The Strain. My journal notes. Post 8

My journal notes on The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
Post 8

17th Precinct Headquarters, East Fifty-first Street, Manhattan

More importantly, inside a cell at the 17th Precinct Headquarters.
Present at this location is Setrakian, Gus and Gus’s unfortunate friend, Felix.
Amazingly, Abraham Setrakian has a history and a reputation in his community. Gangs and thieves know better than to try to steal from the pawnbrokers on 118th street, and it seems the old man is well known and respected.

Setrakian said, “The first week I took over the shop, someone broke my front window. I replaced it and then I watch, and I wait. Caught the next bunch who came to break it. I gave them something to think about, and something to tell their friends. That was more than thirty years ago. I haven’t had a problem with my glass since.”

They kind of trade stories, but Abraham cuts straight to the meat of the situation. The vampire that Gus and Felix fought with.

The Strain. My journal notes. Post 7

My journal notes on The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
Post 7.

INTERLUDE III

REVOLT, 1943

August was searing through the calender and Abraham Setrakian, laying out beams for a suspended roof, felt its burden more than most. The sun was baking him, every day it was like this. But even more than that, he had come to loathe the night, his bunk and his dreams of home, which had formerly been his only respite from the horror of the death camp, and was now a hostage to two equally merciless masters.

So begins another interlude, but, Setrakian has plans. He may not be able to defeat his Nazi masters, but he has designs to destroy the other.

The Strain. My journal notes. Post 6

My journal notes on The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
Post 6.

MOVEMENT

Coach

Flight 753 survivor Ansel Barbour huddled with his wife, Ann-Marie, and his two children, eight-year-old Benjy and five-year-old Haily, on a blue chintz sofa in the back sunroom of their three-bedroom home in Flatbush, New York.

Rather than going to the lawyer or the pop star, we see the return of the Joe Ordinary-man.
The pop star may have no immediate family, & although the lawyer might, she may be the kind of person to put career first. So, it’s no surprise that Ansel has the wife (Ann-Marie), two children (Ben and Haily), & two dogs (Pap and Gertie), almost the typical household. I get the feeling that out of the three discharged survivors, it’s mainly Ansel that I’m supposed to relate to.
His wife is borderline OCD, I understand that I’m not supposed to relate to her, empathise perhaps, but she’s a plot device to make the husband even more important to the family, and that his transition from human to “other” will be that much harder to bear. For his family and the reader.
In fact, Ann-Marie’s problems are mapped out, explained and rationalised, so that she becomes a reason for Ansel to have the left the hospital as quickly as possible. She needs him, she cannot function without him, and in turn he puts her needs far above the needs or demands of anything else in his life.

The Strain. My journal notes. Post 5.

My journal notes on The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
Post 5.

Dear journal (& readers of this tardy blog entry),
I’ve reading The Strain again. These notes were made during my three week hiatus on my LibriVox project. My reading speed seems to have slowed down to a crawl of late, is my brain really this lazy now?
Note to self: I must redouble my efforts to read more frequently if I’m ever going to finish this book. I can’t write about the book if I don’t make the effort to pick it up, now can I ^_^
Onward, ever forward…

Stoneheart Group, Manhattan

Stoneheart Group’s Manhattan headquarters, a building of black steel and glass in the heart of Wall Street.

A monument to the power and wealth of men like, Eldritch Palmer. Who resides in the penthouse of this building.

His Manhattan sojourn would be brief. New York City would not be a very pleasant place to visit, not for much longer.

What does he know that the C.D.C. does not? An awful lot, I suppose.
Considering he feels he is a powerful man of the world, and wealthy with it, it’s highly likely he knows exactly what will happen, now that the vampire is loose.
But what in the heck does Eldritch expect to gain?
I can only suppose he expects a longer life and an instant cure for all that ails him. If that is the case, I don’t think Eldritch has thought it all through. Or what the consequences might be. My bet he’ll become a mere lackey, a ghoul.

The Strain. My journal notes. Post 4

My journal notes on The Strain.
Post 4.

International Space Station

The ISS seems to have gained some popularity in fiction, maybe it’s the isolation, our that the station is a floating laboratory, but perhaps it’s simply because it adds some credibility to the story. In the end, it’s merely a location, the characters and events are the important things.
Both are introduced in here.

Thalia Charles – the American flight engineer on Expedition 18.

There are two other personal, but either they aren’t relevant at this time, or to the story at all, because names aren’t named, merely job descriptions. A commander and an engineer.
It’s stated what Thalia’s role is, to document the occlusion as it passes across the surface of Earth.

But when she first looked out on the planet from her unusual vantage point, what she saw made her shudder. The great black blot that was the shadow of the moon looked like a dead spot on the earth. A dark and threatening flaw in the otherwise healthy blue orb that was home.

Depending on how long it takes to upload the images back to base, I wonder if anyone on Earth will see it quite the way she does?