Peter Straub 'Floating Dragon' (1982)

[Bartwald]

Peter Straub [shadow=red,left,300]Floating Dragon[/shadow] (1982) ***

Not as good as some other books by Peter Straub ('Shadowland', 'Ghost Story', 'If You Could See Me Now') it still can impress with the style, some very dark scenes (like the sea of blood and flies), and wonderful over-the-top ideas (the 'leakers' who seem to be an homage to the old 'Invisible Man' movies). Straub very well describes his place of action, and in an interesting way introduces the main problems (on one hand - growing number of murders, on the other - some poisonous substance in the air), but after that, when the madness begins, it goes in too strange directions for the reader to accept them - why, for one, didn't those people just get away from the village after seeing what was happening all around? Why did some manage to stay conscious while the others were going mad?

As for the suspense - there could be more of it. Some scenes are nicely creepy (for example when Graham is describing the 'encounter with the Beast' in his youth), but more would be welcome. Still, I generally liked 'Floating Dragon' quite a lot, and was only let down by the middle section; it's really better than many other, more popular horror books. Read it when you're done with the Straub titles I've mentioned above.

[Bartwald]

I decided to re-visit this review since our Straub-talk in "What are you reading now?"; if anyone has read this and wants to comment on the book - you're very welcome!

[LivingDeadGirl]

You know, I've never read any of his stuff....I'm almost scared to say this as a horror fan. I've always heard good stuff about Ghost Story but I've just never gotten around to reading it. And I've tried twice to read The Talisman by he & King but I've just never managed to make it through it. I don't know why...

[Bartwald]

The Talisman is not good for the first meeting with Mr. Straub. I'd recommend Ghost Story or If You Could See Me Now for that - then it's good to move on into his weirder books like Koko or Houses Without Doors.

Keep my fingers crossed for you finally getting hooked in those, livingdeadgirl!

[LivingDeadGirl]

I'll pick up Ghost Story the next time I'm in the bookstore. I need something new to read anyway.

[Bartwald]

livingdeadgirl said:

I'll pick up Ghost Story the next time I'm in the bookstore. I need something new to read anyway.

Very good choice, livingdeadgirl! I don't recall anyone who'd be dissatisfied with Ghost Story! Hope you'll have no problem getting it!

[LivingDeadGirl]

I shouldn't have any problems finding it. I'll just have to wait til I go to the city again to BAM. We don't have it at our little rinky-dink stores around here.

[DedHed]

I read Floating Dragon over 20 years ago. I thought it was really good. I guess I must not have thought it was really great, or else I likely would have read it more than once (which I am apt to do with things I like a lot). I remember thinking that it was very King-like (as in S. King) in terms of the style, structure and content.

I agree that it wasn't quite as good as Ghost Story which was my first Straub book and which is one of the all-time great horror yarns (and I think by far his best), but it was very enjoyable and I highly recommend it.

[Bartwald]

DedHed said:

I remember thinking that it was very King-like (as in S. King) in terms of the style, structure and content.

It is! In fact, Straub was often accused of borrowing from King's IT in Floating Dragon - kind of funny if you know that IT was released four years after the book by Straub.

By the way: welcome to The Board, DedHed!

[DedHed]

Thanks for the welcome, Bart.

I have never done this (board thing) before so I am not sure of the proper etiquette. I don't, for example, understand the use of the little emoticons (smileys).

Anyway, the things that I thought were especially SK-like were the combo of sci-fi and horror, and continual references back to the characters' pasts, and the little italicized thought bites communicating the internal mental life of the main characters. Clearly King and Straub are sympatico and llike each others work.

I really llked the Talisman too, but was much less impressed with Black House. I am probably in the minority of SK fans who did not appreciate the intrusion of the Dark Tower into basically everything he has written
in the last 10 years.

[Bartwald]

DedHed said:

I really llked the Talisman too, but was much less impressed with Black House.

It was the other way round with me: I was disappointed with The Talisman (a good book nevertheless) but Black House just killed me - I loved the narration there! And I also liked the darker story in it.