"The Keep" is a Keeper (My Newspaper Review Title for the Year)

I must admit that I somewhat regret the killing off of The Buzzard Group.  They were imaginary, so there is little guilt.  Still, they were devoted fans; albeit psychotic and, well, imaginary.  They would have loved the following review.  If I decided to exchange the fine beers I so enjoy for a 40 oz. of malt liquor, I'd be poring some out in remembrance of you.  RIP, dear Buzzards.

So, on to the review.  (Though "review" is a bad choice of words, because there is an implication that my opinion matters.  It doesn't.  Sometimes, I even find disagreement with my own opinion.  It's truly a sad, masturbatory relationship I have developed with myself.)  So, on to the book?

Last Sunday, I finished reading The Keep, by F. Paul Wilson and, fortunately, it was also streaming on Netflix, so I could compare the film while the book was fresh in my mind.  First, the book.  The Keep is the first book in a series called The Adversary Cycle and introduces the character Repairman Jack, who then appears in a host of additional books.  I left the fun world of Nazis dying having enjoyed the experience.  With that said, it started off better than it ended.  I do not know if this can really be blamed on the writing as much as me, personally.  Let me back-up.

The gist of this enjoyable book consists of two groups of German soldiers, the traditional army and the fun and loving SS, who...actually, just read the overview from Amazon:

“Something is murdering my men.”

Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims.


When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore--who just happens to be Jewish--to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way--a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny.


The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other...the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened.

And so it goes...

So, sounds like a great set-up to a book, right?  The problem I run into when reading books or watching movies like this is getting enthralled in "the build up."  The creation of something mysterious and otherworldly.  I revel in that place.  Unfortunately, when that thing from the ether manifests itself in some form, I am usually disappointed.  This was very much the case with The Keep.  Without revealing too much (because, despite what I am addressing here, you should all read this book), something is lost when the evil takes form.

Despite the book being far superior to the film, this is something that I liked about the on-screen version.  Sure the characters were paper compared to their depictions in the book, but the film was 90 minutes.  And, sure the effects and, for that matter, the music were quite dated, but the movie was produced in the early 80's.  Besides, what you expect when this was the fashion:

But, again, what I enjoyed about the film was that it maintained the otherworldly nature of "the evil" that inhabits the keep. 

Again, with all that said, read the book and watch the movie. 

I must apologize for the "review" as I am having a particularly hard time of focusing this evening.  What can you expect when I am writing this while watching a movie called Doghouse where the entire female population of a small British town turn into zombies.  I am kind of a trash-whore when it comes to bad horror movies.

Anyhow, if any of you were looking to actually get some reading ideas from this blog, it might serve you better to review some of my more coherent reviews:

Song of Kali, Dan Simmons
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
Drood, Dan Simmons
The Passage, Justin Cronin

Or, for those more economically or politically inclined:
The Birth of Plenty, William Bernstein
Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics, Marc J. Hetherington and Jonathan D. Weiler
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do,  Michael J. Sandel

That's all.