Risen

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Summary: Risen
Review:

Just finished Risen.

An enjoyable read and hard to put down.

Early in the book, I felt I knew the characters intimately. And, I felt as though I was walking the avenues, visiting the homes, seeing the countryside and experiencing the emotions (high and low) with each person in the story. And the characters weren't just people in a story, they were human--so fleshed out that you could swear you have, yourself, met them at some time, someplace, but you just can't put your finger on where.

High action, intrigue and humor. Delicious descriptions of horror. Great use of metaphors and similes. Evocative imagery!

A marvelous ride into a world of chaos, where you are never really sure what to believe, who to trust . . . just a step away from reality . . . and you are there!

Kathy Anne Harris

Rating:
Summary: A Masterful Debut !!!
Review: Jan Strnad's outstanding debut novel Risen proves that he belongs right up there in the ranks of the horror masters King and Koontz. While based on a premise creepy enough to raise goosebumps, Risen's fast paced narrative and realistic characters make this novel highly appealing to fans of the Suspense/Thriller genre as well. A thoroughly satisfying read, Risen keeps you riveted from the very beginning and its disturbingly chilling impact will linger long after the last word is read.

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Rating:
Summary: Best novel I've read in quite some time!
Review: I just finished reading Risen. I was trying to think of a really good catch phrase you could use for advertising, like, "I give it two reanimated thumbs up." Or, "It made me want to go out and slice a throat or two." But anyway, I really enjoyed it. I read a lot of Anne Rice, Richard Matheson, some Stephen King (though not recently) and I've read everything H.P. Lovecraft has ever written. I can't believe no one wanted to pick this up. There are really no slow bits in it, it moves. And the best thing is that the ending was very satisfying. Great job! I will always think of Seth when I see bubbles rise to the surface of a lake. Thanks for a good read!

Rating:
Summary: Written for Stephen King fans, present and former!
Review: I've long admired how Stephen King takes a mundane setting, introduces an element of the supernatural, and then takes us on a wild, horrorific ride.

That's exactly what I wanted to do with RISEN. I created the small town of Anderson and sent Death packing. What happened next was up to the townspeople.

RISEN is very much a mainstream thriller with an added dash of the supernatural and a touch of wry humor.

I hope you enjoy RISEN!

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Summary: SFReader.com Review - Risen
Review: Risen, by J. Knight, is an ebook that did so well and generated enough buzz that it caught the attention of a traditional publisher and is now being released in mass market paperback. It starts with a simple enough premise: the dead coming back to life. Not as zombies al la Day of the Dead, but as seemingly-normal, except that are all now in thrall to a being they refer to as Seth.

It starts slowly enough, a person here and there, but like any epidemic, it rapidly gains momentum, as those brought back by Seth become his recruiters. And the only way to recruit for Seth is to kill.... All the residents of the small town of Anderson are threatened, and if Anderson falls to Seth, what's next? Caught up in the middle of this are Brant Kettering, editor and publisher of the local newspaper, Tom Culler, a high-school senior, and his mother Peg, a waitress at the town's diner. Will they be able to find out who'd at the source of these resurrections, or will they too become soldiers in Seth's army? There are a host of very well done minor characters as well that add a great deal to the 'thickness' of the story.

Knight writes with the assurance and confidence of a seasoned pro. As I read, I was reminded of some of my previous favorites: Boy's Life, Stinger, and The Wolf's Hour (by Robert McCammon) and Salem's Lot and The Stand by Stephen King. What distinguished these stories for me, and what distinguishes Knight's Risen, is the attention paid to the characters, major and minor both.

Some books are almost magic in their ability to enthrall. They aren't stories; they are the lives of people. We don't read to see where the story goes, we read to see what happens to the people the author has created. Knight's characters are as well-realized as any you will find in the genre. They distinguish themselves by their actions, motivations and goals. We can sympathize with them. We know people like them. We root for some, feel sorry for others, and wish some would die. That's the true appeal of Knight's book--a chance to read a tale that makes you care about the people in it, that makes you feel as though you know them.

It's not perfect, however. There are a few writing gaffs that poked me in the eye from time to time, though less that one might expect in a first book. Ending some verbs in 'ing' for example, that results in some simultaneous actions that can't be simultaneous (I've remarked in this in other reviews). In some places, I thought it a little wordy. Not enough to completely stop the story, but enough to bog it down. Overall, lest I sound too critical of Knight's craft, let me say that the writing here is equal to any you'll find in the genre.

There are also a few problems with plot. In his efforts to keep a major plot point hidden, Knight might keep it a bit too hidden. When finally revealed it wasn't with the virtually smacking of the hand on the forehead and the exclamation 'That makes perfect sense! I should have seen it coming!' It was more like 'Hmmm. That never occurred to me....' The misdirection in relation to said plot point was such that I had already recognized it for what it was. So that part of the tale didn't work as well as it should. The ending, while a logical extension of events, was somewhat nihilistic.

If you're a fan of King's older stories, or have read and enjoyed McCammon, King, Saul, or some of Koontz's older (but not tool old!) stuff, I can heartily recommend Risen. When you turn the final page, you're going to be disappointed, but only because the story has ended.

Read more reviews, as well as articles, interviews and more, at www.SFReader.com.

Rating:
Summary: The devil is in the details.
Review: J. Knight, Risen (2001, Warner/iPublish)

Fifty pages into Risen, I was ready to throw it to the dustbunnies. But I kept going, and I'm glad I did. I think.

There's nothing overly original here-- the inhabitants of a small town in the middle of nowhere find, one morning, that the recently deceased are, in the words of a now-famous newscaster, returning to life. (No eating of the living this time, however.) The recently-deceased have one goal, to convert their still-living friends and neighbors to their own state of Risen-hood (thus the book's title), thus making the town one big happy recently deceased family.

It's a beautiful metaphor, and one that is simple enough to be used for any mindless process of conversion. Knight gives a number of strong implications she's looking at organized religion, but it doesn't take much stretching to put it into other contexts. There is a good deal to be said for the zombie-as-metaphor line, and all of it can be said about this book. There's also enough scenes of sheer gross-out to keep the horror reader happy, especially once the ball gets rolling (which happens about seventy pages in). Knight also has a deft enough hand at plot twists, especially the wonderful ones where the reader knows more than the characters in the novel.

Where Risen falters is in Knight's writing style. The book has been rather aggressively marketed (via email) as "if you like Stephen King..." Every avid reader knows that "if you like..." is second only to "in the tradition of..." for setting off warning bells. In this case, blatant comparisons to Stephen King only serve to highlight the differences (some subtle, some not so) that put King firmly in the pantheon of genre fiction writers. Most of them can be encapsulated in the statement that King regularly transcends genre with his writing ability, while Knight does not. This is not a bad thing in and of itself; genre writing is certainly capable of being good work, and it is (for the most part) in this case. Just don't let the marketing campaign get to you.

In any case, I have digressed. There are a number of places where Knight's style jars, small errors in judgment which add up over time. The one that sticks with me (I finished the book about a week ago) is Kngiht's inability to gauge where to stop in drawing a simile for maximum effectiveness. If you say something's like a diamond, let the reader draw the proper conclusions; no need to write out the ways in which the simile works. It's not a big thing if it happens once or twice in the span of a novel, especially one that runs four hundred pages, but the repetition drives the point home. A good editor would be able to fix such problems with minimal effort.

It's a good read if you're a hardcore fan of the horror genre. Others should probably approach with caution. ** 1/2

Rating:
Summary: Best horror novel I've read in years!
Review: From the start, it's very obvious that J. Knight has a great command of the English language, and knows how to craft a story while holding the reader's attention.

This books flows, grabbing you and bringing you in right from the first page. The dialogue is believable, the characters are well-developed and the plot is something else--a twist on the "back from the dead" horror novel that keeps you rivited to the page. I could easily see this book being adapted into a film very easily while reading it, and it is so well-written that you can visualize the events as they are happening.

Kudos to J. Knight--this is the best horror novel I've read in a long, long time!

Rating:
Summary: Solid, though rather unspectacular, addition to Zombie genre
Review: Three and a half stars would be more like it because Knight does do a good job with character development, with the exception of maybe the lead protagonist, Seth. But I digress!

As earlier reviewers have noted, "Risen" reminded me a LOT of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Like a lot of writers, I'm sure that the book and film adaptation of that 1950's story had an impact on J. Knight. "Risen" revolves around a quiet "typical American small town" called Anderson. Not much happens there. So when a distraught and battered wife takes the law into her own hands and murders her abusing husband, it becomes big news. Big only until it is overshadowed by the return from the dead of her murdered husband. At first, everyone in town blames the doctor for a botched autopsy. Even the doctor begins to question his ability and sanity.

It's only after a few more murders (taken rather lightly by the populace, by the way) and a few more "risings" that things really begin to take off with plot. Knight, as I mentioned before, does do a fine job introducing and developing characters that become somewhat memorable. He also pours on the gore as he graphically describes the manner in which the townspeople begin to systematically knock each other off "so they can be with Seth".

Knight nevers really gives a full explanation of Seth and his importance to the plot. Seth appears to be some sort of Anti-Christ that can only reappear with some help from the common folk. Oh sure, there's a vague connection between an earlier Seth appearance years before, but not much else.

Another criticism that I have of Knight's writing style is the annoying way of going through a "scene" and then repeating the scene once again but through the eyes of another character. It took me one or two of these "scenes" to realize what he was doing. It was repetitious filler and nothing else.

The book weighs in at a little over 400 pages, with a plot that could have lasted about 300. It's definitely a fast read though. And if the reader is a fan of the Zombie genre', then he or she will probably want to add "Risen" to their "wanna read" list. Just don't expect anything new!

Rating:
Summary: Risen rises to the occasion !!
Review: I'm not sure if J. Knight is a new author, but he/she reminds me of early Bentley Little, rather than Koontz or King. I loved the beginning of the book. The characters were real and fleshed out. I felt like I knew what made them tick. I am somewhat disappointed in the ending. I don't know if I was expecting a completely happy one, and upon not getting one became disappointed, or if it is because the ending was not as well developed as the beginning. All in all, I liked this book and would recommend it. I can't wait to read more of J. Knight as his/her style matures.

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Summary: Zombies According To Seth
Review: The dead are rising but this is not a typical zombie story. These risen are better than new and go back to their old lives. The phenomenon is also quite local, occurring in the small town of Anderson.

One night an abused wife kills her husband and the deputy is accidentally shot. The woman's husband returns to life and forgives her. The town is aghast. The deputy returns to life but only his accidental killers knew he was dead. Why is he keeping it secret?

We follow a reporter, the woman he is most interested in, and her young son as they all become involved in the strange events going on in the town. They come to suspect that there may be more risen in town than those they know.

The risen return to life, many in secret, and all become devoted to Seth. Seth is the one who led them back to life. Seth has a plan. Seth is in charge and is not questioned as Seth's motives are his own.

This is a very interesting tale. I enjoyed it quite a lot but would have like just a little more information. Maybe a little more about who or what Seth is. Maybe an explanation on why some of the deaths are handled they way they are or why some are left for later. These details could have made a good book into a great book.

If you like creepy horror books where the action keeps escalating and keeps you guessing, then you will probably really enjoy this one. But if you want one that is gorier, you should try The Rising by Brian Keene.