The Strain

For other uses, see The Strain (disambiguation).

The Strain

2009 first edition hardback cover
Author	Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Language	English
Genre	Horror novel
Publisher	William Morrow
Publication date	June 2, 2009
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print, audio
Pages	401
ISBN	0061558230
Followed by	The Fall

The Strain is a 2009 vampire horror novel by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It is the first installment in The Strain Trilogy, and was followed by The Fall (2010) and The Night Eternal (2011).

Del Toro first envisioned the story line as a television series, but was unable to find a buyer for the series. An agent then suggested turning the story into a series of books with writer Chuck Hogan. A television adaptation premiered on FX in 2014 and concluded in 2017.

Plot synopsis

A Boeing 777 arrives at John F. Kennedy International Airport and is taxiing its way across the tarmac when it suddenly stops. All window shades are closed except one, the lights are out, and communication channels have gone silent. An alert is sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, head of the CDC's Canary Project, a rapid-response team that handles biological threats, is sent to investigate. Goodweather and Dr. Nora Martinez board the plane, finding everyone except four people dead.

In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, former history professor and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian knows something terrible has happened and that an unnatural war is brewing. So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected the passengers begins spilling out onto New York City's streets. Dr. Goodweather, who is joined by Setrakian and a small band of fighters, desperately tries to stop the contagion to save the city, and also his wife and son.

Characters

Dr. Ephraim Goodweather

Head of the CDC's rapid-response team, the Canary Project, Eph is a newly divorced father attempting to balance the custody battle over his son Zack with his duties as an epidemiologist. He and his Canary team are the first-response team to the Boeing 777 disaster, and are tasked with solving the mystery of the mass casualties. Unable to reconcile the symptoms of the newly infected airline passengers with standard disease pathology, Eph is convinced of the reality of vampires by Abraham Setrakian. Discredited at the CDC by the vampires' human conspirators, Eph finds himself a fugitive from both the human authorities and the undead. The need to protect his son drives Eph's every action.

In the television series, he is played by Corey Stoll.

Dr. Nora Martinez

A skilled epidemiologist, Nora is second in command of the Canary Project. She and Eph have been attempting an office romance with mixed success, complicated by their high-stress medical careers and Goodweather's lingering melancholy over his looming divorce. Nora quickly dedicates herself to uncovering the vampire conspiracy, and is determined not to be relegated to doing the "woman's work."

In the television series, she is played by Mía Maestro.

Professor Abraham Setrakian

A Romanian Jew (partly of Armenian descent), Setrakian was held in the Treblinka extermination camp during the Second World War, where he became aware of the Master feeding on the weak and sickly inmates. His first attempt to stop the Master was a failure, leaving him with multiple fractures in his hands that never healed properly. After escaping from the camp, he dedicated his life to hunting down the vampiric scourge for more than six decades. Originally a professor of East European literature and mythology at the University of Vienna, Setrakian was dismissed and forced to go into hiding after refusing to help Eldritch Palmer locate the Master. Wielding an ancient silver sword with his nearly crippled hands, Setrakian is an expert on vampire biology and destruction, and recruits Eph and Nora to his cause. His determination and will are strong, but his weak heart has become an obstacle to his lifelong quest.

In the television series, he is played by David Bradley, and by Jim Watson as a young man.

The Master

One of the seven original "Ancients," the propagators of the vampire race, the Master scorns the truce between the six others and intends to eliminate their strains and subjugate the entire human race. By the time of his arrival in New York, having spent nearly a millennium in Europe in various host bodies, the Master currently inhabits the body of Jusef Sardu, a 19th-century Polish nobleman afflicted with gigantism. Through the cooperation of Eldritch Palmer, promising the dying billionaire immortality, the Master has gained unlimited financial and political power to ensure the success of his plan.

In the television series, he is initially played by Robert Maillet, and later by Jack Kesy, he is voiced throughout the series by Robin Atkin Downes.

Thomas Eichorst

The Master's chief facilitator. He was a Nazi SS officer at a concentration camp whom the Master turned into a Strigoi, a Renfield type character but immortal. He killed Setrakian's wife in the past and keeps her immortal heart beating on his bookshelf.

In the television series, he is played by Richard Sammel.

Vasiliy Fet

An exterminator of Ukrainian ancestry working for the New York City Bureau of Pest Control, Fet's occupation soon leads to his discovery of the truth about vampires while working in a derelict building. Reaching Eph through a professional connection at the CDC, the exterminator lends both his skills as a vermin hunter and his powerful physique to Setrakian and Goodweather's cause. Loyal and unwaveringly brave, he becomes a surrogate son to the old professor.

In the television series, he is played by Kevin Durand.

Augustin Elizalde

A Mexican gang member fresh out of prison, Gus is attacked by a newly turned vampire on the streets of Times Square and is subsequently arrested by the police after throwing the creature under a truck. Learning the truth about vampires from a temporarily incarcerated Setrakian, Gus escapes confinement and finds himself to be a natural vampire slayer on the streets of his tenement neighborhood. He is recruited by the three American Ancients as a "day hunter" against the Master's exponentially spreading hordes.

Gus shares his last name with makeup and special effects artist Mike Elizalde, who has frequently collaborated with Guillermo del Toro, including on del Toro's films Blade II, Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

In the television series, he is played by Miguel Gómez.

Eldritch Palmer

One of the richest men in the world, Eldritch Palmer craves the one thing that all his money cannot buy: immortality. The elderly tycoon's fear of death leads him to make a pact with the Master, trading his vast fortune, political influence, and the fate of the human race in exchange for an undead place at the vampire king's side. (His name is an in-joke reference to the 1965 Nebula Prize nominated novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick).

In the television series, he is played by Jonathan Hyde.

Dr. Everett Barnes

As the Director of the Centers for Disease Control, Barnes is Eph and Nora's direct superior. Skilled in the politics and media aspects of the medical industry, he is a shrewd bureaucrat who carefully maintains a quaint, "country doctor" image. His insistence upon wearing a Navy style Public Health Service uniform, combined with his white goatee, make him resemble a "combat-decorated Colonel Sanders." His response to the Boeing 777 crisis makes clear he is a politician first and a doctor second, more concerned with maintaining public order and the CDC's reputation than acknowledging the growing number of anomalies that point to something more sinister taking place.

In the television series, he is played by Daniel Kash.

Jim Kent

Eph and Nora's colleague, and the chief liaison between the Canary Project and the rest of the CDC. Well-meaning, he has nonetheless sold his services to Eldritch Palmer, who has recruited Kent as a spy under the guise of being concerned about any impending health crisis. Kent witnesses the transformation of Captain Redfern in the basement of the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. In order to avoid news of the vampire infestation leaking out prematurely, Palmer has Kent and Gus retrieve the body of Captain Redfern and dispose of it. He is attacked during a gas station battle and begins transforming into a vampire. His life is subsequently ended after he begs Eph and Nora to kill him but they cannot.

In the television series, he is played by Sean Astin.

Kelly Goodweather

Eph's estranged wife and current opponent in a drawn-out custody battle over their only son, Kelly is a public school teacher and fiercely protective mother, pulling no punches in her attempt to paint her husband as the less suitable parent. Eph constantly worries about the growing influence of her milquetoast live-in boyfriend, Matt, on their son Zack. But when the Master begins sending out his followers, Kelly ends up becoming infected and becoming a means for the Master to track down Goodweather and the resistance.

In the television series, she is played by Natalie Brown.

Mr. Quinlan

Known as "the Born", Mr. Quinlan is a rare human/vampire hybrid. The son of the Master who is now the Ancients' chief hunter and bodyguard. He is efficient and loyal, recruiting Gus Elizalde to help him and his squad in their mission to kill his father. Mr Quinlan is disgusted by his father's actions, and is determined to stop him at all costs.

In the television series, Mr. Quinlan was introduced in the fifth episode of Season 2, and is played by Rupert Penry-Jones.

Reception

The Times Literary Supplement carried a review by Peter Millar dated 23 May 2009. The review praises the novel's "arresting start" and frequently alludes to Guillermo del Toro's career as a film director by comparing the novel to a Hollywood movie. The implication may be that del Toro intends to direct the film version of the novel. The review closes by calling The Strain a "rattling piece of escapism" with a "predictable" blockbuster ending. Xan Brooks of The Guardian calls the novel "a pulpy, apocalyptic fable" and a "fast-paced, high-concept outing that seems tailor-made for either a big-screen adaptation or - as Hogan has enthused - 'a long-form, cable-type TV series'. And yet at the same time this opening salvo also looks to the past; doffing its cap to an illustrious ancestor." He calls the vampires "mindless, undead leeches."

Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club, was less enthusiastic, concluding that

"the result is a predictable but generally engaging thriller. The chapters come in short bursts, mimicking the editing of a big-budget epic. It makes for a fast read, but the rapid-fire parade of characters means that few make an impact. The world-building works best when it's distracting from cliché, instead of trying to inspire honest emotion. Del Toro fans will recognize certain familiar tropes — the quest for immortality, the vampiric physiognomy, and the ever-popular things in jars — but those motifs are muted on the page."

Similarly, Deirdre Crimmins described the novel as "an imperfect vampire book" marred by "some very awkwardly worded phrases and poorly described scenarios scattered throughout the book" and some "terribly clichéd" characters. Jeff Jensen, reviewing The Strain for Entertainment Weekly, wished for more evidence of del Toro's participation, saying, "It's hard to believe he found time for such an ambitious project — and after reading the book, it seems clear he didn't. ... The Strain is a competently constructed piece of entertainment, and I'll give it bonus points for shaking up some vampire clichés. ... The novel could have used a little less Hogan and little more del Toro."

Adaptations

Comic books

In 2011 production began on a comic book adaptation of the book trilogy with Dark Horse Comics. Writer David Lapham and artist Mike Huddleston were announced as working on the project, with the series as a whole spanning an estimated 24 issues. The first issue of The Strain was released in November 2011 to mostly positive reviews.

Issues

Story Arc	Issue	Release Date	Trade Paperback Collection	Hardcover Collection
The Strain	1	December 14, 2011	The Strain — Volume 1 October 15, 2012 ISBN 978-1616550325	The Strain — Book One July 9, 2014 ISBN 978-1616555481
	2	January 11, 2012
	3	February 8, 2012
	4	March 14, 2012
	5	June 13, 2012
	6	July 11, 2012
	7	August 8, 2012	The Strain — Volume 2 June 5, 2013 ISBN 9781616551568
	8	September 12, 2012
	9	December 12, 2012
	10	January 9, 2013
	11	February 13, 2013
The Strain: The Fall	1	July 17, 2013	The Strain — Volume 3: The Fall February 5, 2014 ISBN 978-1616553333	The Strain — Book Two: The Fall April 22, 2015 ISBN 978-1616558369
	2	August 21, 2013
	3	September 18, 2013
	4	October 16, 2013
	5	November 20, 2013	The Strain — Volume 4: The Fall July 2, 2014 ISBN 978-1616554491
	6	December 18, 2013
	7	January 15, 2014
	8	February 19, 2014
	9	March 19, 2014
The Strain: The Night Eternal	1	August 20, 2014	The Strain — Volume 5: The Night Eternal May 6, 2015 ISBN 978-1616556389	The Strain—Book Three The Night Eternal May 25, 2016 ISBN 978-1-61655-977-9
	2	September 17, 2014
	3	October 15, 2014
	4	November 19, 2014
	5	January 21, 2015
	6	February 18, 2015
	7	March 18, 2015	The Strain — Volume 6: The Night Eternal December 2, 2015 ISBN 978-1616557874
	8	April 15, 2015
	9	May 20, 2015
	10	June 17, 2015
	11	July 15, 2015
	12	August 19, 2015

Television series

Main article: The Strain (TV series)

In 2012 it was announced that FX had ordered a pilot episode of The Strain with the intention of creating a limited television series based on the books. Before writing the book trilogy, del Toro had initially planned the books as a television series and stated that if picked up, the series would span three to five seasons. He also commented that he and Hogan would co-write the script for the pilot episode and that as of November 2012 he had already begun casting. Del Toro further commented that he planned to also direct the pilot episode, with a full season airing in 2014 if the show was picked up. It was later announced that a second full season was ordered by FX to air in 2015. Following the fourth episode of season 2, FX renewed the series for a third season, after which the creators announced they hope it will last for a total of 5 seasons. A fourth and final season was announced by FX on September 27, 2016 and it set for a Summer 2017 date.

References

15. FX Renews 'The Strain' for Third Season. The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved 7 August 2015.

16. 'The Strain': Carlton Cuse, Guillermo del Toro Reveal Five-Season Plan. The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved 7 August 2015.

External links

• Official website