The Fall Book Review

Title: The Fall

Author(s): Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 308

ISBN: 9780061558221

The Fall is the much anticipated sequel to Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's new vampire trilogy which began with The Strain.

The Fall begins only hours after the events of The Strain: with the fall of New York City. Now it's up for grabs, and fighting for it's control are the Old and New World Vampires. As war breaks out across New York, two small band of survivors, one including Eph Goodweather and Holocaust survivor-turned-vampire-hunter Abraham Setrakian, and the other, a group of gangbangers-turned-vampire-hunters are caught in the middle of the war. And with newly acquired knowledge of how the parasite works, Abraham must race to stop them. All the while as Eph fights to save the world, he also has to contend with his dead ex-wife, who's only purpose is to find and feed on their son, Zach.

As with most sequels, there's always the expectation for it to be better than the first; to surpass the first book in the series if only by a small margin. Unfortunately these hopes were dashed for me as I settled in to read The Fall. The first issue I had with it was the size. Unlike The Strain which was considerably larger in volume, The Fall is a sleek little novel. Granted, size doesn't matter, but I was expecting more. I loved the direction that del Toro and Hogan took the story in, but felt that it dragged out and bogged down with parts that didn't really seem necessary to the plot at hand, including several new point-of-views that served no purpose to the story.

However, I loved the fact that the story delved further into the back history of Abraham Setrakian's life. I also enjoyed and the concept of the two sides: Old and New World Vampires, fighting to stop The Master's deadly plot to essentially erradicate the human race. del Toro and Hogan up the thrills with several new game-changing introductions to the story that most readers won't see coming. Including a few jaw-dropping moments for myself.

Overall, The Fall was an alright read. Although it left much to be admired, it was an interesting read that left me at times on the edge of my seat, while also dropping surprises I'd never see coming. That's why I'm rating The Fall 7.5 TARDIS's out of 10. As negative as I've been, I can't wait to see what det Toro and Hogan due with book three, The Night Eternal which releases one year from now.

If you've already invested your time in The Strain and just haven't picked up The Fall yet, I'd recommend picking it up the next chance you get.

~Rodney