Rating: 
Summary: Average story with promising premise
Review: I read a lot of fiction and I stumbled across The Straw Men last year. I loved it, the atmosphere was creepy and the story was tightly focused. I recommended it to all my friends who can read. When I saw the Upright Man in the store I had to have it. I read it quickly and ultimately must agree with other reviewers who found the Bigfoot story tangental and distracting. Michael Marshall is a talented writer ( he has written 3 scifi books under the name Michael Marshall Smith, "Spares", "One of Us",and "Only Forward" all very good)but this book seems like a filler novel to set up a series. The story was average and if you like the characters you will be fine but don't expect the creepy revelations that made The Straw Men so memorable. I have hope the next one will make reading this worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: No "Straw Men", but still pretty good
Review: I stumbled upon The Straw Men completely by accident, and found it to be a creepy, gritty, genuinely pulse pounding suspense masterpiece. It single handedly rekindled my love of reading. So I eagerly picked up this sequel as soon as I became aware of its existence. Though not up to the lofty standards of the original, it is still very worthwhile. After a strong start it faltered a bit, then recovered -the seemingly random subplots are brought together well, with another intense, electrifying, feverishly page turning climax - which is where some otherwise good suspense novels fall short. If you liked the Straw Men read this - and read Smith's other novels as Michael Marshall Smith - especially the mindblowing "Only Forward".
Rating: 
Summary: Violet and unfocused
Review: I was 20 pages from the end of the book and just couldn't bring myself to finish. I found myself picking up the book every day as if it was a homework assignment nd checking page numbers almost constantly. For a spooky read, check out Richard Laymon instead.
Rating:
Summary: Story is all over the place...
Review: It's a good "diversion" for a quick read, but not nearly as good as The Straw Men. Definitely read this if you liked the first novel, but be warned that Michael Marshall is trying too hard to make a franchise out of The Straw Men. I can't really fault Michael Marshall for the effort to be like Nora Roberts or Jeffrey Deaver, but this novel just isn't very well coceived and lacks congruity. This novel really has two competing storylines that just don't work together (read it, see if you agree). Ward Hopkins is a compelling character. His rants and diatribes about society and the world alone are worth reading this book (I'd give his observations 4 out of 5 stars). Not a "page turner" like the first novel...
Rating:
Summary: The Straw Men return
Review: Michael Marshall's novel "The Straw Men" was one of the best books I read in 2003. It told the story of a shadowy group of powerful figures that believed a disease called civilization infected the majority of the human race. These "Straw Men" maintained a tradition dating back to the earliest days of the human race, a time when human beings performed rituals to honor the ancient gods in exchange for power and health. A central tenet of these rituals involved, and continues to involve, human sacrifice. Using their positions of power and influence, the Straw Men employ various men and women around the world as procurers of victims. One of these men, sometimes known as the Upright Man, ran up against trouble in the form of a Los Angeles police detective named John Zandt, FBI agent Nina Baynam, and a smart mouthed former CIA operative named Ward Hopkins when he abducted a young girl. Zandt, Baynam, and Hopkins soon learned the Upright Man was involved in a series of bizarre incidents, including the abduction of John Zandt's own daughter and the disappearance of Hopkins's parents. A lengthy investigation of the Upright Man lead to startling revelations about Hopkins's childhood, and eventually led to a showdown between the three heroes and the Straw Men in a place called The Halls, Montana."The Upright Man" is Marshall's latest entry in what looks to be a multi-volume series about the Straw Men. Set roughly three months after the explosive confrontation at The Halls, the book reintroduces us to Nina, Ward, and to a lesser extent John as the trio continues to track down the Upright Man. Hopkins dropped out of sight for awhile after the incident in Montana before realizing he had to resume his search for the Straw Men. Zandt, after a brief dalliance with Nina, fled to Florida. Nina Baynam continues to work with her partner at the bureau. It isn't too long before more gruesome murders register on the radar. A slain LAPD cop leads to the discovery of a young woman's body in a nearby motel where suspicious evidence found on the scene leads Nina to suspect the Upright Man is once again on the prowl, a suspicion soon reinforced by two subsequent murders in Portland and Seattle. It seems the Straw Men took a little time to regroup from the fiasco in Montana, and now the ancient society is on the hunt for the three individuals who nearly brought them down. Meanwhile, Ward Hopkins approaches the Upright Man from a different direction. Reassessing evidence discovered in his parents' house after their disappearance, Ward heads to San Francisco to search for the serial killer. He learns a lot about his own childhood in the process. He also learns that the Upright Man left a bloody swath through several foster families as a youth. The disparate facts Hopkins accumulates during his investigations in San Francisco start to gel after he reestablishes contact with Nina Baynam. The murders of the young woman in Los Angeles, a restaurant owner in Portland, and a hotel manager in Seattle couldn't seem further apart in terms of style and motive, but when taken together and fused with the evidence gleaned from the Upright Man's other crimes, everything eventually falls into place. Oddly enough, the crimes lead Zandt, Nina, and Hopkins to a small town called Sheffer, a place where a man named Tom Kozelek claimed to have encountered a Bigfoot during a botched suicide attempt in the deep woods. Confused? You will be during most of the book. Trust me when I say it all comes together in the end. "The Straw Men" worked as well as it did because you could cut the creepy atmosphere with a knife. I read the novel nearly fourteen months ago and still remember the pervasive sense of weirdness when Ward Hopkins found a note from his deceased parents saying, "We're not dead." And that was only one particular eerie scene in a book full of them. "The Straw Men" took the reader on a roller coaster ride through the horrific hidden recesses of the America. "The Upright Man" isn't nearly as chilling as "The Straw Men," unfortunately, but it is required reading for anyone who read and enjoyed the first book. The introductory chapter does resemble in no small way many of the set pieces in the "The Straw Men," but after that the novel settles down quite a bit. What the book does do is give the reader a little more background on the connection between Ward Hopkins and the Upright Man first established in "The Straw Men," as well as explaining a few more details about the Straw Men and how they came into existence. Another difference between the two books is the relegation of John Zandt, the tormented cop with a personal vendetta against the serial killer who took his daughter away from him, to a minor role here. I never gave a thought to the idea that "The Straw Men" would have a sequel even though the story left itself open for one. I was strolling through a brick and mortar the other day and just happened to catch a glimpse of the cover of "The Upright Man" on a rack of recently released paperback fiction. I immediately recognized the book for what it was and so beat a hasty path to the rack. I think I plowed over at least two toddlers and an old lady with a walker before laying my hands on a copy. I have rarely been so pumped to read a book. Well, "The Upright Man" isn't as good as its predecessor, but it's good enough to keep me reading if Marshall decides to release further tomes in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: A real page turner
Review: Only three people know about The Straw Men; two are on the run(Ward and John) while the third works as an agent for the FBI(Nina). The group believes they are the only ones not infected by a virus promoting social conscience which gives them the power to kill whomever they wish and are responsible for many of the atrocities that have happened throughout history. The members are wealthy, powerful and hold positions of authority in law enforcement & government and sometimes they work behind the series to further their agenda. Paul is the Upright Man, a serial killer in his own right who procures victims for the Straw Men to kill. He also is Ward's identical twin brother, the man responsible for killing Ward's parents and John's daughter. Nina gets pulled into a case that is of interest to the group and brings herself, John and Ward to their attention. The group decides it is time for the trio to die. Ward, John and Nina meet in a forest in the Pacific Northwest for a final showdown with THE UPRIGHT MAN and members of The Straw Men. There is nothing more frightening and none more dangerous than the sane person who believes he can kill with impunity because it is his or her sanctimonious right to do so. The antagonist and The Strawmen are evil, not insane which make this a horror novel as frightening as that of King and Koontz because they wear the guise of humanity to hide their depravity. Ward is an innocent who learns fast how to stay alive against people so ruthless that they are beyond imagining. Michael Marshal is a master when it comes to writing horror of the human kind. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Murky and confusing
Review: The first thing about "The Upright Man" that any prospective buyer should know is that it's a SEQUEL! This is not mentioned anywhere on the book cover; I had absolutely no idea about that when I picked up this book on a whim. The author makes almost no allowances for this; he simply assumes that you've read the first book. It becomes very confusing when characters make cryptic, fragmentary references to the events in the earlier volume.
Marshall is undoubtedly a talented writer; he has a good ear for dialogue and his social observations are interesting. However, that's the best I can say about this novel. There are too many characters and the point of view is constantly shifting. Marshall also includes some digressions that seem to go nowhere, such as a lengthy subplot about Bigfoot (!). By the time I slogged through to the big finale, in which characters are staggering around a dark forest shooting at each other, I didn't know (or care) who the "bad guys" were anymore.
Rating: 
Summary: A TERRIBLE Sequel
Review: The prequel, The Straw Men, was as Stephen King said: "A masterpiece".
This one is boring, it has the cheesiest ending I've ever read, nothing is clarified at the end, and the reader is left feeling confused and irritated.
Rating:
Summary: STRAW MEN REDUX
Review: This sequel to Marshall's weird STRAW MEN is complex, oftentimes confusing, and a little slow at times; however, it continues its tale of a secret society of killers who feel civilization is not worth saving, with enough surprises and twists to keep you going. The leading characters of Ward Hopkins and Nina are given a little more depth this time, and the Upright Man himself pulls off some neat trickery. The subplot involving a bigfoot and a nice old lady are muddled, and not fully resolved at the end, either. The presence of Tom Kozelek as a man bent on committing suicide also tends to cloud the central plot.
However, most of these subplots and twists come together in a susspenseful showdown in the snowy mountains of Washington state. Marshall also suggests a possible third entry in this unusual, if sometimes frustrating, series.
Rating:
Summary: Too many characters, unfocused plot line.
Review: Upright Man is not a particularly horrible read and does retain some of the witty humor associated with other Michael Marshall novels, but this is certainly his worst book to date.
There are too many characters in this story and it becomes confusing very quickly. The story itself is kind of odd and doesn't follow any type of pattern that you'd expect in this kind of thriller.
On another note, many people have complained about the ending being corny and unimaginative. It is obviously not Marshall's best ending, but it is by no means that bad.
In short, if you haven't read any of MM's other novels, read those first. THEN read Upright Man.
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