Rating: 
Summary: Laughable - Not scary
Review: "The Keep" is exceptionally dull, and reads like something written by Barbara Cartland. This is not a classic horror story, horror lovers, and people who treasure the correct use of english will be turned off by the lurid passages, run-on sentences, and ridiculous plot.
Rating:
Summary: Worst book I read all year....
Review: Buoyed by the praise garnered for this book ... I purchased this book with reasonably high hopes. However, it turns out that the best part of the book was in the imagining. Unfortunately, the story is dull, populated with cardboard characters, and instead of building to a satisfying denouement, the book cranks along on rusty gears, until it slowly and thankfully eases to a halt.From this purchase onward, I have learnt to read...reviews from the "Lowest rating first" What a pity I can't set that choice as my default.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining at times, laughable at others
Review: (Some minor spoilers) A horror novel with a brilliant premise (Nazis get torn to pieces by a mysterious evil entity), it begins to drag after the first third, where it feels like Wilson is going through set actions rather than writing a real narrative. The beginning starts off with extreme promise, reading off so flawlessly and so vividly it feels like you're watching it on screen. It builds with that inevitable dread as we read off a soldier tearing off a protective cross from the keep wall (the cinema cue where the audience is screaming "stupid, stupid, stupid!"). Naturally, he dies, and following his death come several more bloody and similarly brutal attacks. Wilson advances the story by introducing a mysterious hero, whom we'll return to later, a Jewish professor and his daughter, and WIlson's crowning achievement, a rivalry between the commanding German army officer and a newly arrived SS officer. Then it gets bad. This is a novel where females would not have been missed. It sounds sexist, but hey, it's true, and I'm female too. Wilson's one prominent female character, Magda, is vapid, spends half of her time wringing her hands, crying and worrying, and the other half in a sexual self-discovery that is annoyingly detailed and really, hackneyed (which may be partially forgiven seeing as when it was written). Some readers may see the steamy sex scene as a perk, but really, it is completely superfluous, out of place, and self-indulgent of the author. The villain and hero are similarly mangled. I was actually afraid of Molasar/Rasalom (the author throws in this name change for seemingly pure randomness, although this may relate to a legend about control over demons) for a while, but once he was revealed in a tangible form, he lost all his frightening aura, and just sounded like a hypocritical, pompous aristocrat. There is no way the reader can either fear or respect him. As for Glenn, he is an underdeveloped protaganist, with no real flaws to make him either real or likeable, possibly excepting his "true" love Magda, another cliche from which Wilson suffers. The ending is somewhat flat and predictable, but seeing as how the book itself winds up, it's no real surprise.
Rating: 
Summary: FUN!
Review: I grabbed this one on a whim, because I vaguely remembered reading it many years ago. I blasted through Harry Shannon's terrific "Night of the Beast," and then started my copy of "The Keep." I could not have planned a better sequence if I'd tried. This is a total, pulp-style blast of a book. I think the Scott Glenn movie, which was kind of a dud, had caused me to forget how delightful the original novel was. It kept me up half the night !I highly recommend it. Really fun!
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimate Evil versus...well, the Ultimate Evil
Review: F. Paul Wilson's fine thriller "The Keep" combines so many horror elements that eventually one expects a good old fashioned ghost to be thrown in for good measure. These men are indeed haunted, but it's by much more than a ghost. The underlying, supreme evil of the vampire appears to be so indestructible, especially after it squashes a Nazi regiment with the ease of a rabid wolf in a flock of sheep, readers will find themselves wondering what the resolution of this tale could possibly be. A Nazi regiment moves into an ancient castle in the Transylvanian Alps during World War II, accidently unleashing an evil force that apparently inspired ancient vampire legends. Needless-to-say, these German warriors are picked off one by one. When an SS extermination squad arrives on the scene to "fix" the problem, all hell literally breaks loose. "The Keep" is the beginning of Wilson's Adverary Cycle (including "The Tomb" and "The Touch"), but it stands alone as a terrific tale combining elements of horror, vampire legend, fantasy, H.P. Lovecraft and, of course, our fear/fascination with the ruthless evil of the Nazi legacy. Readers will instantly identify with Theodore Cuza, an ederly Jewish professor brought to the castle to solve the horrible murders. He secretly seeks to communicate with the vampire, using it's power to conquer the Nazi war machine. Yet another character appears at the castle - a mysterious red-haired man known as Glenn. His purpose is to keep the vampire within the confines of the castle - we think. Naturally, Cuza has a beautiful young daughter strangely attracted to Glenn. It's almost impossible to put this book down. If you've experienced the greatness of the Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing Hammer vampire films of the 1960s, you will absolutely love this tale. Sure, parts of this book are cheesy and at times it has the feel of an energetic video game. But "The Keep" also establishes multiple tragic characters, among them Captain Klaus Woermann. A veteran German commander (and anti-Nazi) who simply wants to save his rank-and-file men from the growing evil of the castle, his emotional conflicts will create an unueasy tension throughout the novel. We actually care for Woermann and can even identify with the uncomfortable moral choice Cuza must face. What will enthrall fans of horror about "The Keep" is the standoff between imagined ultimate evil (the vampire) versus realistic ultimate evil (Nazi soldiers). It is a fascinating contrast. In fact, the unusual combination was so tempting talented film director Michael Mann decided to make this novel into a muddled 1983 film. The misguided effort eventually became bogged down in incoherent evil vs. evil symbolism. But don't judge "The Keep" by that nearly forgotten film. It is a finely detailed horror/fantasy novel which fans of this type of genre will absolutely gorge themselves upon.
Rating:
Summary: Nazis, vampires, and immortals, oh my!
Review: The Keep was also a good read. At first, I was like, "Oh god no, not another horror novel with Nazi's in it!" because that theme has tended to be overused in horror from time to time, but I was pleasantly surprised.
German soldiers and Nazi's have been assigned to guard and protect a mysterious stone structure with a tower. However, there is something already there that doesn't want them for company.
Rating:
Summary: WWII + Vampires = Greatness
Review: It is very hard for me to like books. But I picked this one up. I love pretty much anything about World War II. Plus I love anything about Vampires. Putting them both together makes a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Intensely Great
Review: This is one of my all time favorite books. It is creepy and clever and its just an all around great story. Any fan of horror will find this book agreeable. It has everything!
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and strangely old - fashioned....not a keeper.
Review: ...I approached this book with high expectations. ... The excerpt really caught my interest. Even the cover looked rather good. I thought this book might be something really gripping, and a little removed from the ordinary.... ... This book is boring. Yes, I probably wouldn't have rated it so low if my expectations hadn't been so high...but still, ... Don't get me wrong, the start is brilliant. The topic sounded really great. But when I started reading, boy, did the eyelids start to droop. This is more of a romance than a horror book. And after a promising start, the author does everything wrong. The plot starts to get staid and boring. Ho hum, the beautiful young girl staying at a hotel, her father at the near-by keep (house made to look like a castle, apparently) and the nazi's relentlessly grilling said father for his knowledge about what may or may not be killing their men each night. I don't like Nazis, so I wasn't too fazed when the "thing" starts killing them. After a while, I didn't like any of the characters. The father is selfish and whinging. The writer's portrayal of the one woman in the book, is downright stupid (her breasts heave "shamelessly?" when she breaths? when no one is watching? Yeah, whatever) The daughter is apparently brave enough to sneak into the keep through a grimy tunnel, but quivers at the sight of a rat in broad daylight (there is other stereotyped stuff like that, but I'll spare you) And the guy who built the place doesn't know he can enter it via the tunnels to kill the stupid monster thing? Then the woman has to try to kill the thing, because the hero is too incapacitated? And then the hero suddenly decides he might be up to it after all, and goes running and climbing high up on the turrets? Sure. All this in flowery, and at times, monotonous prose. Ugh. As I said, a huge let down. There are no scary passages in this book. And the author doesn't mention the villagers till the end, and then hastily introduces us to illustrate a stupid scene where they all go crazy, apparently. Save your money. Yes, horror fiction can at times be bad. It can be hackneyed, lurid, strange, and derivative. But this writer commits the worst crime in horror writing; he has written a book that is not scary at all. I wouldn't have been nearly so hard on this book if it wasn't that I wanted a good horror book to curl up by the fire with, and instead I feel I got a classic romance. Great for those who enjoy it, but not what I was looking for. It's not gritty or involving, nor is it interesting or suspenseful. There is no sense of creeping horror (which is what I expected) The monster is badly drawn and just not frightening, imho (this is the image I got of it - I imagined it as grey play doh with those stuck on eyes you see on pet rocks) After I had finished "The Keep," I felt more as if I had just finished a short story or a novella...there's just not that much substance. My advice? Don't trust your impressions of this particular book ... It kind of turns into a different book. Check it out in a store or library first.
Rating:
Summary: A good read, expected more though.
Review: A friend of mine suggested The Keep and mentioned that it was a horror classic. The Keep takes place in Romania during WWII where German Troops occupy a Keep for use as a lookout point. The troops discover a hidden room and when that room was opened it unleashed a horrible entity which starts to kill the troops. It is a good book, but honestly, I expected more out of a "horror classic". I did enjoy it, it had an alright ending and it reads fairly fast. Like I said though, I expected something more from the Keep. Perhaps it just did not live up to the expecations I had previously placed on it. If you want a decend read, then definately read the Keep.
| 
