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Brian Keene
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Matt
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Feb 17, 2010 10:01AM
I love his books
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So do I. I can't get enough of 'em.Loved: The Rising, The Rising: Selected scenes (Short stories having to do with The Rising & the other books), what I read of City of the Dead, Dead Sea, The Conqueror Worms.
Liked: Darkness on the Edge of Town
Hated: Castaways, Ghoul.
I plan on reading more, but it is very hard for me to get my hands on any of his books short of buying them...:(
Me, too. Well, most of them. I'm reading Darkness on the Edge of Town. Great character development even though the dystopian plot has been used many times before.Loved: The Rising, City of the Dead, Dead Sea, The Conqueror Worms, Terminal
Liked: Dark Hollow, Ghoul, Ghost Walk
Hated: Urban Gothic, Castaways
I do plan to read more of his books.
Matt, which books have you read and liked?
I've only read "The Conqueror Worms" which was great and have just started The Rising which is starting out well.2 hater votes for Castaway. What's it about and why's it so awful? It's in the tbr pile so let me know if I should skip it. I'll never live long enough to read all of these books anyway.
Castaways is about contestants in a Survivor-type show that get killed off one by one. It's as boring as it sounds. It almost seems like it wasn't even written by Keene, who otherwise is a good writer.
LinBee wrote: "I plan on reading more, but it is very hard for me to get my hands on any of his books short of buying them...:("
Buying them? What a novel approach! :-)
Maybe it's better if you imagine them as Gilligan, the Skipper, the Professor, Ginger, Mary Anne, and Mr and Mrs Howell.
William, some young people are on a budget. They're not all rich like we are.
Tressa wrote: "William, some young people are on a budget. They're not all rich like we are."LOL, yet too cheap to by a 50$ book?! Sorry Tressa, had to take a jab :P
I'm rich for a reason, Jerrod. You should take notes.
Tressa wrote: "I'm rich for a reason, Jerrod. You should take notes."Don't need to, I make enough and live well within my means.
I'm just kidding. I'm not rich, just an average middle-class girl.
Tressa wrote: "I'm just kidding. I'm not rich, just an average middle-class girl."Oh I'm rich, but it's not measured in monetary value.
Jerrod wrote: "Oh I'm rich, but it's not measured in monetary value." You are wise beyond your years, Grasshopper.
i>Tressa wrote: "Me, too. Well, most of them. I'm reading Darkness on the Edge of Town. Great character development even though the dystopian plot has been used many times before.Loved: The Rising, City of the De..."
im currently reading The Rising and ive read Castaways, The Conqueror Worms
Keene is hit and miss for me, but even his lesser books are better than most. I really like his diversity of writing.
Tressa wrote: "Keene is hit and miss for me, but even his lesser books are better than most. I really like his diversity of writing. "i like the rising but i have to agree with u on castaways
1. I work for the county...so not rich. We're on a tight budget as it is. I get yelled at if I buy books. (especially since I work for the library.)2. I have so many books at home already, I have to get rid of some before I can get more.
3. If I hate the book, I will be really pissed that I spent the money for it.
But yes, buying books is a very novel idea. Hell, I found 2 Jack Ketchums here for $.50 a pop. Gotta love donations.
I just finished Kill Whitey. It was short but enjoyable.
Lin, I find it very hard to buy books when I can get them for free at the library. I only buy bizarro and books I enjoyed so much I want to collect them. My husband works at a library too and I yell at him when he buys too many Star Trek or military books.
The Rising was absolutely INSANE! Haven't picked up City of the Dead though. I just recently bought Urban Gothic. People say they hated it, but we will see if I do.
Tressa wrote: "Lin, I find it very hard to buy books when I can get them for free at the library. I only buy bizarro and books I enjoyed so much I want to collect them. My husband works at a library too and I yel..."That's exactly it. My husband starts yelling that I work in a library, why the heck do I need to buy books for! I only try to buy books that I want to collect or keep. I will only buy (I bought Meat by D'Lacey) if I really want to read it (and that came highly recommended by you!), and can't get it any other way. (I couldn't ILL it.) Though, "Ghoul" is on it's way, and I put in for "Conqueror Worms" & "Dark Hollow" yesterday.
I am also Brian Kneene addict and had bought all his work so far. I really love his plain style of writing and think if I wrote like he did, I might have been more successful with my first book. His work had always been clear and direct which explains why he gained so much readers.
Derek wrote: "The Rising was absolutely INSANE! Haven't picked up City of the Dead though. I just recently bought Urban Gothic. People say they hated it, but we will see if I do."u should get The City of the Dead cuz then u find out wat happens to Danny
I'll have to go pick it up soon! I hated how he ended The Rising so abruptly, with what I thought was an unnecessary cliffhanger. Oh well. I guess whatever you have to do to leave it open for a sequel!
Derek wrote: "I'll have to go pick it up soon! I hated how he ended The Rising so abruptly, with what I thought was an unnecessary cliffhanger. Oh well. I guess whatever you have to do to leave it open for a ..."That's true, it was pretty abrupt! I was reading, got to the end, and was like wth! Then I realised I had to track down City of the Dead, and was kind of relieved. But it was kind of irritating.
Just is still out for me with Brian. I loved the first and third parts of Conquerer Worms, and found the middle part good. I have yet to read anything else of his though. The Rising has been sitting on my shelf for a good 6 months though.
u should totally read it i thought the rising was amazing!!!!!
I plan to, just right now it doesn't "fit in" with me old brain, so it will have to wait a tad still. But I have all intentions in reading it. It's certain others of his I doubt I would pick up, like that Urban Gothic sounds like one I will continue to avoid.
I just finished Darkness on the Edge of Town. Not as good as some of his earlier books. He's getting to be hit or miss with me. It's not a terrible book, just not much original in it.I think Urban Gothic is his worst.
That DARKNESS is short! I was surprised when I saw it was only 200 some odd pages!
Now that you mention it it is a little shorter than most books. Two hundred sixty-four pages.
And isn't only a part of that the actual story? If I remember right, the story itself is only about 230 pages, if even.
Just looked and the actual story is 264. You might be getting the numbers mixed up because there is a teaser about his next book in the back and it is about 30 pages long. Just read the teaser for A Gathering of Crows: looks interesting.
Yeah, the Gathering of Crows looks good. I started reading that teaser right after I got the Darkness book. Right now, I have Ghoul because it's an ILL, but I have Darkness at home too. It looks like a mix of a Twilight zone episode and something else I can't place at the moment. I returned Urban Gothic unread because I have so many others to read, and since some people whose opinions I value said it wasn't that good...I'm going to put it on the back burner for later.
Just flip through Urban Gothic for the gory parts in the abandoned house. That's what I did.Darkness did sort of read like a Twilight Zone episode where something weird happens to a small town and the citizens go wild and start attacking. I guess it's sort of like Under the Dome in a small way, too.
read the rising , and City of the Dead , Ghoul all of which I really liked ,I have Dark hollow sitting here on my To Read Shelf ,but I read that many different types of books it could take me a while to get round to it.
Brian knows what his fans wants- and usually delivers with a solid punch.
Yeah, I'll give him that. And most times his books are great reads: The Conqueror Worms and his zombie novels. Don't get me started on Urban Gothic (?).
I just finished Conqueror Worms, and I must say I really enjoyed it! I find he generally seems to do better with the books featuring The 13, than he does with those stand alones (Castaways, etc.) He's very good at apocalyptic! And I did like Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was a good short read, but not too in-depth, and not that well developed. But I liked it ok.
That's the perfect description of Darkness on the Edge of Town and why I didn't enjoy it. I like deeper characters and a better developed plot.
It had some potential, maybe if it had been longer. I like his post-apocalyptic books, anything to do with The 13. It was for me a bit of mind garbage in-between the meatier books.
For all those who hate the new trend of adding Zombies (& other things to classics), The Rising (without Zombies):http://jeffstrand.wordpress.com/2010/...
(Posted on Mr. Keene's own blog)
That was hilarious, thanks for posting the link.
It seems very short was something missing from the story?
It seems very short was something missing from the story? The zombie.
Man, those Jeff Strand books look good. I need to put them on my list. I read Pressure and loved it.
The rising was a very good read , fast paced and you never knew who was going to get it next , zombie birds , was a new one to me ,then I seen the same thing in Stephen Kings The Stand a few months after I had read the Rising.
Horror Aficionados
Books mentioned in this topic
The Conqueror Worms (other topics)A Rage for Revenge (other topics)
A Season for Slaughter (other topics)
A Day for Damnation (other topics)
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