A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Reading at the Beach.Here are the rules: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the Letter of the Week and post the following:
- A photo of the book
- Title and synopsis
- A link (Amazon, B&N, etc.)
- Come back here and leave your link in the comments
If you’ve already reviewed this book, post a link to the review as well. Be sure to visit other participants to see what books they have posted and leave them a comment (we all love comments, don’t we?) Who know? You may find your next “favorite” book.
THIS WEEK’S LETTER IS: K
My “K” Book is:
The Keep
by F. Paul Wilson
by F. Paul Wilson
-The Adversay Cycle, Book 1-
(New York: Berkley Books, 1982)
Paperback, 406 Pages, Fiction
ISBN: 9780425053249, US$3.50
From the Cover: The message is received from a Nazi commander stationed in a remote castle high in the Transylvania alps: “Something is murdering my men.” Immediately an elite SS extermination squad is sent to destroy whatever enemy dares challenge the might of the Third Reich. And the battle is joined. A battle more awesomely terrifying than anything ever experienced. Between the ultimate evil created by man … and the unthinkable, undreamed of, undead horror it has awakened from centuries of darkness to suck the life from living souls again.
My Thoughts: This is a book that, like some of the others I have posted this go around in the A-Z Wednesday meme, I haven’t read in a number of years. I think the last time I picked it up was either in eighth or ninth grade, so a good twenty years ago. However, it is one of those books that has always stayed with me, and one that I remember. Interestingly enough, though, for all the “history” I have with the book, it was not until I was putting this post together that I discovered that it was not a stand-alone title, that in fact it was the first book in a series of six! Go figure.
(New York: Berkley Books, 1982)
Paperback, 406 Pages, Fiction
ISBN: 9780425053249, US$3.50
From the Cover: The message is received from a Nazi commander stationed in a remote castle high in the Transylvania alps: “Something is murdering my men.” Immediately an elite SS extermination squad is sent to destroy whatever enemy dares challenge the might of the Third Reich. And the battle is joined. A battle more awesomely terrifying than anything ever experienced. Between the ultimate evil created by man … and the unthinkable, undreamed of, undead horror it has awakened from centuries of darkness to suck the life from living souls again.
My Thoughts: This is a book that, like some of the others I have posted this go around in the A-Z Wednesday meme, I haven’t read in a number of years. I think the last time I picked it up was either in eighth or ninth grade, so a good twenty years ago. However, it is one of those books that has always stayed with me, and one that I remember. Interestingly enough, though, for all the “history” I have with the book, it was not until I was putting this post together that I discovered that it was not a stand-alone title, that in fact it was the first book in a series of six! Go figure.
Anyway, in terms of “New Weird Fiction,” F. Paul Wilson’s little tale of Nazi’s getting picked off by an ancient evil is reminiscent of that Grandmaster of the Weird, H.P. Lovecraft. I say this because there is an intricate background of elder races and ancient beings that predate humankind that is at work in The Keep and this is very much like Lovecraft’s Elder Gods and the nightmare city of R’lyeh. (Wilson himself has acknowledged HPL’s influence and even adds Robert E. Howard and Robert Ludlum to the mix of influences on the novel.) The Keep is a tight, claustrophobic book and Wilson is one of the best of the new (using the term to loosely describe American horror from about 1970 on to the present day) cycle of American horror writers.
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