I'm not one to normally read a Brian Keene novel (well, I have read three...I think), but when I saw the title of this one, and the fantastic campy-B-flick picture for a cover, I knew I had to read it. And, you know, it wasn't that bad. The first part of the book was a mid-post-apocalyptic tale that tells the story of how some of the characters are surviving. But Keene didn't think that a random monster book about the end of the world was enough. Enter the second half of the book. This half was

Reading for Jare's 2010 Spills & Chills Release Challenge.I haven't read a book where the main protagonist is a crabby 80 year old guy since struggling through King's Insomnia many moons ago. Fortunately, this story is much more interesting. This guy is a lone survivor (or so it seems) in a world nearly buried under water. He has the misfortune to live high up on a secluded mountain when most others have perished in the floods and he faces long days of loneliness, isolation and day after day of...

EarthWorm Gods by Brian KeeneThe second reading of this novel for me. An apocalyptic book that dwells on Lovecraftian Earthworms among other sea creature life. As the rain keeps falling, the Gods become more frightening and terrorizing for the main characters Keene builds for the reader. Sit back and enjoy the rain...and the chaos.

Thrilling apocaplyptic madness from Brian Keene. This book got me so wrapped in it that I breezed through it in two days. Now I'm looking for the sequel. If you enjoy end-of-the-world survival horror stories, you can't go wrong with this one.

This was a great, fresh take on an apocalypse world. Great characters, monsters and a never-ending feeling of doom.

As far a pulp horror books go, this one is pretty much perfect. Weird and gory and tense and surprising and even (at times) emotional and funny. I loved it.

Satanists on surfboards. A mermaid. Giant worms and Cthulhu. And an End Time rain with two old mountain coots getting to play Beowulf. This is the good stuff. The Conqueror Worms is the second book I've read by Brian Keene (The Rising being the first), and I'm really impressed by this guy. The sheer gusto of his B-movie imagination leaves me hopeful for the future of Horror fiction. In one sense, I'm left thinking Keene is very Old School (see Giant Bug movies from the 50s), but not totally. Con...

This book was good, but the last 30-40 pages were particularly great. The tension just keeps building, and everything comes to a head in just the right way, at just the right time. If you’re a writer, the ending of Earthworm Gods should be a case study in horror for the denouement and conclusion alone. In that respect it is one of the highest watermarks in horror that I have read so far.

This was my first time reading Brian Keene, and I was excited! I wanted to like this story, giant worms eating everything in their path, end of the world and nature's victory over human power...Unfortunately I felt deceived by the title and about what really happened in the book - where are the worms? They were mere filler barely getting any attention, I felt like this was a worm version of Where is Waldo, tough to spot with many pages that did not belong there.It started off interesting, I was

Sometimes you just need to be entertained! If you're a fan of creature-features and character driven stories, when that time comes, choose Earthworm Gods!This is a tale told mostly from the protagonist's point of view. His name is Teddy Garnett and he's a man over 80 years old and he's suffering from nicotine withdrawal. It has been raining in Teddy's neighborhood for what seems like forever. When Teddy ventures out to see what he can see, he realizes that almost everything is under water, inclu...

I have nothing but the highest praise for Earthworm Gods. This story captured my imagination, as well as most of my waking hours the last two days, as I poured through this thing. Pardon the pun, but I was hooked. A little history from Brian Keene found in the Afterword of this story. If you're confused, like I was, about why there is a story called Earthworm Gods AND The Conquerer Worms. According to Keene, the story was originally published in hardcover in 2005 from Delirium Books as Earthworm...

This book is both exactly what I thought it wanted it to be, but also so much more than that.What I wanted: a tense and fun creature feature involving gigantic worms that eat people. That box is checked for sure. What I got instead: the giant worms are there, but so are well-developed characters I actually cared about, as well as slower-burn beginning for world building and suspense. The book also takes a turn in the second half that I was NOT expecting. No spoilers, but my jaw literally dropped...

For Brian's fans (and you can count me squarely in that camp), be sure to read the afterword to this edition. In it Brian talks about this novel's importance not only to his mythos, but to the evolution of his craft. It's a quick piece, but it exemplifies many of the traits I value in Brian's writing: It's raw, it's real, it's emotional. As for the novel, it's the aforementioned things and more. I've read enough Keene books now that compiling a best-of list would be really difficult to do. I'm n...

Mr. Keene does it again :) Checklist of things for a great story....* Cranky old fart living in a forest cabin missing his wife and complaining about his body's betrayal.* Incessant rain.* Worms.* Cranky old fart's long-time friend who's a bit of a dumb-ass.* More rain.* Worms, lots of them.* A bit more rain.* A sprinkling of new, likeable characters.* More rain, more worms.* Bigger worms.* Funny stories from cranky old fart.* Much, MUCH bigger worms.* MUCH, MUCH BIGGER WORMS AND THINGS THAT MAY...

ALL HAIL THE EARTHWORM GODS!This is one spectacular achievement for the horror genre and I cannot wait to devour more stories by Keene.

Earthworm Gods is oddly slow-paced and mundane for a novel featuring never-ending storms, world-swallowing floods, black magic, a murderous mermaid and, of course, gigantic earthworms. It's clear Keene is still learning his craft at this point, and it shows in his pacing, characterization, command of tone and his dialogue. Keene admits in the afterward that this novel is dear to him because, in writing it, he was training himself to do "voice" by channeling his very fond memories of his grandfat...

"Brian Keene is the next big thing in horror."How many times have I heard that?How many times have you heard that?The Conqueror Worms is the third Keene book I've read. I enjoyed The Rising and City of the Dead. I thought they were both fun books that did some new things with the zombie genre. I thought Keene was a good writer, who showed a lot of promise.Then came The Conqueror Worms.The book is told for the most part by a mountain man who's lived long enough to see what amounts to the end of t...

I must admit that Brian Keene knows how to write a really good Post Apocalyptic story. I'm still new to the Keene Universe, up until now the only other book's I've read are The Last Zombie graphic novels and The Rising novels. I've always enjoyed the compassion mixed with the horror that exists in some of the "good" characters of his stories. In Earthworms Gods the character of Teddy is an example of what I cherish most in Keene's work. It's a good counter balance to how cruel and harsh Keene's

This was my first Keene novel and aside from the title I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a story that features giant worms (and other large beings) was exactly the enjoyably thriller story that I’d hoped it would be.If other Keene novels are this much fun - then consider me sold!I was instantly hooked on the crappy 80 year old Teddy Garnett and loved the manner that he narrates the events of the apocalypse in a scatty but charming way.There’s enough short hand pop cultural references that he wou...

Nobody Apocalypses like Brian Keene. Or as often. Whether by zombies (The Rising, City of the Dead, Dead Sea), a dark zone that appears on the edge of town (Darkness on the Edge of Town), a loud horn-like sound after which a large percentage of the population just isn’t there any more (Take the Long Way Home), giant crabs and miscellaneous other deep sea creepy creatures (Clickers 2-4), or any combination of the above, he does it better than anyone.In the first Earthworm Gods book (there are 2)