John Farris' breakthrough bestseller holds up well, after all these years. It spawned a minor cottage industry in the film business, especially, with the "evil government psychic projects" plot. Scanners and Firestarter, and their numerous clones and offspring, were inspired by this piece. It was ahead of its time in discussing then-unknown true-life psychic spying programs, which have since been written about in quite some detail - though discussing nothing quite like what happens in this book.

Robin and Gillian are twins separated at pre-birth, reincarnated souls meant to grow up together who instead are growing up separately. Robin is the more powerful of the two, and comes to the attention of MORG, a nefarious super-secret government agency that attempts to murder Robin's CIA assassin father in order to more fully take Robin under their wing. Robin's father is mighty ticked-off about all this, and wages a private little mini-war with MORG head Childermass to get his son back. In the meantime, promising newcomer Gillian has also come to MORG's attention - and Robin's father's, as well, who wants to use her to locate his sequestered son.

Definitely one of Farris' best. Even though Farris also wrote the screenplay to the stylish Brian DePalma movie, the film is weak compared to its original source material.

This 1976 novel by John Farris was not only the basis for the Brian de Palma film but is also quite clearly the main inspiration for Stephen King's novel "Firestarter." I mention this because it was King's choice words of high praise that caught my eye and made me pick this book up off the shelf at the library, which makes an implicit comparison between the two works pretty much impossible. The important thing is that Farris' novel holds up twenty-five years later. Of course the entire idea of a secret government organization with vast man power and resources, answerable only to the egomaniac in charge--in this case the Multiphasic Operations Research Group (MORG) run by the one-armed Childermass--has been done to death over the years, but they are a necessary evil to tell this particular tale. The main players in "The Fury" are Gillian Bellaver, daughter of a very rich family, and Robin Sandza, being raised by a religious couple while is father is away in the Navy. What we quickly learn is that Gillian and Robin are psychic twins, physically separated right before birth because of chance mishap. While Robin has been enjoying his newfound powers, Gillian is only becoming aware of how much harm she can do to other people. The other twist of fate is that Robin's father, Peter, is in fact a skilled assassin who wants to get his son away from MORG. The chief success of this novel is that with everything that everybody is trying to do you end up having no idea how this will all play out in the end, which is a roundabout way of saying Farris manages to sustain a high level of suspense right up until the end of the novel, which is certainly no mean feat in this genre. Farris mixes his science with mythology to provide a reasonable rationale for why these kids are able to do the things they do, certainly enough to constitute the willing suspension of disbelief without getting into a debate on practical realities. You also have to admire his sense of realism regarding bodily fluids and such, which add unsettling touches of authenticity to the tale. I hear tell this book was reissued because a sequel is forthcoming; I am not waiting 25 years to read the next one.

5

Turning fifteen, New Yorker Gillian Bellaver possesses a rare talent. She can convert psychic energy into a powerful, destructive force that she struggles to restrain. Teenager Robin Sandaz also contains the same power. The Feds, several foreign governments, and other wealthy interests share in common the desire to control Gillian, Robin, and similar talents for purposes of exploiting their respective powers mostly as weapons.

Robin's father, Peter is one of the US government's most dangerous and successful assassins, but feels it is time to retire. The sanguinary Middle East has been his most frequent playground, but a recent personal incident has returned him to America. Peter worries that he may be too late to save his son from the brain washing happening to Robin back in the States. Peter plans to attempt to free Robin and the other "student"-prisoners from their captivity before they become inhuman pawns deadlier than any known terrorist in the world today. Failure means death while success means being on the lam perhaps forever.

It has been twenty-five years since John Farris released THE FURY, but the book is being re-released in anticipation of Mr. Farris' sequel. I feel like the star of Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen" that I read so long ago and just reread yesterday. The original retains all the freshness that made it a best seller as the look inside the unused segments of the mind seems even more relevant in this age of rapid medical achievements. This reviewer strongly recommends reading the novel followed by the De Palma's movie because both are excellent.

Harriet Klausner

Farris is the master of the subtle plot. He is also a master of genuine horror - horror that is not necessarily caused by supernatural monsters or aliens or bogeymen. It is the horror that is immanent in human nature - more or less trammeled by the civilization and the rules of society. When they come into the open it is either due to mental or social sickness. In this book you can study persons that when they have the feeling of being almighty may exercise their dehumanized urges on innocent people. Man is the only being that kills for pleasure and personal satisfaction. Farris shows this in a novel full of breathteaking suspense. The Trevellians may be exaggerated and slightly unreal as characters but they represent a tendency in humans to play God and to feel like God. Hubris is punished in the classical Greek tragedy. But is this mortal sin always punished in our modern times?

A serial killer may be at large. Six talented women with various handicaps have disappeared without a trace. The only link between them seems to be the Trevellian family. Sharan Norbeth , a disfigured artist, goes undercover to discover the truth, but comes close to being victim number 7. Just when you think you have figured out who the villain is, the plot takes a twist and turn. The story keeps you on edge and is a very satisfying read for fans of mystery and psychosexual thrillers.

You won't be able to put this one down; get ready for a VERY late night! "Soon She Will Be Gone", will have you breathless in anticipation of what will happen next! Just when I thought I had "figured it all out" I was surprised by another twist, another turn, all the way up to the unpredictable ending.You won't regret buying this book, it's one heck of a roller coaster ride!

John Biggers came to artistic maturity in an academic setting far from the art centers of New York. He was repulsed by the New York art scene that had so summarily dismissed black art when he had participated in a MOMA black student art exhibit. Perhaps his avoidance of the centers of art commerce were as responsible for the late acceptance of his genius as was the segregationist mindset in the United States during Biggers's early career. As well as producing important paintings, drawings, and sculpture, Biggers is one of this country's most important muralists, creating more than twenty major murals in fifty years. His life has been dramatic in both content and context. Wardlaw draws a clear portrait of African-American life in the black section of a sharply segregated Gastonia, North Carolina, where Biggers grew up in the 1930s, and the rich family and community life of rural black America of the time. The other essays, written by noted scholars, trace the history of Biggers's artistic career through a careful study and analysis of his body of work.

She is not ordinary woman in any sense of the world. She is a powerful psychic who can call forth her doppelganger at any time she chooses, an entity equal in power to Eden Waring. She defused a bomb by using her powers but that doesn't make her a safe or happy person. The Assassin of the Impact Sector of the FBI tried to kill her once but failed and he's back for a second shot.

That is not the worst danger she faces because, after all, the Assassin is only a mundane psychopath. She has attracted the attention of Mordant, an evil being from another plane, who has lost part of his soul. He hopes to use Eden to find it so he can plunge the world into chaos. He also wants to mate with her so that the child they will produce will be quite the fury. Eden wants no part of the evil Mordant and will fight him with her last breath before she gives him any victory over her.

THE FURY AND THE POWER is a pulse pounding work of psychological suspense and chilling horror. Eden is a young woman who must cope with her own powers and otherworldly beings without succumbing to their dark side. There are many violent scenes in this book but they are appropriate in the context of the story line. The sequel promises to be even better but readers will have to wait something that will prove a very difficult task.

Harriet Klausner

This is a solid play of a good novel, but it is unlikely that any viewer can see it without having first seen the film version with Ray Milland. The surprises and twists are all there and the dialogue works well. A solid play.

Saw the movie when I was a kid - read the book at the library, then finally bought the republished edition from Amazon. Characters are beautifully drawn, and the love story is great. A great English mystery novel.

I first read this book at about the age of ten, after watching the 1944 film on late night on television (I was enthralled). There are sub-plots and characters which weren't included in the movie version, but Macardle's fluid writing style keeps one's interest until the last page. The story is about strange ghostly disturbances at "Cliff End" (in the movie, the Georgian house was re-named "Windward"). There are wonderful characters: the Fitzgeralds (Pamela and Roderick) who are siblings, Stella Merideth, the young moonstruck girl who's enchanted by the dangers which lure her into her mother's past. Commander Beech is gruff and Miss Holloway is cold and rather heartless (especially towards Stella; her supposed mother was an "intimate friend" of Holloway's). The Spanish Gypsy - Carmel Casada - whom Llewellyn used as a model for his paintings holds the key to the puzzle....Macardle uses plenty of exclaimation marks throughout the book and her writing style is a wee bit dated - but this story has an ingeniously unique twist in which readers of the ghost genre should appreciate. The Irish Ms. Macardle also wrote THE UNFORESEEN, (about a woman with "second sight") DARK ENCHANTMENT (about witchcraft in France) and a non-fiction book entitled THE IRISH REPUBLIC.

This Farris piece reads like an episode of The Outer Limits.

Things best left undisturbed become disturbed, bringing with them the usual nastinesses such things do. In this case, That Best Left Alone is the "Huldefolk," an ancient offshoot race of man that lives in the darkness and the cold. Some fool at the turn of the century woke one up, and it's been haunting the region ever since, trying to seduce lonely wayfarers into its domain to help it ring the alarm clock for the rest of its sleeping kind - which, needless to say, are rather inimical to their human cousins.

Fiends is a straightforward horror story, and one of Farris' better entries in the genre. The characters are very real and appealing, the Huldefolk genuinely gruesome and pretty frightening. For whatever reason, Farris set the central story in the 1970s, and writes the period well.

This book is long overdue for reprint. Hopefully, Farris' return to the field with his Fury sequels will bring it back. In the meantime, try and dig-up a copy.

But don't dig up any Huldefolk.

The "huldufolk" of the book are a truly scary creation and they are actual folk creatures from Iceland (I looked them up on the web after reading this book). The best parts of the book are set in the past, after the folk are accidentally set loose and take over a remote farming village. There are some great scares and a true atmosphere of evil and foreboding--the sort of thing Mr. Farris does so well in his books. Scenes set in the modern day (well, the '70s) aren't quite as effective, but all in all, this is one great book and is certainly well worth the effort it might take to track down a used copy. One of Mr. Farris' best books, along with _All Heads Turn as the Hunt Goes By_ and _Wildwood_.

I had the toughest time trying not to finish the book. This is a page turner that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It has everything your heart could desire out of a story. But mostly it has raw fear. The characters are fast-moving as well as the adrenaline. If you dont finish this book in a day then you have got the wrong one. My advice to you is...read on. I loved it!

University of California at Shasta Biochemical major Eden Waring gives the Valedictory speech at the graduation when she envisions the plane crashing on the crowd. The plane crashes not long after her warning. Though she saved the lives of many of the participants, everyone just stares at Eden as if she is a freak.

As top secret as federal agencies go, the Multiphasic Operations and Research Group known as MORG now knows that Eden has psychic abilities. MORG insists on owning Eden and her skills. They will do anything and everything to gain what they want. Eden goes on the lam as MORG sees her as rectifying the mistakes made when her now deceased biological mother escaped them (see THE FURY).

John Farris returns to the realm of THE FURY with this entertaining sequel. THE FURY AND THE TERROR is filled with non-stop action, but contains a sense of humor that at times satirizes the story line and the first book, and thus never allows the science to overwhelm the plot. Readers will relish much of the cast including the Lady Macbeth like plots of the First Lady. Readers will enjoy this novel, its predecessor (and the movie) and await the next book, THE FURY AND THE POWER.

Harriet Klausner

It's taken John Farris over twenty-five years to finally write a sequel to his most famous novel, THE FURY, and I'm happy to say that it was well worth the wait. THE FURY AND THE TERROR takes up twenty years later where its predecessor left off. Gillian Bellaver has been dead for over a year, having been murdered by a team of assassins in front of her husband, Tom Sherard. Robin Sandza has been in a coma-like state for two decades-his body housed in the ultra-secret MORG facility in Montana-while his twin body (or doppelganger), using the name of Victor Wilding, now runs MORG with the help of Rona Harvester, who's married to the President of the United States. The story starts out with a commando raid on a Hawaii compound that's led by the First Lady. The mission of the raid is to capture of Kelanie Cheng, whose psychic abilities are so strong that she's considered to be what's known as an avatar. After the raid is successfully completed, Rona Harvester decides to remain in Hawaii for an extra day, while Kelanie is heavily drugged and then flown to the MORG facility, guarded by the team of commandoes. The plane, however, never makes it to Montana. Kelanie uses her power to divert the aircraft to northern California where it crashes into a stadium during a college graduation ceremony. Eden Waring is in the process of giving the valedictory address at the ceremony when the tragedy occurs, and it's only because of her own psychic ability that the several thousand people in the stands aren't killed when the airplane crashes and then explores. This immediately draws national attention to Eden and what she did. It also draws the attention of MORG and Rona Harvester. It isn't long before Eden's hidden identity is discovered. She's the daughter of Gillian Bellaver and Peter Sandza (Robin's father), and her psychic powers are stronger than anyone can imagine. Everybody now wants her either dead or alive, and will do whatever it takes to accomplish this vital task. Eden's grandmother (Katherine Bellaver) sends Tom Sherard to save her-a man who's known danger in a thousand different ways and is prepared to put his own life on the line to save the daughter of his late wife. Even with the help of many close and powerful friends, Tom may not be able to do the impossible because there's more at stake here than just the life of one young girl-the entire country may be on the brink of a nuclear disaster. Understand that this brief description of the storyline is only the tip of the iceberg for THE FURY AND THE TERROR. John Farris has managed to intertwine a dozen different subplots into the novel that almost boggles the reader's mind. At the crux of the story, however, is Rona Harvester's conspiracy to murder her invalided husband with the help of her lover, Victory Wilding, and to take over the Presidency. Once Kelanie Cheng is killed in the plane crash, however, Rona has to turn to Eden Waring, hoping that she might be able to help heal Robin Sandza's brain injury with her psychic powers so that his doppelganger (Victor) won't die. Together, both Rona and Victor hope to rule the most powerful country in the world. Along with this is the large number of colorful characters that clearly stand out. There's Phil Haman, a transvestite assassin with a split personality whose job is to kill Eden before MORG can gets its hands on her. Then, there's Tom Sherard, an African hunter with a British accent, who loved Eden's real mother more than life itself and is willing to take on the entire American government to save his stepdaughter. There's also a small California town that's filled with witches and warlocks who use their shape-changing abilities when attacked by outsiders. And let's not forget Rona Harvester, a woman who clearly likes to use sex, blackmail and murder to control the men and women in her life, and who isn't afraid to blow up an entire city in order to achieve her goals for total control. These are characters that explode outward in all of their strengths and weaknesses, coming alive in a way that only John Farris can conceive. Another factor that adds to the extreme quality of THE FURY AND THE TERROR is the fact that the author never lets up from the first page to the last. Something is constantly happening, and there's never a dull moment. Mr. Farris has skillfully incorporated fantasy with reality to create a believable scenario that makes you wonder just how much of this is actually true. Though it helps, it's not necessary that you read THE FURY in order to enjoy this novel. Each book stands alone. For those of you who've never read anything by John Farris, fasten your seatbelts and be prepared for the ride of a lifetime!

Farris has been one of the most consistent and profilic writers of the latter half of this century. He virtually invented the genre of dark suspense and The Fury and the Terror serves as a reminder of his genius. Whether you're familiar with The Fury or not, this book stands alone as an amazing work of fiction. Definitely worth reading again and again...

Greg Walker (so aptly named) seems like the most typical of Americans, hard-working, devoted husband and father, member of the local Chamber of Commerce. Then a series of seemingly random events causes him to act out of character. Or so we think. His wife of 18 years and their beautiful 17-year-old daughter are worried about Greg, but they have no idea who he really is.
Farris manages to let the reader know exactly what is going to happen throughout the novel, while keeping us in suspense by not telling us how those events are going to play out. The characters are richly developed with realistic dialogue and action. Farris also weaves brilliant psychology in with the suspense and terror. No character is all good or all bad; these are complex people facing complex situations. Underlying all this are cultural messages regarding emerging sexuality, fears about aging, and the obsession with youth. Freud would say "I told you so" if he read some of these passages about conflicting father/daughter emotions! This is such a good book, and it is quite unique in the sea of slasher horror that seems to overrun the stands. There is some gore, but overall this is a more subtle form of horror with terrific writing and a wonderful sense of plot and climax.

John Farris has suspense down to an art in this early novel. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, BAM!, I'm in the jungles of Central America about a million miles from where I thought the plot was headed. He's a master of dialogue and moving the plot along at a breakneck pace. For all you Farris fans out there, this one is worth going back and reading if you haven't already done so.

The suspense of this book is created by dramatic irony rather than the reader not knowing what will happen next. We know what will happen next, but we want to know how it will happen. The ending is not really a climax - as we know already what will happen - but a surprise ending in the sense that we do not know how the main characters will survive or endure it. A superb book. A horror novel "comme il faut"!

A demonically possessed young man commits a horrible murder, or the spirit controlling his body does, and now the forces of darkness want the boy taken to trial. Anyone that stands in its way is destroyed in rather gruesome and disturbing ways. Although the book goes way over the top, would you believe on unfortunate soul being dispatched via the commode?, the book never becomes silly. It remains a suspenseful and scary ride to its harrowing conclusion. Highly recommended.

This is my first novel by John farris I read. I did see The Fury years earlier,so I decided to try reading one of his novels. I can honestly say it was a fun read, lots of gore and physical descriptions of the evil events. I must also add that Farris does like to put in alot of sex, and can be pornographic at times, I didn't expect it from a horror novel, but what the heck it was still fun. If you liked THE EXORCIST This would have been a worthy companion to that story.
IN A NUTSHELL: Guy becomes possessed by a ruthless spirit, guy gets arrested and goes to court for murder. Now the spirit wants to prove in court that he legally exsists. How you ask? By putting on a "Demonic Show" for the Jury. This is when it gets wild, thats all I'll say. ENJOY!

I've never read many books outside the ones that were mandatory to read in my high school. I picked "Son of the Endless Night" up out of a local library when I decided to buy a few books to try and get into reading. And I must say that this book did exactly that. Now, I just dont know what other catagories of books to try and read except for "Horror", for John Farris's descriptive detail in the interesting relations of Good vs. Evil had to be, in my opinion, one of the all time greatest.

This book did not win me over completely, but it does manage to save itself--and pack a wallop--with the last hundred pages.

The premise is that something is very wrong in Wildwood, of the Great Smokey Mountains. A legacy left over from 1916, when sorcery went horribly amok at a lavish chateau, has caused strange creatures to inhabit the woods, and has cloaked the mountain called Tormentil with a sinister aura. Enter Whit and his son Terry; Whit visits the woods to find an old army buddy who may have gone insane (local gossip)--but the old buddy's obssession with halfhuman beasts that he wants to target with his rifle is only the tip of the iceberg. It turns out that Whit has some unfinished business in the woods, which he didn't know he had!

Scenes throughout the book take us back to 1909-16, to shed light on what really happened to let loose what could be demons, to reveal what thrust the chateau into a nether-realm on a night of revelry, and to link the characters of 1958 with those of decades past.

Part William Sloane potboiler (there's an evil genius behind all the science-and-sorcery experimentation), part Harry Potter scenario (austere centaurs and rambunctious faeries in a magic wood, helping out a young boy, Terry, when he's in trouble), the book may also appeal to fans of Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood.

A few complaints:

About 80 pages into the book, the first of the flashbacks to 1909ish occur, but the first few examples are in diary form. It's already late in the book to suddenly start running a parallel narrative, but that's okay. The strange thing is, all other flashbacks take the form of actual scenes--no diary headings introducing them or anything. This bumpy, unpredictable approach to the 1909-16 sections still strikes me as odd. Perhaps the little diary portions could have been modified to be scenes, or that bitty bit of info in them could have shown up as expository stuff in present-time scenes (ie. someone reminisces, a fragment of a diary is found in 1958, etc.).

Other than that, I guess it might be fair to say that a lot of the 1958 scenes at the start of the book--specifically the ones that establish a quietly sexual relationship between Terry and Cherokee beauty Faren--seem to become meaningless when everything starts to converge at the chateau, in both 1958 and 1916. Terry meets butterfly lady Josie, and hasn't got another thought for Faren. Meanwhile, Arn starts out as a harsh, unfriendly lout (this is Whit's old army pal), but by the end he almost acts like a different person. As he walks off into the sunset, I'm not sure I can forgive him for his earlier transgressions (and I'm not sure I'd let him adopt a baby!). As for the villains, neither the evil sorcerer nor the demonic serpent quite ascend to the level of memorable evildoers; they simply get crowded off the stage for most of the book, and then we're out of pages and it's time for the finale.

But, the book does pull everything together towards the home-stretch. As a time-travel buff, I liked it when the two eras intersected...past and present characters intermixing, even meeting themselves. The last hundred pages are very intense, very revealing (thank goodness), and quite satisfying.

This is one of those rare novels that made such an impression on me that I have actually dreamed about it on several occassions. It is the story of a parcel of densely wooded land near the Smokey Mountains called Wildwood. It is a place where twisted creatures, part animal and part man, roam; both beautiful and terrifying. And where a rich mogul, Mad Edgar Langford's chateau seems to blink in and out of existence after disappearing during a masquerade ball in the 1900's. Farris' writing style has depth and emotion that goes beyond most modern authors. His ideas are richly realized and wildly original and his characters are as close to real as the printed word allows. This is a horror/fantasy blend that seduces with dark and wondrous magic. Highest recommendation.

This book is well worth the time and trouble that it might take to track it down. John Farris is one of the few authors in the horror genre who continually tries new things and can be counted on to deliver from one book to the next.

In _Wildwood_, he offers a truly involving mixture of fantasy (at times, this reminded me strongly of Robert Holdstock's _Mythago Wood_) and frightening, cosmic horror. In a relatively short time, Mr. Farris has become one of my favorite authors and I haven't been disappointed yet in any of the books I've read by him, many of which have involved some rather lengthy searching through the musty, dim stacks of used bookstores. Highly recommended!