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L'Échiquier du mal

by Dan Simmons

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 6,434 ratings · 379 reviews

All humans feed on violence. But only those with the Ability have tasted the ultimate power.

Ordinary vampires possess the body. But only those who use the living can violate the soul.

They gather their strength through the years. They plot their unholy games. They war among themselves. And the victor will stand alone against a world without defenses.

Paperback, 999 pages

Published June 8th 2003 by Denoël (first published 1989)

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Jan 09, 2013 Marvin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, horror, autographed

Exhibit C in "Authors Who Doodle"...

In case you're interested, here's exhibit A and exhibit B.

Carrion Comfort, Dan Simmons second novel, can be faulted for being overly long, needlessly complex and in dire need of a talented editor. Yet after I've said all that, it still remains one of the best horror novels of the second half of the 2oth century. The author has created a tense tale of mind control and the extremes of human corruption and power. While Simmons uses the term "Mind Vampires" for h...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Maciek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People with time

Recommended to Maciek by: Bondama

Shelves: own-in-paperback, owned-books, horror, big-tomes, read-in-2011, reviewed, friend-recommendations

Carrion Comfort is a beast of a book. My copy clocks in at 800 pages, and to be fair to mr. Simmons he kept the pace burning throughout the whole text.

There's much to enjoy in Carrion Comfort, and not the least of its good aspects is the premise. In this particular work Simmons tackles on one of the most famous horror creatures - the vampire. What makes it different from almost all other vampire ficton is his approach to the subject.

Carrion Comfort is concerned with mind vampires, people who ca...more Carrion Comfort is a beast of a book. My copy clocks in at 800 pages, and to be fair to mr. Simmons he kept the pace burning throughout the whole text.

There's much to enjoy in Carrion Comfort, and not the least of its good aspects is the premise. In this particular work Simmons tackles on one of the most famous horror creatures - the vampire. What makes it different from almost all other vampire ficton is his approach to the subject.

Carrion Comfort is concerned with mind vampires, people who can enter the consciousness of any person and control their actions completely, like a puppeteer. Complete control, one from which there is no defense mental or physical, is certainly a frightening subject, and the opening set in 1942 Chelmno is pretty much stellar.

The novel spans many years and locations, from WW2 Poland and surroundings to the 1980 USA. The WW2 pieces are seen in retrospect, and are certainly the best part of the novel; the obsession with chess that some characters have couldn't have been used in a better way. Simmons presents a scene that truly is horrifying and memorable in its intensity and eeriness.

However, aside from the general premise and the few WW2 portions, Carrion Comfort is surprisingly short on the horror factor; most of the novel reads like a 80's thriller, complete with black helicopters, secret agents, explosives and multiple shoot outs, which occupy most of its pages. The characters are interesting (especially the elderly Melanie Fuller) but never fascinating, as they ought to be in a novel of such scope and ambition. The allusions to real people are certainly a nice touch, giving the novel some realism amidst all these bullets.

Overall, the books is compulsively readable, but rarely leaves anything unseen, and throughout its enormous lenght the reader will be exposed to as much action as he or she can take. The frenetic, Hollywood-like action can get a bit boring at times, and the true potential of the novel never really surfaces. Still, for such a huge tome it's a breezingly fast read, much more enjoyable that the plodding Summer of Night, although the book certainly did not need to be 800 pages long.(less)

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Sep 13, 2011 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horrortime

this is a briskly-paced supernatural thriller about mind control and controlling the world around us. it is also about as one-dimensional as they come, despite the potential of the multi-leveled subject matter and the breadth of the narrative (from World War 2 Germany to present-day Hollywood, and dozens of locales in between). the novel and several of the characters are obsessed with chess, which makes for some intriguing action. although it includes several wonderfully creepy set-pieces, overa...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Tressa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

The print of this large paperback is so small, I imagine that if it were in hardback, I wouldn't be able to pick it up and read it. I think this book, while a good read with some fantastic, scary parts in it, could have used a tad more editing.

I must say that some of the characters are truly monstrous. Tony, the producer, is a vile human being. The arrogant movers and shakers in the secret society couldn't have less empathy for their fellow human beings. But no one, not even Willi IMO, comes cl...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Alondra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

5 Stars... clearly, Ja?

I must say; after reading this book, I am completely disheveled in appearance and spent. This book wore me out to say the least. This was a thrill ride of the highest order, and creeped me out the entire time. I don't want to give away anything and provide spoilers; for fear that 'someone' may find this out and complete a mind-game on me.

This book is about mind-control; vampirism that not only takes your life essence, but your very soul. It is about having complete power...more

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Feb 12, 2010 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: to-re-read, award-nominee-bram-stoker, award-winner-bram-stoker, award-nominee-british-fantasy, award-winner-british-fantasy, multiple-award-nominee, multiple-award-winners, award-nominee-world-fantasy, fang-bangers, award-nominee-locus, award-winner-locus, 1980-1989, x-filing-and-secret-histories

4.5 stars. Dan Simmons can write a great book no matter what genre he is writing in. His Hyperion Cantos is on my list of "All Time Favorite" science fiction series and now he has written one of the best Vampire novels ever. Original, scary and brilliant......and LOOOOONG

Winner: Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel (1990)
Winner: Locus Award for Best Horror Novel (1990)
Winner: British Fantasy Award for Best Novel (1990)
Nominee: World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (1990)

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Mar 29, 2013 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-best-horror

How do you even begin to describe or evaluate an epic like Carrion Comfort? I have been thinking about this review for the last few weeks, and now that I'm finished, I'm at a loss for words. Gotta write it out...

The book is far from perfect. At a whopping 884 pages, and packing a list of characters that would make a phone book jealous, it is possible to get lost in Carrion Comfort. Often times, entire groups of characters are introduced in the same scene with only minimal description devoted to...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Rayna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Each winter I challenge myself to read one "long ass" book. This winter my selection was, "Carrion Comfort," by Dan Simmons. Due to the fact that I am a slow reader, it takes a fast paced story to get me through a book of this magnitude. While dense in content and sheer volume, "Carrion Comfort," was just this type of novel.
Dan Simmons's story is an epic tale of the most infamous monster of all time, The Vampire. However, FINALLY in this story, The Vampire, is depicted as the violent, self cent...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Picked it up because I enjoyed The Terror so much. This pales in comparison. As vampire books go, the analogy is a stretch. Mind-control and physical possession just don't read the same as blood sucking and wooden stakes to me. As well written as parts of the book were, it has a bad case of an 80's action flick script. Maybe it was all the bullet volley and gratuitous bombing of historic lairs and callous men in slacks. Ehh. In any case, I will still look for the best of his books, but this does...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Liz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really, really wanted to like this book. Really. With Stephen King's glowing recommendation and the whole "mind vampires" premise, I was eager to read this monster of a book. However, unlike Mr. King's "monsters" - most notably It, The Stand, and Under the Dome - I had to force myself through this one.

As several low reviewers have commented on, Carrion Comfort is grossly in need of editing. It got to the point where I just wanted to take out a red pen and start X-ing out whole pages. Mr. Simmo...more I really, really wanted to like this book. Really. With Stephen King's glowing recommendation and the whole "mind vampires" premise, I was eager to read this monster of a book. However, unlike Mr. King's "monsters" - most notably It, The Stand, and Under the Dome - I had to force myself through this one.

As several low reviewers have commented on, Carrion Comfort is grossly in need of editing. It got to the point where I just wanted to take out a red pen and start X-ing out whole pages. Mr. Simmons could have easily cut this book in half and had a good story but it is bloated with unnecessary information. For example, there is one passage where one of the mind vampires informs the reader of all the different purchases she made at a department store. Most of the second "book" seems like pure filler - redundant filler, at that - that could have been summed up in a few chapters rather than 200+ pages.

It would be easy to lay the blame on the editor or publishing house rather than the author himself - but Mr. Simmons apparently considered his talent too great to be restricted by an editor (who he actually compared to one of his mind vampires!). His thirty-page introduction (also filled with superfluous information about how great an author he is) does nothing but whine about how hard it was for him to get the book published (working ninety[?] hour weeks) and how mean his editor was. To me, it just sounded like a high-school kid complaining that his angst-filled, purple-prose stories didn't get an A+. Very annoying.

Don't get me wrong, not all of it's bad (hence the two stars). The first 100-150 pages were interesting and kept me going, particularly Saul's memories of the Holocaust but it all goes downhill from there. Even the human chess game, though obviously not historically accurate, was much more disturbing than the one Barent and Willi host at the end simply because it was based in such a terrifying reality. Many of the other "scary" scenes where the vampires Use a human get bogged down with endless schlocky action scenes where you can't keep track of who's killing who.

Needless to say, I will certainly not be picking up another Dan Simmons book, recommendation or not.(less)

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Aug 19, 2012 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, horror

This fat little tome invites positive comparison to Stephen King. It's lengthy, it features a large cast of well developed characters, and it is chock full of vilence, paranormal forces, and government conspiracies. It also shares a similar level of overall literate quality, even as it achieves a level of Americana that quite captures a feeling of the country as it was in the middle 80s. And just like many a King novel, good guys who deserve to live through to the end do not.

Two themes run behin...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossed-or-otherwise-set-free, before-2002

The second novel by World Fantasy Award-winner Simmons (The Song of Kali) is [an] epic that draws on a variety of genres--horror, science fiction, political thriller, Hollywood roman a clef. It centers around a small number of "mind vampires" who can subjugate other people to their wills, read their minds, experience through their senses. The immensely powerful vampires use others, often bloodily, and often in frivolous "games" (hunting human prey, chess games with human pieces, and so on). Oppo...more

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Oct 25, 2011 Gaurav Sethi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons is a sprawling work of horror. It spans fifty years of history: WWII up until the early 1980s. It has a wide caste of characters: Nazi war criminals, television evangelists, petty gangland thugs, an aging psychiatrist, and beautiful young woman who is in over her head. Intrigued? This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is not a quick read (800 pgs), it’s a summer read that will take you a few weeks to devour, but that’s ok. You’ll love certain characters and love...more Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons is a sprawling work of horror. It spans fifty years of history: WWII up until the early 1980s. It has a wide caste of characters: Nazi war criminals, television evangelists, petty gangland thugs, an aging psychiatrist, and beautiful young woman who is in over her head. Intrigued? This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is not a quick read (800 pgs), it’s a summer read that will take you a few weeks to devour, but that’s ok. You’ll love certain characters and love to hate others.

◦Mind control
◦Nazis
◦Chess Games w/Human pieces
◦Politics
◦Explosions
◦Car Chases
That’s just a short list of some of what makes up this novel. It’s difficult to talk about the over-all narrative without giving too much away. Basically, a young Jewish boy experiences the horrors of the Holocaust only to find that there are things much worse than Nazis - mainly - Nazis who have the ability to enter your mind and control your body. This young man grows up and spends his entire life attempting to hunt down the young Oberst who took control of him. Saul Laski soon finds out that it is not just the one man who has this power, but a large group of villains involved in a conspiracy that will take you from Charleston to Jerusalem.

It was nice to read such a long and heavy work of fiction. 800 pages provides the reader with plenty of time to know certain characters, and not just the good guys, there are some villains that you learn to love. It is a dark and gruesome story filled with torture, murder, and the body count is high by the end of the book.

Definitely worth reading. One thing I love is that Mr. Simmons has a very strong hand when it comes to history. The book takes place in a number of time periods and all across the world. The southern United States, the Jewish state of Isreal, and Germany are all alive and brilliantly described, one gets the sense that you are in these particular places and time periods.

I do not have any real complaints with this work, even the length (while long) seems appropriate for the story to play itself out. A very dark novel with a cast of characters that are brilliantly written. They feel like friends that you’ve met at a coffee-house who are telling you the most awesome ghost-story of all time.

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May 16, 2011 Vegantrav rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was simply browsing the stacks of my local public library when a title leapt out at me from the sea of books: it was Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort, and I was drawn to the title because it is taken from a poem by one of my favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins. Thus intrigued by the title, I pulled the novel from the shelf, and there I saw a blurb from Stephen King: “Carrion Comfort is one of the three greatest horror novels of the twentieth century. Simple as that.” With such a recommendation f...more I was simply browsing the stacks of my local public library when a title leapt out at me from the sea of books: it was Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort, and I was drawn to the title because it is taken from a poem by one of my favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins. Thus intrigued by the title, I pulled the novel from the shelf, and there I saw a blurb from Stephen King: “Carrion Comfort is one of the three greatest horror novels of the twentieth century. Simple as that.” With such a recommendation from King, how could I not check it out?

So it was with great enthusiasm that I began reading. After trudging through 200 pages, however, I began to wonder: “So, when, exactly, does the horror begin?” Another 100 pages, and I still was not even remotely frightened by anything in Carrion Comfort, but by this point in time I had already invested time in reading through 300 pages, and I felt it would be too much of a waste not to read on to the bitter end of the 767 pages. It is not until the last 200 or so pages that the novel really takes off and captivates the readers’ interest once and for all, but getting to that point is a bit of a chore: I hate to say it, but there are just too many boring, meandering passages in the first 500 pages; yes, there is much that is interesting, but this book really could have done with some heavy editing.

As I sit here after reading this massive tome, I can say that Stephen King and I definitely do not agree on what constitutes a great horror novel. The main problem with this novel—besides its being unnecessarily long—is that it is incredible: incredible not in the “wow! this is amazing” sense but in the “this is just not even remotely believable” sense. The villains in Carrion Comfort are mind vampires: men and women who use mind control to make other people execute their bidding: basically, the mind vampires possess their victims' bodies and use their victims to enrich themselves, to murder other people, and to control governments and politicians. Pitted against the mind vampires are the two main protagonists, an aging psychologist and Holocaust survivor, Saul Laski, and a young graduate student, Natalie Preston, both of whom, in various ways have been victimized by the mind vampires.

******SPOILER ALERT******

Saul and Natalie’s eventual conquest (or near conquest: the epilogue reveals that one of the mind vampires survives and is plotting even greater evil) of the mind vampires is beyond belief even in a work of fantasy fiction. In the closing chapters, Saul is alone and naked (yes, naked) on an island just off the coast of South Carolina, an island controlled by the mind vampires. The mind vampires are aware that Saul is on the island, so they send their security patrols after him: this consists of dozens of machine-gun wielding men, but Saul initially manages to elude capture despite being shot twice. Wounded, losing blood rapidly, naked, and close to losing consciousness, Saul makes his way to the mansion were the mind vampires are playing their own version of “The World’s Most Dangerous Game.” Saul is promptly captured. The mind vampires could easily kill him right away, but, of course, they don't. (Otherwise, the novel would come to a very poor, dull end.)

In the last hours of his captivity, Saul confronts the main mind vampire, a former Nazi who had victimized Saul during World War II. Somehow, Saul is able to overcome the Nazi’s mind vampire powers through some nearly inexplicable process: Saul has self-hypnotized himself and is able to evoke REM sleep in himself automatically when the Nazi tries to control his mind, and this blunts the Nazi's powers: exactly why and how this is such an obstacle to the Nazi, whom the novel has portrayed as a masterful mind vampire with powers far greater than most of the other mind vampires, is never fully explained. Anyway, Saul uses his self-hypnosis and self-induced REM sleep to get close enough to the Nazi to strangle the Nazi to death. Now, the Nazi is an old man, but he is not much older than Saul, and Saul has already been shot twice and has been bleeding badly for several hours, yet the Nazi cannot fight off Saul. And even one of the Nazi’s henchmen is unable to pull Saul off his master or just shoot Saul. So Saul is able to kill the main mind vampire.

In the meantime, while Saul is alone on the island, Natalie is back in South Carolina playing mind games with another mind vampire, a wicked old lady mind vampire, and also carrying out her and Saul’s prearranged plan to bring down all the mind vampires. Part of this convoluted scheme involves getting the old lady a mind vampire to control a Navy captain and induce him to attack the mind vampires’ island. While the Navy captain is attacking the island, Natalie and two of her associates fly a small Cessna airplane onto the mind vampires’ island in the middle of the night during a ferocious storm, and they manage somehow to land, despite being fired at by three different missiles from the rogue Navy captain who is controlled by the old lady mind vampire, on the island, pick up Saul, and then take off again in the middle of the storm and escape to freedom. Yes, everything about this air rescue in the middle of the night during a raging storm and while taking fire from a warship is completely believable.

One other aspect of this novel is completely ludicrous: Saul is the only non-mind vampire who is initially aware of the mind vampires’ powers. When he first tells Natalie (this is before Natalie herself is victimized by a mind vampire) and various other characters about the mind vampires and when Natalie in turn tells still others, these people accept the story of the mind vampires’ powers with little to no skepticism. As a reader, I could not help asking myself, “Why do these people believe this? It’s completely ridiculous! No rational person would find this story even remotely believable.” And yet time and again throughout the novel, the story of the mind vampires’ powers is accepted with little to no evidence and almost no skeptical push-back. But it is a work of fiction, so perhaps I am being too harsh.

This novel is simply incredible. Still, I cannot deny that the last 200 pages were quite exciting and interesting, and I turned the pages with eager anticipation as to what would happen next. Even as I kept saying to myself, “Now, this is just ridiculous”, I still kept reading because I could not foresee how Simmons would extricate Saul and Natalie from their troubles.

Overall, this novel has many, many problems, and if I had known, in advance, that it really would not be all that scary—you led me astray, Mr. King!—I would not have taken the time to read all 767 pages. Yet I was entertained, and so I cannot refrain from giving it a 3-star rating.
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Jul 11, 2011 Arvind bhan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

carrion comfort
by
dan simmons

I used to be a great fan of horror novels and movies during school and early college days in the eighties so imagine my surprise when i see this book of which i have no idea topping a list of the greatest horror novels of all times on good reads. It was placed above dracula,stand,it etc etc.on the list.
So obviously I had to read it.
It is entertaining and engrossing but not really a horror novel.
It is more on the lines of Robert Ludlum or Alistair Mclean with expecte...more

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Apr 16, 2010 Ori rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: good-yarns

First, let me say this is not a vampire book. In various blurbs for this book other authors call this a "new take" or and "reinvention" of the vampire horror novel. It's not. It has much more in common with Stephen King's yarns about telepathy than it does with Salem's Lot.

Second, I do judge books by their covers, and I have to say that my cover, the one from the 2009, 20th anniversary edition, is much cooler and more evocative than the one you see on goodreads.

There are a few questionable or pr...more

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Nov 29, 2009 Christy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, science-fiction-and-fantasy, 20th-century-american-lit

Meh. I have really enjoyed some of Dan Simmons' other books, but this one didn't quite work for me. It is *way* too long, has more characters than is really necessary (I found this really distracting at times), and includes too many action-movie sequences.

The premise is interesting and so are several of the characters, but I had hoped for something that would delve a little deeper into psychology and into the issues he raises early on about violence and humanity. This holds the occasional promi...more

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May 05, 2012 Leah Lucci rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stephen King's front blurb for this book declares it one of the three most important horror novels of the century.

Though that's a BIT much, this is a really great book. Imagine, if you will, psychic vampires who enter into people's minds, drain the victims' power and will, then destroy the evidence by making said victims kill themselves.

Imagine, further, that they can control several people at once, who can do their bidding and protect them.

Top all of this off with the fact that they can live...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Nicole Best rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dan Simmons does horror and knocks it out of the park. Gripping, a totally great purchase.

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Jul 17, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dan Simmons wrote his epic horror novel "Carrion Comfort" in the early '80s but apparently had a hell of a time getting it published. In the intervening years, Simmons managed to write several other novels, winning the World Fantasy Award for his critically-acclaimed first novel "Song of Kali", and publishing his sci-fi series "Hyperion". Thankfully, Thomas Dunne Books has recently released a beautiful 20th Anniversary Edition. Stephen King calls "Carrion Comfort" "one of the three greatest horr...more Dan Simmons wrote his epic horror novel "Carrion Comfort" in the early '80s but apparently had a hell of a time getting it published. In the intervening years, Simmons managed to write several other novels, winning the World Fantasy Award for his critically-acclaimed first novel "Song of Kali", and publishing his sci-fi series "Hyperion". Thankfully, Thomas Dunne Books has recently released a beautiful 20th Anniversary Edition. Stephen King calls "Carrion Comfort" "one of the three greatest horror novels of the twentieth century. Simple as that." I have to agree with Stephen King, although I would be somewhat weary of calling it a horror novel. Don't get me wrong, it is horrifying. It is, however, somewhat more than that.

"Carrion Comfort" is a fascinating twist on the vampire legend. In the novel, 'mind vampires' are very rare individuals with an uncanny ability to not only read people's minds but to control people's actions. These are people that 'feed' off people's fears and psychically 'use' people to commit horrendous acts of violence. Simmons's premise is that these people have been around since the dawn of people, that these select few humans are more evolutionarily evolved in terms of their brain's capacity, and that they have been shaping human history. Some of these people, such as Adolf Hitler, are endowed with what seems to be a preternatural charisma, an ability to sway individual opinions and create mass hysteria. Hitler, Simmons posits, may not have even been aware of his own psychic power. Many of these 'mind vampires' may go through life unaware. Some, however, begin to detect early in life that they have psychic control over others. They learn to control it and hone it. What if, Simmons posits, these select of the select few 'Users' (as they call themselves) decided to get together and use their abilities to re-shape global events, start wars, initiate tragic events that would alter world economies and foreign policies. If you thought "The X-Files" was paranoid with its conspiracy theories, you haven't read this novel.

"Carrion Comfort" is freaky beyond belief. It is also immensely well-written with a break-neck pace. Hard to categorize (a blend of horror, science fiction, military and espionage thriller), the storyline constantly detours into unexpected and strange places but they are always fascinating places. If you've read Simmons's "The Hollow Man" and his more recent novel "Drood", you will see a recurring theme of the power of mind over matter. Simmons is a great horror novelist but, more importantly, he is just a great novelist, with a sharp and intelligent focus on human psychology and the human condition.
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Nov 04, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was recommended that I read Carrion Comfort when I was looking a horror genre book to round out my October reading list. The book describes itself as being about "mind vampires" which was a bit of a turn-off as vampires and zombies are feeling kind of over done to me right now. None the less I checked out a copy and took on the nearly 800 pages. I'm really glad I did.

This book has a lot going for it. The story manages to tie itself into a version of the real world of the 1980's without feelin...more

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May 25, 2012 William Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: needed-a-better-editor, horror

I've always had a problem with the horror genre. Although I love horror movies more than any other genre, I often find the books of the same make me immediately roll my eyes and shake my head at the often infantile prose- as in the case of writers like Jack Ketchum and Richard Laymon and John Saul. On the other side of that spectrum are writers like Joe Hill and Richard Matheson (who wrote my favorite book of all time) and exemplify how genre fiction can be considered important literary offering...more I've always had a problem with the horror genre. Although I love horror movies more than any other genre, I often find the books of the same make me immediately roll my eyes and shake my head at the often infantile prose- as in the case of writers like Jack Ketchum and Richard Laymon and John Saul. On the other side of that spectrum are writers like Joe Hill and Richard Matheson (who wrote my favorite book of all time) and exemplify how genre fiction can be considered important literary offerings.

Simmons falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Had this book had a competent editor who was williing to go to war with Simmons over the unnecessary length of the novel and cut this behemoth iin half, it could have been a stellar 5 star offering. In fact, I was so excited by part 1 of this novel that it was, in my mind, a 5 star book of major importance. As it wore on, the reading became grueling and I threatened to set it aside, never to be picked up again.

In the end, I finished it, which is no small feat. The pages and pages of expository nonsense that becomes more dense as the reader delves deeper and deeper into the story seemed to last for eons. What a chore it was to slog through the last 400 or so pages.

However, the first 250 pages of this book are worth the time and effort. They are ridiculously well-written and capture the essence of what more literary horror writing should look like. Another plus for Simmons is the fact that he doesn't write this as if he is gaining some sort of sexual, masturbatory charge from the violence. Although it is decadent, I don't see it as a cathartic exercise- or cathartic exorcism, even- where Simmons does to people in his books what he dreams about doing to them while he leers at them over a cup of coffee at the local diner. It seems wholly more professional than that, which is a pitfall of some other, lowlier horror writers (I'm looking at you, Richard Laymon).

All in all it was a good 350 page book that just happened to last for 800 pages.

Grade: C(less)

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Jul 27, 2011 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a very early novel by the brilliant Dan Simmons and the edition I read was the 30th anniversary edition so it was also interesting to read the author's notes at the beginning (something Mr Simmons almost never does otherwise).

The plot of the book concerns people who have an ability to control others - meat puppet style - and the struggle between them and the people caught up in their maelstrom of violence. The book is, in essence, a long essay on the nature of dominance and violence but...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Bobby J rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just a fantastic premise and story! Already being a Dan Simmons fan made this a terrific read. A real page-turner from the beginning and with it being over 700 pages, I spent several nights well past my bedtime. Character development is handled with such detail, I have such a sincere vision of them that I would recognize them walking down the street. Thoroughly entranced by this tale.

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Dec 31, 2008 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was a good book but a bit too long. It probably should have been broken down into two novels. I put off reading this book for several years because of its length but finally decided to tackle it. As it stands, Carrion Comfort is divided into 3 parts, or Books. For me, it lost momentum at the beginning of Book 3. The end of Book 2 was fast-paced, loaded with lots of action, and packed an emotional wallop at the loss of a major character (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it). Then Book 3 picks up mon...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Marlène rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-literature, crime-thriller-suspense, fantasy, horror

On se fait parfois une idée à travers les critiques lues avant de se plonger dans un bouquin. Ce livre est le parfait exemple de la bonne surprise, pour moi : je craignais un clone de roman d'horreur de Stephen King, avec sa théâtralité télévisuelle, sa touche de surnaturel, sa violence et sa vision du monde plutôt en noir et blanc, avec des gentils gentils et des méchants méchants...
Ne vous méprenez pas. J'ai aimé Under the Dome et encore plus The Stand (Le Fléau).
J'avais peur de trouver le sty...more On se fait parfois une idée à travers les critiques lues avant de se plonger dans un bouquin. Ce livre est le parfait exemple de la bonne surprise, pour moi : je craignais un clone de roman d'horreur de Stephen King, avec sa théâtralité télévisuelle, sa touche de surnaturel, sa violence et sa vision du monde plutôt en noir et blanc, avec des gentils gentils et des méchants méchants...
Ne vous méprenez pas. J'ai aimé Under the Dome et encore plus The Stand (Le Fléau).
J'avais peur de trouver le style d'écriture aux teintes franchement 80s de The Stand, qui a presque mal vieilli...
Et bien non! L'écriture de Dan Simmons est bien plus fine et tout aussi fluide qu'un bon Stephen King. Du moins en anglais (j'ai aperçu une critique faisant la remarque que L'Échiquier du Mal avait vieilli et pas très bien. Traduction datée ?).
Oui, il y a surenchère de violence et d'horreurs, des complots à gogo, mais c'est bien là le thème ! La tension m'a accompagnée page à page, avec, presque, la peur de trouver une surprise macabre ou la disparition d'un personnage qui paraissait pourtant essentiel au détour d'un paragraphe. Malgré quelques longueurs certainement nécessaires à la mise en place de la phase finale de l'intrigue, on se laisse prendre par l'accélération progressive jusqu'au crash de ce récit épique.
On s'attache aux personnages réalistes et consistants, loin de la caricature, et on se prend à se réveiller avec la réalisation brutale qu'on espère, une seconde à peine, que l'un des montres prenne le dessus sur un autre, tout aussi dénué de conscience. On se fait bien balader par Mr Simmons.
Rajoutez donc au cocktail quelques éléments qui me font mordre sans réfléchir, soit une intrigue bien mêlée à l'Histoire des années 30 aux années 80 et des ramifications politico-économiques à vous donner des cauchemars et voilà !
Un seul regret, je ne connais absolument rien aux échecs et je suis persuadée être passé à côté d'un tas de détails ou de vues d'ensemble de l'intrigue.

Un bonus dans mon édition datant de 2009, pour les 20 ans de la première publication de Carrion Comfort. Une longue préface, par Simmons lui-même, très intéressante et horrible à sa manière, sur l'écriture du livre et les mésaventures de Dan Simmons jusqu'à la publication. Également bourrée d'infos sur la formation de l'auteur et ses débuts d'écriture, qui donne sacrément envie de lire son premier roman.
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Oct 30, 2012 David Agranoff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 80-s-horror-novel, horror-masterpiece, monsters

Maybe hearing that the book was a masterpiece for more than a decade
set the bar too high for this novel. I also think the blurb comparing
it to ‘The Stand’ on the cover also hurt my reaction to this novel. I mean
besides the massive number of pages I can't see another thing about
Carrion Comfort that makes it at all like the Stand.

This novel is amazing in many ways, but I don't think I am saying
anything sacrilegious to say that it might be a page or two hundred
too long. Simmons is a brilliant write...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Janie Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dan Simmons has the ability to construct a great novel! This I know for sure after diving into this read. There is so much depth and richness to this tale of evil. One of the things that I loved the most was the mystery/suspense aspect of the book. I am a huge mystery fan, and Simmons certainly sated that need as far as I am concerned. He has written and created the worst evil ever seen when he wrote this novel. I found myself cheering on those who aimed to rid the world of evil. I felt as thoug...more Dan Simmons has the ability to construct a great novel! This I know for sure after diving into this read. There is so much depth and richness to this tale of evil. One of the things that I loved the most was the mystery/suspense aspect of the book. I am a huge mystery fan, and Simmons certainly sated that need as far as I am concerned. He has written and created the worst evil ever seen when he wrote this novel. I found myself cheering on those who aimed to rid the world of evil. I felt as though I struggled with them, and tried to give them hope. I was so very consumed by it.

The descriptions of characters and their lives coupled with the ‘extreme’ moments, really added to the surrealism of the novel. You knew everything there was to know about each character. Also I love how involved all the characters are in the novel. And then just when you settle down after an extreme moment, Simmons brings the source of that climax back into the limelight and you get all worked up again. He brilliantly used each one of his characters.

We start out with Saul who not only went through the concentration camps, but he survived them. His strength and ability to survive derived from 3 little words. I will live! His character is defined so brilliantly, that it makes you feel that he really did survive the holocaust. That his name, Saul Laski, should be written into the history books.

As the story unfolded I loved how so much more of Saul’s history is revealed. I think that was great addition to the book and allowed me to get to know him so much better. It lets us see into his journey and better explains why he is the way he is. One question in the book is "Is he here for justice or revenge?" As I further read, they seemed to be one and the same.

Natalie, is another of my favorite characters. She felt so natural, real, yet not real, because it is hard to find people with purpose aimed towards finding good in others. I loved her “non judgment” of others. She accepted them for who they were, and she loved them the same way. I also loved how she had a mission and she was so determined to complete that mission! She is someone you want on your side.

Gentry was another of my favorites. You could feel "the good ole boy" in him. And he will do what it takes to protect those he loves, no matter what the consequences may be. And you feel it as you read about him.

We meet so many different people, good and evil, those we will love to hate and those that we love period. I found myself looking for some redeeming qualities in these monsters. Yet none really surfaced. Let bad guys be bad guys. All the characters are unique and are constructed beautifully. They all fit their roles perfectly. Simmons also seemed to give his characters equal time in the lime light, and I really like a book that is not dependent on one single “main” character. I think it gives so much more flavor to the story.

There was one thing that kinda bothered me, and that was the switching between times. It is a good thing that the chapters were dated, it helped a lot. Otherwise you could easily get lost and confused in some areas leaving you think "What the heck just happened?"

In conclusion of this review, I want to stress that this is a very riveting tale, sure to keep you hooked on the intensity alone. And it is a definite “must read”. Simmons brings a whole new reign of terror to the spotlight with this novel. It gets a 4.5 star rating from me.(less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Gina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have loved almost every single thing I've read by Dan Simmons, but this one fell a bit short. I mean, it's brilliant and well written and well researched but... it just didn't have the same breathless suspense as his other works. It wasn't terrifying like Summer of Night, or heartbreaking like Black Hills or beautifully chilling like the Hyperion series.... I think this book would've been better served if it were broken down into two, maybe. It was just.... too long. I know his books are almos...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-gr-challenge

I don't even know where to start with this review.

It is a long book with a lot of characters and back story. This was my first read of a Dan Simmons book and I was afraid that with the size it was just going to be a wordy, boring mess. I was really worried after reading the introduction in the twentieth anniversary edition that I got. While somewhat interesting, the introduction was wordy and seemed somewhat arrogant in parts. It almost seemed to say I am smarter than you and I know it. I thoug...more I don't even know where to start with this review.

It is a long book with a lot of characters and back story. This was my first read of a Dan Simmons book and I was afraid that with the size it was just going to be a wordy, boring mess. I was really worried after reading the introduction in the twentieth anniversary edition that I got. While somewhat interesting, the introduction was wordy and seemed somewhat arrogant in parts. It almost seemed to say I am smarter than you and I know it. I thought this might be a clue to how the book was going to go. I am a smart person so the big words and some of the theories didn't bother me, but I did wonder how it would appear to the average reader.

Character development was amazing in my opinion, I felt that I had a true sense of who each character was and really felt involved with them. Now with that being said, I did find that some of the character relations were a bit far stretched at times, but over all it worked. I will say that my favorite character in the book was Sheriff Gentry, he kind of reminded me of Peter Faulk as Colombo, just a small town idiot cop that was really too smart for his own good. I must also say that I liked Saul's character a lot as well. His story and his will to survive were amazing.

As far as the 'evil' characters in the book, I thought they were brilliant. Kudos to Willi and Melanie for being the most vile, despicable creatures I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I won't say anymore on that because I don't want to give anything away.

I would not classify this book as a 'horror' as I didn't find it at all terrifying. I thought the premise was sound and the story was well told. The book was not at all wordy as I feared it would be. I think that if any of the parts were left out, the story would have been incomplete. I don't think there is anything that could be trimmed.

Now with all that being said, let me tell you what kept this book from getting 5 stars from me. I know it may be a petty thing, but it was the racism in the book. I understand that a lot of the back story required it, and it was a sign of the times when the book was written, but I hated it. I myself am white, however my spouse and my step daughter are African American and I cringed every time the N word appeared in this novel. The references to how they are beneath a white person or not as smart just really pissed me off.

However with that being said, I am grateful for the progress we have made as a society since.

All in all, do I recommend this book? Yes I do. It is worth a read and I place it in my top 10 for the books I have read this year.

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About Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction,...more Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.

Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years -- 2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York -- one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher -- and 14 years in Colorado.

ABOUT DAN
Biographic Sketch

His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.

Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."

Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado -- in the same town where he taught for 14 years -- with his wife, Karen, his daughter, Jane, (when she's home from Hamilton College) and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Fergie. He does much of his writing at Windwalker -- their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike -- a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels -- was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.(less)

More about Dan Simmons...

Books by Dan Simmons

The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2)

The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #4)

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