The Strain

By: Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan

Narrated by: Ron Perlman

Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event.

They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come. In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country. In two months - the world.

A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.

In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing....

So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city - a city that includes his wife and son - before it is too late.

©2009 Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Painful to get through

I'll start off by saying Ron Perlman is an enjoyable and greatly versatile actor who can bring about wit like none can. As a narrator however, it took sheer willpower to get through the book. The monotone, lack of audible inflections, and annoying music snippets did not create an enjoyable listen.
The story itself had potential but, as fellow listeners noted, it quickly lost any depth and intrigue; becoming a run of the mill story with predictable directions.

Trouble suspending belief

I liked this book,liked the narrator. If I can find one fault it was that I had trouble suspending belief.

We have scores of dead people rising and yet the authorities remained dumb. We had evidence of an unusual behavior of Bacterium and yet the head of the CDC is unbelieving.

Takes way too long for the authorities to wise up to what is happening.

Not Bad

Not really a fan of this type of book but found this one to hold my interest.

A little bit of a "strain"

I enjoyed the story quite a bit, but two things were rather disappointing. First, the same stupid music that comes along sort of randomly and WAY TOO OFTEN. The second was the narrator, Ron Perlman. Although I enjoy him as an actor, his narration was one of the worst I have ever listened to.

I see that a lot of reviews talk about how good he was. I disagree. Naratives were monotonous. But more annoying were the dialogs -- I could not keep track of who was talking -- even when a man was talking with a woman.

As far as the story, it was well done. I thought the internal conflicts of the lead characters was very realistic -- imagine having your entire belief system -- what you have always believed to be true or false -- wiped out in an instant. I also liked the "explanation" of the vampires.

For the story, 4 stars, for the narration only 2 (I'd have given it only 1 if it had been anyone but Ron Perlman). So, overall I gave it 3.

Narrator brought the book to life

Ron Pearlman's bassy voice brought life to the book. He was easy to listen to, but I think the book is a 3/5 star in itself

Very Good Book

Love the book it was great! Second book should be just as good. Ron Perlman was GREAT!!!

Good- but has some problems

First, I got the free first chapter download which really hooked me! Excellent build up of suspense. However, the actual book gets a little boring because of the narration and the Horrible music that is blasted in between every chapter. This is "part one" of a triology and definitely has a different take on vampires from the other stories that are out right now. Even so, I probably won't buy the next two parts unless they change the narration and music.

Great listen

I loved this book. It is a keeper. I didn't find it slow at all. The narration was very well done. I really enjoyed the dialogue and the description by the authors. The only thing that was strange to me was the musical "interlude" between chapters. Can't wait for Part 2.

Disappointing

Started strong, with a fresh & intriguing slant on vampires. Unfortunately, once the groundwork was laid, no story followed. Just degenerated into good guys chasing bad guys, and good guys chasing bad guys, and .......

I want Ron Perlman to read to me from here on out!

Narrating was tremendous! Story will make me definitely finish the trilogy. I would recommend this to people that like things that are awesome.