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The Conqueror Worms (The Earthworm Gods #1)

by Brian Keene (Goodreads Author)

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 1,526 ratings · 82 reviews

One day the rain just didn t stop. As the flood waters slowly rose and coastal cities and towns disappeared, some people believed it was the end of the world. Maybe they were right. But the water wasn t the worst part. Even more terrifying was what the soaking rains drove up from beneath the earth -- unimaginable creatures, writhing, burrowing...and devouring all in their...more

Mass Market Paperback, 326 pages

Published May 2nd 2006 by Leisure Books (first published 2005)

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Feb 22, 2012 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror

Satanists on surfboards. A mermaid. Giant worms and Cthulu. And an End Time rain with two old mountain coots getting to play Beowulf. This is the good stuff. The Conqueror Worms is the second book I've read by Brian Keene (The Rising being the first), and I'm really impressed by this guy. The sheer gusto of his B-movie imagination leaves me hopeful for the future of Horror fiction. In one sense, I'm left thinking Keene is very Old School (see Giant Bug movies from the 50s), but not totally. Conq...more Satanists on surfboards. A mermaid. Giant worms and Cthulu. And an End Time rain with two old mountain coots getting to play Beowulf. This is the good stuff. The Conqueror Worms is the second book I've read by Brian Keene (The Rising being the first), and I'm really impressed by this guy. The sheer gusto of his B-movie imagination leaves me hopeful for the future of Horror fiction. In one sense, I'm left thinking Keene is very Old School (see Giant Bug movies from the 50s), but not totally. Conqueror Worms is very much a post 9-11 effort. Keene gives voice to the apocalyptic anxieties, whether it be terrorism or environmental collapse, that currently fill the air, and labels them Behemoth and Leviathan. Bible labels, to be sure, but you can see how Keene is constructing his own mythology, which I fully expect to show up in later novels - much like King's Dark Tower effort. Keene may not have any intention of knitting it all together, but is there a need to? Just hints here and there (much like Lovecraf) of the Labyrinth are more than enough to get the reader's dread going overtime.

The Conqueror Worms is basically two stories in one. The first, told by Teddy Garnett, an 80-something WW II vet, who lies wounded in his rain-soaked house, waiting for help or death. Garnett has to be Keene's best character yet. He is fully realized, his voice consistently strong throughout the novel. His likes (chewing tobacco) and dislikes (bad neighbor Earl), his memories of his beloved wife, Rose, his loneliness and anxiousness over the fate of his children and grandchildren, ratchet things up effectively. Garnett's voice never seemed cliched to me, and you're just simply going to like this guy - and his friend Carl Seaton. A bit less realized is the other tale teller, Kevin, a refugee from underwater Baltimore. His story is a wild one however, and any comparison with Teddy is probably unfair, since Teddy has lived a longer, fuller life. Eventually, these stories converge on a mountain in West Virginia. Time is short, but the characters, despite the hopelessness of it all, refreshingly hold on to their humanity, because in the End maybe that's all you will have as a comfort while the rain beats down and the worms continue to tunnel underneath. (less)

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Jan 27, 2012 Gavin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror-thriller

I'm not one to normally read a Brian Keene novel (well, I have read three...I think), but when I saw the title of this one, and the fantastic campy-B-flick picture for a cover, I knew I had to read it. And, you know, it wasn't that bad. The first part of the book was a mid-post-apocalyptic tale that tells the story of how some of the characters are surviving. But Keene didn't think that a random monster book about the end of the world was enough. Enter the second half of the book. This half was...more

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Jan 26, 2010 BarkLessWagMore rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Reading for Jare's 2010 Spills & Chills Release Challenge.

I haven't read a book where the main protagonist is a crabby 80 year old guy since struggling through King's Insomnia many moons ago. Fortunately, this story is much more interesting. This guy is a lone survivor (or so it seems) in a world nearly buried under water. He has the misfortune to live high up on a secluded mountain when most others have perished in the floods and he faces long days of loneliness, isolation and day after da...more

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Feb 19, 2008 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Brian Keene is the next big thing in horror."

How many times have I heard that?

How many times have you heard that?

The Conqueror Worms is the third Keene book I've read. I enjoyed The Rising and City of the Dead. I thought they were both fun books that did some new things with the zombie genre. I thought Keene was a good writer, who showed a lot of promise.

Then came The Conqueror Worms.

The book is told for the most part by a mountain man who's lived long enough to see what amounts to the end of t...more

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Dec 31, 2008 Norm Applegate rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love discovering a new author, at least one that is new to me, Brian Keene, a well known name in the horror world was just that. Being a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award for “Jobs in Hell.” in 2001, and again in 2003 for his well received zombie tale “The Rising.” Then a 2004 Shocker Award (Non-Fiction) for “Sympathy For the Devil.” His list of works is staggering. I’m going to stop here for a long second and go into my consulting mode and do some arithmetic, 15 novels, 10 short story...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Nicholas rated it 4 of 5 stars

So......okay, Brian, I started reading this on a rainy day, just like you suggested, and, by the time I was finished, there was sun in the sky.
No kidding.
And that's very unlike The Conqueror Worms, because in it the rain never stops. Imagine that. Well, I guess, in this book you can more than imagine........
But before I get into all that, let's get into the blah blah blah, and I mean that very respectfully: firstly, Brian is an established ace at writing what he writes. I'd rather not pat him...more So......okay, Brian, I started reading this on a rainy day, just like you suggested, and, by the time I was finished, there was sun in the sky.
No kidding.
And that's very unlike The Conqueror Worms, because in it the rain never stops. Imagine that. Well, I guess, in this book you can more than imagine........
But before I get into all that, let's get into the blah blah blah, and I mean that very respectfully: firstly, Brian is an established ace at writing what he writes. I'd rather not pat him too much on the back for fear the swelling redness between his shoulder blades may make him wince in pain from all the countless other pats. He's got a plethora of notches under his literary belt and is one of today's outstanding voices in horror fiction. Two Stokers, an impressive body of work in few enough years to more than rival authors with twice as much longevity in the business....Keene is head and shoulders above his breed to date and there's no reason to believe he won't become a household name in time. That's the blah blah blah.
The Conqueror Worms is the first novel I'd read of his, and as for my assessment of it, here goes:
A man growing older in years and wrestling with a serious nicotine fit writes an account of his last days, from his personal point of view and exploits, of course, but these may likely be the last days of Mankind also. It seems that God has broken His promise to Noah that He'd destroy the Earth with water never ever again, and globally it's now rained constantly for more than forty days and nights, all it took to cover the world with H20 the first time, biblically. And this time, in this story.......
.......it's like Dante's Waterworld. (If I had the money, I'd open up a water theme park and call it just that, team up with Brian to make it something abysmally special.....)
Though clearly here there is no such thing as dry land, land does exist and it is the world's coastal areas that lie under a sea swallowing more of it each day. Now, we all know earthworms emerge from the earth when it rains. The rich, juicy element of genius in this book, in my opinion, is Keene's core idea: if it rains and the rain forces earthworms from the ground, then what will it force from out of the ground if it rained long enough?
In the lore of mankind's history, we imagine we get closer to hell the deeper into the earth we look. Brian looks deep into the earth. And like a magician pulling the obvious from out of a top hat, we get from the earth's inner reaches not merely earthworms but colossal carnivorous ones that make the sand worms of Herbert's Dune look like timid giants and these are their terrestrial progeny experiencing their terrible twos.
Very War of the Worlds, as Keene himself remarks in his narrative halfway through, and I was thinking along those lines myself though also more precisely Wyndham's Day of the Triffids. And there's a very nifty second act, where the author takes us away for awhile from the earthworm situation and introduces us to a new set of characters under similar circumstances, but where Satanist surfers, seductive mermaids and Lovecraftian underworld lords take the reader into a wild ride.
Though I prefer its original title (The Earthworm Gods), The Conqueror Worms is a staple for those who readily consume contemporary horror fiction, particularly, as Brian insists, to be read on a rainy day.
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Nov 16, 2012 Grey rated it 3 of 5 stars

A fast-paced horror of the B-movie variety. Yes, this one has an End Of The World scenario with monsters thrown in, which brings to mind similar settings found in classics like the Day Of The Triffids.
The End (upper caps "E") comes in the form of an endless (pun UNintended here) deluge across the world, much like the one in the bible; and the monsters are well, worms. And something else...
**dunn dunn DUNN**

The story is in the form of a journal written by an old man as he prepares to meet his end...more

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Jul 24, 2011 NJMetal rated it 3 of 5 stars

From the new master of horror, Brian Keene, brings "Darkness on the Edge of Town". Keene continues to hone his chops in new and inventive ways. This fast paces near novella is just long enough to keep it an honest novel and just short enough to keep the pace moving at the frantic speed necessary to tell the tale.

This could be seen as Keene's take on the "Under the Dome" premise. At first it seems that way but the story soon reveals itself to be not merely just a 'how do humans act when they are...more

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Jun 28, 2011 William M. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

3 and 1/2 STARS

This book is divided into 3 parts. I loved the first and third parts and was so-so with the second section. The idea of an 80 year old protagonist trapped up in the mountains in a secluded cabin after 42 days of constant rain was awesome. However, the story shifts to downtown Baltimore where a group of survivors begins to defend itself against... well, I won't give that away. I wasn't really buying everything -- but it was fun nonetheless.

I had issues with certain black ex-crimi...more

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Aug 10, 2010 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Eric by: Brian Keene

Shelves: contemporary, horror

Brian Keene's novel was fascinating to me for its deft use of the Corman-esque giant monsters as an effective and terrifying horror tool.

To his credit, Keene doesn't try to explain the central environmental gimmick of The Conqueror Worms. It has been raining for 43 days, and the world is flooding. Where did the water come from? No one knows. Since the degree of flooding described in the book isn't possible (even with melted ice caps, which we are told has not occured in this alternate Earth), an...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Jeremy Maddux rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Restored from its original print by an imagination-deprived marketing department, Earthworm Gods is allowed to breathe once more as raining and flooding of Biblical proportions swallow the land of man, replacing it with something entirely alien.

Now, Ted Garnett must do all he can to prolong the lives of him and his friends as they wage a one-sided battle against worms and aquatic menaces biology class failed to prepare them for.

Brian Keene writes on a 'need to know' basis. There is no flowery pr...more

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Jun 25, 2009 Kimberly Raiser rated it 5 of 5 stars

Incredibly vivid horror tale. I met Brian Keene recently and spoke on a panel with him at Hypericon. It was the actual first horror book I read. Incredible!!! It wasn't too gory, but kept you worried the entire time. I've recently purchased three more of his books. Stellar person as well as a writer!!!

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Dec 09, 2008 Sockmonkey rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone that enjoys stories about the end of the world.

Brian Keene is one of my favorite authors. He proved that with this book. He's really good with zombie stories but with me that's pretty easy. 1. Write story. 2. Insert zombies. If you follow these steps I'll probably at least kinda like it. But I needed proof that he was as good as I thought he was. That brings us to The Conqueror Worms. When I read the back cover I couldn't have been any less interested. Giant killer worms. Pass. But I figured if he could keep my interest then he was really th...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Kelleynotlp rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The Conqueror Worms" was my first foray into Keene country and overall I enjoyed it. It's basically the story of how undending rains and flooding bring about the end of the world and call forth ancient gods, a la Leviathan (Cthulhu/Kraken) and Behemoth (giant worms) and maybe other things around the world. I liked Keene's characters in this one. The elderly narrator was someone you cared about as were the two young protagonists who run into him later in the story. I also really liked how he mix...more

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May 02, 2012 Tarl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lovecraftian, horror

"A story about giant worms, could that be scary?" That's what I thought to myself when I decided to pick this book up and give it a read. The answer? Yes, yes it can, but it's also so much more than that. What ends up basically being three tales, you learn about a small group of survivors during the never ending rainfall that plagues the globe.
I admit, the first part of this book struck me as interesting and believable, but as soon as we got into the second tale I was left feeling like the book...more "A story about giant worms, could that be scary?" That's what I thought to myself when I decided to pick this book up and give it a read. The answer? Yes, yes it can, but it's also so much more than that. What ends up basically being three tales, you learn about a small group of survivors during the never ending rainfall that plagues the globe.
I admit, the first part of this book struck me as interesting and believable, but as soon as we got into the second tale I was left feeling like the book had just taken a turn into something completely different. Suddenly what had been realistic up until that point, things were suddenly quite the opposite. Keene however, does a good job continuing on with the story and given the moments where I was left wondering what I was reading, the characters and plot continued on in a pleasant manner.
And then it happens again.
And again.
And again.
It's not until the third story that we get an idea about what is going on, and suddenly we get a small picture about why everything that is going on is going on. Is it satisfactory? Sitting here looking at the book, I don't feel it is. Something just doesn't feel resolved about the story and the way that the creatures in it were handled.

But again, Keene handles the story well, and the characters are really well done, so despite that feeling, I still give this book a high rating because it IS a good story. It's a scary story and it still makes me look up at the sky when the rain is falling and wonder just what would happen if it did continue on, never stopping.
One issue is the dialogue, which though excellent, is unbelievable at the climax of the story or at moments where the character's lives are threatened. Here are situations where the slightest fault would cause the character to lose their lives, where every moment would decide the character's fate, and they are talking.
And talking.
There were a couple moments where I was left wondering what the monsters were doing while the characters were babbling on and on and on. I'm sorry, but if you need to get out of a building that is going to be destroyed in a matter of heartbeats, you're not going to sit there and talk about what you are going to do, then debate it, then say your goodbyes while convincing others to flee without you.

One last complaint. Keene's use of size in this book. Both of his larger creatures are described as being huge, and then are given against something that makes them out to be far smaller than he had initially described them. Something that can swallow a house whole apparently has a twenty foot wide mouth, which immediately dragged me from story as I wondered just how that could be. Sea creatures that are supposed to be massive exist in a surprisingly small amount of water that shouldn't have been able to cover their bulk. All in all, it's very distracting and detracts from the story.

But despite the faults of the story, it continues to be a good story and one I would read again. Keene's a excellent writer and does a good job creating believable characters and for the most part, believable situations. One of his earlier books, his inexperience shows a bit in his writing, but you can also see the abilities that helped him to become a widely read author and a name in the horror genre. (less)

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Mar 15, 2010 Thee_ron_clark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: other-horror

My faith in Brian Keene has returned.

A few years back, I caught a bit of this book at one of Keene's readings and I just recently got around to picking it up. I should not have waited.

The story is that it begins to rain one day all over the planet and never stops. The concept is that if a day of rain brings earthworms out, 40 days will bring out some really big earthworms and more.

Although it gets silly in a few places, I still found this to be an enjoyable, well-written story with a lot of in...more

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Aug 20, 2007 Rick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

This book was so much fun to read. Monster worms, Lovecraftian horror and the Apocalypse all at once, told by a dying old man. Superb.

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Feb 27, 2009 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: apocalyptic-lit people

Shelves: horror

I'll never, ever take my fishbait for granted anymore. That is all. Great book!

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Apr 24, 2013 Paris Chávez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think this was the book I was waiting for from Keene. I have been reading his books for a while now, and they have always been ok, but never really struck me as great.
Well now, I really liked this one. It' still very Keene, his books tend to revolve around the end of the world and so on. Perhaps I loved the worm theme, and it reminded me of the crates I raise of the slimy things slithering through rotten sludge. Regardless, I loved it. I recommend it to anyone that likes these kind of things....more

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Oct 14, 2012 Hellions rated it 3 of 5 stars

Here we have yet another end-of-the-world scenario from Keene. A deluge of biblical proportions hits our planet and monsters start surfacing and feasting. Suspension of disbelief is an immediate problem as the narrator is a dying elderly man who writes down his testimony in a spiral notebook under extreme conditions and in less than a day, he's written a full novel... The characterizations are marred by mediocre melodrama and the tension never materializes which is rather fatal for a horror nove...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Daniel Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reads-since-the-big-move

The Keeneathon continues with his 2006 book, The Conqueror Worms. Now, when people mention Brian, they usually ask if you’ve read The Rising. The Rising is considered to be his ‘hit’, but after fellow readers have enquired about The Rising, the next one, I’ve found, is The Conqueror Worms.

I thought that The Rising was okay. My preferred Keene book so far has been The Ghoul, which was reviewed earlier this month. Could Worms take the crown?

Teddy, and 80 year old man living alone in West Pennsylv...more The Keeneathon continues with his 2006 book, The Conqueror Worms. Now, when people mention Brian, they usually ask if you’ve read The Rising. The Rising is considered to be his ‘hit’, but after fellow readers have enquired about The Rising, the next one, I’ve found, is The Conqueror Worms.

I thought that The Rising was okay. My preferred Keene book so far has been The Ghoul, which was reviewed earlier this month. Could Worms take the crown?

Teddy, and 80 year old man living alone in West Pennsylvania, is writing. Cold, wet and injured, he intends to record his story before his injuries take his life. What a story he has to tell. The rains started all over the world over a month ago. Tsunamis destroyed the coastlines, and most of the mainland has flooded, leaving bands of survivors stranded on mountain peaks or the tops of high rises. The rains aren’t just the only thing that has come: sea monsters have emerged from the depths, and from the earth come the giant worms.

The Conqueror Worms is a very intimate story, and we stick close to Teddy for the first and final acts. We have an elderly man, alone and afraid, trying to survive. It doesn’t get any simpler. And to have an old man as the hero, it adds to the characterisation in spades. He’s suffering from nicotine withdrawal and the usual aches and pains of old age. Plus, he has to deal with the probable loss of his children and grandchildren as well as watching the rains destroy his house and the keepsakes of his marriage. To be honest, the giant creatures and action were a bonus. Teddy’s plight had meat enough to keep this reader turning the pages.

Keene’s cast of supporting characters are well above average here. Carl, Teddy’s best friend, is likeable enough, and Earl next door is a crazy, shotgun toting, conspirator theorist. Good stuff.

Things change in the second act as we leave Teddy and co on the moment fending off the worms. Now we see how a band of survivors in a coastal city have fared. There are two rival groups: a bunch of peaceful people living in the top few floors of a hotel, and the group they’ve dubbed the Satanists. The Satanists are into chants and human sacrifice.

Welcome to the Lovecraft lite! This part of the story in particular is very, very Lovecraft (thing Dagon) and Keene succeeds in putting his own stamp on things. You can see that this is Lovecraft inspired, not Lovecraft ripped off. While this bit may be seen like padding, a digressing romp to get the story up to novel length, I loved it. It actually worked to get away from the worms before it got repetitive, deal with the sea monsters, and then get back to some finale wormage. For me it worked.

The only thing that annoyed me here is Keene’s insistence on putting gang members into every situation. The yo, yo, yo, dawg dialogue gets very annoying very quickly. Maybe this was why I enjoyed The Ghoul so much, it was set before hip hop.

The Conqueror Worms ends nice and satisfying, yet still has the legs for a sequel (no pun intended). A few strands of the story were not fully explained and their potential not leapt upon, very similar to Sarah Pinborough’s Breeding Ground which I reviewed this week. Two post-apocalyptic novels back to back? Yes, it’s all been doom and gloom! Funnily enough, since I started The Conqueror Worms two days ago, it’s done nothing but rain…

In answer to my earlier question, yes, I think that The Conqueror Worms is by far my favourite Brian Keene book thus far. I think I read the first 100 pages in one uninterrupted sitting. I hate to say this, as I’m against this kind of thing, but if this book was twice as long and more ‘literary’, it really could have made some waves in the mainstream. As it stands now, we have a fast paced cracker that’s as tight as…well…an asshole in a bucket of worms.
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Feb 23, 2007 marc rated it 4 of 5 stars

giant earthworms terrorize senior citizens. fuck yeah.

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Jun 16, 2009 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Despite the lame name, this was a good book! And despite the plot - the world flooded for weeks straight leaving only mountain-top island pockets of humanity, some monsters and the narration of an 8-something year old survivor addicted to tobacco chew.

Yet the narrative grew on me. And interestingly, the middle third of the book was like a separate story narrated by someone younger, and it didn't had a "tidy" predictable ending and I liked that. Combined with the fact that I personally enjoy post...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Fred Kirchner rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes it's good to pick up a book from a genre you've long ignored and read a good old-fashioned page turner. I came across this author reviewing graphic novels for my library job. A decent read, but not very scary, more sickout and suspenseful, and a well drawn-out protagonist. The author reaches, nobly, for mythic and Biblical resonances in his symbolism and plotting and epigrams and allusions, but the book's about worms... It's hard to get past that. Hilarious cover that strikes a blow ag...more

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May 09, 2012 Christopher Hivner rated it 4 of 5 stars

In The Conqueror Worms, it has been raining for over 40 days. Everything is flooded except for high elevations. The first half of the book is told by an 80 year old man living in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia, Teddy. He is joined by his best friend Carl, when Carl's house is swallowed up by a sink hole. They soon find out that besides the rain and flooding, they have to deal with giant worms coming up from underground. Then there is a helicopter crash near Teddy's house and they are...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Paulo Carvalho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: apocalyptic-post-apocalyptic, horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. After reading Dead Sea I start reading this book. I still have to read The Hollow, Ghoul and Dark Hollow and the anthology the Rising (arriving this next week). The others I don't have... Maybe after reading this ones... I must save money...

Well this book is a homage (is it?) to Lovecraft and it's Cthulhu Mythos. That and the makeover of the Flood by... God. (Of course it's also Brian Keene Mythos expanding...)

The story again it's in the first person point of view. Again (in a good way) it's a n...more After reading Dead Sea I start reading this book. I still have to read The Hollow, Ghoul and Dark Hollow and the anthology the Rising (arriving this next week). The others I don't have... Maybe after reading this ones... I must save money...

Well this book is a homage (is it?) to Lovecraft and it's Cthulhu Mythos. That and the makeover of the Flood by... God. (Of course it's also Brian Keene Mythos expanding...)

The story again it's in the first person point of view. Again (in a good way) it's a not typical main character. It's a old man with more than 80 years. I enjoy that. First in Dead Sea and now on this book.

The book is divided in three parts... The first part starts in the end and the main character starts telling what made him write that book.. The main character is called Teddy Garrett. The first part of the book is how the main character and his friend Carl Seaton do to survive. Teddy and Carl are joined by Kevin and Sarah who survived the crash of their helicopter due to the insane actions of another survivor, Earl Harper.

The second part is the tale of Kevin and Sarah. I Think this is better than the first. We are told how they survive in a world that is slowing drowing because it's raining for forty days. Every character as a thought of why it's happening. Then we are awarded with the Lovecraftian monsters .... Giant Worms coming out of the mud. Mermaids enchanting persons and driving them mad and even a Leviathan. This was a fast-paced part and I think the only flaw of the books is the first part. I think it's too long.

The third part begins with them all together and again we are presented with an Lovecraftian ending. In the end as he ends the book we are as Dead Sea presented with a open-ending (it's word right?). The ending makes you think what happened to the three characters that could be alive... As Dead Sea, Herr Keene can comeback to it...

I can see him making a couple of short stories with this world... I would enjoy it.

There are several thing that I enjoyed.. First the monsters. Then the magic and bible references and the alusories that they bring. Third the Lovecraftian theme. Excelent. Then the fast paced second part. (I would enjoy reading more of that world or other monsters). Then the "Satanists". Here Brian Keene starts telling that the satanists hunts and sacrifices people to their dark sea gods but then he show us that he indeed knows what are satanists and what they believe. Maybe he is trying to remove some bad relations to them. Unfortunaly there some young and not that young people that say they are satanits and they are only couple of anarchists with painted white face and red lips trying to be cool...

The other thing that I noticed was "The Sons of Constitution" reference. This is the second book of Keene that says something about them... I wonder why...

Well in the end was an interesting book without zombies but good nevertheless. The next book is going to be the anthology of the Rising.(less)

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Aug 08, 2010 Kasia S. rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was my first time reading Brian Keene, and I was excited! I wanted to like this story, giant worms eating everything in their path, end of the world and nature's victory over human power...Unfortunately I felt deceived by the title and about what really happened in the book - where are the worms? They were mere filler barely getting any attention, I felt like this was a worm version of Where is Waldo, tough to spot with many pages that did not belong there.

It started off interesting, I was...more

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Sep 27, 2008 Dirk rated it 3 of 5 stars

A bleak horror story. It starts raining and doesn’t stop. When the book starts it’s been raining for something like 40 days and most of the world is flooded. The first third of the book is written from the perspective of an 80 year old dude that lives alone up the mountains of West Virginia. The closest town to his home is underwater and there are giant worms going around eating whoever or whatever is left.

Then the book jumps over to a flooded Baltimore where a young video store clerk is living...more

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May 21, 2008 Kristen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

After reading “Ghoul,” “The Rising,” and its sequel, I was very excited to read more from Brian Keene. When I received this book in the mail I stared at the cover with concern… there were giant earthworms attacking a skyscraper? I was a bit concerned at that point… I mean… I hoped it was just bad cover art. So I started reading.

The book is cut up into 3 parts, the first part is an 80 year old man telling what has happened, 40 or so days of non-stop rain, towns flooding and disappearing, followe...more After reading “Ghoul,” “The Rising,” and its sequel, I was very excited to read more from Brian Keene. When I received this book in the mail I stared at the cover with concern… there were giant earthworms attacking a skyscraper? I was a bit concerned at that point… I mean… I hoped it was just bad cover art. So I started reading.

The book is cut up into 3 parts, the first part is an 80 year old man telling what has happened, 40 or so days of non-stop rain, towns flooding and disappearing, followed by the loneliness of isolation. He finally gains a comrade and we follow their tale as they gather a few more survivors. Then we cut immediately to part 2 of the story, the tale of the survivors up to that point. From reading the other reviews, most people didn’t seem to like this part of the story. I actually preferred it to the last 1/3 even if it did go a bit over the top. Well… WAY over the top. Once we finish their tale up, we hop on over to the 3rd bit which is the conclusion back at the 80 year old man’s house. The ending of this book will upset many readers, not just because of the downer that it is… but mainly because nothing is ever explained.

This book is fairly well written, you become semi-concerned for a few of the characters, although in truth there is really very little difference between them. My biggest problem with this novel is that it went from “semi-believable creature feature” to “way over the top fantasy.” Even though they didn’t frighten me or even interest me, I was okay with the worms… I was even okay with the giant squid… but the mermaid was really pushing it… then “possession by earthworm” really pushed it over the top. My suspension of disbelief didn’t stretch that far. Perhaps if I had known ahead that this was a bit more “fantastical” than the others I could have bought into it. On the whole I would not recommend this book as an intro to Keene, his zombie books are so much stronger. I’ll give this book 3 of 5 stars because although it really wasn’t my cup of tea, I didn’t hate it rather I was indifferent to most of it.
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Oct 24, 2009 Wendy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. When I first got the book and saw the cheesy cover with the giant earthworms I thought "Give me a break." But I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. I have always loved Post Apocalyptic books so that probably helped. I loved the main character. I enjoyed how the story changed in the middle and we go to see another point of view and I even liked the way that the book ended, although normally I would be upset that we are left wondering.

All in all a good read. I...more

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About Brian Keene

BRIAN KEENE is the author of over twenty-five books, including Darkness on the Edge of Town, Take The Long Way Home, Urban Gothic, Castaways, Kill Whitey, Dark Hollow, Dead Sea, and The Rising. He’s also written comic books such as The Last Zombie, Doom Patrol and Dead of Night: Devil Slayer. His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French and Taiwanese.

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Quotes from The Conqueror Worms

“Save it fucker. I'm gonna slit you open and gut you like a fish and pull out your insides. I'm going to show you the black stuff inside your belly, and then I'm gonna make you eat it.” — 8 people liked it

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The Conqueror Worms (The Earthworm Gods #1)

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