Rating: 
Summary: A Winter Haunting
Review: Dan Simmons latest foray into horror with this sequel to 'Summer of Night' will give you the chills. It reminds me a lot of Stephen King type horror.Dale Stewart is an English professor, rugged westerner and a published author. After a love affair ends (not his choice), he becomes deeply depressed, suffering what he calls 'the black dog', a term for depression coined by Winston Churchill. He returns to his childhood home in a small Illinois town to write a book about his childhood. Renting an abandoned childhood friends house, a friend who died in mysterious circumstances when he was eleven years old, some really strange things start to happen. Stewart starts to wonder whether he's going crazy or if these weird things are actually happening. Giant black dogs. Seeing dead people. Neo Nazis. Okay, the Nazis could be real. I have not read the first book that takes place in the summer of 1960/61, where they are young kids. I think this book stands well by itself. I might have gotten more out of it if I'd read the first though.
It is written in a very stylish and enthralling way. There comes a point in the book where you as the reader, are not sure what's real and what isn't. You don't always know if the character is really that crazy or not. Is it reality or psychological? You'll have to decide. Recommended
Rating: 
Summary: A short winter....
Review: Like other reviewers, I was happy to see Dan Simmons revisit characters from Summer of Night. Having read Children of the Night and Fires of Eden both, which have adult incarnations of characters from Summer of Night, I enjoyed seeing another variation of that. As was the case with so many others, Summer of Night was a book that touched me in a wonderfully nostalgic way, even for a horror tale. A Winter Haunting strives to bring us back to the horrors of Elm Haven, or at least a small corner of it. The McBride farm was the home of Duane McBride, childhood chum of the protagonist of this novel, Dale Stewart. Duane, a quasi-narrator for this tale, was murdered in Elm Haven when just 11 years old. Now Dale, 51, author and English professor, has returned to his hometown to rent Duane's home to write his latest novel, and revisit the horrors of Elm Haven. Freshly separated from his wife and daughters in Montana; abandoned by his decamped mistress Clare; Dale is depressed and suicidal...and in revisiting the horrors of Elm Haven, Dale finds a few new ones joining them upon his return. However, an intriguing premise very quickly becomes a paradox here. Dale has visions of a soldier in a cemetery; black dogs appear from nowhere to stalk him, metaphorically referring to his depression, as Winston Churchill termed his own the 'Black Dog'; childhood acquaintances come back to 'haunt' Dale; a room in the McBride house produces 'amorous' desires in a man suffering from medication-induced impotence; a group of skinheads threatens Dale time and again over a series of articles he published; and a voice from beyond seems to guide him in his quest to retain his sanity as the horrors of Elm Haven are once again unleashed upon him at a fever-pitch. But don't get too excited...only a few of these riddles are answered by the end of the book. Only the tangible elements of this conundrum are explained. I enjoyed revisiting Elm Haven with Dan Simmons as the tour guide. However, there are lengthy passages of this book that really don't fit, and are wasted space in a 300 page novel. Too much is left to imagination, or just plain unexplained, by the time the end of the tale is reached. Perhaps Mr. Simmons wanted it that way...that the events are just as unexplainable to the reader as they were to the character...perhaps a publishing deadline overshadowed the fleshing out of the details...or perhaps I simply want too much from a horror tale. Whatever the case, I am glad to have strolled down Main Street Elm Haven again, but unfortunately this Winter tale won't haunt me for very long.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked "Ghost Story" or "Bag of Bones" ...
Review: Dan Simmons seems to be the master of many genres. He's won a World Fantasy Award for his frightening novel "Song of Kali" and Hugo/Nebula for his Hyperion series (science fiction). He's lately written myeteries and thrillers. Here is his take on ghost stories. And boy is it a chiller! Don't read this one alone on a dark night. I kid you not, it had me on edge. Something blew across my roof on a cloudy afternoon while I was reading one of the more creepy passages & I nearly jumped out of my socks. It's the story of a not-so-good writer who takes a sabbatical from teaching (and the wife who has just divorcied him) to return to his childhood home and write about his childhood. Turns out HE is as haunted as the house in question. Give it a try! (Not for the...um...prudish). Start this early on a winter's day because it will keep you reading (and might keep you awake).
Rating: 
Summary: Great psychological horror
Review: Since Song of Kali, Dan Simmons has carved his own niche in the world of horror. He may not be the big name that King, Barker or Koontz is, but for those who know him, Simmons is one standout writer. In A Winter Haunting, Simmons returns to the world of Summer of Night, a rather nostalgic horror story that has kids confronting supernatural evil in the early 1960s. Now, four decades later, Dale Stewart is returning to where the horrors took place. Although technically a sequel, this is a much different story from the first book (unlike, say Black House by King and Straub, which is much more of a follow-up to the Talisman, and also brings back a child hero as an adult). Stewart has a number of problems in his life, principally his ruined marriage followed by his being dumped by the girlfriend who he left his wife for. His life in tatters, saved from suicide by a freak incident, Stewart returns to his home town and starts facing his past and some horrific events as well. Simmons does a great job in keeping things moving. We are usually uncertain if anything truly supernatural is going on or whether Stewart is going insane or maybe both. This constant doubt makes the story that much better. Dan Simmons was born in 1948, which makes him the same age as Stewart. Both have the same initials, both are novelists, and Stewart is attempting to write his own version of Summer of Night. What this means is uncertain, but it does kind of make this a fictional autobiography, which adds another level to the mystery. Even if pure coincidence, it takes nothing away. Good at science fiction, good at mysteries, Simmons has returned to his writing roots with this great horror novel.
Rating:
Summary: Unsettling and eerie ... choppy and uneven
Review: From the opening page, you never know whether Dale is delusional or haunted, whether he deserves sympathy or scorn. A full, three-dimensional character, this failed writer, husband, lover. Simmons handles his crack-up beautifully. Dale's plight begins when he returns to his hometown, the same setting for Simmons' outstanding SUMMER OF NIGHT. While not a sequel per se, WINTER HAUNTING does evoke memories from the previous work and I suspect you will enjoy it more if you've read SUMMER. (And if you love the macrabre, you should!)
The scenes in WINTER are indeed haunting, especially the black dogs (which are an explicit metaphor for Dale's clinical depression) and the spectre of the neo-Nazi teenagers. This is the story of a man haunted by the distant past, the recent past and the all-too-scary present. The shortcomings of this novel are the same that I saw in DARWIN'S BLADE ... the beautiful prose that Dan Simmons gives us in SUMMER OF NIGHT, THE HYPERION CANTOS, SONG OF KALI is not so much missing as it is chopped up and watered down. I cannot help but wonder if the editor wanted this to be a different book than the author intended it to be. Well worth the read, however, especially if you have read SUMMER OF NIGHT.
Rating:
Summary: you can go home again
Review: Dan Simmons had returned back to the horror realm wonderfully. A Winter Haunting is the sequel to Summer of Night. The title seems to be a play on words with each other. "Summer of Night" is about youngsters surviving a horror and "A Winter Haunting" is about dealing with the aftermath later in life. The protagonist, Dale Stewart, returns to his childhood home to try and rebuild his life and renew his writing. He has survived a failed marriage and a disasterous love affair that had left him taking medication for depression. Stewart rents the home of a friend that had died during the first book. Soon after his arrival, Stewart begins to have visitations from supernatural dogs, ghosts, and neo-Nazis. Most of the book leaves the reader thinking he is finally going over the edge of sanity. The narrarator's voice is the only proof the Dale is not crazy. The story is told by the voice of his dead childhood friend. What develops is an intense book about coming to terms with the past. Simmons has explored similar phenomenon before in other books (Phases of Gravity & Hyperion). The shattered Stewart confronts his past and remembers. As all of Simmon's horror and sci-fi books, this is highly reccommended.
Rating:
Summary: Spo-o-o-ky!!
Review: Dan Simmons is back. Forget the trysts with Science Fiction, Dan is back where he belongs, in the horror genre. And he comes back with a "sequel" to "Summer of Night", his epitaph to growing up spooky in 1960 Illinois. It isn't necessary to have read the earlier novel and that's what makes this such a delight. In a novel reminiscent of "The Shining" by another noted horror writer, Simmons takes us back to Elm Haven, Illinois, where (now) Professor Dale Stewart, former best friend of the now departed Duane McBride, returns to Duane's midwest farmhouse to spend the winter and to exorcize past demons of a since gone south love affair with one of his former students at the University of Montana. Clair Hart nee Two Hearts is now at the ivy covered confines of Princeton and Dale has taken a sabbatical to return to his former home town (he can't go back home in Missoula because his wife and daughters have given him the boot as well) to try his hand at the Great American Novel, cicrca 1960, and locks himself away (or tries to) for the winter in the farmhouse. The only problem is the demons in his head - and we get plenty of playback with Clair and skinwalkers and other neat stuff - these demons become all too real as he slips into his winter haunting. Who's real and who's memorex? Michelle, the former 6th grade cutie-patootie? C.J. Congden, former tormentor and now (?) local sheriff? Sandy Whitaker, who rents him Duane's old place? And how does that olde english wind up on his lap top? Questions come and go as we flip from first person narrative to third. In the end, we're not sure just who we are rooting for. Dan Simmons delivers the kind of stuff you don't want to read without the lights on. And, whatever you do, don't go upstairs! Brrrr.
Rating: 
Summary: Summer of Night 2? It's Not Even Close!
Review: Earlier this year I stumbled upon Dan Simmons and his fantastic novel Summer of Night. Summer of Night was just a fun, hackels raising read, and when I heard of this follow-up tale featuring Dale now grown up and back in his old home town, I couldn't get a copy quick enough! Having just finshed A Winter Haunting today, I feel completely let down! The courageous boy from Summer of Night, turned into a complete louse, and an unlikable protagonist in A Winter Haunting. At least Children of Night, another Simmons sorta-sequel to Summer of Night, featuring Mike, portrayed the former boy-hero as a sympathetic, and still heroic figure. A Winter Haunting turned Dale into a huge glob of self-pity. As a reader who truly cared about this character in a pevious novel, I felt like reaching into the pages to slap some sense into the now Prozac dependent slug. At what point was I supposed to be scared? By a ghost that writes in Old English? Or of a couple dogs prowling around? I mean come on, that might have worked in another story, but this is Dale from Elm Haven who fought off a murderous janitor in a rendering truck, who saw his kid brother yanked under his bed by ghostly pale arms, who crawled through miles of tunnels into an abandoned school turned into the birthplace of a demon! This guy is supposed to be afraid of a ghost that quotes Beowolf? I still give 2 stars to A Winter Haunting if for no other reason that we get to revisit Duane, Jim Harlan, Michelle Staffney and some of the other great characters from Summer of Night. And for the inclusion of the murderous skinheads who give the novel it's only gripping moments when chasing Dale through the muddy back-country of Illinois. But if you enjoyed Summer of Night as much as I did, pass on A Winter Haunting, it will only taint the characters you enjoyed so much.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked "Ghost Story" or "Bag of Bones" ...
Review: Dan Simmons seems to be the master of many genres. He's won a World Fantasy Award for his frightening novel "Song of Kali" and Hugo/Nebula for his Hyperion series (science fiction). He's lately written myeteries and thrillers. Here is his take on ghost stories. And boy is it a chiller! Don't read this one alone on a dark night. I kid you not, it had me on edge. Something blew across my roof on a cloudy afternoon while I was reading one of the more creepy passages & I nearly jumped out of my socks. It's the story of a not-so-good writer who takes a sabbatical from teaching (and the wife who has just divorcied him) to return to his childhood home and write about his childhood. Turns out HE is as haunted as the house in question. Give it a try! (Not for the...um...prudish). Start this early on a winter's day because it will keep you reading (and might keep you awake).
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading but not memorable.
Review: "A Winter Haunting" is the first Dan Simmons book I have read. I am always in search of a good horror novel with the hopes it will be able to put a chill in the spine of this jaded adult as horror stories once did when I was very young, and the winter setting of this particular story made it look even more enticing. After reading this book the positive is that it's definitely worth a read and does indeed contain a few spooky moments. The negative is that this book is an example of one of the reasons I have become disgusted and bored with fiction lately. I really think it's both lazy and a copout when authors develop a main character that just happens to be of all things... a writer. Sure, there's the old saying "write what you know," but this really has gotten out of hand. It just seems too easy for an author to make the main character happen to be a writer or a literature professor, dealing with his/her editor and publisher admidst whatever particular plot the story has to deal with, so that way they can basically, and very lazilly I might add, write themselves into the book and not have to exercise much imaginative muscle. The English professor who wants to write a book and gets involved with a young, sexy, brilliant student -- how freakin transparent is that! It really is a fantasy-killer when you see too much of the author in the main character. I think these kinds of authors are at a point where they need to get back "out there" -- "there" being wherever they experience inspirition free of the routine born of mild success and complacency. jhc.
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