea that I read an ARC copy of the book (I didn't see advance review copy or uncorrected proof printed anywhere on the book, though).
It's a good start to what I suspect will be a very entertaining saga, but even after four hundred pages I felt the book needed more, namely Book 2. I wonder how long readers will have to wait for that to come along.
September 27, 2011
In a flash of light, the world changes. People are whisked away. The ones that aren't, try to pick up the pieces - attempt to make sense of the nonsense. It's something out of an science fiction show - like Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. The streets are littered with car accidents - presumably the drivers were taken with the light. Shopping centers are empty. Life has left the earth. Taken away. But to where? And why were some people left behind?
It's hard to tell whether the ones that were taken are the lucky ones in Peter Crowther's Darkness Falling. It's definitely not the ones who weren't. When the light returns, bringing back some of the taken, things don't resume to normal. In fact, the people - now donning wrap-around sunglasses and thick work gloves - are alien to the world around them. Nearly zombified. It's a good concept, I tell you. However, can the storyteller keep the readers' attention?
Not sure what bothers me more. The fact that this book is riddled with punctuation mistakes - which are easily missed - c'mon, mine's not perfect. Or the fact that it's splattered with inconsistencies. The beginning of the book, the time is said to be five in the morning on the plane. Meanwhile, in later chapters, the time shift to two in the morning. When the plane makes a crash landing, they head for a Barnes and Noble that transforms into a Borders that changes back into a Barnes and Noble only to transform back into a Borders later on. On the ground, Rick, Johnny and Melanie see that the bus is being driven by Karl. Meanwhile, inside the bus, Karl is being attacked by one of the creatures and it is Ronnie who drives the bus when the three people on the street see it veering towards them. Small things like this, splattered over the pages, make me wonder how on earth the editors over at Angry Robot Books missed them. Peter Crowther states - in his acknowledgments - that the book was originally three separate volumes. This might excuse the inconsistencies if they weren't so close together. It also might excuse the repetition of earlier events; however, it would seem that Crowther simple cut & paste the passages as filler - make the book longer and the reader will think it's epic.
I'm not bashing Peter Crowther's ability to captivate the reader, however. Inconsistencies aside, the story and the characters are remarkable. Repetition aside, the story flows. Grammatical errors aside, the book is genius. Not since The Tommyknockers - the movie, as I've never read the book - have I been captivated by alien beings taking over human bodies. The novel borders on zombie domination - only these creatures are far from brain dead, even though the simplest tasks befuddle them at first. However, now that Darkness Falling marks the first book in a - what? a trilogy? a series? - I'm wondering how far I'm willing to travel this road.
I like to thank Angry Robot Books for allowing me to read this novel before it hit shelves. I also encourage the readers of sci-fi, urban fantasy and horror to join the Angry Robot Army in order to garner the same opportunities. You may even download free books for your e-readers - including this title, it would seem.
It's hard to tell whether the ones that were taken are the lucky ones in Peter Crowther's Darkness Falling. It's definitely not the ones who weren't. When the light returns, bringing back some of the taken, things don't resume to normal. In fact, the people - now donning wrap-around sunglasses and thick work gloves - are alien to the world around them. Nearly zombified. It's a good concept, I tell you. However, can the storyteller keep the readers' attention?
Not sure what bothers me more. The fact that this book is riddled with punctuation mistakes - which are easily missed - c'mon, mine's not perfect. Or the fact that it's splattered with inconsistencies. The beginning of the book, the time is said to be five in the morning on the plane. Meanwhile, in later chapters, the time shift to two in the morning. When the plane makes a crash landing, they head for a Barnes and Noble that transforms into a Borders that changes back into a Barnes and Noble only to transform back into a Borders later on. On the ground, Rick, Johnny and Melanie see that the bus is being driven by Karl. Meanwhile, inside the bus, Karl is being attacked by one of the creatures and it is Ronnie who drives the bus when the three people on the street see it veering towards them. Small things like this, splattered over the pages, make me wonder how on earth the editors over at Angry Robot Books missed them. Peter Crowther states - in his acknowledgments - that the book was originally three separate volumes. This might excuse the inconsistencies if they weren't so close together. It also might excuse the repetition of earlier events; however, it would seem that Crowther simple cut & paste the passages as filler - make the book longer and the reader will think it's epic.
I'm not bashing Peter Crowther's ability to captivate the reader, however. Inconsistencies aside, the story and the characters are remarkable. Repetition aside, the story flows. Grammatical errors aside, the book is genius. Not since The Tommyknockers - the movie, as I've never read the book - have I been captivated by alien beings taking over human bodies. The novel borders on zombie domination - only these creatures are far from brain dead, even though the simplest tasks befuddle them at first. However, now that Darkness Falling marks the first book in a - what? a trilogy? a series? - I'm wondering how far I'm willing to travel this road.
I like to thank Angry Robot Books for allowing me to read this novel before it hit shelves. I also encourage the readers of sci-fi, urban fantasy and horror to join the Angry Robot Army in order to garner the same opportunities. You may even download free books for your e-readers - including this title, it would seem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2011
I wanted to love this novel. I really did. The cover made me giggle (in a good way – zombie type things with gloves and aviator glasses? HA!) and the blurb sounded interesting. Sadly, it just didn’t live up to my expectations.
Don’t get me wrong, the writing was okay, the characters a true-blue motley crew, but the bulk of this book was about bringing the different groups of main characters together into one place and the real plot only starts when we get to the end of the novel. This is a pet peeve of mine at the moment – I really feel like all of a novel should contribute to the story the novel is trying to tell, and this just doesn’t. It’s like four hundred pages of character and world exploration. Some of it’s really interesting, and exciting, but in the end, it doesn’t do anything other than gather everyone up and let the reader and characters in on some of whats going on.
Anyway, let me tell you some of the good things. I really did like some of the characters, and was creeped out by some of the others, which I’m pretty sure was the authors intent – why else would you put a serial killer or a lady who has the voices of her myriad of invisible children chatting to her almost constantly. They were certainly a unique bunch, and while I couldn’t relate to them all, I enjoyed the interactions between them, the interplay of secrets and suspicions. Contrary to the blurb above, the four characters mentioned are not the only main ones at all, in fact they don’t come into play until a good chunk of the book has already passed.
One of the negatives, for me, about the way each set was introduced is that each time you get their experiences of pre-flash, the flash of light and then afterwards. This can get quite repetitive and slowed the novel down for me. It was interesting the first time, but not so much each time further through the story. The author really does draw the characters well though, giving lots of history and detail to really build them up in your mind.
I also quite liked the bad guys – I know they are not going to appeal to everyone, but I found them genuinely creepy. Their slow movements, their strange behaviours and the quirk of having them all wearing aviator glasses and gloves added to their ick value, kind of making you wonder whether you should take them seriously, and then seeing what they can do, made them scarier than they might have otherwise been.
The novel reads almost like a script in some senses, and I think that a movie adaption would probably be quite riveting. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on, and I am curious enough about the characters and what might happen next to want to read the next book in the series and see how it pans out, but as a first book to a series? It wasn’t fabulous.
I’m going to be generous and give it 3 stars as I really am intrigued.
Don’t get me wrong, the writing was okay, the characters a true-blue motley crew, but the bulk of this book was about bringing the different groups of main characters together into one place and the real plot only starts when we get to the end of the novel. This is a pet peeve of mine at the moment – I really feel like all of a novel should contribute to the story the novel is trying to tell, and this just doesn’t. It’s like four hundred pages of character and world exploration. Some of it’s really interesting, and exciting, but in the end, it doesn’t do anything other than gather everyone up and let the reader and characters in on some of whats going on.
Anyway, let me tell you some of the good things. I really did like some of the characters, and was creeped out by some of the others, which I’m pretty sure was the authors intent – why else would you put a serial killer or a lady who has the voices of her myriad of invisible children chatting to her almost constantly. They were certainly a unique bunch, and while I couldn’t relate to them all, I enjoyed the interactions between them, the interplay of secrets and suspicions. Contrary to the blurb above, the four characters mentioned are not the only main ones at all, in fact they don’t come into play until a good chunk of the book has already passed.
One of the negatives, for me, about the way each set was introduced is that each time you get their experiences of pre-flash, the flash of light and then afterwards. This can get quite repetitive and slowed the novel down for me. It was interesting the first time, but not so much each time further through the story. The author really does draw the characters well though, giving lots of history and detail to really build them up in your mind.
I also quite liked the bad guys – I know they are not going to appeal to everyone, but I found them genuinely creepy. Their slow movements, their strange behaviours and the quirk of having them all wearing aviator glasses and gloves added to their ick value, kind of making you wonder whether you should take them seriously, and then seeing what they can do, made them scarier than they might have otherwise been.
The novel reads almost like a script in some senses, and I think that a movie adaption would probably be quite riveting. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on, and I am curious enough about the characters and what might happen next to want to read the next book in the series and see how it pans out, but as a first book to a series? It wasn’t fabulous.
I’m going to be generous and give it 3 stars as I really am intrigued.
September 18, 2011
Darkness Falling by Peter Crowther is a science fiction novel due to be released on September 27th. It is the first book in the Forever Twilight Series and is comprised of two novellas that were previously published and edited and rewritten into a single book with two more to follow in the series. When I requested the book from NetGalley I was very excited to read the book, the story had great promise, though not an extremely original premise. A white flash of light blankets the world, and everyone but a few odd individuals disappear. Those that are left question what has happened, why they were left behind and where the missing people have gone. Strangers and friends alike band together as some of the missing returned, but not as themselves. Is this the end of the world, or the very beginning.
Darkness Falls opens with a plane ride and some serious characterization. After the flash of light only three people are left on the plane, none of which are the pilot. A sociopath, possible schizophrenic, staff of a radio station and a couple others all share their experiences in first person. The switching points of view and deep characterization got to be a little much for me as I read. The other think that kept be from getting into Darkness Falling is that I related the story to Stephan King's Langolers and The Stand within the first fifty pages and was never able to break away from that comparison. I thought that maybe when the 'zombies' entered the story I would be able to move away from the King connection, but the constant questioning and details about clothing from the characters really detracted from the story. There were some gory moments that honestly made my stomach churn, but there were not enough of them to please those looking for a horror novel. Then when I reached the end of the book and discovered that the four hundred and sixteen pages were basically a set up for the next book my head and desk met. There was no final resolution, only the promise of more to come.
Darkness Falls could have been a great book, there was serious potential here. However, I felt like Crowther could have condensed his work further and cut out around two hundred pages of characterization and repetitive questioning, fashion commentary and cliches. A little more horror, a few more zombies and a little less inner dialogue would have made this a great book. I will not be following through with the rest of the series.
Darkness Falls opens with a plane ride and some serious characterization. After the flash of light only three people are left on the plane, none of which are the pilot. A sociopath, possible schizophrenic, staff of a radio station and a couple others all share their experiences in first person. The switching points of view and deep characterization got to be a little much for me as I read. The other think that kept be from getting into Darkness Falling is that I related the story to Stephan King's Langolers and The Stand within the first fifty pages and was never able to break away from that comparison. I thought that maybe when the 'zombies' entered the story I would be able to move away from the King connection, but the constant questioning and details about clothing from the characters really detracted from the story. There were some gory moments that honestly made my stomach churn, but there were not enough of them to please those looking for a horror novel. Then when I reached the end of the book and discovered that the four hundred and sixteen pages were basically a set up for the next book my head and desk met. There was no final resolution, only the promise of more to come.
Darkness Falls could have been a great book, there was serious potential here. However, I felt like Crowther could have condensed his work further and cut out around two hundred pages of characterization and repetitive questioning, fashion commentary and cliches. A little more horror, a few more zombies and a little less inner dialogue would have made this a great book. I will not be following through with the rest of the series.
July 17, 2011
Okay, I really tried to like this one. Honestly, I did. The blurb made it sound really interesting, a collision of genres, and a lot of popular authors said they liked it. I don't know. It felt very dry to me, had a number of cliches thrown into the mix, and generally put me off. To be put off in this genre for me, I think, is a first - I usually love both the alien and zombie genres, and I thought that this would go over well with me. It didn't, needless to say.
The only thing it really had going for it, aside from the genre combination, was the vast array of characters. You had your everyday Joe Regular, you have your sexually abused serial killer, you have your airplane full of people, you have your fighting out-of-love married couple. The diversity was really the only thing that kept me interested, but even that went so far. The flashbacks were far too limited for each character, so I felt like I never really got to fully know them. This is a huge problem, especially with a book with more than a handful of characters. Aside from the serial killer, all of them started sounding the same after awhile, and all of them bored me.
The dialogue limited the scenes instead of expanding them (like dialogue should), and there was no sensory language really used to help me enter the scene. What descriptive language was used led to more telling than showing (one of my hugest pet peeves in lit), and you could feel the author speaking more than once instead of the characters. Ideas that could have been expanded upon weren't. It almost felt that in some parts of the book (around the middle) the author just kind of got stuck. And I know that feeling well, myself, but you don't want your readers to feel where you get stuck.
So I really don't know what to do about this book. As much as I hate giving bad reviews, I feel the need to try to process it out here. This might be good for those just entering the zombie genre that's not connected directly to a dystopic storyline. This also might be good for zombie fans dipping their toes into the alien genre. But anyone else who's a fan of/well seasoned in both genres? Probably not a book for you.
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)
The only thing it really had going for it, aside from the genre combination, was the vast array of characters. You had your everyday Joe Regular, you have your sexually abused serial killer, you have your airplane full of people, you have your fighting out-of-love married couple. The diversity was really the only thing that kept me interested, but even that went so far. The flashbacks were far too limited for each character, so I felt like I never really got to fully know them. This is a huge problem, especially with a book with more than a handful of characters. Aside from the serial killer, all of them started sounding the same after awhile, and all of them bored me.
The dialogue limited the scenes instead of expanding them (like dialogue should), and there was no sensory language really used to help me enter the scene. What descriptive language was used led to more telling than showing (one of my hugest pet peeves in lit), and you could feel the author speaking more than once instead of the characters. Ideas that could have been expanded upon weren't. It almost felt that in some parts of the book (around the middle) the author just kind of got stuck. And I know that feeling well, myself, but you don't want your readers to feel where you get stuck.
So I really don't know what to do about this book. As much as I hate giving bad reviews, I feel the need to try to process it out here. This might be good for those just entering the zombie genre that's not connected directly to a dystopic storyline. This also might be good for zombie fans dipping their toes into the alien genre. But anyone else who's a fan of/well seasoned in both genres? Probably not a book for you.
(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)
September 21, 2011
One dark night a bright light suddenly blinds you and when you can see again, everyone has disappeared. Everyone in the house, everyone in the town, everyone on the plane. That is the starting point for this creepy and rather chilling story. Only a few people are left...and not all of them are particularly sane... And then twenty-four hours later, the light comes again and this time it brings the missing people back.
The premise of this novel is so intriguing – people disappearing and leaving an empty world. And then returning changed. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps and I couldn’t read fast enough wanting to know what was happening. However, the true strength of novels like this relies on the characters and wanting them to survive. I have to admit I had mixed feeling about some of these characters. Ronnie, Karl and Angel were the only characters I really cared about and I wanted the story to follow them all the time. The other characters included a slightly mad older woman, a murderer and a selection of people from the radio station that I really connect too. (Okay, I wouldn’t want to connect to a mad person or a murderer, but the people from the station Geoff, Mel and the others should have been ones to root for).
There is plenty of action here as well as gruesomeness – if you don’t like gory and bodily function then this isn’t for you. However, it all fits into the story and doesn’t feel gratuitous. There are plenty of sieges, chases, fight scenes which keep the story moving as the characters are gradually pulled together by the end. As this is the first of a planned trilogy, it doesn’t answer many questions, but is an exciting start and I really do want to know what the light was and what happened. I just don’t really know if I want many of the characters to survive! Still I will be looking out for the next book in the trilogy.
Recommended for fans of Stephen King and Joe Hill.
The premise of this novel is so intriguing – people disappearing and leaving an empty world. And then returning changed. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps and I couldn’t read fast enough wanting to know what was happening. However, the true strength of novels like this relies on the characters and wanting them to survive. I have to admit I had mixed feeling about some of these characters. Ronnie, Karl and Angel were the only characters I really cared about and I wanted the story to follow them all the time. The other characters included a slightly mad older woman, a murderer and a selection of people from the radio station that I really connect too. (Okay, I wouldn’t want to connect to a mad person or a murderer, but the people from the station Geoff, Mel and the others should have been ones to root for).
There is plenty of action here as well as gruesomeness – if you don’t like gory and bodily function then this isn’t for you. However, it all fits into the story and doesn’t feel gratuitous. There are plenty of sieges, chases, fight scenes which keep the story moving as the characters are gradually pulled together by the end. As this is the first of a planned trilogy, it doesn’t answer many questions, but is an exciting start and I really do want to know what the light was and what happened. I just don’t really know if I want many of the characters to survive! Still I will be looking out for the next book in the trilogy.
Recommended for fans of Stephen King and Joe Hill.
August 14, 2011
Darkness Falling is the first part of a new series by Peter Crowther and could probably be best described as Zombies go Science Fiction.
The idea itself isn't so new, but promising nonetheless. A bright light makes most people suddenly disappear. Those left behind are trying to understand what has happened when not a day later the light and the missing return. And they've changed.
Admittedly the premise had me hooked immediately and so did the first pages of the book. Every single one of the characters is given depth and allows a great and well devised - sometimes ironic, then humorous, or downright creepy - glimpse into their minds and personalities, which is something I often miss in otherwise good books. Unfortunately it soon turned out that the story is simply too character-focused with descriptions of every single event being minutely detailed, thus making the whole narrative incredibly slow and tedious.
Even more so the whole story-line can be summed up as the light changing people and those that remain unchanged coming together as a group in the end. That would be the end of Part 1 of the series and somehow the end is actually just the beginning of the whole story. I am convinced that a slimmed down narrative would make this a great first part of a book, but taken by itself it barely justifies as a separate novel.
In short: A fascinating premise, yet the execution made the book a tiring read!
The idea itself isn't so new, but promising nonetheless. A bright light makes most people suddenly disappear. Those left behind are trying to understand what has happened when not a day later the light and the missing return. And they've changed.
Admittedly the premise had me hooked immediately and so did the first pages of the book. Every single one of the characters is given depth and allows a great and well devised - sometimes ironic, then humorous, or downright creepy - glimpse into their minds and personalities, which is something I often miss in otherwise good books. Unfortunately it soon turned out that the story is simply too character-focused with descriptions of every single event being minutely detailed, thus making the whole narrative incredibly slow and tedious.
Even more so the whole story-line can be summed up as the light changing people and those that remain unchanged coming together as a group in the end. That would be the end of Part 1 of the series and somehow the end is actually just the beginning of the whole story. I am convinced that a slimmed down narrative would make this a great first part of a book, but taken by itself it barely justifies as a separate novel.
In short: A fascinating premise, yet the execution made the book a tiring read!
October 27, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. In the spirit of "The Stand" by Steven King, the reader is introduced to several different charachters, far apart from each other (but within the Denver area) with different lives, and in different times of their lives. The charachters range from a sweet innocent little girl named Angel with the ability to see "visions" of the past present and future, to a relatively young man named Virgil, who is a twisted serial killer. This style of writing cannot be easy. But, Mr. Crowther pulls it of splendidly. Without confusing and losing the reader. I like the way the charachters go off into little thoughts in their own minds. Sometimes having nothing to do with what's going on around them. Angel and Virgil and several others are eventually fighting together against the rest of the human population that have now (after a mysterous flash of light) turned into, well, zombies, taken over by an odd little alien. The sub title to this book is "Forever Twilight Book 1" I am looking foward to book 2 to see what the group's next step will be after they finally figure out what has happened to the "others" and how to stop them from killing the survivors in a gruesome way. A very good read!
August 25, 2013
When I'm having to force myself to the end of a book, I know something's not working for me. And this should have worked for me, it has all the ingredients of a book I'll like. Instead it read like a cut-rate Stephen King (and I like King) with the flow of its internal dialogue, and random shit and fart jokes that go on a little too long.
I spent the first two thirds of the book feeling like it was all set-up, and the last third wondering what the hell was going on as the Heroes Assembled, and there as no payoff for me at the end because it turned out to all be setup for the as-yet-unpublished second book in the series. Everything took too long, and with a couple of exceptions, I never got a solid sense of character: every time I saw a new name I had to try to figure out who the hell that was again, and the reactions to this abrupt change in reality never come across as at all realistic. It was also lacking a strong sense of place; the generic 'American' setting was peppered with moments of British idiom that kept making me question if I was even remembering the setting right.
The worst part for me was that I could tell it was something that, if done a little differently, I would like a whole lot. I'm still wanting it to be that book.
I spent the first two thirds of the book feeling like it was all set-up, and the last third wondering what the hell was going on as the Heroes Assembled, and there as no payoff for me at the end because it turned out to all be setup for the as-yet-unpublished second book in the series. Everything took too long, and with a couple of exceptions, I never got a solid sense of character: every time I saw a new name I had to try to figure out who the hell that was again, and the reactions to this abrupt change in reality never come across as at all realistic. It was also lacking a strong sense of place; the generic 'American' setting was peppered with moments of British idiom that kept making me question if I was even remembering the setting right.
The worst part for me was that I could tell it was something that, if done a little differently, I would like a whole lot. I'm still wanting it to be that book.
July 9, 2011
I really wanted to like this book, and I really did try to get past the cover. However, this is one of those books where you really do need to like the cover to like the book because...well, it pretty much explains everything about the "zombielike" villains.
The dialogue in this book was horrible. Especially what was spoken in each character's head. The idea of what was going on really interested me at first--okay, a bright light, everyone's gone and...wait a minute, now they're back again. That is when the story really went downhill for me. How can you be scared of an alien-like creature when it's wearing sunglasses and gloves? Really, is that it?
I can't say how frustrating the lack of horror was. Although, I will say there was actually a nice bit of gore. Either way, it couldn't make up for how ridiculous the enemy was...especially with their chanting: "Jerry, it's me...Geoff." I began to ask myself, is this seriously happening? And when the end of the book came, it could not have come sooner. Especially since at the end of the book...guess what...nothing had been solved!
The dialogue in this book was horrible. Especially what was spoken in each character's head. The idea of what was going on really interested me at first--okay, a bright light, everyone's gone and...wait a minute, now they're back again. That is when the story really went downhill for me. How can you be scared of an alien-like creature when it's wearing sunglasses and gloves? Really, is that it?
I can't say how frustrating the lack of horror was. Although, I will say there was actually a nice bit of gore. Either way, it couldn't make up for how ridiculous the enemy was...especially with their chanting: "Jerry, it's me...Geoff." I began to ask myself, is this seriously happening? And when the end of the book came, it could not have come sooner. Especially since at the end of the book...guess what...nothing had been solved!
October 11, 2011
Martha and her husband, Ronnie have boarded a plane to head back to Atlanta. Things are going alright until all of a sudden a bright light flashes and Martha is gone. It seems that Martha is not the only one missing. Most of the passengers on the plane have disappeared. The few people who are left are in for a big surprise, when the others return. Though not the same way that they left.
I wanted this book to be so much better than it actually turned out to be. As I was reading it, images of the Left Behind series was flashing in my head. Due to the way that the people disappeared and than the set up afterwards. Just like with the Left Behind books, there was a lot of dialect with the characters. There were about three or four main story lines but nothing really hinted at what the true effects of the disappearances of all the people were until later in the book. So this made reading the book, so going. While, I could see where the story was going, I would have liked the action and intensity levels to be amped up. I hope that this will be remedied in book two.
I wanted this book to be so much better than it actually turned out to be. As I was reading it, images of the Left Behind series was flashing in my head. Due to the way that the people disappeared and than the set up afterwards. Just like with the Left Behind books, there was a lot of dialect with the characters. There were about three or four main story lines but nothing really hinted at what the true effects of the disappearances of all the people were until later in the book. So this made reading the book, so going. While, I could see where the story was going, I would have liked the action and intensity levels to be amped up. I hope that this will be remedied in book two.
April 19, 2015
This was entertaining in parts despite being unashamedly derivative, borrowing from Stephen King as well as every zombie, vampire and alien invasion film or book you can think of. After a slow start, with interminable expository character background, the plot takes off and an unsettling sense of menace makes for a gripping read. Much of the fear factor relied on the characters having 'a bad feeling' or the requisite Mystical Child getting a premonition, but it just about works. It's very obvious which poor characters are doomed to have their eyeballs sucked out and their innards liquefied but gleefully anticipating their doom is all part of the fun. Unfortunately it descends into a series of tedious fights between humans and aliens and I didn't care enough about the characters to want to read another book in the series. There is a serious dearth of strong female characters (only a crazy schizophrenic, the aforementioned Mystical Child and a pretty bimbo to scream and cry) which also turned me off,
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