Stranger (Mass Market Paperback)

As a plague that turns ordinary people into raving, murderous lunatics rages across the world, the residents of Sullivan, determined to remain unscathed by this deadly plague, will stop at nothing to save humanity from being transformed into a horrifying new species. Original.

This highly readable but flawed tale from British horror author Clark (Vampyrrhic, etc.) suffers from multiple personality disorder. It begins as a tale of Sullivan, a small town protected from apocalyptic disaster by dint of its isolation and the protection of outsider Greg Valdiva. Valdiva can somehow sense if strangers seeking entry to the community are infected with the mysterious malady that has wiped out most of civilization. When he detects the zombie-like carriers, dubbed "hornets," he quickly dispatches them. As in many apocalyptic tales, the townspeople go too far in their quest to keep the outside world at bay and eventually turn on their own. In time, Valdiva flees Sullivan and hooks up with a band of young survivors that includes his love interest, Michaela. Just when the reader thinks it's them against the hornets, the hero and heroine find themselves trapped in a bunker with a mad scientist. Meanwhile, a new threat looms: "hives," rooms full of jiggling red gelatin with body parts floating in it, are sucking unwary humans dry. The story's jumpy plot has one benefit-it will keep readers on their toes. But the setting feels more British than American; the catastrophic cause of it all is unbelievable; the dialogue is bland; and the protagonist seems far more experienced than his 19 years.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this nasty little romp through a post-apocalyptic, plague-ridden country, the mere survival of the human species is highly unlikely. The Gantose plague, at first carried by South Americans, makes people terrified of illness and, eventually, insanely violent. Some pockets of the immune and merely isolated remain, fighting the killer "hornets"--those infected with the plague--to survive. Executioner Greg Valdiva, tolerated by the town of Sullivan because he can sense the presence of the disease in visiting strangers, sees lights across the lake in Lewis and leaves Sullivan to investigate. When he returns, the town no longer wants an executioner and, therefore, no longer wants him. With another Sullivan resident and a band of survivors from New York, Valdiva then has to fight tooth-and-nail to survive. These "heroes" are tough and certainly not perfect, but their fight is engrossing. The ending leaves many questions unanswered, but well crafted stories will do that. Regina Schroeder
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