Viccar
01-26-2004, 08:25 PM
A long time ago, Dan Simmons took me to a little town in Illinois named Elm Haven in the book "Summer of Night". Here he introduced me to a cast of characters that eventually would reappear one by one in later books. The latest is Dale Stewart in "A Winter Haunting".
While "A Winter Haunting" can be read as a stand alone book, reading "Summer of Night" isn't a bad idea, just to give you a feel of what happened to Elm Haven and Dale's childhood friend Duane.
If you've never read a Dan Simmons book, your missing out. He tends to cross over between horror and Sci Fi. Although I've never read any of his sci fi, I've heard a lot of great reviews about the Hyperion series.
If you do like horror, then pick up this book. It's an enjoyable read that all comes to a rather suprising ending in the last chapter.
Here's the description from Amazon:
A once-respected college professor and novelist, Dale Stewart has sabotaged his career and his marriage -- and now darkness is closing in on him. In the last hours of Halloween he has returned to the dying town of Elm Haven, his boyhood home, where he hopes to find peace in isolation. But moving into a long-deserted farmhouse on the far outskirts of town -- the one-time residence of a strange and brilliant friend who lost his young life in a grisly "accident" back in the terrible summer of 1960 -- is only the latest in his long succession of recent mistakes. Because Dale is not alone here. He has been followed to this house of shadows by private demons who are now twisting his reality into horrifying new forms. And a thick, blanketing early snow is starting to fall ...
While "A Winter Haunting" can be read as a stand alone book, reading "Summer of Night" isn't a bad idea, just to give you a feel of what happened to Elm Haven and Dale's childhood friend Duane.
If you've never read a Dan Simmons book, your missing out. He tends to cross over between horror and Sci Fi. Although I've never read any of his sci fi, I've heard a lot of great reviews about the Hyperion series.
If you do like horror, then pick up this book. It's an enjoyable read that all comes to a rather suprising ending in the last chapter.
Here's the description from Amazon:
A once-respected college professor and novelist, Dale Stewart has sabotaged his career and his marriage -- and now darkness is closing in on him. In the last hours of Halloween he has returned to the dying town of Elm Haven, his boyhood home, where he hopes to find peace in isolation. But moving into a long-deserted farmhouse on the far outskirts of town -- the one-time residence of a strange and brilliant friend who lost his young life in a grisly "accident" back in the terrible summer of 1960 -- is only the latest in his long succession of recent mistakes. Because Dale is not alone here. He has been followed to this house of shadows by private demons who are now twisting his reality into horrifying new forms. And a thick, blanketing early snow is starting to fall ...