It is a great idea, poorly executed. Has Whitley Streiber always been such a mediocre hack, or is this just an off book for him? The writing is awkward, the motivations for what people are doing are obscure and just plain odd, making the things they do seem forced, there are glaring mistakes (changing a characters name on one page and back on the next, someone making dinner in too short a time, people fighting and making up and fighting and making up ad nauseum without any proper emotional fallout from it, etc.) that take you right out of the story - it’s really disappointing me. I love post-apocalyptic fiction, and I expected to love this book (it says right on the cover that fans of “The Stand” and “Lucifer’s Hammer” will enjoy this book). Anyway, borrow it from the library; don’t waste your own money on it.
He’s not a great writer by any stretch of the imagination. I remembered loving “Nature’s End” when I first read it years ago, so I found it in a used bookshop. It wasn’t quite as good as I remembered it. I also bought “Warday” but now I can’t find it…
Warday was good but I can see why it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. The pacing is uneven to put it charitably. You’ll have a good chapter of description of what happened followed by 20+ pages of official looking documents about radiation effects. Nature’s End was similar but included a strange sub plot about intelligent monkeys and strange children. As I recall, the ending really sucked.
I think the Strieber’s best work is Communion/Transformation/Breakthrough. If you have even the slightest fear of alien abduction they’re the scariest goddamn books you’ll ever read.
I have some of WS’s fiction & am meaning to read it, but I always read his Alien stuff.
You might like his early books – Wolfen and The Hunger. The movie versions were decent as well. I haven’t read anything he wrote since he was kidnapped by aliens, or whatever that was all about.
I found Majestic to be a very enjoyable book. I first read it when I was 12 or so and it petrified me. I love the whole ‘Aliens as Truth’ genre and think that Majestic is a fine example.
tim
Meh. The title sounds dumb. I’ll just wait for the Michael Bay film.
I don’t think this is the book that is being made into the movie to be released in the near future. I can’t find any cross-reference between the two. This book would make a very interesting movie.
Well, I finished the book now, and while it was an interesting read (and a very interesting idea), I really would have preferred it handled by a competent writer. I forgot one of the more glaring errors; one of his characters says, “BTW.” You can’t just toss leet speak into novels, can you?
2012: The War for Souls - Produced by Michael Bay
Not to be confused with the 2012 film directed by Roland Emmerich.
I read The Grays. Also not good. Is 2012 a sequel of sorts to that? I thought it was sort of being billed as that, but I can’t bring myself to read 2012 to find out.
Oops - that’s exactly what I WAS doing. Well, that’s okay, then - I think it will make a good movie.
I think “2012” might be a sequel to “The Grays.” I actually read it really fast - the story was great. It was just the writing that caused me pain.