'The Fall' by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan - Book Review

The title of The Fall sadly reveals its position in relation to the first chapter of this 3-book saga: the lower rung. The standard scares in this middle passage reduce Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s vampire saga from a potentially epic beginning to a standard dark and attack-packed middle for this once promising vampire trilogy. Perhaps they are saving up the real thrills for the final chapter.

In a year when copies of The Passage graced the shelves of bookstores (and were quickly sold out), I was intrigued to read how Hogan and del Toro were going to continue to shape their own vampire apocalypse. And while The Fall does provide some more depth and history to the story of Abraham Setrakian – the Holocaust survivor, brilliant professor and vampire hunter extraordinaire – most of this story deals with the new Master’s standard takeover of the world through massive infestation.

When The Strain ended, the Master had been wounded, but not defeated by Setrakian, Eph Goodweather (CDC scientist) and Vasily Fet (NYC Pest Control worker) and NYC was beginning to be overrun by the infected. Eph’s ex-wife, Kelly, is one of the newly turned and is hungry to claim their son, Zack. In response to the infestation, the Old World vampires are now teaming with humans, including a gangbanger and an old Mexican wrestler, to squelch the Master’s desire for takeover. But it won’t be easy since the Master has the funding of billionaire philanthropist Eldritch Palmer disguising the vampires devious moves as good human intentions.

This middle is dark, violent and unrelenting. There isn’t much hope that victory is possible. The MacGuffin is an old book, preserved over the ages, which includes how the ancient vampires were formed and what might be the Master’s only weakness – his real name. Readers who felt The Strain was plodding in setting up the foundation of this series may feel The Fall is a jolt. But in the rush of getting from part 1 to part 3, I felt The Fall lacked the breadth and depth necessary to consider it a strong edition to the epic storytelling The Strain established.