The Harvest

"The Harvest" by Scott Nicholson is a fun read and would be the perfect beach book. He creates an intergalactic crisis centered in small-town America. The "tainted" individuals function like zombies incorporating that genre as well. What really shines is Nicholson's powers of description. The various incarnations of the alien made me shiver like stepping barefoot into doggie poo. This feels like a cross between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Blob. Horror fans will delight.

The Harvest was a well-constructed book. I quite liked Scott's writing style and the images he brought to life throughout his writing. What I didn't get into was the storyline. Don't get me wrong, I like aliens, I love sci-fi and fantasy novels of all types, but there was something that just didn't quite work for me with The Harvest.

I found that there were too many different characters and I struggled to keep them all straight in my mind (often getting part way through the section only to realise this was Nettie, not Peggy he was talking about). I would have liked less characters (even though I thought they all added something to the story) or perhaps a bit more time spent on introducing us to them before jumping from one person to another like the story did.

The concept of The Harvest was brilliantly thought up and I found myself drawn into the description and picturing the creature/scenery/situation with vivid detail. I did, however, find myself skimming over the middle part of the book a bit, because I had had enough of all the changing POVs.

Scott, I thoroughly enjoyed your writing style and the amount of description, but perhaps The Harvest just wasn't the best choice for me, I will look at some of your other work though and see how I go with those.

Listened to this album 35 years ago. Know it very well. My system today, is sooo much more better. Emotiva CD player (with HDCD converter), preamp and amp, with ProAc Studio 100 monitors. Holy cow!! First time I've listened to this album, start to finish since 1977. BTW, I don't do radio or compressed MP3's, etc.. Between my gear and the beautiful restoration work, accurate, true transfer done by Tim Mulligan and John Nowland. I'm just blown away. No destructive compression. Still the nice dynamic range. And no noticeable negative change with the original EQ or mix. For master tapes this old, it's a good bet, that this is as good as it gets to approaching the original analog vinyl pressings. Now in digital format, to be preserved and enjoyed. PS. The same holds true for Everyone Knows this is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush and On the Beach. I have high hopes, that the same will be done to Tonight's the Night and Zuma.

If you are thinking of having a quick brush stroke of Young's music, you need this one along with the other two I offered as essential Neil Young songs. All three are amazing, and will help you understand why he is one of the greatest songwriters of our time.

I tried to stick with this story. It looked like it would be an interesting story to read. Unfortunately all of the characters were terribly depressing. It seemed like there wasn't a bright spot in the story. I managed to get 20% into it (yup, Kindle version) before I finally gave up. There was very little about the alien presence at that point and too much dwelling on how miserable everyone in the area was. It appeared that the alien presence was taking over people. With the lives they had, perhaps it was better. I love a good thriller but alas a depressing one just can't hold my interest.

Classic album in surround sound.
I usually bounce between the radio and a USB stick full of MP3's in my car.
My Acura can play DVD-Audio surround, and my other half suggested that I use the optical drive once in a while to keep the thing from seizing up.
Towards that end, I looked for the best-rated DVD-A disk I could find, and of course this is the one that came up.
Very good mix, and you already know that this is a classic album.

Classic album in surround sound.
I usually bounce between the radio and a USB stick full of MP3's in my car.
My Acura can play DVD-Audio surround, and my other half suggested that I use the optical drive once in a while to keep the thing from seizing up.
Towards that end, I looked for the best-rated DVD-A disk I could find, and of course this is the one that came up.
Very good mix, and you already know that this is a classic album.

The Harvest reminded me of a good old fashioned horror story; kind of like The Blob, only with weeds gone wrong. The characters are fun, quirky, well-rounded and just plane strange. It's a novel about an alien life form who comes to earth and systematically tries to take over, starting with the weeds and plant life that exist on a mountainside and culminating with the humans that call the mountain home. Man, of course prevails.

I liked the premise and I enjoyed the writing style - the author writes a great deal like Stephen King (in a good way).

Having said that, in my opinion the Harvest has a few critical flaws:

- The descriptions in child-speak of the internal thoughts of the alien were too numerous and by about the halfway point were annoying me to the point where I just started skipping entire pages.
- The last couple chapters were too short and I felt could have used more fleshing out. It had the shell of the action, but too much wasn't even explained properly ("Wait, did he die or what? What happened to the girl?")
- The final discussion on the alien seemed to sum up in a way that seemed to hint that the entire story was irrelevant, which is a weird way to leave it. I felt, oddly, like I was being told outright *by the author* that I wasted my time reading this book.

Maybe worth a read if you absolutely love Stephen King, but otherwise I would give it a pass.

HARVEST was Neil Young's commercial peak, but it's also an artistic statement that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. The title song, "Out On the Weekend", "Old Man" and the perennial anti-drug standard "The Needle and the Damage Done" show an artist wise beyond his years, much like John Lennon. But much of the album seems like throwaways and "A Man Needs a Maid" is an overblown mistake. It's his "Long and Winding Road". Still, an excellent album.

Mr. Nicholson can really spin a yarn! He fills this novel with varied and believable characters with faults, hopes, dreams and sacrifices. I was completely engaged. The story builds with ever growing intensity and I found myself on pins and needles, breathlessly reading to see how it would end. No spoilers here - just a great recommended read if you like old SK novels.

After reading Waging Heavy Peace (Neil Young's autobiography) I began to buy some more CD's by him as well as him and Crazy Horse. Neil Young (NY) is one amazing artist. Harvest is, I believe, NY's breakthrough release. I would recommend this album to anyone especially anyone who grew up during the Vietnam war era scene.

No Neil Young collection can be considered complete without this key album; it's great...every track is a winner. You don't see many albums like that. Another of his great albums is his Greatest Hits album...made great by the fact that it contains virtually all of the tracks originally released on Harvest.