Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

From the Publisher

“CARRION COMFORT is one of the three greatest horror novels of the 20th century. Simple as that.” --Stephen King

"CARRION COMFORT is one of the scariest books ever written.  Whenever I get the question asked Who's your favorite author? my answer is always Dan Simmons." --James Rollins

"Epic in scale and scope but intimately disturbing, CARRION COMFORT spans the ages to rewrite history and tug at the very fabric of reality. A nightmarish chronicle of predator and prey that will shatter your world view forever.  A true classic." --Guillermo del Toro

THE PAST...  Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp.  Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi’s themselves…

THE PRESENT...  Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul has spanned decades and crossed continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who throughout the ages have hidden in our midst and may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events.  Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to 'use' humans: read their minds, subjugatethem to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable violence.  Each year, three of the most powerful members of this hidden order meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and slaughter.  But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul’s quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the darkest depths of mankind’s attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself…

Publishers Weekly

The second novel by World Fantasy Award-winner Simmons ( The Song of Kali ) is a 636-page 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). Opposing them are Saul Laski, a psychologist and concentration-camp survivor, who is devoted to tracking down the Nazi vampire von Borchert; Natalie Preston, whose father inadvertently and fatally crossed the path of a pawn of the ancient, dotty vampire Melanie Fuller; Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry, dragged in while investigating the multiple murders that marked the departure of Melanie Fuller from Charleston; and a host of other normals and vampires whose lives impinge on those of the principals. While he could profitably have trimmed the novel by a third, Simmons has produced, overall, a compelling thriller. (Apr.)

What People Are Saying

Harlan Ellison
For those of us to whom great writing is everything, the name Dan Simmons bears great weight.

Greg Bear
Carrion Comfort is a fascinating, disturbing, and endlessly entertaining novel. Dan Simmons is already turning out major works. One wonders what he will doing ten years from now.

Dean R. Koontz
Dan Simmons is brilliant.

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