Support NeoGAF

[Prospero]

Seriously--is this the best American vampire novel ever? I think it is. I've been reading constantly since 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon until this afternoon, taking breaks only to eat, sleep, and watch the Kerry/Bush debate. Now I'm done.

Best thing about it--no longwinded elaborate vampire backstory. That's why I can't stand most modern vampire books or movies--I don't care what the master vampire was doing in London in 1762, and I don't want to hear about some sort of elaborate means that's necessary to take out a vampire boss or whatever. Time wasted with backstory is time better spent having vampires kill people, and King knows this. So the vampires in 'Salem's Lot can vanish into thin air. Why? Because they're vampires. That's all you need to know.

I also like the pacing--it takes fully 200 pages for things to kick off, but there's a carefully controlled sense of dread in the opening that ramps up until the shit hits the fan, and just keeps hitting it. The opening is spent developing characters, so that when some of them are turned, you actually feel sympathy for them instead of just thinking, "Yeah, I knew he was going to get it," as you would when watching a mediocre horror film.

What a great book. (And would other posters please not spoil

Spoiler

Wolves of the Calla

for me--I read this to get up to speed for that.)

 

[nitewulf]

though i havent read "Salem's Lot", i'd say the best american vampire novel is "the queen of the damned" by ann rice.
currently im going through "The Dark Tower" though and it's been tremendous so far.

 

[SyNapSe]

Yup, Salems' Lot is one of my favorite King books.

 

[Mama Smurf]

While I understand your reason for putting that in spoilers, you're risking having it spoilered as people might not realise what you mean as they don't highlight it, fearing spoilers from some other book or something.

I haven't actually read Salem's Lot, though I will eventually, but I did recently read The Stand. That's an awesome book, possibly my favourite stand alone King book, of those I've read. It's not horror really (there are a few moments, that's all), but the story it tells is still awesome. Like far too many King books though (IT and parts of The Dark Tower series are the same), the final quarter or so of the book is weaker than the preceeding parts. I know why that is, it's down to the way King writes (he often has no idea where plots are going at all, just that he knows he'll get to whever it is somehow), I just wish it wasn't the case.

 

[Prospero]

I've read The Stand a few times--the standard version once, and the Complete and Uncut Stand twice. (I don't think you can even by the original edition of The Stand anymore, come to think of it.) I know what you mean about the ending of that book. The nice thing about Salem's Lot is that it has a really solid narrative structure--you can tell, once you get to the end, that he planned the whole thing out beforehand, or at least did a second draft. It's probably the most elegantly structured of all the books by him I've read.