The Harvest

by Scott Nicholson

AS THE SEASON TURNS...

Nestled deep in the Southern Appalachian Mountains is the town of Windshake. Living among the populace of good ol' boy moonshiners and God-fearing folk are psychologist Tamara Leon and her family. All her life Tamara has been plagued by dark dreams and visions. She calls them "Gloomies". They have an uncanny way of foreshadowing tragic events to come-- and her instincts tell her something unnatural is happening.

...SOMETHING WICKED GROWS

Because a new presence has taken up residence in Windshake.
It feeds off everything in its path, consuming life to fuel its malevolent purpose. Its evil can be seen in the eyes of its converts as they spread its influence from neighbor to neighbord.
And its hunger will not be sated until it has remade Windshake in its own image...

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Science Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Fantasy

383 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

With more than 800,000 books sold worldwide, Scott Nicholson is an international bestselling thriller writer. He won the Writers of the Future Award in 1999 and was a Stoker Award finalist in 2003. His Fear series was published by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint and 47North released the supernatural thriller McFALL.

He's also published a number of supernatural, paranormal, and fantasy books and stories, including the AFTER, NEXT, and ARIZE post-apocalyptic series, as well as children's books, comics, and screenplays. His 2006 novel The Home is in development as a feature film.

Reviews

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Original review March 16, 2011---update Oct. 4, 2012


I have mentioned that my wife passed away some time ago (almost 2 years now) and I have left most of her books on my shelves undisturbed. It was easier. But I also needed to move to a smaller place last year. A number of my book shelves couldn't make the trip, thus I had to sell, trade etc. many of my books. With the shelves I now have here loaded to bursting (double loaded front and back rows with books crammed into each possible available space, table top and unused spot) I am forced to the understanding that I need to do one of two things. I must either cease buying books or let some of the ones taking up shelf space go. Since the former is unthinkable (:)) I must do the second.

BUT also I am always loathe to let books go that I haven't read or at least tried to read. Thus I set myself this week to move some of my wife's books to the head of my reading list. So other than the audio books I listen to when I take a break or am trying to slow down and go to sleep...the print books I'm reading are ones my wife had. The thing is I don't know if all of them are books she liked, or if they were simply books she hadn't gotten around to reading. I have finished with several and I sat down today to review them...just for you. Yeah, yeah I know, so bear with me I'm a little cracked from all the (sadly mostly mediocre) horror. I know the books my wife liked and I'm convinced most of these were simply ones she had been "meaning to get to" and never bothered. Most [with a couple of exceptions] haven't been that good.

From the rating I gave this one you can probably tell, I wasn't bowled over by it...unless you mean negatively. Since I couldn't get into The Red Church I wasn't holding out a lot of hope. Nicholson didn't disappoint me...or he disappointed me again, however you want to look at it.

Here we have a woman who lives in the southern Appalachian Mountains. She's obviously very intelligent because she goes off on rants about her psychological theories that are "the most controversial things" in the staid college here in "hicksville". She feels free to (it seemed to me) sneer at the "moonshining", tobacco raising, church going, knitting bee having "hillbillies" (yes we use the time honored word hillbilly and not in it's acceptable "positive way"). I was treated early on to her opinion that she had (another) bad husband (I don't mean another for her, I just mean that I've seen so many lately that some books I pick up remind me of a Lifetime Movie Network piece). Follow this up with ANOTHER alien that's fallen from the skies and wants to make everything and everyone on Earth food, and you've got the book.

Been there done that a hundred times (and often better, try The Tommyknockers) Not for me, can't really recommend it. if you like it good for you...I didn't.

I hope I didn't buy this for my wife as a gift or something, it's really not very good.

[Scott Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote it. I think it's pretty good.

[Jon Recluse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like one of those classic science fiction/horror movies from the 50s. Fast paced and fun, filled with well rounded characters and authentic "jump out of your skin" moments.

Highly recommended.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was incredible sci-fi horror fun. I really enjoyed Nicholson's writing as the story didn't take itself too seriously yet still packed an emotional punch. The tone struck a perfect balance to me, the alien kicked ass, and the results of the infestation were vivdly described. If I had actully had time to read, I would have devoured this in a couple of days.

[Sara]

Its gd collection.
metabolism
the eyes of city
watch the meat and bons
even old step
behind new store
old step
hard bodygard
all eyes watch
the bone movies
fearless in cold city
old step
hard metro
far dream
owl went far

[Mickey Tompkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, it read like an 80's "creature feature" kind of film. I really enjoyed the characters. The whole synopsis is love conquers all, or "All you need is love."

[B.C. Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disintegration by Scott Nicholson is a tale of a husband and wife who experience a very tragic event. This event (which I won’t spoil here) is the catalyst for the entire story. Throughout the reading, you are pulled deeper and deeper into the world of Jacob, and to a lesser extent, his wife Renee. This is a story where not all is exactly as it seems for the two, and how everything unfolds at the end is quite surprising.

The Good: The two opening chapters of the book are by far the best of the entire novel. A horrible event takes place and the details of what happens are painted very vividly and clear. The author does a fantastic job of pulling you in right at the start of the story. You feel what the character Jacob feels in those first two chapters. From the pain, the agony, and the disgust, it’s all given in such intense detail. For the first quarter of this book, I could not put it down because it caught me in its grasp so well.

The Bad: There are several things I could point to as being bad. But the main one that I had a problem with was the use of similes. The author uses them to such a large extent that they become a major distraction. For instance, at one point while fighting back tears, a characters vision is described as looking through a greased window. Alright, I get the picture. But to use these types of similes constantly throughout the book becomes tiresome and feel forced. This is especially true when you read a simile that appears to make no sense in helping understand a character’s feelings or actions. The icing on the cake for the similes is that the characters themselves use them a lot in their dialogue. It’s one thing for the writer of the book to take advantage of this with the narrative, but totally unbelievable to think the characters would talk in the same manner in every day life. If the use of similes had been toned down in the book by about 50% (yes, he uses them that much) it wouldn’t have been a complaint at all.

The Ugly: Every book of characters has your good guys and your bad guys. Typically, the reader likes the good guy, roots for him, and identifies with him in one form or another. The bad guy, well we don’t like him but we appreciate him and even sometimes you can care about him, despite his badness. There’s a problem when your story lacks someone that you care about. And Disintegration has this exact problem. All the characters end up being people you don’t like. The main character has no redeeming qualities and even in that one last breath of the book where you think somebody here is a good guy, it turns out they’re not. Maybe it was the author’s way of trying to do a surprise ending, but it was a horrible way to do it. I finished this book caring nothing about what happened to anyone in it. It doesn’t help that in the beginning and in other parts, the author expresses feelings of the characters that are then contradicted in the end. It makes no sense for a character to think and feel a certain way only to do something you don’t expect because they do not actually think or feel that way.

Overall, I did not like this book. What started out as a very intriguing and gripping story just disintegrated at the end. And I don’t mean this in a way that complements the title of the book; I mean it in a way that says the story just completely falls apart.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

his is Scot Nicholson doing what he does best, taking a sleepy little small town in the middle of nowhere and terrorising the hell out of them! In this case an alien being has landed on the mountainside and needs to feed to survive by "harvesting" the inhabitants, both animal and vegetable, turning them into zombie like hybrid beings. The heroes are three old men, Chester, Emerland, De Walt and local "psychic psychologist" Tamara who join forces for the ultimate Good vs Evil battle. As usual, the authors' narrative is spot on; you can picture this little town almost as if you had been there and dialogue is first rate. The characters are certainly believeable; you get to know their likes, dislikes and fears which really makes you empathise with them and start rooting for them against the zombies. What is great, is the way that not all the characters focussed on are necessarily "good", the author certainly doesnt forget to include the local "trailer trash" in his story notably Peggy, the broke mother in the trailer park who is offered a way out of poverty by doing the one thing she is really good at and, of course, Emerland is the archetypal "evil property developer who just wants to buy it and bulldoze it". There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but it gets easier as the book goes on because most of them come to a very gruesome end anyway. The plot does start off slowly, setting the scene and getting you into the feel of small town snail pace life but pretty soon builds up pace and, especially by the time you get to the second half of the book, has become unputdownable. Highly recommended.

[Steve Vernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a gardener I can tell you that there is nothing more contagious than a weed - and this book - THE HARVEST - is crammed FULL of an invading species that is basically a virulent weed.

So right off the bat THE HARVEST creeps me out.

THE HARVEST is old-school novel of space invasions - not the "OH MY GOLLY THEY ARE SHOOTING DOWN THE AIR FORCE" Independence Day style military space invasions - but more along the lines of the creeping paranoia of John Carpenter's THE THING - or better yet, John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There".

Think THE TOMMYKNOCKERS with a little bit more sense of continuity.

In fact, that last comparison is maybe the best of all. THE HARVEST reads like an old-school Stephen King novel - the kind of book where you KNOW that there is something go on in the woods just outside of town - something that is creeping like a case of galloping fungi into town - and only a handful of determined and stalwart redneck heroes stand in the way of the complete and total subjugation of the human race.

I've got to tell you that I really enjoy that whole scenario and I really enjoyed the heck out of Scott Nicholson's THE HARVEST.

You will too.

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

[Kim (Wistfulskimmies Book Reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of an alien entity crash landing in the Appalachian mountains. It starts to take over the residents of the town and things can only get worse with a special festival being held in a few days. Visitors are due in town and it's up to a psychology teacher and two old 'codgers' to save the town from disaster.

I really enjoyed this. It started off quite slowly but it soon picked up and became extremely difficult to put down! It was the love child of 'The Tommyknockers' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' but on speed. The characters were solid and well rounded and there were the usual uber bad guys and also a couple that made me think were they or weren't they? it was sad in places, Scott managed to extract a lot of pathos - not easy given the subject matter. The ending was good and wrapped everything up nicely.

I recommend this for scifi/horror fans and for fans of Scott Nicholson. A great book with a great storyline.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the godS this is not a print on demand book (POD) as so many of today's trade paperbacks tend to be (and an ever increasing number of hardcover books).

The Stories in this collection from 2000 are:

Haunted - 5
The Vampire Shortstop - 17
Skin - 41
Dead Air - 55
In The Heart Of November - 73
The Three Dollar Corpse - 85
Thirst - 99
Do You Know Me Yet? - 111
Homecoming - 123
Kill Your Darlings - 133
Metabolism - 145
The Boy Who Saw Fire - 157
Constitution - 173

Afterword - 185

Generally pretty well written. Some stories were more enjoyable than others. I will try one day to read one of Mr. Nicholson's novels.

[BookLoversLife · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this because the synopsis doesn't give anything away, I didn't expect alien plant like zombie people!! Lol. It was definitely different but still really good.

This reminded me of the old style horror movies my parents used to watch. It had everything you expect from that type of horror, remote small town, alien/monster causing havoc, band of people fighting against it, add in the Appalachian mountains and you have a winner. I have always been fascinated with the Appalachian mountains because it contains a lot of lore and a lot of land, so for me the setting was immediately a winner.

Basically what happens is an alien plantesque like presence invades the small town of Windshake. It spreads first to a man and from there it seems to quickly take over. The person becomes zombie like, with glowing green eyes and anyone it touches with it's goop becomes one of them. All it wants to do is harvest as many people as possible and wait for the rest of it's kind to come, but a group of the townsfolk are intent in stopping it.

There are plenty of characters in this and each has it's own story but they all interconnect. Each character is well written and I loved how different they all are, I mean we have a moonshiner, a psychology professor who hears and sees things, a mayor intent on having the festivals no matter what and a devout man. All completely different but all likable in their own way.

Anyway, this was a really good read. If you take it with a pinch of salt then I think you will enjoy it. It's not the hard hitting alien sci-fi nor the type of horror horror fans like, it's a good old, old style, horror movie kind of read and quite fun in a way. The author tells the story through the eyes of his characters and while it looks like they are separate stories, he brings them all together in an explosive finale.

Steven Roy Grimsley was down right amazing reading this. His tone for the alien life was creepy, he brought across each characters emotions perfectly and really got into the performance, because that's what it was for him, a performance!! He brought the story across like a movie and I adored listening to it.

*I received a copy of this for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

[AudioBookReviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

ABR's full The Harvest audiobook review can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

The town of Windshake, located in the Appalachian Mountains, has a visitor. It is alien and very hungry! It will consume the people of Windshake one person at a time until it's army of dead people become plant like with glowing green eyes. Anyone who ingests the alien plant like creature - whether is through a kiss or a swig of homemade moonshine with polluted water, they will become one with the alien and one another moving towards the same purpose - consuming everything in its path.

The alien begins to learn from the souls of the folks it has absorbed into it's army thus igniting the connection between a psychic psychology professor who is well aware of the gloomies (her psychic gift), a moonshine drinking old man and one businessman. They each have their own demons to deal with during their trek to destroy the "gloomies" who have materialized into this alien plant being.

Not your typical zombie book, but one could easily identify it as such - instead of eating flesh, they consume the life thus spreading the infection or disease that converts the receiver into a green eyed zombie.

Throw in a mayor who wants their festival to go well exposing thousands of vendors and visitors to the alien and it's army - you have a major event that could enable the infected and further world consumption easily.

Scott Nicholson writes in a clear concise manner. His plot development as is his character development excel. You can visualize his characters and follow his thoughts from the beginning to the end. There are no "huh?" moments in his books. Everything connects. He makes the town real and the people just as real.

Nicholson ranks right up there with Koontz, King, and Tufo

Audiobook provided for review by the author.

[Glen Krisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Disintegration" was my first ever Kindle download based on Nicholson's track record and the nice $.99 price.
**Spoiler Free**
Scott Nicholson's "Disintegration" starts with a gut-punch of a hook and travels a path of plot twists and turns--each darker than the one preceding--until you're left wondering how he pulled off this dark thriller.
"We all wear masks, all the time, happily ever after. Wish me not to be in my daughter's graveyard."
The above quote comes from the midway point of the book, when you think you've figured out the characters and the plot, when you're mentally storing little telling details you've read along the way to prove you've gotten the plot figured out. But if you thought you had it figured it out, you'd be wrong. And the next time you're certain you have the plot square and the characters pigeonholed, perhaps as soon as the very next chapter, you'd still be wrong.
The characters always seem to choose the darkest possible option. This would be a fatal flaw if they weren't given any moral or humane qualities early in the book. From this foundation, Nicholson whittles away at Jacob and Renee, and to a lesser extent, Joshua, Jacob's black-sheep of a twin brother. You question their choices, their loyalties, their humanity. And by the end, you'll tremble at the thought that such people could ever exist.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

DISINTEGRATION is a twisted thriller with a killer ending. It's a book built on pain and tragedy which morphs into murder.

Lust conquers loves as Jacob, a successful businessman and wife Renee gradually slip away from one another following the unfortunate deaths of their two children through separate horrific events. It's at this juncture in their relationship that Jacob's thoughts turn to a former flame - though the flame in question may not be as enamored in Jacob as he is in her. Enter the deranged twist that derails all preconceptions of the book.

Through a less than inspired act of introducing Joshua, Jacobs 'evil' twin, author Scott Nicholson, eventually turns DISINTEGRATION into a pretty decent read. One that I would've liked much more had there been a natural progression of storytelling to introduce this element. Renee's discovery of Joshua, the twin previously kept hidden from Renee by Jacob didn't feel right to me - perhaps I missed something. Either way, it took a while for me to get over it and enjoy the spate of event proceeding his arrival. However, once established, Nicholson does a great job at making this character memorable.

DISINTEGRATION is a book worth checking out, I found the beginning good, middle a little average, and ending great.

http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...

[Jeanine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of this author and this book is an example of why.. Incredibly descriptive writing, good story.

[BookLoversLife · Rating 3 out of 5]

You are brought into the story straight away with the death of Jacob's daughter in a house fire. He wakes to smoke and tries in vain to rescue her but ends up with severe burns instead. This in itself is heartbreaking, but add in the fact that they lost another child years before, a marriage on the rocks because of this and a twin brother who torments you, and you have a fast paced and thrilling read.

This is the first of Scott Nicholsons books I've read that doesn't have a supernatural element to it, and while I liked it, I think I prefer his supernatural ones, but that's a personal opinion only!! This was such a roller coaster of a read and one that had me constantly wondering where the author was taking the story. It's so full of twists and turns that you are left breathless with anticipation and turning the pages (though in this case leaving the earbuds in) to see what happens next.

The characters were all well thought out and written, though I didn't really like any of them that much. It's hard to root for a character when there isn't really anyone to root for. They were all flawed, which I like, but not one of them were what you would call a good guy!! hat's one thing I see with this authors style, he really knows how to write a complex character, one you either love or hate!!

In all this was a good read. I always like a book that keeps me guessing, and this one did.

The narrator did a good job with this though at times I did become confused of which character was which. I wanted more variety and different tones at times but I still enjoyed listening to him.

*I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

[Adam Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forever Never Ends is the author's prefered version of his 2003 novel The Harvest and it seems that Nicholson is moving away from his Bentley Little style of simple

titles. The Harvest Never Ends was a "what?" book for me. This does not mean that I didn't enjoy it because I did like it enough to finish, but I found it very

confusing. It made me question my own intelligence at times because I honestly do not know if I am to blame for not getting it or if it is the book's fault. If you have

ever read a Terry Pratchett novel, Nicholson's Forever Never Harvests reminded me of his work if he wrote crazy horror instead of ridiculous fantasy. I have read

several books by Nicholson and know his style well enough now to say with confidence that he writes like this famous author you might know named No One. This style is

present here too and it has a complexity that I don't usually see in horror with its insane metaphors and useage of words containing more than three syllables. Whether

or not this is a good thing for a basic alien invasion novel (if you can call this one that) is up to you to decide. I honestly did not think it was but I usually

dislike books about this sort of thing. The Tommyknockers was a struggle for me as an example. All in all though, despite this being my least favorite Nicholson novel

so far, I am still impressed and in no way discouraged. All of my favorite authors have work that doesn't interest me so I will move on and find one of Nicholson's

books that does. As he says "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger," and Never Ends The Harvest Forever most likely won't kill you.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Disintegration” is in your face horror-graphic, gory, repulsive. Yet, like a highway collision, the reader just can’t look away, but must keep focusing on the story, racing through those pages to see what happens next, to whom, and how. “Disintegration” is gritty, not lyrical; cut-to-the-bone and then some, visceral. “Disintegration” deals with the kind of living nightmares we all pray never occur. It peeks in at the gory underbelly of horror, the death that lives just below the surface of our lives, the unexpected and un-forewarned events we cannot avoid. Yet, like a highway collision, the reader just can’t look away, but must keep focusing on the story, racing through those pages to see what happens next, to whom, and how. I guess I should not refer to it as “horror���; the author terms it a “mystery thriller”. Yet I found the events frightening enough to be considered horrifying, as is the imagery-graphic and gory. I will say this-“Disintegration” gave me the first nightmare I’d had in a while, and although it didn’t cleave to the book, there was plenty of horror in it to remind me of its source. The reader poises involuntarily on the cutting edge of the abyss with this novel-I recommend not listening it while you drive, or reading it at work, or while you’re cooking, because you’re not going to be able to break yourself away till the end.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but I never got into it. Way too many characters, and of those 90 percent of them are stereotypes. The protagonist does nothing throughout most of the book but fret about her troubles. The pacing is way too slow until the end. The author has a bad habit of doing gimmicks and tricks during dramatic scenes, such as long paragraphs of run-on sentences or, in the case of one character, an odd internal conversation with made-up figures. The telepathic abilities of the protagonist are never suitably explained, and they just happen to magnify just when they are needed most, a plot contrivance that is too obvious to ignore.

The alien menace was cool, as were the humans who were turned into zombie-like plant creatures. But this novel was weighed down by too much negative for anything positive to come out of it.

[Nev Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of an alien invasion/infestation in a small sleepy town in the Appalachian Mountains.

The story slowly builds,getting you totally involved in the lives of all the characters until the explosive finale as a band of unlikely heroes comes together to try to defeat the entity and save the town of Windshake.

I love the way the characters build throughout this book. You can love some and you can equally hate some. It's full of horror/terror as the entity takes over the town one person at a time. One of the things I most love about Mr Nicholson's books is the the dry humour involved and there is plenty of it in this book, having you scared one minute and smiling the next.

The way the atmosphere is built in this book is amazing. It reminded me a lot of the colour/atmosphere of the original War of the Worlds film (1953). Full of Technicolor.

5 stars again.

[Nanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Scott Nicholson does not fail to delight! I couldn’t put this book down.

Again, we find unimaginable horror in the Appalachian Mountains. (Where most of his stories take place).

Telepathy, an other-worldly evil malevolence that meticulously infects one human after another , infidelity, moon shiners , a greedy real estate developer, but most importantly, non-stop gore, just the way that I like it!

Mr. Nicholson has an amazing command of the English language and is one of the most descriptive writers out there today. He reminds me a bit of Peter Straub, who I also adore.

I HIGHLY recommend this book!

[Tami Stackelhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly don't know how to rate this, so I'll take the cheater way out and mark three stars... The first 3/4 of the book was great, really kept me guessing. I totally never could have guessed the end from the beginning - and I usually do. For that reason, i wanted to give 4 stars. However, I didn't really like the end.. No, I *really* didn't like the end, so that part of me wanted to give only 1 star!

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Vampire Shortstop" was by far the best of the short stories in this anthology.

Most of the shorts were centered around the what-if premise of teenagers being able to control a major force of weather (wind, sun, rain etc). While this was an interesting concept, the whining got old after the fist couple of shorts.

I may read some more of this author's work in the future, but am not 100% sold.

[kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott Nicholson is growing on me. This book is on par with some of King's works. Adding real life southern mountain touches to graphic word images. You can almost smell the funk and feel the fervor with which the characters pray. The author winds the story lines and characters together with a plot and just enough of a sense of humor that the horrible tragedy of the story isn't wasted on doom.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott Nicholson is fast becoming one of my favourite authors with each book I read of his. The Harvest is a brilliant alien invasion story, remind mr of both Stinger by Robert McCammon and Tommyknockers by Stephen King. I think what I find so pleasing about this novel is the quality of the writing, Nicholson draws the reader into story so you just have to keep reading. Brilliant fun!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spooky! I loved it! Think Invasion Of the Body Snatchers mixed with Zombies!

[Jon Recluse · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to the writing of Scott Nicholson, showcasing the remarkable breadth of his imagination. A must-have collection by one of the best storytellers in the business.

[Amanda M. Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I liked the fun b movie tone of this one. It got a little loose toward the end, but managed to be a satisfying read.

[Miriam Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was actually pretty good. It was pretty slow to start and took me longer to finish than normal, but once the action picked up, it didn't stop until the end. All in all, not a bad read.