Rating: 
Summary: Straub's 'final' horror tale is wonderfully over the top.
Review: "I wanted to write a special effects show. Something that would make the reader's jaw drop and make them think 'I can't believe that I'm reading this.'" - Peter Straub on writing Floating Dragon.Well Mr. Straub you have succeeded. Floating Dragon was, at the time, Straub's last foray into supernatural horror (Mr. X marks his return to the field that made him famous). As an ancient, paranormal thing awakens to again wreak havoc on an accursed town, an equally horrid nerve gas escapes and infects the population of said town. How much of the events of this story are really happening and how much is collective hallucination brought upon by the gas? The question is not answered by Straub, who leaves a great deal to the reader to figure out. But the clues are there, you just have to dig past all the symbolic and over the top effects scenes (of which there is a HUGE amount). Granted Floating Dragon may not be Straub's best novel, but even his lesser efforts are far superior to other horror writers successes.
Rating:
Summary: Straub's 'final' horror tale is wonderfully over the top.
Review: "I wanted to write a special effects show. Something that would make the reader's jaw drop and make them think 'I can't believe that I'm reading this.'" - Peter Straub on writing Floating Dragon. Well Mr. Straub you have succeeded. Floating Dragon was, at the time, Straub's last foray into supernatural horror (Mr. X marks his return to the field that made him famous). As an ancient, paranormal thing awakens to again wreak havoc on an accursed town, an equally horrid nerve gas escapes and infects the population of said town. How much of the events of this story are really happening and how much is collective hallucination brought upon by the gas? The question is not answered by Straub, who leaves a great deal to the reader to figure out. But the clues are there, you just have to dig past all the symbolic and over the top effects scenes (of which there is a HUGE amount). Granted Floating Dragon may not be Straub's best novel, but even his lesser efforts are far superior to other horror writers successes.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, if over the top
Review: A good horror read, which withstands fairly well the inevitable comparisons to King's Stand. But it ultimately succumbs to the problem that trips a lot of good horror novels: the need for a big finish takes it WAY over the top. Things begin to spiral out of control about 2/3 of the way through, with the scene in the library with the little men in the painting or whatever shooting back at our hero -- huh? Still, a most worthwhile and enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: After reading the Talisman and Ghost Story, i was pretty sure that Peter Straub was a good writer, but now i am quite certain. I don't remember the last time i read a book as completely engrossing as this. The way Straub flows things together is just brilliant, especially in the prologue, and combining the DRG cloud with the Dragon makes it seem like you are getting two books in one, tossed together in a wonderful mix of insanity.
While the cycle that things occur in is similiar to the one in Ghost Story, i feel that the difference between the two, explaining why it happens once every generation, makes more than enough sense to show that Straub is not simply rehashing a plot device from a previous story. I've read most of the other reader reviews of this book, and while I don't agree with some of them, it just goes to show that every person takes a book a different way, comparable to how someone feels about a song they are hearing for the first time. Some may love Floating Dragon, others may hate it, but if you like anything else Straub wrote, i highly recommend you read this title.
Rating:
Summary: One of Straub's best
Review: By far, my favorite work by Mr. Straub. The bizarre events of the story and interesting characters fill the reader with deep concern for the outcome of this tale. Although a frequent complaint of Straub's works is a lack of cohesiveness and the side tales that some see as "false leads", these features only add to the eeriness and gives a dimension to the book that keeps it from being what so many other, less intriguing novels in this genre are- cut and dry. This one is definately not "cookie cutter". I found myself thinking about this book long after I had finished it, and found myself reading it again several months later. Straub did a fine job of truly creeping me out, which is what I look for in this genre.
Rating:
Summary: One of Straub's best
Review: By far, my favorite work by Mr. Straub. The bizarre events of the story and interesting characters fill the reader with deep concern for the outcome of this tale. Although a frequent complaint of Straub's works is a lack of cohesiveness and the side tales that some see as "false leads", these features only add to the eeriness and gives a dimension to the book that keeps it from being what so many other, less intriguing novels in this genre are- cut and dry. This one is definately not "cookie cutter". I found myself thinking about this book long after I had finished it, and found myself reading it again several months later. Straub did a fine job of truly creeping me out, which is what I look for in this genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Strange but Interesting
Review: Floating Dragon is quite the read...It is very complex and convuluted. The book has some real terror in it. I found some of the characters VERY unlikeable though. Like latter era King, Straub suffers from overwriting and needs a better editor. No Ghost Story or Julia for sure, but still worth a look. Its pretty entertaining for all its flaws.
Rating:
Summary: The siege of Heaven.
Review: Hampstead, Connecticut, is almost like a sister community to [the also fictional but] heavenly Stepford: gracious homes, genteel people, all the happiness money can buy. Then, on the afternoon of saturday, May 17, 1980, a local housewife, Susan "Stony" Baxter Friedgood gets horribly murdered meanwhile her emotional cripple of a husband witness an accident at a Secret Chemical plant and -- literally, but methodically- all hell breaks loose, or rather comes to settle, on the perfectly manicured lawns and beautiful, restored colonial houses on tree-lined streets. This is one of Straub's most ambitious horror novels... perhaps even more so than Ghost Story, although the villainess there is quite simply one of the most memorable characters ever created. But nevertheless, it breaks all the boundaries of where his work had gone before, or would go later. The main characters are people who live and breathe and slowly move into your heart and touch you in ways that surprise you: Take Graham Williams, writer and demon-chaser, who has battled his very own private horrors for ages; adorable Patsy Tayler McCloud, sensible and sweet, but also catalyst to ever so much power just waiting to be used. Tabby Smithfield, a boy who would go anywhere just to be loved, at least a little; and Richard Allbee, a man who is always trying consciously and un- to scape himself and his child-actor past and who has returned to his hometown after 12 years in London, along with his beautiful and very pregnant wife, the kindly and very human Laura, to face his destiny and future. Follow these characters and a few others that you won't be able to forget either (like Ulick Byrne, Sarah Spry, Wren Van Horne, Clark, Monty and Jean Smithfield, Les McCloud and the aforementioned, pivotal, and deeply moving Laura Allbee -- who evokes all the strenght and vulnerability of another memorable pregnant heroine, Rosemary Woodhouse, whom all of you surely know from a certain famous modern gothic) through a landscape that slowly but imminently shifts from a suburban paradise into a breeding ground for nightmares. Ira Levin meets Henry James and Lovecraft? Maybe... this novel deservedly won the British Fantasy Award and has unjustly been branded as "talky" and "overlong"... actually, its lyrical nature and accurate detail of the setup is one of its most disturbing aspects, once the gory, horrifying and breathtakingly awesome denouements come around (my personal favorite? Richard Allbee's epiphany/dream sequence on which he meets Philippa, his daughter, before coming home to Laura) to haunt you. Give this book a chance and you will never forget it. Wondering, why was it never made into a film? It woyuld be so much better -- if well-adapted- than much of the unbelievably horrid stuff we get these days. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: Floating Dragon sinks
Review: Having read 'Ghost Story' and 'shadowland'I guess I'm on a downward slope with Mr Straub and this book proves it. The horror (or gore) is OTT and unnecesary in a lot instances but the main problem with this book is it just doesnt have a coherent plot There are too many distractions that contribute nothing to the story and just leave you thinking just what is the story ? As usual with Peter Straub the book is intelligently written and he 'jumps' you around the way he likes to which is a particular Straub-ism that he is known for . But at the end of the day this book has been 'over written' and doesnt contain strong enough characters or a streamlined plot to make this a memorable read
Rating:
Summary: Staub's best
Review: I decided to read this book after reading several of Straub's other novels. I put this one at the top of my "favorites" list, followed closely by Ghost Story. I loved the way the story jumped around in time and sometimes described the same event from the point of view of more than one character. Wonderful imagery, great imagination, lots of fun characters and action.
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