Nerds That Geek Book Review: ‘The Fall’

Written by Scott Edwards

Flight 753 lands at JFK International Airport, and while taxiing to its gate, the plane goes dark. Without having any idea of what could have gone wrong inside the massive 777, first responders are shocked when they find that everyone on the plane is dead. The only clues that CDC employees Doctor Goodweather and Dr. Martinez, (Eph and Nora) are able to find is that the plane's interior is covered in some sort of ammonia  substance that can only be seen using a black light, along with a coffin, half filled with soil and nothing else. A pawn broker from Spanish Harlem is more than happy to enlighten the two doctors with what they are facing, telling them that the bodies from flight 753 should be burned before night fall. This of course is not done in time and now the streets are overrun with the birth of a new virus, the Strigoi (vampire) strain.

The morning following their battle for survival against the Master, Eph, Setrakian and Fet plan their next steps to destroying this virus and its primary carrier. With Master Sardu beaten, but not destroyed the crew decide to head back to the sewers where the fight had started. They need to find and destroy the Master's central point of power, his coffin. But once again, this has been taken from its previous resting point and moved to somewhere safe. Revealing more about his past, Abraham Setrakian recalls more about his time in the concentration camps and what the hands of a young carpenter created before they were shattered by the guards after completing his new master piece, a oversized wooden coffin.   

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kelly Goodweather is in high spirits, if you can call it that, after being changed by the Master to bring him her husband. ‘It is the nature of the undead to torment the living’, Setrakian notes when the undead return home after waking in the morgue the previous night. Kelly is now on the hunt, since she is charged with finding where her ex husband is holed up with his crew of hunters, along with her only child, Zack so that she can bring him back to the Master to be changed. Zack, who is being put in the middle of his parents once again finds solace in his father’s words and will do as he is told, but will not ever be able to betray his mother, even in death.                     
The Fall, the second entry in The Strain trilogy will take you into the depths of the vampire virus that has already swept through New York and is now threatening the entire world. Still following the characters from the first book, Dr. Eph Goodweather and Dr. Nora Martinez, we come to find out they have left the CDC and are now vampire hunters.  Vasiliy Fet, a local exterminator in the city joins the fight along with the old pawn broker and Strigoi hunter extraordinaire Abraham Setrakian. This crew works well together and with the current leadership and knowledge that Setrakian brings to the table, they are anything but pushovers in the fight for survival.

Another group of hunters has joined the fight in New York, and they are run by the Ancients. They are Vampires that not only want to end the current attack on humanity, but also want to end the reign of Sardu. Recruiting some of the locals, they enlist the help of former gang member Gus Elizalde to join them in their fight. Gus, now a tenured vampire hunter takes to the streets and finds a couple more of his old cabrones that are looking for action and much more importantly money to join in the battle between dark and light. Former Mexican wrestling legend, the Silver Angel joins with Gus in his fight and proves to be much more valuable than previously thought, even if he wears an old silly silver mask while dispatching the vampire menace.  

If you read and enjoyed The Strain, you will love where The Fall takes you. Watching as the Ancients need to team up with their only feared human hunter, Setrakian, they also back him as the only book that has a chance to destroy their race is put on the auction block during the uprising.  Knowing that they cannot beat the Master alone, they have to trust that the old man is willing to help them before destroying them as well.  Fet and Setrakian also join into a father son bond during their time together, and keep Eph at arm’s length, knowing that he may not be up to the challenge up ahead. Once again the family dynamic is the backbone to the story, and so much love between the group is shown, even when something goes drastically wrong. The book is also not too focused on current technology, but it does feature a plan that has been unleashed that could compromise the world’s Nuclear Power stations. Stay Scared.

---