The Rising
By Brian Keene
Leisure Horror Books
ISBN: 0-8439-5201-6
321 pages
I stopped at page 138. This is the first book of Keene’s that I have read. The book is basically about a father heading hundreds of miles to get his son after something turned the dead into zombies. Not sure what the something was, scientists were blaming themselves and the thread seemed to disappear.
This book from start to finish lacks emotion, power, energy. There’s no excitement that forces me to continue reading. Maybe I’m missing something. Brian is intent on telling us what is happening. The book, I believe, won the Bram Stoker Award. It must be good, a couple of my friends side it was good but the ending was a let down. I found the first 138 pages to be a let down.
I wanted to keep reading. Laymon says, “It’s top-notch”. Cemetery Dance claims: “…the arrival of a new horror novelist” and “…epic packed with violence and gore”. Ramsey Campbell: “…horror fiction can deal with fear, not just indulge it”.
And there’s several more.
What did I miss? Keene has authored 20 books. Surely The Rising is not his first. For me; the found the characters flat and one dimensional. The style was very ‘tell not show’. The prose was flat and their emotions raged a second and then were gone. No inner conflict. Most characters were little more than props. The scenes and action was not clear and hard to follow. And only one driving goal: for Jim to reach his son who is still alive in the attic of his ex-wife’s house, hundreds of miles away.
I enjoyed "The Rising" but it's always good to hear differing opinions. If you want to give Keene another try, check out "Conqueror Worms."