The Keep

You must read this book -- it is absolutely fascinating, original and suspenseful. It is the author's best novel.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS In the spring of 1941, a German Army commander stationed in a remote castle high in the Carpathian mountains sends the following message to his superiors: "Something is murdering my men." That something is an ancient and evil creature named Rasalom, who was inadvertently released when a strangely shaped silver cross was removed from its resting place. Rasalom cannot be seen or heard, but can suck all the light and warmth from a room, select his victim in the darkness, and leave a bloodless, mutilated corpse. Captain Claus Woermann and Erich Kaempffer, the aforementioned commander and the aggressive SS officer sent to solve the problem, have only one thing in common, their mutual dislike. They realize, however, that the situation is slowly getting beyond their control. Seeking answers, they summon Jewish historian Dr. Cuza and his daughter Magda to the castle. Also on his way to the Keep is Glaeken, an immortal warrior who has battled Rasalom over the centuries. One of Wilson's finest novels, if not the finest (it's a tossup between this and Black Wind for me), The Keep (which earned an entry in Horror: 100 Best Books) is the first installment in the author's excellent Adversary Cycle, a Lovecraftian take on the Christian Apocalypse; the series also includes The Tomb, The Touch, Reborn, Reprisal, and Nightworld. The book was instigated/inspired by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novel Hotel Transylvania, which featured Count St.- Germain, a sympathetic vampire as its protagonist. Wilson contended that vampires are parasitic, evil creatures, unworthy of sympathy. Intrigued by the notion of a vampire pretending to be an ally, Wilson added the premise that the "vampire" was also pretending to be a vampire, concealing his true, more horrible nature. Thus was born Rasalom, a cosmic villain who thrives on human misery. Although ostensibly defeated and destroyed at the conclusion of The Keep, it's hard to keep a good evil being down--Rasalom has appeared in subsequent Wilson novels, most notably in later installments of Wilson's above mentioned Adversary Cycle, and in the author's ongoing Repairman Jack series, which is set between the events which take place between the novels The Tomb and Nightworld.

I first read this book over twenty years ago, when it was first released and loved it. I decided that it was time to give it another go around to see if my original opinion of it still held. Well, time has certainly not diminished the power of this book to hold the reader in its thrall. I still love this book, and it remains my favorite book by this author. As far as horror stories go, this one is definitely up with the best of them. The author has written a riveting page turner with this tautly written, inventive tale. The author has taken some vampire folklore and given it a new twist. In the hands of this master of the horror genre, the quintessential battle between good and evil takes on a new dimension. In Romania, deep in the heart of the Transylvanian Alps, lies the Dinu Pass. In April of 1941, a small squadron of German soldiers has been ordered to occupy a small, deserted, five hundred year old castle keep at the Dinu pass. From the beginning, Captain Klaus Woermann senses that there is something unusual about the keep. Looking as if it had just been built and inlaid with brass and nickel crosses in every corridor, crosses that the caretaker for the keep exhorts the Germans not to touch, the keep is an architectural oddity. Soon the games begin, as an unseen force begins murdering his men. Captain Woermann sends a message to the high command. To his dismay, they respond by sending a Nazi squadron of einsatzkommandos under the leadership of SS Major Kaempffer to quell whatever local guerilla activity is, undoubtedly, responsible for the murders. Soon, these death's head troopers begin succumbing to the same fate as their German Army counterparts, and all hell breaks loose. Enter the ailing Dr. Theodor Cuza, a Romanian Jew and former professor at the University of Bucharest. Although suffering from the ravages of scleroderma, he is ordered by the Nazis to the keep, as he is an expert in the history of the region. It is hoped that he will be able to shed some light on the mysterious keep and enable his hosts to defeat their unknown adversary. Accompanied by Magda, his daughter, they find themselves confronted with the cruelty of the Nazis, the unexpected kindness of Captain Woermann, and something from their worst nightmares that has them call into question their deepest beliefs. Then, a mysterious red-headed stranger with piercing blue eyes also appears, and nothing is ever the same again. This is one of the premier horror stories of all time. Bravo!

Yeah, that sounds like an exaggerated proclamation. But it's true. F. Paul Wilson has a knack for writing thrillers (the "Repairman Jack" series, for example); in "The Keep," he just combines it with some extra-large doses of horror. In the Romanian mountains, a bunch of Nazis have stumbled upon a deserted structure. Called a "keep"--though that's not what it really is--its purpose is a mystery, as are the strange crosses placed at precise intervals on all the walls. There's also the fact that no birds have nested at the keep, and no one is permitted to stay inside overnight... But those darn Nazis always were foolhardy. Something is released that first night, something that defies description. It moves stealthily through the shadows, it murders with explicit savagery...and its bloodlust is endless... Only one mysterious man and one determined Jewish woman can stop this evil...if the time has not already run out... Evil vs. evil. F. Paul Wilson's "The Keep" is the first novel in what became known as the "Adversary Cycle," a series of loosely based novels all tied together at the end. "The Keep" stands alone, however, as an exemplary example of how a horror novel should be written. Delictable, terrifying, and unforgettable!

I bought this book...ooh, I don't know...maybe two years ago, in some used bookstore, simply because the front cover said "A Novel Of Deep Horror". For two years (I guess) the book just sat there in my room, doing nothing. Then, on August 1 (a date that I will not soon forget), I began reading this (don't ask me how I came to do it--maybe fate?), and I was immediately hooked! The first couple of chapters of this masterpiece were horrifying, terrifying, and with just enough gore to please the standard horror audiences (me included), but not gross-out. The book takes place in 1941, in a place in the Transylvanian Alps called the Dinu Pass. In Dinu Pass is a small castle, or Keep, and it is here that the story occurs. The book starts off in the present, where Major Sturmbanfurer Kaempffer recieves a message from the Keep, saying, quite simply, "SOMETHING IS MURDERING MY MEN." Then the book takes a sort of flashback, where Captain Klaus Woermann of the German Army is assigned with a small league of his soldiers there to watch for any possible invasion by the Russians. Woermann has this sort of dread feeling the minute he crosses the threshold of the Keep and into its courtyard, but he cannot think why. And the whole book just goes on and on, and never lets up until the end. I recall one particular sentence in one of the first couple of chapters that is a real haunter: The horror has begun. These four words are what truely captivated me more than anything else. I will not begin to tell what this "horror" is, but I will only say, READ THIS BOOK. F. Paul Wilson is a uniquely talented writer, and he writes very clearly, with well-developed characters, great visual settings, and quite some scary scenes (let me tell you!). What is really unique about this book is the setting: 1941 in Romania, one of the few countries not totally taken over during this mighty war. As a matter of fact, there is not a single American in the book; in addition, I only recall seeing the word "America" in the last 40 or so pages, only once or twice. There is also something else unique: for a long time, the main character of the book is Klaus Woermann, and he his of the German Army--one of what once were the "bad guys." In this book, the reader learns of his internal hatred of Nazism, as well as how he only joined the war for the honor of prideful battles of justice. I rooted for him, believe it or not, and future readers might do so, too. F. Paul Wilson's character development was excruciatingly *real*. When minor characters died off in the book, they had a small introduction before this. This is much like the usual writing style of another author (James Herbert--nearly *all* his characters are like this), but this is a good thing--if there is no introduction or background to a character, their being killed off is as sad a moment as seeing those cardboard cutout characters from those old B-horror movies. We *need* some