Yes, it took 2.5 months to read this book. It is very long. Also it is not overly interesting or readable. I had such quite expectations from the Hyperion Cantos, which are one of my favorite Sci Fi books, plus I enjoyed the Olympus/Ilium duology, however this book falls below both of those. I have no idea how this book could win an award when it is so average, artificially prolonged and just plain pretentious.
First of all, I was expecting a horror book. This is not a horror book, unless you count the descriptions of the different character's face distortions and lots of blood and murder. Blood and murder does not make a horror. It could be called a thriller, but definitely not horror. The book is also not a Sci Fi book either, since nothing scientific is really described. Probably we can call it Speculative Fiction, at best, but still mostly a very prolonged, very slow-burn thriller.
The BS with the FBI agents being 'conditioned' to work for Brother Christian and all past American presidents being in cahoots, event landing US Navy destroyers to guard Brother C.'s personal island, is just too far fetched. Such thing has never happened in the history of the US, and, in all probability - never will.
One note - this book was written in the late '80s, so some things that were acceptable then, are not really acceptable today in 2022. First is racial slurs. The N-word is peppered all over, and although I get it that the bad guys are using it - it still feels like too much. Also, the description of rape (by Tony), and I mean physical rape, not just the mental one, and the description of the fear and humiliation the women experience during, was also a bit too much. I get it, again, it is the bad guy doing it and he is a piece of shit, but less graphic and disturbing descriptions would benefit the plot just as much if not more.
The best part of the book is Saul Laski and the Holocaust descriptions, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the murder of millions of innocent Jews by the Nazi monsters (Willi being an exaggerated example). Saul is the only character I found interesting and could feel for. The other characters were paper-thin marionettes, with no real existence. Especially ridiculous is the Southern Sherriff who dies half-way through, without having any impact, neither on the first nor the second half of the narrative, but being a kind of caricature which has no meaning attached to its existence.
The "mind vampire" concept is novel, to be sure, but I fail to see how "Using" is the same as "Feeding" and to what extent? It seems that the "Ability" is independent of any "Feeding" as it stays at the same level/strength and although there is some rejuvenation and life extension for the mind-vampires - that seems to be marginal, and far from the "immortality" of the actual vampires in literature.
The action/fight/battle scenes are just way too long. It seems like an inexperienced writer tried his best to write the most epic battles/fights and it ended up being forced, verbose and boring. Although Simmons has a lot of disdain in the foreword for the Goth Girl Editor who told him to cut the book in half - that advice is definitely valid for the fight scenes, as they are the most boring part of the book, and include descriptions of materials, expressions, sounds and thoughts that are completely superfluous and boring. Sure, make it "sensory", but within limit; use some common sense.
So, after 800+ pages and 2.5 months of daily (nightly) reading, I don't feel much richer, neither intellectually, nor life-experience-wise. I think I am going to give reading the rest of Simmons' books a pause. A long pause. A very long pause.
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