Dan (2009) Paperback, Carrion Comfort by Simmons

DAN SIMMONS IS A MORE THAN COMPETENT WRITER WHO HAD A GOOD IDEA WITH THIS NOVEL: MIND VAMPIRES. IN SORT OF A MULTI-POINT OF VIEW NEWSPAPER STYLE SIMMONS TAKES US THROUGH THE STORY WITH THE EVIL PROTAGONISTS WINNING AT EVERY TURN. I COULD NOT GIVE IT FIVE STARS DUE TO ITS BEING TEDIOUS AND OVERLY LONG. HOWEVER, SIMMONS WAS AIMING TO GAIN CERTAIN RESPONSES FROM THE READER -- WHICH HE DID IF SAID READER COULD HOLD OUT 'TIL THE END. BUT ALL IN ALL A GOOD SUMMER READ.

I adored The Terror by Dan Simmons. Despite a few unbelievable scenes in The Terror, I was intrigued enough by it to cast my luck with another novel by Dan. Carrion Comfort by the back sounded like just the story. What I got was great writing and a disappointing story. The most interesting character was Melanie because she truly was psychopathic and horrible to those whom she Used. All the other characters, which are beautifully drawn, are completely unbelievable. The plotting is crazy; pacing irregular. The situations are preposterous and unreal and kept jarring me out of the reader's trance. I was thoroughly disgusted by this book, so much so that I haven't even finished the last 100 pages. As for people complaining the book is too long, I agree. Not because there are too many pages to turn, but because there are too many pages of a disappointing story.

I ordered this book specifically because there were so many glowing reviews and because it was so well-compared to so many books that I like (i.e., The Stand). Simmons is also a writer about whom I've heard good things.
I'm inclined to give Simmons the benefit of the doubt and try another one of his books, but if this were my only basis for judgement, I'd be extremely dubious.
First of all, I didn't care about the characters. And this despite Simmons using every emotional trick in the book to get me to care about them. We had a holocaust survivor, a determined young victim of racism who lost her father, a poor but honest local cop. It was almost ridiculous how many hackneyed tricks he pulled out the hat to try to get the readers to care about these people.
Second, the sense of timing in the book is very poor. Deaths occur at times that you can't care about them, there are long meandering plot sequences that are absolutely irrelevant. This might have been improved with some judicious cutting (this book certainly did not need to be 900 pages).
There *are* certainly some good elements in the book. I like how he played with your expectations about the villains. It's impressive that he managed to finish it at all given how sprawling the plot is.
Anyhow, like I said, I'll give Simmons another chance. But if I had to do it over again, I'd give this book a miss.

Highly recommended by a friend, I was intrigued by the concept. Unfortunately, the execution is flawed. Long passages of backstory are easily skipped through, but unrealistic characters, worse uninteresting, stock characters are more difficult to overlook. I am still struggling to finish it so that I can report back to my friend. sigh.

Stephen King labeled this work one of the three greatest horror stories of the 20th century. Really? Written by Dan Simmons, the reader knows to expect a veritable doorstop of a book and is not disappointed in this case.

As in most of Simmons's work, several hundred pages could likely have been eliminated with little or no loss to the underlying story. However, Simmons is so contemptuous of editors, that he writes a forward to this edition, in which he takes special pains to abuse and personally humiliate one of his first editors, a young woman with the gall to suggest that he shorten the length of this magnum opus.

The premise for the work is intriguing. There exists among us a special type of human being, with the ability to use and control other humans, invariably to advance their own nefarious and morally bankrupt plans. Many of the mass murders and senseless killings which plague society are the work of these people (think Holocaust, JFK assassination and John Lennon killing). Simmons labels these beings mind vampires (and includes the aforementioned editor in their number).

Much of this novel is spellbinding, intriguing and thought provoking. Sections are boring and interminably drawn out. Some of the characters are extremely annoying, most especially Charleston Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry. A more stereotypical, southern redneck you could not create. An example of some of his dialogue: "... he's as punctual as grandma's old clock. Regular as a cat full of prunes." Weeelllll dogggeeee!

But wait, Sheriff Bobby Joe is not what he appears. He is actually a highly intelligent, supremely educated, open minded, metrosexual (he cooks, he cleans, he dates black women in 1980 Charleston, South Carolina). It is just insultingly stupid. If he were so smart, he might realize that a southern Sheriff has no jurisdiction over a crime committed in Charleston. That would be the bailiwick of the Chief of Police. Sheriff Bobby Joe has one deputy. That's pretty thin staffing for a county the size he is supposedly looking after.

This novel has potential, and at times the potential is realized. Such times are hidden however within this vast bulk of a book that is filled with silliness (interminable chase and fight scenes where the good guys dodge hundreds of thousands of bullets, bombs and grenades which all seem to miss them "by less than an inch") that a good writer, in conjunction with a stern editor would ultimately weed out. That Simmons is so violently opposed to editing of his work does both him and his readers a disservice. I was ready for the book to end and still had over 200 pages left.

This is a real page-turner, for two reasons. One, the storyline is riveting. Two, the book is so bloated with overly-long scenes and dialog that I'm reading it as fast as I can turn the pages -- just skimming.

In a long, whiny introduction to the 20th anniversary edition, Simmons complains at length about his travails in first getting this published. He says that it was enormous but that his agent encouraged him. After said agent and publisher went bankrupt, the new publisher wanted to (gasp) edit it! I didn't read all the details of his complains -- this part needs editing, too -- but this is the gist of it.)

Well, someone should have edited this book to about 1/3 of what it is. Maybe 1/5. I'm reading it on Kindle so I don't know how many pages it is, but it's A LOT.

It's a good story weighed down with too many words. A scene that could have been a couple of pages goes on for pages and pages and pages. So skim it, get the story, skip the extra.

Again, Simmons has an interesting, and chilling, concept. It is always a pleasure to see how he works such ideas out, but this one became a tad long and a bit overdone. I still recommend it highly, if only for Dan Simmons' prose.

This is a tough one to review, story-characters-setting-etc.. All good. However, it is a long and often time a bit long winded. So it is a 2 star, but could be 4 if it were not so??? wordy... Had a hard time keeping on it due to getting bored of it.

I enjoyed this on audio format while driving to work everyday. The narrators who share the reading have done such a nice job. This is a big story and so clever, and the ending is so spooky. Dan's stories are always so good.

I like Dan Simmons and really enjoyed much of his other work such as the Hyperion books. Although some like his forays outside the realm of dark fantasy and science fiction, I came away from Carrion Comfort feeling like this just type of story just wasn't his bailiwick. Removed from his marvelous descriptive prose creating another world, Simmons' weakness writing dialogue becomes more prominent.

Carrion Comfort fails as a horror novel because it isn't scary and doesn't work as an action story because it's so implausible. The characters are an odd mix of diversity panel and vile aristocracy, none of whom resonate particularly well with the reader. The premise of the story centers around a mostly aristocratic cabal that possess a psychic Ability to control the mind and actions of others. This crew is so powerful, vile and nonsensical they defy reason. Opposing them are a motley collection of archetypes composed of a Holocaust survivor, an African-American photographer and an educationally overqualified southern sheriff. None of these three people have any resistance to the mind control of the powerful cabal. In addition, the one member of the cabal controls a vast private security apparatus as well the FBI and by extension, most local law enforcement. Is this starting to sound absurd yet?

Some readers may like Carrion Comfort. If you like the over-the-top supernatural thriller genre (Charles Strossi, for example), this book might be for you. I just expected more from Dan Simmons. The plot is convoluted, the characters are weak and unbelievable, and the story just doesn't grip. I found myself skipping over passages to get to the end and muttering things like "Okay. We get it. The villains are really, really racist." In my view, the worst Simmons novel I've read.

Author is master at weaving. I felt that the eased up a bit on te weaving towards the latter portion of the book. This book is quite good, I'd recomnded to anyone. It is a long book but who cares when it reads this well.

What?!?!

Is this the same Dan Simmons of Hyperion, Endymion, Ilium and Olympos? If you like Dan Simmons of those books, DO NOT read this one. The only reason I can think of why he would publish this is because he was more than half-way done and then figured it was best to finish it because he'd spent the time but it wasn't worth fixing. A real-let down. Not worth reading. Start's with a (very) marginally interesting idea and then just goes down hill. I'm now afraid to read his other stuff beyond the four shrike books and the Ilium duo.

Not another book about Nazis! This book is not up to Dan Simmons usual standards. I found the section featuring urban black characters to be offensive as it was written using accents while other characters, particularly white characters from the South, were written without accents.

The most frightening thing about this book is that it was released by a major publisher and is such a crappy read that it can barely hold onto four stars. Characters are one dimensional and predictable. This is not a classic this is something novel to line the bottom of a bird cage with.
LOTS of much better Indie horror out there!

I decided to read this after finishing Simmons' more recent novel, Drood, which I liked very much. Drood was my first reading by this author, who is pretty prolific, so I wasn't sure which novel of his to try next. Carrion Comfort sounded like a horror story involving psychic powers, which intrigued me, so I purchased it. The author's introduction explains that this was written early in his career, and details some interesting history about troubles with the editing and publishing of this novel. I found that interesting, but readers without any interest in the publishing world would likely not enjoy the intro.
Forging ahead to read the novel itself, I found that Carrion Comfort is indeed amateurish compared to Drood. Parts were very tedious while other segments were better. I really got bored with the middle of the book and had to force myself to slog through action scenes that just felt aimless to me. However, I'm not a fan of action thrillers anyway, so someone else might find those parts easier to read.
My favorite parts of this book were the segments written from the point of view of the psychic character named Melanie. Although she's unlikable, her view point felt very authentic. The ending of this novel was not bad, with a satisfying conclusion that tied up the loose ends. The plot is ambitious, with a lot of characters and a wide scope, and I could see foreshadowing of certain elements that the author re-imagined when he wrote Drood, which is much more polished and fascinating a story -- also much more literary.
Carrion Comfort (a bad title in my opinion) is not really a horror story, but more of an action thriller with psychic powers thrown into the mix. Readers who like studying an author's development may enjoy it on that level, and readers of action thrillers may like it. But if you want literary elegance, you probably will find this rather "clunky." Simmons is an excellent writer now, but this early work of his shows how far his skills have come. I recommend reading Drood instead of this, if you've never read anything by Simmons.

This is one of those rare door-stopper novels that comes along where the ambition is just as big as the book itself. Simmons takes a concept similar to vampirism and creates something truly unique and frightening--and more, makes it plausible.

The scope is immense, the narrative structure perfect, and the characters complex and believable. There are flaws, most stemming from Simmons' tendency for over description, but it's hard to fault a novel that reaches so high so successfully.

After first reading THE TERROR, then SUMMER OF NIGHT, and now CARRION COMFORT, I can honestly say that I am a huge Dan Simmons fan. The man writes horror like no one else, and that is because he is able to take the genre and expertly mash it up with others, giving us something truly special. THE TERROR has elements of historical fiction and the best of Jack London in it, while SUMMER OF NIGHT taps into Baby Boomer nostalgia as good as anything Stephen King has written, along with being a great coming of age in a small town story. But CARRION COMFORT is nothing like those first two, making it plain that Simmons is a truly versatile writer, and a master of many subjects.

CARRION COMFORT is Simmons’ epic take on vampires, and I do mean epic, as my paperback copy clocks in at 767 pages. There are no fanged bloodsuckers to be found anywhere on those pages, instead, Simmons gives us his own take on them, his creatures of the night have no problem walking in the day, and instead of blood, these are vampires who feed on the minds of others, stealing their thoughts, emotions, and personalities, ultimately hollowing them out completely and taking control of their bodies. This is often portrayed in horrifying detail, although there is little real gore. And like true vampires, they are very long lived, becoming cold and cruel, utterly incapable of empathy on any level. They are among the most truly evil villains I have ever encountered in any piece of fiction, and as all of us horror fans know, if the author gets the bad guys right, half his work is done.

As I noted, CARRION COMFORT is a long book and sprawling book, with a large cast of characters, with the action jumping to multiple locations. Though some reviewers have complained about the length, I am one of those readers who crave the deep dive into character and plot, and as there is a lot of action, and many POV’s from interesting characters, for me, the story never seemed to drag. Simmons begins his novel in a Nazi concentration camp in the waning days of World War II, where a protagonist and antagonist is introduced, and then jumping the story ahead to the year 1980, where the main action takes place as a meeting of a secret society of these mind vampires, or Users, takes a bad turn, resulting in some major carnage, and putting an unlikely trio of heroes on a mission of revenge against an enemy a million times more powerful than themselves. Though the good guys get a lot of space, this is one book where we really get to know the villains well. One of the Users, Melanie Fuller, is given the singular honor of having a first person POV, and the result is that the reader is treated like one of the Users themselves, as Melanie calmly explains herself, and the atrocities she inflicts upon the truly innocent, as though she is confiding in her own kind. It is a great technique to draw us into the story. On the other side, no book could have a better hero than Saul Laski, a Jewish survivor of the Nazi horrors who has never given up on finding the User who tormented him in the camps. We also meet a young black woman determined to avenge her father; a good old boy Southern sheriff who is anything but a caricature; a sleazy Hollywood producer who literally uses women; a deputy director of the FBI who is anything but a public servant; a Washington power broker whose real power is a horrific secret, and then there is the Oberst, a sadist with delusions of grandeur, capable of putting his former Nazi cohorts to shame. There is a rich cast of supporting characters, some good, some bad, some just victims in the wrong place at the wrong time, as this book does have a high body count by the end.

CARRION COMFORT was written in the 80’s, and published in 1989, and one can see some of that decades cultural touchstones in the novel, as it as more shoot outs and action scenes, involving semi and automatic weapons, helicopters, fancy sports cars, and explosions than a Schwarzenegger movie. One character is clearly modeled on some of that decade’s more prominent, and shameless, TV televangelists. Simmons does manage to avoid getting bogged down in info dumps or unnecessarily long scenes where back story is inserted; his writing is cramped with detail – he paints a picture well – but for the most part, you always feel like the story is going somewhere.

Of particular interest to aspiring, or even successful writers, is the introduction Simmons included in my edition, where he relates his early struggles as a writer to get CARRION COMFORT completed while still holding down a job as a school teacher, along with the subsequent battle with an editor at a major publishing house, one that ended with him buying back his own book rather than put up with this person’s abuse anymore. It is no doubt some score settling, but it is also an interesting look at the creative process and the machinations of the publishing business.

CARRION COMFORT is a book that should be read by every lover of good horror fiction, yet I think far too few have ever heard of it, which is a shame. It takes an original approach to an old horror trope, and the best thing I can say about is that you never are sure which way the story is going on any given page. We are always wondering what will happen next, and for me, that is the highest praise I can give a book. It is what makes it such a page turner despite its length. And what a movie it would make in the right hands, I would love to see what David Cronenberg could do with it, or even Steven Spielberg. I’m sure it would turn out better than READY PLAYER ONE. May I suggest Richard Dreyfuss as Saul and Jessica Lange as Melanie.

This book is an epic classic. Though built upon the “trashier” genres of horror, suspense, action and the political/conspiracy thriller, its unique fusion of elements and styles is most definitely a towering achievement in literature. I’ve rarely read a book that successfully covers so much scope in terms of character, story, geography and time. Certainly many books try to do as much, but often suffer from bland characters, uneven subplots, dire exposition and poor pacing. It’s as if books this long feel compelled to go out of their way to fill so many pages, a misguided mentality that bigger means better.

But this novel does not suffer from the usual symptoms and culprits of mismanaged blockbusters. Spreading a wide net of characters with various allegiances and motives, the book gamely builds their relationships and conflicts to a successful climax. The final portion of the book nearly resembles a caper/heist, whereas multiple characters are all vying for final victory with beautifully concealed agendas and complex strategies. While I have never read the “Game of Thrones” books, I definitely see many similarities to the television show: adult presentation of a complicated power struggle with many shocking and graphic twists in the far-sweeping narrative.

I cannot enthuse enough about the perfectly crafted suspense of the writing. Author Simmons has always been a master of timing and framing with his mystery and action scenes. This book too has multiple sequences that are unforgettable classics in their ability to engage the reader with nail-biting dread and curiosity. Seeing as how the story skillfully hides the various players’ emotions, thoughts and tactics leading up to their collisions, it’s nothing short of remarkable how the author then spins these impossible situations into their shocking consequences.

What finally elevates this book from riveting entertainment into the higher strata of literary masterpiece is its deft exploration of a multitude of complex ideas and themes. Ranging in time from the Holocaust to Reagan’s America, and with a host of skillfully developed and nuanced characters, the book intelligently examines concepts like revenge, power, morality, love, class and race without ever becoming dull or pedantic.

Personally, I found this book to be so majestically awesome that I purposefully rationed its reading. Never wanting it to end, I read other books simultaneously to savor every moment I had with this one, and to delay its ending. This is the highest praise I can pay a novel, and this is an all-time favorite.

Dan Simmons caught me by surprise at first, impressing me a great deal with his frightening, entertaining abilities at freaking me out Very nicely with Summer of Night, and revealing more genuine capability of instilling an ever escalating fearful sense of Dread with each book I would successively read from the highly disturbing Carrion Comfort, finally causing me genuine alarm, shock, and hopefully No Lasting emotional scars or genuinely panic-laden thoughts of how much I’ve, at times, feared that I finally opened my Self’s Own vulnerability to the written word’s “Negative Potential,” in the hands of a writer like Dan Simmons, to unleash “true,” or “real” mental/emotional harm I previously had no inkling a novel—and it’s easily the man’s Shortest...and his Debut, for God’s sake!—such as Song of Kali can/could/whatever—idk, I need someone to inform ME—inflict on an unsuspecting reader. But then, I’m doubtful the “most hardened,” or “steely-nerved” of most fans of the Horror genre is even capable of “Being Aware” that a Book quite like Song of Kali is even “Out There” and capable of causing such Considerably powerful effects in store for those crazy enough to seek “enjoyment”—like I, myself, was—from what, in fact, is an instrument of conveying Dan Simmons’ own—Imagined, or “Imagined”—Evil. I’m telling you, this man is not Right...LOL
-todd gold

It was recommended that I read Carrion Comfort when I was looking a horror genre book to round out my October reading list. The book describes itself as being about "mind vampires" which was a bit of a turn-off as vampires and zombies are feeling kind of over done to me right now. None the less I checked out a copy and took on the nearly 800 pages. I'm really glad I did.

This book has a lot going for it. The story manages to tie itself into a version of the real world of the 1980's without feeling like it stretches too far or gives up too much.The characters are compelling, I found myself cheering for the protagonist and uneasy when dealing with the antagonistic. Finally the book makes great use of unreliable narrators, even when using the third person perspective. Realizing that this was Dan Simmons'es freshman offering is pretty amazing.

The book is decently long however I rarely felt bogged down by the length. There are three major set action pieces, the second was the only one that I found myself wishing to urge along. I did have some minor trouble dealing with Saul being the age he had to be to be a concentration camp survivor but also the occasional action figure he had to be to make the story work. Finally, I felt the conclusion tied up a hair more neatly than I felt was reasonable. Given the scale of the danger our heroes faced, I was surprised Simmons gave them the number of breaks he did.

All in all this is an excellent book. My gripes are very specific and minor but the things I praise fill the book and make it worth reading.

Dan Simmons' novel is science fiction because some of its characters have an unusual ability to invade, control, and destroy other people's minds. It is horror because of how most of them use this power. Readers will anticipate some of these manipulations, recognize others as understandable extensions of everyday evils, and certainly be horrified by new evils from the author's able imagination.

Simmons' "mind vampires" hide in our society, controlling financial transactions, government policy, and media events from behind the scenes. Some play games to see how many people they can force to kill each other. Some aspire to more expansive versions of these games involving armies or entire countries. They have their feuds and disagreements with each other, too. Some are friendly; some are fatal.

In this story a group of the mind vampires is hunted by an unusual trio of ordinary human beings. Bobby Joe Gentry is a South Carolina sheriff trying to solve a series of seemingly random murders. Natalie Preston is looking for an explanation for her father's murder--and for his killer. Saul Laski is a psychiatrist, expert on violent behavior, and a WWII concentration camp survivor. Having encountered mind vampires operating in the Third Reich, only Saul begins the hunt with a clear idea of what the three are pursuing.

The story is good. Both the strengths and limitations of the mind vampires' "Ability" are addressed plausibly. Some interesting differences emerge in how the Ability is used to serve different, but equally selfish goals. The existence of "neutrals" who are unaffected by the Ability is a necessary plot device. But it is used with restraint, allowing the main struggle to occur between the mind vampires and ordinary, determined human beings.

One key criticism: the story is too long. There is a plodding feel to it with lots of travel, restaurant, and hotel scenes that do not seem to advance the plot. Fortunately, a short story version is available that contains most of the interesting ideas and plot twists as the full novel. It can be found in Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection. I strongly recommend reading it instead.

Many have complained about the length, number of complications, and apparent need for editing in CARRION COMFORT. I too was a little ambivalent before I began reading: It just didn't look all that exciting, and there aren't many 7/800-pagers that can hold my attention till the end. All I know is that CARRION COMFORT kept me firmly in its grip, and I was sorry to see it end after finishing it in 3-4 days(fast for me).

It's a grim book all right, but stylistically speaking, Simmons is in top-shape here. The prose is fluent yet straightforward, mature, detailed, and blessedly lacking in the sensationalistic "thriller" language that mars some of his other novels. An interesting, horrifying, yet believable cast of characters, with very smooth transitions between 1942 (Saul Laski as a concentration camp inmate) and 1980 (Saul Laski confronting the various "mind vampires" who control many world governments and enterprises). This may reek of "New World Order" conspiracy nut-stuff, but it's all related in such intelligently detailed terms that it should be no problem for willing readers to suspend their disbelief. Some unlikelihoods and far-out situations, but no more than one should expect from a novel with this subject matter.

Although classified as a "horror" novel, CARRION COMFORT should also appeal to just about anyone who enjoys suspense, international intrigue, and/or science fiction of the "inner space" variety. Demented and powerful as they may be, the "monsters" here are of an ultimately human variety, the type that usually inhabit Simmons's strongest novels.

Dan Simmons is truly my favorite author, and his classic Carrion Comfort puts him with the literary giants not only of the 20th Century, but also of all time.
The grandiose novel is about mind vampires. They have an ability to use others for their will. One of these is the Oberst, a player in the Final Solution implemented by the Nazis towards the end of WWII. The main protagonist is a holocaust survivor, Saul Laski. Over four decades, he has discovered there are many of these mind vampires. In fact, some of them, including Oberst have formed a secret society in which they play games. That is focused on how many people they can control and kill them. One of them is Melanie Fuller, an old lady who has little scruples about using her ability for her own gain. She is selfish, bigoted, and hateful. She uses people to feed her own ego, and her own ability.
There are some other Mind Vampires, most notably Tony Harrod, a B-movie maker who sees women as nothing more than objects to fulfill his own selfish, adolescent desires. He uses his ability to have his way with women. One of his associates, is a manipulative television preacher, Rev. Sutter. He justifies his mind games by giving them "faith," but more so by them giving him money.
Saul, though, is after Oberst. He wants to stop this group from using people for their own gain. He recruits the help of Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry and the young Nina Drayton. They figure out how their ability works, and possibly how to fight it.
In fact, it eventually leads them to an island where the vampires engage in a bizarre ritual of chess playing with human pawns, and killing them in a vicious and frightening manner. At the same time, Melanie Fuller suffers from a stroke, which leads her to find out she can use her ability in a grander fashion than she ever thought of.
I will get a few grips out of the way first. The most prominent flaw is Simmons use of "explosions" to solve the problems much like a Jerry Bruckheimer film. Moreover, the vampires have a secret syndicate capable flying black helicopters to find those who oppose them. Sorry, I hate elaborate, far-fetching conspiracies. Finally, the book drags a little in the middle.
However, Simmons makes up for it with his fantastic prose, outstanding imagery, great story development, pacing, and lacing the multiple story lines together. This one had me hooked pretty much all the way through.
It really picks up in the last 150 pages as the protagonists draw closer to the vampire syndicate. In fact, the most startling, bizarre, and frightening moments occur when Nina confront the bedridden Melanie. I could literally see the "marionettes" or people that Melanie controlled in a bizarre and macabre fashion. The prose is literally frightening - much like Stephen King's Pet Sematary.
This is truly one of the best novels I have read in my entire life. Dan Simmons is truly an outstanding master of horror.

There was great potential and the writing is quite good. However the potential I felt was squandered, and the characters eventually ran dry to me to a point I wasn't really too worried if they'd die or not. The idea is less 'mind vampires' to me than people that can randomly drive others to heinous violence. In the beginning of the book this was really well done, with parts truly sending chills down my spine. But eventually a rhythm was set so you basically could tell when someone was going to become 'possessed', making the villains less omnipresent and the tension less through out the book.

Now I didn't finish the book, I got to two thirds of it and that's why im giving it three instead of two stars. Speaking of length, it is very long. So long it begins to drag, and I quite because, without much relation to the characters, there wasn't much promise to what would come next other than the typical epic-final-confrontation. There might be mysteries in the last third, but I didn't pick up on them.

Also there is a bit of a spy element to the book which sort of takes it out for me. It makes things feel a bit shark jumpish, not exactly right for the book the writers trying to go for. Then there is the common mistake where the villains are actually more interesting than the heroes, and in fact I got annoyed at the stereotypical roles of some of the heroes, especially the female who seemed to be in that typical role of 'strong female who still becomes a damsel in distress'.

There where great themes in the book about racism and violence in mankind, but though their alluded to and mentioned their never expanded nor delved into. More or less their framework, and like most of the things I found in this book, became less and less important the further I read on.

In the end this was an entertaining book that didn't have enough content to justify it's length hold itself to something deeper, though it gave itself plenty of opportunity to do so.

PS. A book I really liked by Dan Simmon's was Drood. Though not as quick to start this book's rather comedic narrative, part historical fiction, part biography and part horror struck all the fascination in me to make me Want to spend time with it. Also, its about Charles Dickson and a Serial Killer, I mean what could go wrong there?

I looked forward to reading this book after reading Simmons' book The Song of Kali. With both books Simmons seems to make the terror from something that could be real. For me, those types of books disturb me to the point that it keeps me up late at night and has me thinking about it months later. I love it! In Song of Kali, it did just that but for Carrion Comfort, I'm afraid it fell short. I think this could've been a great story but unfortunately, it was way too long. I don't mind a thick book but I want meat and potatoes in there not just fluffy filler. I found my mind wandering quite often while reading. It just did not hold my attention throughout a good portion. There were some really good parts, some awesome characters and a cool twist on the "vampire" but the long stretches throughout kind of ruined it for me.

I reread this book because I do respect the author and had forgotten it but for one aspect: a crucial part of the action occurs in my old neighborhood in Germantown, Pa. I recognized all of the allusions to place, especially the colonial townhouse Grumblethorpe. This time I found it rather slow-going, as Simmons is a writer who explains every object, plan, bit of research in detail. He's good, he's conscientious, but we're talking about 900 pages here. I loved the character of Melanie Fuller, a wizened, helpless moribund who has an unbeatable mental ability to impose her will and adjust her perception of reality to conform to it. One major objection (spoiler) is the early disposal of Bob Gentry, a very likeable hero who deserved survival. Someone mentioned young horror writers who have talent: keep your eye on Christopher Beuhlman, a very hip wordsmith who finds fresh blood in the vampire trope. He has also managed a convincing medieval horror called Between Two Fires, which is terrifying, historically literate, and moving. Highly recommended.

Nearly 1000 pages long, and I was never bored. In fact, I was frequently riveted. That's quite an impressive feat, nicht wahr?

So basically there are these people, who have this Ability that allows them to take control of other people, mind and body. Some of these Able people-- powerful men-- hold a little summer camp every year; much like Bohemian Grove, I would think. There are games there-- deadly games. But not everyone capable of playing has been let in to this elite club. Well, that might soon change.

Then there are the good guys. And they're pizzed off, for various reasons, as their lives have been touched by these monsters and their evil ways.

The battle is truly epic. The action is intense. What are you waiting for, buy this book!

Quick review:

What you won't find: a coherent story, any sense of narrative, subtlety, or anything else that makes a good read.

What you will find: a lot of words, one-dimensional characters, racist stereotypes, awful dialogue, questionable changes in tone - and did I mention a lot of words?

Seriously, you know its going to be bad when the author includes a thirty page introduction describing how he balked at his publisher's request that he shorten the book to a reasonable length. THIRTY pages to defend himself against the accusation of overwriting. Simmons is indignant at the publisher's suggestion, and holds firm until he finds a publisher who, unfortunately for us, published this beast without any changes. What he didn't realize was that the publishers were trying to say, "There's a good 300 page book here, but you've written an 800 page book." Poor readers. Plodding through this morass of book reminds me of being at a cocktail party where someone takes forty minutes to tell a story that you didn't want to hear in the first place. The irony is that this book began as a short story.

Simmons takes thousands of words to describe things that are irrelevant to the story. If a character drives to the airport in this story, you'll hear about every road they take, every thing they see on the way, and what was playing on the radio, and the personal lives of the DJs that were on the radio and what their houses looked like. So much of an author's skill is in knowing what to OMIT, and here Simmons fails so miserably that at times I literally cried out in anguish.

Then there's the plot. It may be an interesting premise, but in this authors hands, it's page upon page of drab, relentless disaster.

SPOILER ALERT: The premise involves a group of people that can control the minds and bodies of other people with their minds. There are rules (sometimes): these "controllers" have to be within sight of the person, they have to know the person, they can only control one at a time, etc. At one point, just to get out of a tricky plot situation, Simmons just abandons those rules. You know - the rules he spent 600 pages of mindless exposition on. Suddenly the "controllers" can control anyone they want! And as many as they want! And they don't have to see them! And at any distance. Too bad we couldn't have controlled Simmons' from creating this bloat. Many, many trees would still be alive and grateful.

On of the bad guys (a Nazi officer!) toys with one of the good guys (a Jew) for forty years. Each time he can kill him, he decides not to, and Simmons gives no character motivation or reason. The Nazi just "likes a game of cat and mouse". Really? I like "plot resolution".

And please don't make your readers slog through 700 pages just to have 80% the main characters arbitrarily (and uninterestingly) killed within three pages.
END SPOILER

The racial stereotyping in the dialogue is also a horror to behold. White horror authors should not try to imitate how black urban kids talk, ever. It comes off so poorly, I winced. Simmons doesn't limit his crap dialog just to the black guys, though, so maybe it shouldn't be described as racist. Example: a person saying, "Those terrrorists have never done me any harm" is written as "Those terrorists've never done me any harm". Ugh. Terrorists've? Come on.

All of this adds up to disrespect for the reader, especially the disregarding of "rules" and the overwriting. Yes, there are many horrors to behold in this book: none of them are intentional.

(To the author: I love your other stuff, I know this was your first book, but I just couldn't stand it)

How horrifying would it be to find someone else in that most intimate of "places," your own mind, using you as a marionette, steering you to commit senseless acts of violence as an absolutely helpless pawn in their sociopathic schemes? That is the central, chillingly effective premise of the epic second novel by award-winning author Dan Simmons. Ranging from a concentration camp in Nazi-controlled Poland to the genteel Southern city of Charleston, South Carolina, to the racially charged streets of Philadelphia to a private island off the Atlantic coast, this near-900-page chiller deftly covers an equally extensive expanse of literary territory, including elements of science fiction, supernatural horror, psychological thriller, and international espionage.

If I could summarize the plot in one paragraph, it would be as follows. Our world is populated by a vanishingly small population of psychic "vampires," individuals who can enter the mind of others to control their thoughts and actions. These creatures are sociopaths, amoral monsters who casually foment violence, commit mental and physical rape, and destroy lives in order to play their "games." Three such vampires, old colleagues in sociopathology, have decided to end their decades-long game with one another by attempting mutual homicide, using (of course) innocent bystanders as their weapons. The resulting mass murder brings together our protagonists---a psychiatrist and survivor of the Chelmno death camp, a young black college student whose father was a victim of the vampires, and a Southern sheriff whose demeanor belies a keen intelligence. Over the course of 850+ pages, these characters uncover a sinister cabal of "vampires" whose games seem to be leading toward the ultimate finale---destruction of the world itself.

At almost 900 pages (have I mentioned how long the book is?), *Carrion Comfort* could be a daunting, even boring, read in the hands of a lesser talent, and yet Dan Simmons is able to pull it off with aplomb. His use of various side characters, subplots, multiple points of view, and unexpected twists, along with an ever-climbing bodycount of innocent puppets, keeps the readers interest through the very last page. Most chilling, perhaps, are the first-person musings of Miz Melanie Fuller, a Southern belle "vampire" whose obsessions with scripture, race, and propriety exist side-by-side with her callous disregard for the lives of all the pawns she uses and discards.

I had the opportunity to do dinner with Dan Simmons a decade ago and found him to be a charming man with a warm, open manner. It amazes me that a story so profoundly dark and chilling could come from a person so engaging. I guess that goes to show that Simmons is great at what he does. Whether writing award-winning fantasy, horror, science fiction, or thrillers, he always seems to be at the top of his game, and *Carrion Comfort* is no exception.

I almost did not read this. Mind vampires seemed a bit much for me. However, this is a huge book and I don't just mean its almost 900 pages.Others give the plot summary. It may be a bit unbelievable but it is amazing in its sweep. Superb writing, great characters, rich with descriptive detail. Its a harrowing book, full of misery and likely to colour your dreams. Sad and weird. A blend of Alice and Wonderland, vampire zombies and Damian. It could be shorter and the kindle version I read had annoyingly poor editing. But I did not reduce the stars because this book really is "wow!". I cannot really do a description justice because it is different to anything I ever read before. Enjoy.

Everyone has had once this phantasm or dream : to be able to control others to make them do everything we want them to do. This phantasm is generally produced by a sexual pulsion or aggressivity ; who could say that he hasn't mentally murdered a rather important number of people in his life ? At least, not I.
The heroes of Dan Simmons's CARRION COMFORT do have this power. And not during their sleep. They really do what you have always dreamt to do. Without an ounce of shame or guiltiness because it appears that they haven't read Sigmund Freud's THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS !
But Willy, Nina and Melanie are quickly bored by their first essays and are now attracted and blinded by the power conferred to them by their gift. Then begins the Game.
The first part of CARRION COMFORT is really scary with the description of the mind manipulations invented by these new vampires. The uneasiness you're about to feel is aggravated by the fact that Dan Simmons chose to present, every 50 pages, the point of view of Melanie, one of the actors of the game. Through these pages, you will feel like entering the mind of a psychopath ; every murder committed by the old lady is justified by numerous reasons Melanie exposes patiently to the hypnotized reader. Soon, you are going to pray for the chapter to end so that you can return to the objective point of view of the good heroes of CARRION COMFORT.
The second part of the book was, in my opinion, not at the level of the first part, Dan Simmons using too many pages to give scientific explanations in order to give CARRION COMFORT the status of a violent thriller rather than a fantastic book.
Anyway, I warmly recommend this 900 pages production.

This book is a very ambitious undertaking, with a very
original premise. Taking the lore of the vampire a step
further, into the mental stage. This book centers on people
that can control others, like a puppet, through their minds,
becoming "rejuvenated" through Using another person, partic-
ularly for murder. The storyline revolves around three main
"vampires", and a man that has set out to stop them. There
is a vaguely "X-files" touch to this, as many of the upper
level members of the government are also "Users". Very
entertaining book, although, some people may be daunted by
it's size (a little less than 900 pages), it is a fast
read, and the last 100 pages are in the "I-can't-put-this-
down" category. Well worth the money spent, I recommend
this book wholeheartedly to any and all fans of horror/
thrillers. In fact, I recommend just about anything written
by Dan Simmons, he is a well kept secret in today's better
authors.

Dan Simmons spoiled me. Brutally. My introduction to this accomplished writer was his masterpiece The Terror, a brilliant and breathtaking horror spectacle. When it comes to true page-turning epics, 'The Terror' is about as good as it gets, bar none. Which is why I'm eternally grateful I wasn't introduced to Simmons via his superfluous flop CARRION COMFORT; had that been the case, I would have run (screaming) from any other Simmons titles. I read CARRION COMFORT, every agonizing page, and each time I picked up this (incredibly long) yarn, I shuddered with dread; what would be the next utterly nonsensical scene in a story run amuck about 'mind vampires'? When would be the next time I would squirm uncomfortably from unimaginative, contrived stereotypes, meaningless subplots, laugh-out-loud 'jive' talk, over the top racism, and another massive, unsuccessful suspension of disbelief? Um, that would be on the next half dozen pages, please. Incidentally, Simmons's premise via this novel is that all the unspeakable atrocities of mankind are the byproducts of evil mind vampires manipulating the innocent minds of hayseeds the vampires are 'Using'. The Holocaust? The assassination of John Lennon? Assassination attempt of Reagan? A couple of bored mind vampires trying to pass the time. Who knew?

I can't begin to describe my complete and utter disappointment with this book. It's an 800-page yawner in desperate need of a skilled editor and a meticulous copy editor (the typos are absolutely mind boggling). It's an overblown clunker polluted with asinine, lame subplots (the Tony Harod and over-baked Reverend Jimmy Wayne Sutter threads serving as People's Exhibits A and B). It's a hopelessly banal compilation of contrived and cliche-ridden stereotypes, ranging from a group of gang bangers in the ghettos of Philadelphia (smile when you say that, honkey!); to an overweight, Andy Griffith drawling southern sheriff; to a beleaguered, tormented, anguished, Holocaust survivor (who happens to be a psychiatrist, surprise, surprise). What puzzles me is all the hype this novel garnered from the horror genre community, including Stephen King himself; all I can figure is it was the cashing in of several overdue IOU's. One positive, at least, from plowing through this meandering, uneven, silly trog: the sense of complete relief I experienced when I finished the last page, closed the book, and put it back on the shelf is akin to the thrill up his leg Chris Matthews experiences when he hears Obama speak. And I'm still grinning.
--D. Mikels, Esq.

Dan Simmons has fascinated me for nearly twenty years now. I've read all his stuff from the Hardcore Sci-Fi of Hyperion and Endymion to the out-and-out horror of Summer Of Night to the Crime Drama of the Joe Kurtz novels. I even loved genre-spanning Lovedeath and the Historical Thriller The Crook Factory. Worlds Enough & Time? Sure. Why not. It takes me back to think about when I first read Carrion Comfort and was still getting to know Dan Simmons.

Take a small group of "Mind Vampires" who play the game of life and death with their victims for the sheer sport of it, throw in some Nazi concentration camp scenes and a whole lot of Charleston and you have the smallest part of the gist of Carrion Comfort. A sprawling novel, filled with twists and turns and strange goings-on. Dark and deep and historically correct (that is a Dan Simmons trademark) Carrion Comfort rocks. Is it as good as the shocking perfection of The Song Of Kali? No. Is it as creepy as Summer Of Night? No. Does it rock? Yes. Carrion Comfort is Dan Simmons second novel and it is one of the stepping stones in an already illustrious career. Horror is the genre that Simmons chooses this time around and Carrion Comfort holds us spellbound.

Dig it.

This novel had some very good parts and at points, I couldn't put the book down. Other parts felt disconnected and often had my interest waning.

This book is prefaced with a foreward by Mr. Simmons, providing background of the novels origination and the trials he endured until publication. Contained in this foreward is the undressing of an editor that wanted to make the story more concise and critiqued certain story lines within the book. While I agree with the author, that the sections of the story she wanted removed were crucial to the storyline, I side with the editor in the overall premise.

**Spoilers**
There are certain parts of this story that I found captivating. The history between Saul Laski and his intermittent, Nazi antagonist, Von Borchert, were the best parts of the story. Certain parts seemed completely irrelevant and seemed placed just to set up the climactic ending. Had Simmons stuck to the Laski/Von Borchert line and not interwoven other components to comprise the overall master story line, that the Nazi was setting up the grandest staging of a chess match to end all chess matches, well, then the story would have flowed. Instead, an extended story involving a contrived gang war in Philadelphia, told in first person by another villain, added nothing but absurdness to an otherwise tight storyline. In fact, the dedication to the character Melanie seems so unnecessary, now that I have finished the book.

I rate this book mediocre. I wouldn't reread it. I hope that serves as sufficient advise on this one.

Carrion Comfort is a difficult book to review for two reasons.

The first is that is, essentially, an interesting bit of genre fiction [award winning as matter of fact...for details see the book's Wikipedia page].

The second is that it is hopelessly bloated. At 896 pages [mass market format] it is much, much longer than was necessary for the amount of narrative available. 300 or 400 hundred pages could have been trimmed and it would have been a better book.

The mind vampires are a bit hokey, but fun for all that. Vampires have been an exhausted trope since the '80s, but readers still flock to these books, so I can see why they are still produced.

'Comfort' is also difficult to read because the portrayal of the African American gang members is little more than a cliché of human beings; because of this the charge of unconscious racism [at the very least, cultural insensitivity] might be levelled at Mr. Simmons. It wasn't intentional, but it seems to be there.

Another character problem is the portrayal of the Southerner, Melanie Fuller. Ms. Fuller is just another example of Northerners attempting to distance themselves from the shared heritage of slavery [Simmons was born in Illinois]. Melanie is so violently racist it makes it difficult to sympathize with her or to view her as more than a wholly wicked construct and, because of this, not real on any level.

The character of Saul, the Jews, and Israelis [there is something of a distinction here] are also hard to believe, as innocent victims -- personally and historically, because of the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. It may be that the West has exhausted its sympathies for the Jewish people, referencing the Holocaust, because of their treatment of the Palestinians [the Rape of Palestine; the expulsion of the Palestinians after the 'War of Independence', and the Cultural Genocide which followed]. All of this was painfully obvious back in the '80s when this book was written. So, it is difficult for many in the West, I believe, to be sympathetic with the Israelis and, by extension, the Jewish communities about the globe.

The above was difficult to write because the Holocaust was horrific and there is much Western guilt about this which continues to nag at Westerns...but there are the contemporary evils perpetrated by Israel which seems to have exhausted their moral authority...long, long since.

Because of the above I have only given this book a lower rating.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mild Recommendation, with a warning that it is a very long book with endless sub-plots and asides -- some of the latter could have been books by themselves.