Summer of Night

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Dan John Miller

It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic childhood. But amid the sun-drenched cornfields, their loyalty will be pitilessly tested. When a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the night, the townsfolk know it marks the end of their carefree days. From the depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is rising. Strange and horrifying events begin to overtake everyday life, spreading terror through the once-peaceful town. Determined to exorcize this ancient plague, Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a war of blood against an arcane abomination who owns the night....

©2011 Dan Simmons (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Impressive...combines beautiful writing and suspense into a book for which Dan Simmons deserves the bestseller status of King and Koontz.” ( The Denver Post)

“One can only wonder what Simmons will do next, now that he’s shown us he can do everything the best writers in horror and science fiction can do.” ( The Philadelphia Inquirer)

“It stands with the best of King and Straub in the traditional modern horror genre.” ( Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

A good prequel

I read "The Winter Haunting" which is the sequel to this book. On Goodreads it shoes these books as a trilogy called The Seasons of Horror, I cannot find these books grouped together as a trilogy anywhere else. After reading the reviews for the 2nd book in the trilogy called "The Children of the Night", I realized that not one of the reviewers spoke of this book or the 3rd, "The Winter calling". The first and the third do go together. The characters in this book are a group of friends when they are tweens and then in the third one, (Dale), one of the boys, returns to the town as an adult right before Halloween to do some writing in peace. Confusing? Yes.

Anyway, this was a good horror that starts with a blood curdling scream and the disappearance of a young man inside of a soon to be condemned school, the day before summer break is to start. When strange sightings and odd deaths start to follow a group of young buddies, they feel obligated and pressed by fear to take things into their own hands, especially when none of the adults will believe them, and/or will have them admitted to the crazy house.

Yes; scary, gross, ruthless Vampires are at the heart of the deaths. This is not a nice Vampire story and yes, people are horribly mudered. The tweens must come up with an idea of how to rid the town of these gruesome creatures. Their very different personalities help them to develope and execute an elaborate but believable plan that puts all of their lives in serious danger. They all know going into this dangerous situation that is neccesary for the safety of the town, themselves and their loved ones.

This book was a mix of "Stand by Me" and "Salems Lot". It was a good story and I liked it, however, I liked the next one, (The Winter Haunting), as well if not better, it was more of a ghost story and wicked, goosebump, good. Perfect for Halloween.

Reminds me a lot of a couple of Stephen King books

I don't know which was written first, but I'm guessing King's Bachman story "The Body" and then his early novel "It," one of my least-favorites of his. This book reminded me so much of both those stories that if it wasn't written by someone of Simmon's stature, I'd be wondering how much of it was truly original work. Just universal themes, most likely; boogeymen that come up from the ground, coming-of-age stories about a group of friends whose friendships are tested, as are their personal integrity, loyalty, etc. Since neither of these topics really grab me (for personal reasons), this isn't one of my favorite works by Dan Simmons, who I find to be a wonderful storyteller. I can't give anything of his lower than 4 stars, so that's why I scored him 4, instead of the 5 I usually give him.

Great story with excellent horror

Excellent story.

It is a long build so you have to trust and put in a couple hours in the beginning. But it's truly an exceptional horror novel and well worth a listen.

Very well done voice acting as well. The speaker did an excemplary job at creating different drawls for each character.

Trigger Warning: does use some racial and homophobic slurs and has descriptions of klan killings. due to its setting: the 1960s in rural Illinois.

Both comfortable and scary

You know, I haven’t read a lot of horror, outside Lovecraft, so my knowledge of the tropes is limited to what I’ve picked up. Certainly this isn’t the first (or last) “small town kids vs ancient evil” story there is; so I don’t know to comment on that. What I do know is that the characters were sympathetic (or not, where applicable) with depth (or not, where applicable) and life (or not, where applicable). I know that I enjoyed it, and I’ll be looking forward to reading the follow ups.

The narrator was fine; he didn’t harm the story, but neither did he really help it all that much. A couple of scenes weren’t as tense as they could’ve been because of the matter of fact narration.

Started as a slow burn, but when it picks up...

I have to hand it to Simmons, I liked that story more than It by Stephen King. That being said if you're looking for a story along the lines of of It or Stranger Things, look no further. I only just finished Summer of Night and I'm headed straight into the sequel.