# The Fall by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan



## Werthead (Sep 26, 2010)

The attempts  by Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, Abraham Setrakian and their various allies  to stop the vampires from spreading across New York City have failed,  and the city is now falling into darkness. The plans of the evil  'Master' and his pawn Eldritch Palmer are becoming clearer, spelling  doom not just for humanity but for those vampire clans opposed to the  Master's will. With little choice, Setrakian forges an alliance of  convenience with his ancient enemies to bring down their mutual foe.

The  Fall is the sequel to last year's well-received The Strain and the  middle volume of a trilogy (the finale, Eternal Night, is due late next  year). Conceived and developed for television by Guillermo del Toro (the  director of Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy series) before he decided  to retask it is a literary project, the book mixes his trademark action  sequences and visual imagery with co-writer Chuck Hogan's thriller  sensibilities, resulting in another tight and fast-moving novel.

This  is not high literature, but The Fall remains a well-paced and  action-packed read. This is much more of an undemanding airport novel  than say Justin Cronin's more weighty The Passage, but there are some  nice horror flourishes in the book, most notably the twisted  relationship between the newly-turned vampires and their 'Dear Ones',  their loved ones in life whom they are driven to turn above all others.  There are other, deeper moments of characterisation (particularly  revelations about Setrakian's history) but this is a book more about the  action than deep and meaningful characters and themes. It succeeds in  its aims, but as such risks being a fun but forgettable book,  particularly when the corn starts kicking in (the feuding criminal gangs  of NYC joining forces to become elite vampire-killers is ridiculous but  also fun to read). There is a strong cliffhanger ending, however, where  the stakes and scale of the story are ramped up to new and more  impressive levels.

The Fall (***½) lacks the growing sense of  horror of the first volume in the trilogy, with much more emphasis on  action. It's a fast-moving story, but I can't help feeling that del Toro  would have made much more of this story if he was in Pan's Labyrinth  mode rather than Hellboy. As such it's fun, but lacks depth. The novel  is available now in the UK and US.


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## highscorewins (Nov 15, 2010)

The story is not good at all


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