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End Time
Three people face down a mysterious government organization in a search for a series of missing persons in this dark, apocalyptic thriller
What is happening to the country—and the planet?
A government bio-lab experiment goes hideously wrong, infecting people with scientifically-programmed madness . . .
Random kidnappings of women and girls proliferate throughout the land . . .
Some people suddenly succumb to horrifically virulent viruses while others become able to read minds . . .
Mysteriously summoned to confront these frightening questions, three people are thrown together on a bizarre cross-country quest: Cheryl Gibson, an LA cop; Billy Howahkan, a Lakota Sioux with seeming supernatural gifts, and Bhakti Singh, a distinguished space scientist. They must track down a pair of children with extraordinary powers. These two young people will determine humanity’s fate—obliteration or salvation.
As the three set out across America, the blood-dimmed tide is terminally unleashed. Anarchy, terror, and death stalk the land.
What is happening to the country—and the planet?
A government bio-lab experiment goes hideously wrong, infecting people with scientifically-programmed madness . . .
Random kidnappings of women and girls proliferate throughout the land . . .
Some people suddenly succumb to horrifically virulent viruses while others become able to read minds . . .
Mysteriously summoned to confront these frightening questions, three people are thrown together on a bizarre cross-country quest: Cheryl Gibson, an LA cop; Billy Howahkan, a Lakota Sioux with seeming supernatural gifts, and Bhakti Singh, a distinguished space scientist. They must track down a pair of children with extraordinary powers. These two young people will determine humanity’s fate—obliteration or salvation.
As the three set out across America, the blood-dimmed tide is terminally unleashed. Anarchy, terror, and death stalk the land.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published August 25, 2015
3 people are currently reading
579 people want to read
About the author
Keith Korman
11 books101 followersKeith Korman is an American literary agent and novelist.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 6, 2016
End Time isn’t Keith Korman’s first novel but it appears to be his first solo novel written in quite some time. As a fan of the apocalyptic genre I was definitely intrigued by the title alone. The publisher’s description of the novel reads like a fascinating mashup of science run amok and a rising tide of supernatural occurrences. I found this to be an interesting combination and one that we don’t see too often. Unfortunately I found End Time’s combination of supernatural horror and weird science a bit too hap hazard.
The street performer glimpsed as the novel opens is the reality-warping Pie Piper. Yes, that Pied Piper. With the ability to edit reality at will his influence begins to seep across the world as his voice and visage begins to pop up everywhere along with his calling card: the image of Felix the Cat. In Los Angeles, CHiPs officer Cheryl Gibson is involved in a shooting during a routine stop where she finds the detached arms of young woman on the steering wheel of car. Meanwhile, scientist Bhakti Singh struggles over the disappearance of his daughter and her friend and sets out on a quest to find them even as the town he abandons descends into madness. Billy Howakhan, a Lakota Sioux and retired Army officer turned Head of Security from a major think tank is dispatched to find out why a project in Texas has seemingly been abandoned; the same project the employed Bhakti Singh. These characters and more (including Bhakti’s wife and sister-in-law, as well as Billy’s boss) are all tied to together in tenuous ways. Their intertwined stories drive the plot of End Time forward.
Korman’s characters are most definitely the high point of End Time. Each character is well defined and unique in various ways but each share an undercurrent of determination that binds them together. For the novel’s three main protagonists that determination is born of tragedy and the weight of the past driving them forward. I was particularly impressed with the instant connection between Gibson and Singh. It felt to me that the two bonded that most clearly in the novel and, while they are later joined by Billy Howakhan, it is the initial bond between those two characters that formed the emotional locus of the novel’s main plot. While the novel has three “main” protagonists the cast of End Time is actually quite larger; it is littered with many other protagonist each involved with their own small thread of End Time’s confusing web of a plot. Guy Poole and his wife Lauren (Lauren is Bhakti Singh’s sister-in-law) are involved in a New England ghost story whose connections to the strange goings on in End Time is slow to be revealed and is hazy at best. “Cowboy Clem” Lattimore (the employer of both Bhakti and Billy), the owner of Lattimore Aerospace, focuses on finding out what happened to his missing scientific team and dispatches Billy to witness the retrieval of an experimental material returning from a field test in space. Lattimore further delves into his parent’s past history with the Nazi’s as well as conspiracies theories and weird science. Elsewhere in the novel the Pied Piper takes in a protégé known only as the Kid adding yet another character who takes up a significant amount of narrative page count and whose potential for redemption forms yet another important plot point.
All of these disparate threads would make interesting plots in their own right however they don’t do much but turn End Time into a cluttered mess. The initial emotional involvement, particularly with Bhakti and Cheryl, is squandered as the novel meanders across these disparate plot threads. With Guy and Lauren you have what could be an interesting haunted house story. With Billy, Bhakti, and Cheryl and the Pied Piper you have what could be an amazing story of supernatural body horror. With “Cowboy Clem” Lattimore you have what could be a great conspiracy story; add a dash of Eleanoar Singh’s narrative into the mix and you have a really great story of science run amok. Unfortunately, End Time only manages to remain interesting enough to keep one reading. There are glimpses of greatness but never anything more and novel’s conclusion remains completely unsatisfying. End Time was not the novel for me.
The street performer glimpsed as the novel opens is the reality-warping Pie Piper. Yes, that Pied Piper. With the ability to edit reality at will his influence begins to seep across the world as his voice and visage begins to pop up everywhere along with his calling card: the image of Felix the Cat. In Los Angeles, CHiPs officer Cheryl Gibson is involved in a shooting during a routine stop where she finds the detached arms of young woman on the steering wheel of car. Meanwhile, scientist Bhakti Singh struggles over the disappearance of his daughter and her friend and sets out on a quest to find them even as the town he abandons descends into madness. Billy Howakhan, a Lakota Sioux and retired Army officer turned Head of Security from a major think tank is dispatched to find out why a project in Texas has seemingly been abandoned; the same project the employed Bhakti Singh. These characters and more (including Bhakti’s wife and sister-in-law, as well as Billy’s boss) are all tied to together in tenuous ways. Their intertwined stories drive the plot of End Time forward.
Korman’s characters are most definitely the high point of End Time. Each character is well defined and unique in various ways but each share an undercurrent of determination that binds them together. For the novel’s three main protagonists that determination is born of tragedy and the weight of the past driving them forward. I was particularly impressed with the instant connection between Gibson and Singh. It felt to me that the two bonded that most clearly in the novel and, while they are later joined by Billy Howakhan, it is the initial bond between those two characters that formed the emotional locus of the novel’s main plot. While the novel has three “main” protagonists the cast of End Time is actually quite larger; it is littered with many other protagonist each involved with their own small thread of End Time’s confusing web of a plot. Guy Poole and his wife Lauren (Lauren is Bhakti Singh’s sister-in-law) are involved in a New England ghost story whose connections to the strange goings on in End Time is slow to be revealed and is hazy at best. “Cowboy Clem” Lattimore (the employer of both Bhakti and Billy), the owner of Lattimore Aerospace, focuses on finding out what happened to his missing scientific team and dispatches Billy to witness the retrieval of an experimental material returning from a field test in space. Lattimore further delves into his parent’s past history with the Nazi’s as well as conspiracies theories and weird science. Elsewhere in the novel the Pied Piper takes in a protégé known only as the Kid adding yet another character who takes up a significant amount of narrative page count and whose potential for redemption forms yet another important plot point.
All of these disparate threads would make interesting plots in their own right however they don’t do much but turn End Time into a cluttered mess. The initial emotional involvement, particularly with Bhakti and Cheryl, is squandered as the novel meanders across these disparate plot threads. With Guy and Lauren you have what could be an interesting haunted house story. With Billy, Bhakti, and Cheryl and the Pied Piper you have what could be an amazing story of supernatural body horror. With “Cowboy Clem” Lattimore you have what could be a great conspiracy story; add a dash of Eleanoar Singh’s narrative into the mix and you have a really great story of science run amok. Unfortunately, End Time only manages to remain interesting enough to keep one reading. There are glimpses of greatness but never anything more and novel’s conclusion remains completely unsatisfying. End Time was not the novel for me.
February 25, 2016
English Review
I would not venture to make a summary of this book, it is too complex for that. I will clarify my feelings from the book’s summary:
After reading this synopsis, I was expecting a very fast-paced reading, with the virus, kidnapping, the experience gone wrong… In fact, the first part of the book (approximately 200 pages) is a presentation of the different characters and the reaction of some regarding the kidnapping of two girls. It’s very slow and boring, I admit that I almost stopped my reading. After this first part it improves, we begin to understand what is happening and see this announced Apocalypse. The pace remains always the same.
The story is very focused on the supernatural aspect, I did not expect so much of it.
The author has succeeded in describing his characters and their relationships, but the fact that there is almost a storyline for each character makes our reading complicated. I was also a little disappointed by the end.
As you see, this reading was not made for me. If you liked The Stand by Stephen King, this book may please you because we find there the same narrative rhythm.
Avis en français
Je ne me risquerais pas à faire un résumé de ce livre, c’est trop complexe pour cela. Je vais préciser mon ressenti par rapport au résumé du livre:
Après avoir lu ce résumé, je m’attendais à une lecture très rythmée, avec les virus, les enlèvements, l’expérience qui tourne mal… En fait, la première partie du livre (environ 200 pages) consiste en une présentation des différents personnages et la réaction de certains à l’enlèvement de 2 jeunes filles. C’est très lent et ennuyeux, j’avoue avoir failli arrêter ma lecture. Après cette première partie cela s’améliore, on commence à comprendre un peu ce qui se passe et à voir cette apocalypse annoncée. Le rythme reste toutefois toujours le même.
L’histoire est très axée sur le surnaturel, je ne m’attendais pas à ce que ça le soit autant.
L’auteur a bien réussi à décrire ses personnages et leurs relations mais le fait qu’il y ait presque une intrigue pour chaque personnage rend la lecture compliquée. J’ai aussi été un peu déçue par la fin.
Comme vous le voyez, cette lecture n’était pas faite pour moi. Si vous avez aimé The Stand de Stephen King, ce livre peut vous plaire car on y retrouve le même rythme narratif.
I would not venture to make a summary of this book, it is too complex for that. I will clarify my feelings from the book’s summary:
After reading this synopsis, I was expecting a very fast-paced reading, with the virus, kidnapping, the experience gone wrong… In fact, the first part of the book (approximately 200 pages) is a presentation of the different characters and the reaction of some regarding the kidnapping of two girls. It’s very slow and boring, I admit that I almost stopped my reading. After this first part it improves, we begin to understand what is happening and see this announced Apocalypse. The pace remains always the same.
The story is very focused on the supernatural aspect, I did not expect so much of it.
The author has succeeded in describing his characters and their relationships, but the fact that there is almost a storyline for each character makes our reading complicated. I was also a little disappointed by the end.
As you see, this reading was not made for me. If you liked The Stand by Stephen King, this book may please you because we find there the same narrative rhythm.
Avis en français
Je ne me risquerais pas à faire un résumé de ce livre, c’est trop complexe pour cela. Je vais préciser mon ressenti par rapport au résumé du livre:
Après avoir lu ce résumé, je m’attendais à une lecture très rythmée, avec les virus, les enlèvements, l’expérience qui tourne mal… En fait, la première partie du livre (environ 200 pages) consiste en une présentation des différents personnages et la réaction de certains à l’enlèvement de 2 jeunes filles. C’est très lent et ennuyeux, j’avoue avoir failli arrêter ma lecture. Après cette première partie cela s’améliore, on commence à comprendre un peu ce qui se passe et à voir cette apocalypse annoncée. Le rythme reste toutefois toujours le même.
L’histoire est très axée sur le surnaturel, je ne m’attendais pas à ce que ça le soit autant.
L’auteur a bien réussi à décrire ses personnages et leurs relations mais le fait qu’il y ait presque une intrigue pour chaque personnage rend la lecture compliquée. J’ai aussi été un peu déçue par la fin.
Comme vous le voyez, cette lecture n’était pas faite pour moi. Si vous avez aimé The Stand de Stephen King, ce livre peut vous plaire car on y retrouve le même rythme narratif.
April 13, 2022
From the first scenes to the very last page, this race across the country to save humanity never lets up or slows down. You’ll be turning pages well past your bedtime with this book! This intricate tale skillfully ties together a story of biomedical engineering gone horribly wrong with alien visitations, corporate and government cover-ups, designer drugs and pandemics. The good guys are an unlikely cast of imperfect individuals each so well-described that I know I would recognize them instantly should our paths cross. But I’d not want to meet in this apocalyptic setting! The Pied Piper, the evil that has created this ticking time bomb of a world gone sick and mad is unimaginably terrifying and so well-crafted that I’ll be seeing him and the wreckage he makes in my nightmares for a long time to come. As illness and madness take over the country, the intensity of the story never wavers and while I desperately wished for those fighting the evil to prevail, I was sad to leave this crazy intense world when the tale came to an end.
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December 10, 2015Mon avis en Français
My English review
As soon as I read the summary of the novel, I was intrigued. I must say that we often have post-apocalyptic stories but eventually this one shows us the Apocalypse itself, a change in the world that affects everyone by different methods. How not to be intrigued?
Yet I have not really managed to hang on the story or the characters. I finally read 140 pages (one third of the book) before deciding to put it down… I do not know if this is due to my state of mind at the time, or if I have only failed to hang on the style of the story but I decided to abandon my reading. I must say that from the start I flew over the pages and I found it hard not to be lost compared to characters and the events. But I think that the novel will appeal to others and I’m curious to see what people will think.
My English review
As soon as I read the summary of the novel, I was intrigued. I must say that we often have post-apocalyptic stories but eventually this one shows us the Apocalypse itself, a change in the world that affects everyone by different methods. How not to be intrigued?
Yet I have not really managed to hang on the story or the characters. I finally read 140 pages (one third of the book) before deciding to put it down… I do not know if this is due to my state of mind at the time, or if I have only failed to hang on the style of the story but I decided to abandon my reading. I must say that from the start I flew over the pages and I found it hard not to be lost compared to characters and the events. But I think that the novel will appeal to others and I’m curious to see what people will think.
August 23, 2023
I can't give a book less than 2 stars if I ended up reading all of it, which I did. I am still not convinced that was the right choice. I started this book under the impression this was a post-apocalpyse adventure combining some sci-fi and supernatural elements together as a group fights to survive together. I was partially right. I would describe this as an apocalype-in-progress combining horror, sci-fi, and supernatural. There are a lot of characters separate and seemingly disconnected from the others, and I ended up feeling like I was reading completely different stories at times for no reason other than to emphasize how morbid things were or how bad humanity can be.
Overall, this book could cut out half the characters and half the plots without losing anything critical, and still would end up being a somewhat depressing and uncomfortable read.
Overall, this book could cut out half the characters and half the plots without losing anything critical, and still would end up being a somewhat depressing and uncomfortable read.
July 19, 2018
This is a slow, cluttered read with too many threads which add little value to the overall confused story. I actually read to the end but only because I was travelling and had nothing else. The characters are well formed but the story itself is too disjointed and non-sensical to be satisfying.
March 11, 2016
A bit more than 3 stars. It fault of this book to me is that it tries to cover all the bases of the theories of Heaven and Hell, visitors from other worlds, angels and devils and everything in between. That gets in the way of telling the story which is sad because it could be a much better story if he was not trying to tie all of that together. The characters could use a little more filling out and they might have had that with less theory. You would like to know more about at least a few of them.
This does remind me a lot of The Stand but Mr. Korman is not Mr. King. I did like his use of places I am familiar with like the truck stop in West Virginia and New York City. It is a bit of a wild ride but if this type of story appeals to you it is worth the reading.
This does remind me a lot of The Stand but Mr. Korman is not Mr. King. I did like his use of places I am familiar with like the truck stop in West Virginia and New York City. It is a bit of a wild ride but if this type of story appeals to you it is worth the reading.
August 28, 2016
Published 2015. Goodreads says less pages than my edition which is 598. The inevitable comparision for this novel is King's "The Stand". It has about anything and everything: good and evil, ghosts, aliens, mad scientists, various religious influences including American Indian, angels, space, Andromeda Strain (kinda), time travel - the list goes on.
Personally, I like these kinds of apocalyptic books even tho this one was a bit of a struggle at first. The first half struck me as one huge downer. The second half perked up with more action and revelation. The last page left me wondering, sequel or no?
Personally, I like these kinds of apocalyptic books even tho this one was a bit of a struggle at first. The first half struck me as one huge downer. The second half perked up with more action and revelation. The last page left me wondering, sequel or no?
December 31, 2016
It's terribly slow, and there is way too much going on that never really come together or make a complete story... The first 150 or so pages were pointless, and the book only really picks up around page 400 maybe... I'm almost annoyed I finished it. I kept thinking the end has to be something!!! It's not, and it's not worth the read in my opinion...
September 8, 2015
A disappointment.
January 1, 2016
The ending got a tad bit confusing. I'm not sure everyone has a working understanding of LaGrange numbers.....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews