Before The Strain was adapted into an award winning TV series and comic book collection, the vampire apocalypse trilogy débuted with ultra-creepy novel The Strain in 2009, which was the first book to be authored by Mexican born, Hollywood horror/sci-fi director Guillermo Del Toro (Blade 2, Pacific Rim) and co-authored by acclaimed American crime writer Chuck Hogan (Devils in Exile, Killing Moon) whose bestselling crime novel The Town became a movie. The creative combination of these writers results in a predictably violent yet disturbing vampire story that realistically shows humanity’s propensity for intense cruelty and evil towards itself.
SPOILER ALERT: MAD SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED THE TRILOGY
The horror begins when a commercial jet from Berlin, Germany; Regis Air Boeing 777 mysteriously blacks out a few minutes after landing at JFK Airport in New York, USA. All of the planes lights are off so its pitch black inside the cabin and cockpit, all attempts for radio communication on multiple frequencies failed, even cellphone calls to crew and passengers go unanswered, all the window blinds are down except for one and there is absolutely no movement inside the plane.
After authorities conclude that this could be some sort of terrorist attack, they call in a SWAT team and two personnel from the Centre for Disease Control to force their way into the plane but instead of crazy terrorists they discover the plane has become a tomb. All crew and passengers appear dead but there are no signs of fighting anywhere in the plane or distress on any of the dead people’s faces, it’s as if they died instantly when the plane touched down. Dr. Ephraim “Eph” Goodweather, the books lead character is one of the CDC doctors accompanying the SWAT team. He reluctantly rushed to the airport after seeing the plane on TV news, leaving behind his disappointed 11 year son old Zachary Goodweather at home, whom he fought a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife Kelly Goodweather to see a few times a month. Eph soon forgets his guilt after he and co-worker Dr.Nora Martinez sweep through the cabin inspecting the bodies with Ultra Violet light wands, and discover a handful of unconscious survivors which include a rich and famous dark metal rock star named Bolivier.
At this point, there is a global media orgy concerning Regis Air 777 but the world’s attention quickly shifts to a spectacular natural occurrence, a total solar eclipse or occultation. The shadows path ended in New York, where thousands of New Yorkers had gathered in parks and rooftops to see the brief eclipse. The plane was already quarantined in a hangar during the occultation and from there some of the corpses were taken to different morgues around New York. But not before Eph and Nora noticed a lot of weird things about them like no signs of early stage decomposition, and the inspectors also found a giant wooden coffin with intricate, gothic style carvings of terrified, twisted faces in the plane’s cargo hold which was unaccounted for in the flight manifest.
The coffin was forcefully carved by a Jewish WWII holocaust survivor turned vampire hunter Mr. Abraham Setrakian, during his internment at a Nazi concentration camp in Germany as a young man. Setrakian is now a sick, frail old man who owns a pawn store in a dodgy party of New York. His frail physical condition is made worse by his mangled fingers which were all broken during his first battle against the books evil villain; a sadistic vampire overlord called The Master. Setrakian is one of the few humans in the world who understands the sinister connection between the airplane deaths and the occultation. But despite Setrakian’s weak physical condition, his frailty is overcompensated by his innate knowledge of the strigoi (vampires) such as their history, anatomy, strengths and weaknesses. When vampire poop hits the fan, this wisdom made him an invaluable tool and humanity’s last hope through most of the story.
The public starts panicking again when the dead bodies from Regis Air 777 all go missing from the morgues. The dazed survivors also can’t explain what happened on the plane and matters are made worse when they too disappear after discharging themselves from hospital. The missing bodies eventually show up, right at the doorsteps of their loved ones, as newly turned vampires, while some run around naked attacking people in public places like Times Square and infecting them with the fast spreading vampire virus. Within a month, New York and America is infected with this virus and a few months after that, the strigoi have taken over the entire world with The Master ruling everything.
The authors go into pain staking detail to scientifically describe the vampire anatomy and the nature of the virus, which can be spread by worms that ooze out of vampire wounds. The main delivery mechanism of these vampire worms is a muscular retractable stinger which is actually a refined human tongue, the strigoi use this long stinger to strike at uninfected targets several meters away. The strigoi have excellent night vision, are able to communicate telepathically and they have an extra-long middle finger ending with a thick, talon like nail which they use like hooks to scale up vertical walls. Though they have varying levels of intelligence, strength and agility depending on how long they’ve been infected, all strigoi in the vampire hierarchy are telepathically linked to The Master via a hive mind, and through the eyes and ears of every strigoi in the world The Master sees and hears everything. The Master also calculated the exact number of humans to be kept alive so the vampire population wouldn’t exhaust its food source. Most of these remaining humans are merely vampire livestock, hoarded into blood camps run by the Stoneheart Group to be systematically bred, fed and bled.
The vampires aren’t entirely invincible though, they have four weaknesses mainly; good ol' fashion silver, their pale white skin burns under sunlight or artificial UV light and they’re unable to cross large bodies of water without human assistance.
They’re main weakness is the Occido Lumen, a rarely seen ancient, silver covered book which contains the true history of the origin of the vampire race and the secret to destroying them forever. But before people could regroup and fight back, The Master, with the help of old, sick dying billionaire Eldridge Palmer whom the master promised eternal life as a vampire and joint rule of the planet once vampires rule the world, sets of a series of nuclear meltdowns starting with a nuclear power station owned by Palmer’s Stoneheart Group.
The nuclear explosions expel thick black clouds into the sky which eventually encircle the entire planet and block out vampire purging sunlight, heralding a nightmarish nuclear winter. This allows the vampires to comfortably wreak havoc on the surface for at least 22 hours a day, but they quickly retreat to the darkness for two hours daily when faint sunrays filter through the acid raining, radioactive clouds.
Two years after the nuclear explosions and the strigoi claimed the planet, the only remaining hope for humanity in this lightless world is for Setrakian and his new team of unlikely allies to find the Occido Lumen. These allies are; Eph and Nora, a rat exterminator named Fet, a Mexican thug named Gus and a rogue vampire named Mr.Quanlain who has an ancient dispute to settle with The Master. This awkward group of heroes is supported by a council of six vampires called The Ancients who view The Master as a threat to their existence and the traditional vampire way of life which is to rule humanity unseen from the shadows.
By the time the story gets to the final book, it all comes down to a race for the Occido Lumen, a race that will seal the fate of either mankind or strigoi, depending on who reads the book first. If it is The Master he will destroy The Ancients and rule his vampire kingdom with impunity, if it is Setrakian he will know how to permanently destroy The Master and the rest of the strigoi kind. At this stage of the story, the only questions on my mind as I frantically turned the pages were; who will find the Occido Lumen first? What secrets does it hold about the origin of the vampire race? And who wrote it?
The answers were just as twisted as the ending.
Authors: Chuck Hogan & Guillermo Del Toro
Genre: Alternative Fiction/Horror
Year: 2009 to 2011
Rating: 5/5
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