Title: The Heavens Rise
Review: You remember when you were young and movies really
scared you; and
then 20 years on you go back and watch the same movie and cannot
believe
that it ever had any effect on you at all? Well that is how I felt after
reading The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice. I came into the book
thinking it would be at least spooky if not slightly shocking;
and maybe
that was my mistake as a reader.
Overall it was a pleasant story that
struck me more of a Stephen King novel that has been watered
down with an
even mix of Stephanie Meyer.
The good news is Christopher Rice is quite a good writer and can
tell a
story. It just seemed he
was stuck between the two words of supernatural.
Either you want to follow historical precedence and make the
reader want to
sleep with a night light on (Book Idea – a supernatural novel
wherein a
night light invites the horrors to the victims!!), or to follow
the modern
trend of misunderstood teen monsters in love. When you play to both you
get pleasant and nobody wants that in their supernatural.
In the end it seemed he played it safe and only told half the
story. We
only got Nikki’s story in snippets, the history of the horror
source was
glossed over briefly, the fear of the victims just lightly
touched on, and
a contrived final confrontation that never really
satisfies. And then you
get the Shawn of the Dead epilogue wherein you have the
metaphorical Simon
Pegg keeping Nick Frost in the back shed.
So the book is very readable, and the story is inventive, but
just misses
the mark for a truly supernatural thriller it is advertised to
be. Stick
with this author though because you can tell he has a home run
in him and
you wouldn't want to miss that.
Publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1608-4
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 317
Quick Review: 3
stars out of 5
Why I Read It: Respect
for his mother. I have never read one of
his books
before but I have read quite of few of
his mother’s books and liked them.
Where I Obtained the Book: Sent
to me by the publisher for review.
Synopsis: New
York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice brilliantly
conjures the shadowed terrors of the Louisiana bayou—where three
friends
confront a deadly, ancient evil rising to the surface—in this
intense and
atmospheric new supernatural thriller.
It’s been a decade since the Delongpre family vanished near
Bayou
Rabineaux, and still no one can explain the events of that dark
and
sweltering night. No one except Niquette Delongpre, the survivor
who ran
away from the mangled stretch of guardrail on Highway 22 where
the
impossible occurred…and kept on running. Who left behind her
best friends,
Ben and Anthem, to save them from her newfound capacity for
destruction…and
who alone knows the source of her very bizarre—and very
deadly—abilities:
an isolated strip of swampland called Elysium.
An accomplished surgeon, Niquette’s father dreamed of
transforming the
dense acreage surrounded by murky waters into a palatial
compound befitting
the name his beloved wife gave to it, Elysium: “the final
resting place for
the heroic and virtuous.” Then, ten years ago, construction
workers dug
into a long-hidden well, one that snaked down into the deep,
black waters
of the Louisiana swamp and stirred something that had been there
for
centuries—a microscopic parasite that perverts the mind and
corrupts the
body.
Niquette is living proof that things done can’t be undone.
Nothing will put
her family back together again. And nothing can save her. But as
Niquette,
Ben, and Anthem uncover the truth of a devastating parasite that
has the
potential to alter the future of humankind, Niquette grasps the
most
chilling truths of all: someone else has been infected too. And
unlike her,
this man is not content to live in the shadows. He is intent to
use his
newfound powers for one reason only: revenge.
Author Biography: By the age of 30,
Christopher Rice had published four New York Times bestselling thrillers,
received a Lambda Literary Award and been declared one of People Magazine’s
Sexiest Men Alive. His first novel, A DENSITY OF SOULS, was published when he
was just 22. The controversial bestseller was greeted with a landslide of media
attention, much of it due the fact that Rice’s mother is a legendary vampire
chronicler who shares his last name. (He recently published a new e-book
edition of A DENSITY OF SOULS, which contains an intimate Afterword about how
the novel’s publication changed his life.) He served as a contributing
columnist to The Advocate for many years and his additional criticisms and
witticisms have been featured in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of
Books, Salon.com and his own Facebook page, which currently hails over 120,000
subscribers. The Hetrick Martin Institute honored Rice with an Emery Award for
his activism on behalf of LGBT youth, and the New York City Public Advocate’s Office
invited him to be their keynote speaker during their annual Gay Pride
celebration. The members of the InsightOut Book Club selected his novel BLIND
FALL as one of the best novels of 2008, and his noir thriller LIGHT BEFORE DAY
was hailed as a “book of the year” by mega-best selling thriller novelist (and
Jack Reacher creator), Lee Child. Gallery Books, a division of Simon &
Schuster will publish, THE HEAVENS RISE, his latest novel and his first work of
supernatural suspense, on October 15, 2013. He recently served on the board of
directors of the West Hollywood Library Fund, which was instrumental in
securing private funds to build a brand new state-of-the-art library in the
heart of the city he now calls home. Now that he’s not 22 anymore, Christopher
thought it was time to fulfill his lifelong dream of having a radio show.
Together with his best friend, bestselling novelist Eric Shaw Quinn,
Christopher recently launched his popular Internet radio show, THE DINNER PARTY
SHOW WITH CHRISTOPHER RICE & ERIC SHAW QUINN; the show is always on at www.TheDinnerPartyShow.com!
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