Dull

There’s a lot of ‘heaving breasts’ it’s just all a bit dated. Didn’t hold my interest at all. Couldn’t get into it.

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Tolerable

A rather meandering and disjointed work, not up to the standard of the same author's brilliant later book The Terror. There are some quite spooky passages and a very enjoyable 'background noise' of erudite and literary mysticism. There are one or two startling images. There are also gruellingly tedious sections. A boring car chase that goes on forever. Many apparently unself-aware sections about that parodically quintessential trope of 'serious' literary fiction, a middle-aged professor having an affair with a much younger female student. Yawn. The protagonist is profoundly unlikeable and he comes up against multiple thinly drawn characters who are not much more than clichés, some of which are misogynistic depictions. In line with the author's politics there is much pointless and juvenile sniping at 'political correctness' and some rather embarrassing satire (I guess?) of artsy intellectual lefty types. The author clearly thinks he is landing hits against PC attitudes to Native Americans yet doesn't notice that he is himself actually doing what he's attacking others for doing. Even so, the central mystery is sufficiently unusual and interesting to get you through. The reader does an okay job but doesn't sell the scary bits.

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Gloomier, darker than the first one

Simmons writes the tale of a follow up to Summer of Night in a different tone. No Stephen King here: it’s the Scandi Noir version. The innocence of childhood has gone, just a gloomy author at the end of several unrewarding avenues in his life, who returns, un-remembering to the same place 42 years later. If SoN was a tale of American confidence at the height of the American century, then this is post industrial America, it’s values and self confidence hollowed our, the town a ghost of its former vibrancy.
Simmons riffs throughout on the story by James that plays out across the pages: is the alter ego demonic, mad and unconscionable or is the “hero” of the story just a loser for having none of these qualities?

As you can gather it’s a much lower tone book than SoN, so if you do read, you know what to expect. Having said that, I enjoyed it immensely, and will give the next one a go.

The performance is strong throughout, matching the mood of the book very well.

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2 people found this helpful

well plotted more or less, poorly written

Not a bad plot though there are points inthe text where one is tempted to think ‘oh really? are you kidding me’? well, some wounds do bleed a lot but are superficial I suppose but still, what I don’t like about it is that the author seems to think his readers are stupid that is to say, two people in one room and yet he insists on telling us who ‘said’ this and who ‘said’ that as if we need reminded of the fact that if one stops speaking then the other must reply or respond or whatever and that we can’t follow dialogue that closely. There’s way too much of the ‘he said’ ‘she said’ routine that’s common among authors so, as i say, good enough plot mostly, very poorly executed. It’s a shame really since there’s a lot of intelligence within the text which makes you think it ought to have been better written in terms of dialogue and the editor might be to blame. Performance? Well, there are odd sentences which have obviously been re-recorded after the original text was written, the sound quality is different so I can’t give it a full five stars though the narration is actually very good that apart.

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Sequel to "Summer of Night" - Read it First!

As noted above this was the sequel, and I would recommend you read/listen to it first as there are a lot of references to it here.

This book was like discovering an old photo album and re-uniting with friends you hadn't seen since childhood. Reliving the incidents of the kids' summer was great and reminded me of old school holidays when you were pretty much left to yourself all day.

Dale has grown up now and returns to the house of one of his friends to write about that summer. We are re-introduced to background characters who now play pivotal roles in the town and Dale is never quite sure who to trust. Enjoy it, I did!

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9 people found this helpful

An original and unexpected treat

Currently immersed in uncanny literature so this was recommended. This book and performance have the entertaining qualities of prime Stephen king but with a lyrical voice that make it a truly top quality novel!

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1 person found this helpful

Gripping story

I found this story truly gripping and literally couldn’t stop listening. Bronson Pinchot had my total attention, his narration was perfect, bringing clarity to each character, he was a pleasure to listen to.

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What a gem

Great story telling. Solid story line, brilliant reading. I can’t fault this audio book. I am going to search the library for more work by the author.

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Good low key follow-up to Summer of Night.

Interesting, if not particularly scary story, well paced with an excellent perfomance by Bronson Pinchot.

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2 people found this helpful

Disappointing after Summer of Night

I really enjoyed Summer of Night, but thought this sequel was not quite as good. I discovered Dan Simmons through The Terror, which was by far the best book of his.

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