Reborn

Adversary Cycle #4

by F. Paul Wilson

When an ancient artifact dissolves in the hands of a man calling himself Mr. Veilleur, he knows something has gone wrong… terribly, cosmically wrong.

Dr. Roderick Hanley, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, dies in a plane crash. His last words: 'The boy! They’ll find out about the boy! He’ll find out about himself!' When Jim Stevens, an orphan and struggling writer, learns that he is the sole heir to the Hanley estate, he is sure he has, at last, found his biological father.

He’s only half right. The true nature of his inheritance — and the truth about his conception — will crush him.

In New York City a group of Charismatics has been drawn together with a sense of great purpose. Satan is coming, and they have been chosen to fight him.

Mr. Veilleur has been drawn to the group as well, but he realizes it’s not Satan who is coming. Satan would be a suitable au pair compared to the ancient evil that is in the process of being... 'Reborn'.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Mystery

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Francis Paul Wilson is an author, born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He writes novels and short stories primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was Healer (1976). Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to Analog and continued to write science fiction throughout the seventies. In 1981 he ventured into the horror genre with the international bestseller, The Keep, and helped define the field throughout the rest of the decade. In the 1990s he became a true genre hopper, moving from science fiction to horror to medical thrillers and branching into interactive scripting for Disney Interactive and other multimedia companies. He, along with Matthew J. Costello, created and scripted FTL Newsfeed which ran daily on the Sci-Fi Channel from 1992-1996.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulw...

Reviews

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that was some entertaining 70's/80's horror!

Reborn is the 4th book in the Adversary Cycle. Each book in the series has a supernatural element in it and plenty of old school action, brutal deaths and thrills.

Reborn was similar to other books written during this time. I really don't want to say which books or plots due to spoilers. But it didn't take away from the enjoyment factor!
In fact, I read this one pretty fast and enjoyed all of the insanity of the plot.

Reborn starts with Dr. Roderick Hanley dying in a plane crash. His last will and testament ends up going to Jim Stevens, a struggling writer. Jim is an orphan and has always wondered about his family ties, along with who gave him up for adoption.
Well, he's about to find out!

I would definitely read the first book, The Keep in the series before getting to this one.
The plots have overlapping themes to both.

I've been enjoying my time reading this series, Adversary Cycle. It's been entertaining, action packed and full of supernatural madness!

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The forth book in the Adversary cycle finally feels like an actual sequel and begins to tie some of the threads of the first three together. Set largely in 1968, Reborn features Jim and Carol, a young couple living on Long Island, but also contains a vast supporting cast, including Glaeken, the hero of The Keep. Reborn starts off rather slow and feels disjointed at first as Wilson sets the stage for the drama; so many POVs and it is rather unclear how they will all come together.

This starts off with two famous research scientists on a plane to NYC when it suddenly explodes midair. Surprisingly, at least to Jim, he is notified that he is featured in the will of one of them. Now, Jim was born in 1942 and left at the door of a Catholic orphanage and never knew about his real parents. He was adopted shortly thereafter and now struggles as a horror novelist while Carol works in a hospital. Jim has made finding out about his biological parents something of an obsession and is overjoyed to discover at least who his father was; why else would he be named in the will?

Meanwhile, in NYC, a small group of renegade of Pentecostal Catholics deeming themselves the Chosen begin meeting in the basement of an old brownstone. Their 'leader', a monk from France, has sensed a great evil to the East and the other Chosen have likewise. Glaeken senses the evil as well (he is now an old man living quite happily with his wife), but also senses 'the light' among the Chosen and crashes one of their meetings.

To reiterate a few key things from The Keep, in this world, Wilson's alternative history, there has long been a struggle between two great powers; call them gods if you will, but Glaeken knows that the two powers are not based in the mythology of the Church, but from some other cosmic realm. The 'dark' power just wants to wreak havoc as it feeds on misfortune and misery; the 'light' power just wants to oppose the 'dark', not out of any benevolence to humanity, but simply to thwart the 'dark'. Glaeken was the 'light's' champion for thousands of years and thought he finally vanquished the 'dark' in 1942 at the keep; turns out the 'dark' does not give up that easily.

So, what the Chosen feel is actually a manifestation of the 'dark', although they see it as the antichrist. This part is kinda fun as Wilson toys with a lot of religious dogma here. However, the two forces have been at it for thousands of years predating the emergence of Judaism and Christianity.

I will not go more into the plot; it is enough to know that the 'dark' is obviously on its way back as the title suggests. I mentioned that this started off rather slow, but about midway it really starts to take off and Wilson tosses in some nice twists along the way. I still have no idea how Repairman Jack fits into the equation, nor The Touch, the third volume in the 'cycle', but this does constitute at least a sequel to The Keep. Yet, it is also primarily a foundational novel for what is to come next in the following two sequels, leaving so many open ends that will be tied up in later volumes. Decent stuff from Wilson here, enough to entice me to follow up with the series. 3 solid stars!

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars for me in the fun 80/90's style horror genre. Despite its similarity to some other classic horror tales, I still liked this. I'm enjoying very much working my way through the Adversary cycle and look forward to the next.

[David B · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a famous geneticist dies, a young writer inherits his fortune, an event that leads to revelations about his birth that will have implications for the world.

F. Paul Wilson can craft an involving plot, but they are not always enough for the page count he takes to tell them. This novel has an intriguing beginning and a fine climax, but it really drags in the middle.

https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com

[Robert Reiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wilson is one of those authors I really really want to get hooked on. He's got a lot of books under his belt with plot summaries that seem right down my alley. But from what I've read, many of his books start off strong and then you lose interest and can't wait to be done with it. This has happened to me with a few of his and happened again here.

If you're looking for a mediocre horror novel based around the birth of he Anti-Christ then this book is for you. I will say I've read one or two of his that I've enjoyed so perhaps the next experience will be better.

[William Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grrrrrr. I am really quite annoyed about this. I loved The Keep. A fantastic book. I was unsure which one to read next as there is apparently a preferred order to the series of books. The fan web page recommended this, The Reborn as the best option for book 2 in the series. I strongly disagree as the natural path I would have chosen would have been more character based!!!!. But it is what it is, I've read this one as the second book now and it has ended with an obvious story arc which has now dictated how I will have to read the rest of the series. It is a very good book mind, and I did enjoy it. Great characters and an interesting story. Just not the one I would have chosen as my intended sequel to The Keep!. I guess my advice would be to really carefully research the order in which you read this series because for me, the recommended order is not what I wanted. I definitely would have gone a different route, guess I learnt the hard way!! This is a great book though and you don't need to have read The keep to enjoy it.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not much to say about this one, solid 3 stars.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reborn is the fourth book in F. Paul Wilson's Adversary Cycle. It's the first novel in the series that feels like it's actually part of a series and not standalone. To sum up, it's a good, easy read that gets you really hooked into the Adversary Cycle, so if you buy it, you should go ahead and buy the rest of the series as well because you'll be reading them.

The Plot

The novel is set in 1968 and we are introduced to three characters, Jim Stevens, Carol Stevens, his wife, and Bill Ryan, a Jesuit priest who runs an orphanage and who is a childhood friend of Jim and Carol. Jim is adoped, having been adopted from the same orphanage that Bill Ryan is now running.

Jim is obsessed with finding his real parents, even though he has no complaints about his adoptive parents. One day, he gets a letter from a law firm telling him that Roderick Hanley, a very wealthy scientist, has died and that Jim has been mentioned in his last will and testament. Jim immediately comes to the conclusion that Dr. Hanley is his real father. The actual truth of the matter is much...stranger. The plot goes on from there.

The Good

It's yet another page turner from F. Paul Wilson. The guy really knows how to write and pace a story just right to get you both involved and committed to finishing the plot. It strikes me that not just anyone can do this. Therefore, I tend to be very impressed by authors who can involve their readers to such a great extent.

The plot is one that has been done before in other places but Wilson puts his own spin on it; weaving a unique experience for the reader out of a familiar mythos. He also blends his subgenres together really well and seamlessly. The last three books of the Adversary cycle are evidence of this. The first one is a book about "Ultimate Evil" being reborn using elements from an anti-christ, Rosemary's Baby style of storytelling. The second one is about "Ultimate Evil" affecting individuals, using elements from Svengali and psychological thrillers. The final one is a Lovecraftian tale of "Ultimate Evil" effecting the world on a global scale.

The characters are not quite as compelling as in other books of this same type, but they are distinct enough and have enough flaws that they are more accesible and realistic than ones in the previous two novels of the adversary cycle, The Tomb and The Touch .

The plot is well paced and it has some surprising and satisfying twists. By the end of the book, the characters and direction of the book have changed; subtly enough so that I didn't get whiplash, but significantly enough for me to be impressed.

The Not-So-Good

There are some ancillary characters that, I feel, could have been written better. Wilson seems to fall into the same pattern as other horror writers in classifying religious people as being empty-headed nitwits, devoid of intelligence or personal accountability. Certainly there are brainless idiots who wrap their ignorance and bigotry in a nice warm blanket that they like to call "religion", but even these people have some redeeming characteristics and are "whole" people. In my experience, when a horror writer tries to use religious characters, they inevitably turn into one-dimensional robotic heads spouting jargon and they quickly become uninteresting. It seems hacky in a way, like having Basil Exposition run into the scene and explain what's going on and what is going to happen next. Thankfully, the scenes of the book where the religious nuts spouted their wrongheaded, quasi-biblical drivel were over before they became too tedious.

Conclusion

The slow buildup of the previous two books is now starting to come together and the pace is starting to quicken with Reborn . It's a novel that's easy to read and hard to put down. It's a good read for fans of this genre.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third in what is called the "Adversary" cycle by F. Paul Wilson. I'd say it's a companion to the Repairman Jack series except I believe that The Keep was published 3 years before The Tomb (Adversary Cycle, #2) which is the earliest of the Repairman Jack cycle (or series) and the second in the Adversary cycle.

Clear as mud?

So I got involved with the Repairman Jack books and have gotten to like them. having read The Keep years ago at my wife's behest I'd not cared for it as much. At first there didn't seem to be a lot that one series had to do with another. Well as I read the Repairman Jack books...it became apparent there is a big crossover. Thus I went back to these.

This book is a bit of a downer (that's a little like saying that the Titanic was a "mishap"). The sense of foreboding and even doom grows slowly throughout this book. It's done well.

The biggest flaw here (and I've seen this tendency in other books by Mr. Wilson) is the tendency to string the story out in and from too many points of view. It gets disjointed. As the story gets pulled together and the book grows to an end the climax feels inevitable... and is.

I suspect that most who read this will be unable to escape the/a comparison to the Omen and the stories that follow. While building on it's own mythology it still tells a similar tale.

I do plan to follow these books, mostly because I like the Repairman Jack books and want to follow Mr. Wilson's storyline. Pretty good, not as good as the Repairman Jack books in my opinion, but that's me. This is more overtly a horror novel than it is Urban Fantasy as was it's predecessor The Keep. I'm more a fan of UF than horror so I'd probably lean that way.

Recommended (with some slight reservation). Enjoy.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fantastic. I am completely smitten with Wilson's "Secret History of The World " series.

[Karl]

This hardcover is numbered 56 of 500 copies and is signed by F. Paul Wilson and the illustrator Stephen Gervais on the limitation page.

[Carl Alves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1968 in New York City, the novel starts with Dr. Roderick Hanley, a Nobel Prize winning geneticist, dying in a plane crash. This sets in motion a chain of events that will facilitate the rebirth of an ancient evil entity. With Hanley’s death, Jim Stevens, a struggling writer and proud atheist, inherits Hanley’s vast fortune. In the process, he finds out about his own history and the strange way he came into the world. Meanwhile a group of Christians have been brought together to combat this ancient entity. They believe that they are trying to stop the anti-Christ, but the being is actually far worse than Satan. Mr. Veilleur is the only one who seems to know what is actually going on and he is very reluctant to join in the fight.

I found this novel to be layered and enjoyable. The writing is strong and there is a good deal of dramatic tension. The novel took a surprising twist a little past the half way mark, which seemed to confuse myself as well as the characters in the novel. The book had a number of interesting characters. I liked the dynamic between Jim Stevens and his childhood friend who became a priest. To complicate matters, there is a love triangle between them and Jim’s wife. There were a couple of things I didn’t like. One was the connection between a person being a clone and not having a soul, and how that can lead to this evil entity occupying them. That part wasn’t particularly explained well. I also thought there were some story lines that didn’t go anywhere, such as the priest’s fascination with the politics of the day, and an orphan boy who couldn’t get adopted. Despite this, I enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend it.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The previous books I’ve read in the Adversary Cycle by the talented F. Paul Wilson have all been stand-alone books (although part of the larger Secret History of the World) but this novel really gets us started on the larger mythos of the battle between the “Otherness” and the “Ally”. For those that read this one without benefit of having read previous books in this series or the Repairman Jack series, it can still be enjoyed as a fairly straight-forward horror tale. I think there would be some confusion and a feeling of “missing something” that might be frustrating but it can still be a good read.

Like many horror novels, this novel begins with a lengthy build-up of normal family situations, allowing the reader to build an affinity with the main characters and come to feel for them, especially when they are later faced with horrific situations. I do feel that there is more traditional horror in this one than most of Wilson’s work. He is adept at genre-bending and I often classify his work as adventure or even science fiction as much as it is horror. But this one is clearly of the horror genre. The final 50 pages or so are filled with blood splattering, ax-wielding, anti-Christ religious fervor, and so forth.

A very enjoyable read but I do recommend it be experienced as part of the two larger series to really grasp the multiple layers of the story.

[AJRXII · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the first time I've read this book but the first time I've listened to it on Audio. I love the adversary cycle. Such a great set of novels. Although I listened to this before 2 & 3 this time. It's time to go back to Tomb and Touch again. Then the latest version of Nightworld after Reprisal. Signalz hmmn not so sure I'll give that a listen though.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good, if somewhat rambling tale from the author of The Keep (1981). Although its listed as the third book in the Adversary series after The Touch (1986), this book actually leads into the events in The Tomb (1984), which was his second novel. Although to be honest any links to a series are tenuous, and really they could be read as stand alones.
Anyway its a good read, but still The Keep is his best so far...

[Noel Stalker · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book you finally see how the adversary books are tied together. A great read. Hard to put down. I’m going to look for the next book now.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like many of Wilson's books. The Repairman Jack series is great. Entertaining, but not predictable with intriguing characters.

[Mikepottz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr Hanley, Nobel Prize winning geneticist leaves an orphaned boy large amounts of wealth when he becomes a married adult Jim. Jim through his curiosity will find out that he is a clone of the doctor. A group of fanatical Christians will join together and believe that Jim is evil and go to confront him. Jim will die, his wife with be miraculously pregnant and now Satan is growing inside his wife Carol. Jim's adoptive father loves to witness evil things and had a vision to adopt Jim as a baby. The fanatical Christians will try to abort Carol's Satan growing baby and will come face to face with an evil entity that had an axe in its head and will smash skulls to protect the baby. Carol escapes and a chain of events will be started.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read The Keep several years ago, and it was fantastic. It's a modern classic. Reborn is its sequel, and it's not so fantastic.

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist and his partner die in a plane crash in 1968. Suddenly, writer Jim Stevens is unexpectedly rich. An orphan, the scientist has left his entire estate, about eight million dollars worth, all to Jim. Naturally, he and his babe wife Carol are ecstatic, Jim especially so, because he finally knows who his biological father is. But one question is still unexplained. Who's his mother?

Well, he finds out in some journals tucked away in an old safe. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Jim's father worked on a super-secret program for the government, one designed to produce the super-human soldier. If this sounds like it's been done before, you're right. It has. Think Captain America. Anyway, Jim's old man clones himself and a black prostitute bears the child: Jim.

So Jim's a clone.

However, a group of Catholic Pentecostal kooks who call themselves The Chosen are convinced that Jim Stevens in the Antichrist. Why? Because Jim is a clone, he has no soul, thus making him the perfect vessel for the Evil One.

Anyway, the kooks are wrong. Jim's no devil. In fact, he dies. But wait! Carol is pregnant! The Chosen discover this and are now convinced that her child is the Antichrist. Carol's dear Aunt Grace, who once provided abortions to young women in her youth and is now one of The Chosen, feels she is called by God to abort the Prince of Darkness. At this point, I'm thinking Rosemary's Baby.

As predictable and formulaic as the book is, Wilson does salvage it by delivering a great ending, one that demands another sequel, Reprisal, which is much better than Reborn.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I made it through this novel, but wow. It felt like I was reading an outline for a novel, not a novel itself. There are great moments of inner dialogue where people think like so: 'He had a chair! He was going to hit her with it!' And all I could think was OH NOES!!!

This book takes place in 1968, and is essentially about the big baddie from The Keep coming back into the world. So it's KIND OF Wilson's The Omen, but not really. The scientific twist of the book is fun, and an interesting way to do a kind of reverse immaculate conception, but, again, it felt like I was reading about outlines of characters. I never felt like anyone in the book was a real person. I kept waiting for the book to skip ahead 20 years because everything in this felt like prologue.

Does Jack (from the Repairman Jack series) just feel so much more three-dimensional because I've read like 8 books starring him at this point? I can't believe that's the case. I've also read The Touch & The Keep from Wilson, and enjoyed both of those quite a bit. So maybe this just felt like a setup book because ... it's a setup book. Shrug. I'm still very curious to keep reading the Adversary/Repairman Jack Cycle, but wow, this one was damn near skippable. I am now really curious, though, to see if we get, somewhere, a kind of ... reverse version of this telling us of Jack's past.

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The threads from THE KEEP, THE TOMB, and THE TOUCH all start to come together in this novel, another chapter in The Adversary Cycle by the very talented F. Paul Wilson.

What's interesting about Wilson's writing is the way he mixes genres and juggles multiple storylines so deftly. This book is something of a ROSEMARY'S BABY meets FRANKENSTEIN by way of THE NAME OF THE ROSE. Above all, though, it's a compelling thriller, featuring characters you really come to care about, and enough plot twists to make even an avid reader like myself say, "Woah!"

Highly recommended, but not for the weak of stomach!

[JT · Rating 2 out of 5]

A resounding Meh. Rosemary's Baby redux.

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 2 out of 5]

For those into how books fit into larger overall universes, Reborn is the fourth book in F. Paul Wilson's the adversary cycle, but the second book chronologically, which means it takes place after The Keep but before the entire Repairman Jack series and somewhere during the Secret History line of books (this takes place in the 1960's if that helps). Throughout this whole series of books Wilson has done his version of ghost stories, science fiction, and even vampires. Here is Wilson's Rosemary's Baby story, so much so that the characters even mention it on a few different occasions.

The story goes that a married couple discover that a wealthy man who has just died may be the secret father of the husband. This revelation leads them to search through his journals for the identity of the man's mother and any other information they can find to give him answers about his parents. Along the way there are connections to secret World War II science experiments, a possible vigilante with a crow bar, and an order of religious individuals dedicated to stopping the anti-Christ. There is also an appearance from at least one character from the first Adversary Cycle book The Keep .

Mentioning Rosemary's Baby and the anti-Christ crusaders will give you a pretty good idea of how the plot of this book progresses, but it's impossible to discuss without getting into that facet. I admire Wilson for attempting to tell an interesting story about the return of a formidable villain in his world, but the nature of the plot feels derivative to that iconic work. The greater problem however is that the entire book is populated by people making horrible decisions.

The two main characters are meant to be sympathetic, but both of them willingly turn a blind eye to horrific acts willingly. Similarly, the heroic character provided by Wilson in the form of a Jesuit Priest always remains reactive to the plot (the most heroic thing he does in the entire book is not have sex with a woman who wants him to). The series' recurring heroic character does nothing in this book to influence the tragic turn of events.

Even within the logic of the book, it's difficult to figure out what you (the reader) want to have happen. There is a force that benefits when people suffer or cause emotional harm. Does that mean that the sex between two consenting adults will be good or bad for that force (the book decides that action will aid the evil force). Or if a woman tries to perform an unwanted abortion on a trusting relative (here the book says that will harm the evil force). The result for me was a rather unpleasant reading experience where I knew a bad outcome was going to happen the entire time and every choice along the way is just drawing out the inevitable tragedy.

So far the Adversary Cycle has suffered compared to the Repairman Jack Series as it has lacked the moral center of Jack (a man whose own particular morals are certainly not in line with the general public). I'm still planning on reading the two remaining books before I finish up both series with Nightworld but my hopes for finding another great series of books is slowly dwindling.

[eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

silly of me to begin the series from the second part.
thankfully the story started out with a good introduction. it was very interesting to read, especially thanks to the diverse knowledge the author possesed.
i appreciated his musings around philosophy, religion, eugenics, biology and medicine. i really like books that show how knowledgeable the author is.

unfortunately most of the characters were a little bit boring. apart from Jim, Bill and Jonah, they were like cardboard cutouts of archetypes - Carol, a kind, pretty woman; Emma, a loving mother; Robert, a wise monk; Martin, a radical christian, and so on

the part of the plot i liked the most was when we started unravelling the mystery related to Jim's birth. Hanley's diaries were very fascinating, mostly because they were written in such a believable way.
then, the story started losing pace when Jim died. it happened both too soon and too late. and it was such a stupid way to die!
Jim had great potential as a character, i liked his cynicism and intelligence, but all of it was a little undermined by how much he struggled with his identity just because he was an orphan. he would act as if he was more miserable than Carol, who lost both of her parents in an accident. his obsession lead to his death, which did't felt like a proper reason for the whole chaos to unravel

i was disappointed with the ending - it left us no hope, and only promised something new in the next part. probably if i'd read the first part i would know the structure of this series, but right now, i felt unsatisfied.
it was a very interesting read, though.

[John Michael Strubhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

F Paul Wilson is currently my favorite author. Here's why. First, he doesn't use aliens as a lazy plot device. Second, while some of her characters have daddy issues, such issues are not a central point of the story. One could argue that Jim has a daddy issue that is central to the story, but I would disagree. Jim's daddy issue is definitely off-center and is in fact peripheral to the central issue of the story. But what's the story? Well, Jim grew up an orphan and discovers who is daddy was and this upsets him greatly. So much so that it leads him to do a stupid thing that has dire consequences at which point you realize that the big bad of The Keep ain't quite gone yet. It's a page-turner, I tell ya! You have to read it. As supernatural thrillers go, this beats anything Stephen King could write. After all, he used aliens as a plot device in several of his post 1980s works. Yeah, the dude got fat and lazy and lost his imagination. And as for characters with daddy issues, you might want to remember The Shining and It. I mean, dare I quote, "I worry about you. Sometimes, I worry a lot." In any case, you will not catch F Pual Wilson getting fat and lazy and using aliens as a plot device (unless it's science fiction, of course). The man can write a story that absolutely engages me every time!

[Jacob Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reborn, book 4 of the Adversary Cycle, listed as the sequel to The Keep. This book really doesn't require you to read a previous book to read this one as there is very little tie in to the other books. With this being a sequel to The Keep it has very little connection other then one character is is barely in the book and referring to The evil from the Keep being Reborn into the world again.

This book fits a story telling drama with twist and turns more than the horror book it claims to be. It has foreshadowing and talk about death and horror but the "horror" part doesn't really began to the end of the book. It has a more supernatural story telling feel to the book. Though the book does take you down many unexpected twist and turns that don't revile where things are headed till the last hundred pages. This also happens to be the third book in the Adversary Cycle that takes place between Long Island and New York City which leads me to think that this area is important to the series or to the author.

All and all it was a decent book with a decent story that took a while to really get going.

[Micheal Boudreaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not Your Stand Plot

Once again I was drawn in by Wilson's seamless blending of kitchen-sink fiction and dawning horror as the implausible and impossible invade the every day. The POVs are all engaging and interesting: Jim, an aspiring writer searching for identity, his wife Carol, whose dreams increasingly turn dark, their high school friend-turned-Jesuit, Bill Ryan, who craves to leave the orphanage he runs to be in the thick of the political and social upheaval of the late 60's, the wife's devoutly Catholic aunt who can sense the evil growing in Long Island...even Jonah, the one-eyed adopted father of Jim, the writer, who is only a POV a few times, is written masterfully. The only knock one might give is the lack of a traditional resolution, though given it is the fourth work in a series that should be a given.

[Toney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story, loved it. Fourth book in the Adversary Cycle, but this is the direct sequel to the Tomb. Every bit as good, and I think it may be better. Looking forward to the next book, Reprisal.

Became a fan of the Keep after seeing the movie on cable decades ago. I grew up in a rural America and book store options were limited. I eventually managed to find a used copy of the Tomb, but never the Keep, and I didn't want to read the sequel until I read the first book. Eventually I gave up the search. However, recently the Keep came up in a FB group chat and renewed my interest. I have copies of all the Adversary Cycle books now and poured through first 4 pretty quickly (for me). I'm loving them. I think Reborn is my favorite so far due to the family aspect of it. In my younger days I think I would have said I liked the Keep better. Being older, happily married and a father, I connect more with this one now.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of a miss for me. I enjoyed the Keep and I enjoy the Repairman Jack series but this one felt off. I think it was some of the pacing that did it. We had a lot of build up going on of events going on with Jim, Carol, and Bill, but then the third act of the book was just one event stacked up on another. It was almost as if Wilson realized he needed to get to the planned ending and had to tie a lot of threads together.

Maybe if I had read this after reading The Tomb and The Touch first I might have liked it better. However it does look like this was planned as a middle of the series book as the ending doesn't have a full resolution so I may try to give Reprisal a shot in the future.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read the revised version of Nightworld, I already knew quite a few things that were going to happen in here. I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Great writing as usual though one or two points I could nitpick if I chose to but mostly just small plot holes. All in all, a good read and an enjoyable addition to the series. I would recommend to anyone interested, that you read the books in the order Wilson advocates which makes this the second book in the series, which makes sense since it takes place almost twenty years before the next books and gives hints as to what’s going to happen in The Tomb