Vampires with some Zombie on the top: "The Strain" by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Never able to resist a Kindle bargain or a vampire story, I picked up this novel for a few pounds. Published in 2009, this is the first in a trilogy of books written by crime writer, Chuck Hogan and directorial genius Guillermo Del Toro. It seems that Del Toro took more of a directorial role in the writing too. In an interview around publication he states that he handed Hogan a 12 page outline and Hogan fleshed out the bones. The resulting sprawling novel is almost a blueprint for a film or televison series, so filmic is it's approach. The top quality book trailers produced to publicise this book suggest to me that Del Toro always envisaged this on the screen.

In the opening chapters we see the arrival of a Boeing 777 at JFK airport, New York. Much like the ship that brought Dracula to the shores of England, there is something on board this vessel. The passengers are all dead with the exception of four survivors. The authorities suspect some kind of virus and the plane is quarantined. The very modern fear of contagion is what drives the initial unease. Then, as if we needed a larger sense of foreboding, following the arrival of this haunted behemoth, there is a solar eclipse. Oh yes, it's vampire apocalypse and it's kicking off in New York.

In contrast to the romanticised hybrid of vampires we have been given in recent times, the vampires here are utterly dehumanised and quite disgusting. Colonised by the virus in the form of visible blood worms, they become mere vessels for a blood hunger. They also don't bite as such, instead the virus creates an extending proboscis that protrudes from the mouth and acts as a feeding mechanism. Their blood is also white, making for some oddly sickening death scenes.

Vampire rules are very important and differ from writer to writer. Thankfully these vampires didn't sparkle (see my rant on Twilight here) but I felt that the writers couldn't quite decide whether their vampires were based in science or myth. This is a virus not a curse, so religious symbols and garlic won't save you. What does destroy them is silver, UV light and of course direct sunlight. However, confusingly there are distinctly "unscientific" ways of detecting a dormant vampire, as their reflections are changed in silver-backed mirrors although why that is never really explained. And oddly they need an "invitation" to cross over bodies of water. Again this is never really explained and indeed, it makes Manhattan an odd choice for a visit for a vampire with designs of world domination. 

The choice of New York becomes apparent later with ground zero becoming a prominent setting, cleverly juxtaposing another modern horror with the ancient horror of the blood-sucker. The setting of the American suburbs also works well as a setting with the first half of the book is a series of urban vignettes as various characters face their loved ones transformed.  

Dr Ephraim Goodweather from the New York disease control unit, is our flawed hero. Unsurprisingly Eph is brilliant and dedicated to his work but also a recovering alcoholic, divorced and going through a custody battle. His character is clumsily held up to comparison with his ex-wife's new boyfriend, an immature, unambitious and ignorant man who may as well have vampire-bait written across his forehead. Eph spends a lot of time battling with disbelief which gets quite boring and the writing almost clangs at some points with lines like "Eph too had been turned. Not from human to vampire but from healer to slayer." Ugh.

In another, almost laughable nod to Stoker, the role of Van Helsing is taken by Abraham Setrakian, a Romanian Jew haunted by memories of a monster who preyed on the inmates of concentration camps in the Second World War. Aging and with a heart condition, but still inexplicably able to weald a silver sword effectively, I did warm to Setrakian although again the characterisation is clunky, as is the dialogue.

Chief villain is of course the dark figure of the Master vampire and much is made of his size, his strength and his power. So it is bizarre when he finds Eph and his team enough of a threat to pay him a personal visit. The Master's side-kick and enabler is Eldritch Palmer a dying billionaire. To say Palmer was a cartoon cliche is an understatement as I couldn’t help but imagine him as The Simpson’s Mister Burns. More interesting is the chosen vessel, Gabriel Bolivar, a Marilyn Manson-esque goth, rock star. There are some great scenes where he removes his make up to find his face transformed by the virus and when an encounter with some sexy groupies nearly turns into a bloodbath. 

Despite the cliched characters, the actions scenes were great but I can't help but feel cheated. Del Toro is widely recognised as a horror genius and what started out as a great premise eventually bubbled down to a series of bad dialogues, cliches and predictable outcomes. The book promised a reinvention of the vampire but actually I felt that the writers just threw a whole heap of zombie onto the genre and the result was really lacking. I would recommend Justin Cronin's "The Passage" if you like your vampires in epic proportions but maybe wait for the movie on this offering from Hogan and Del Toro.

The story continues for another two novels "The Fall" and "The Night Eternal" all published by Harper Collins.

You can view the book trailers here:

The Strain - Jail scene

The Strain - the dog shed