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Carrion Comfort
Carrion Comfort is a science fiction/horror novel by American writer Dan Simmons, published in 1989 in hardcover by Dark Harvest and in 1990 in paperback by Warner Books. It won the Bram Stoker Award, the Locus Poll Award for Best Horror Novel, and the August Derleth Award for Best Novel. It is based on a novelette of the same title, published in 1983 in the magazine Omni. The first half of the novelette makes up chapter 1 of the novel, while the second half forms chapter 3.
The novel portrays a tiny fraction of humanity that has immense psychic powers, which they refer to as "The Ability.” These powers can be used to completely control people from a distance to commit any physical action, including murder. This Ability has been used throughout history to have a direct or indirect influence, via the perceived charisma of world leaders or the actions of more covert individuals, on everything from individual senseless murders to the Holocaust. Across multiple timelines, the novel mostly follows two groups of amoral people in 1980, some with aspirations of world domination, as their clashing involves a group of investigators. These non-psychic investigators follow a series of bizarre murders to the conclusion that a cabal of powerful psychics must be stopped.
The characters Saul and Natalie, learning about the actions of The Trio and The Island Club, observe that these people with immense psychic powers could be considered a type of vampire, as they feed off the energy of those they indirectly kill to gain youth and energy.
The story begins in 1942, with a man named Saul Laski who fears for his life while at the Chełmno extermination camp built by Germans during World War II in Poland. He is determined to resist being taken away in the night but something supernatural compels him to obey the orders of the Schutzstaffel.
It continues in 1980 with a meeting of Melanie, Nina, and Willi in Charleston, South Carolina. They discuss a game that involves using an innate power they have, which they call an Ability, to take remote control of people simply through thought and cause them to do anything. When these people are controlled to murder, it imparts those with the Ability to look and feel younger and more alive. As each member of the group presents their recent exploits, such as the murder of John Lennon, a tension and unease between them is revealed as a kind of truce. When Willi's plane explodes the next day, Melanie suspects Nina and then a fight ensues, with both characters using innocent bystanders as soldiers and victims in a bizarre series of brutal murders involving children, old men, and security guards until Nina is shot in the head and dies.
There is a police and FBI investigation into a bizarre series of seemingly unconnected murders that span down a street on a single night as Sheriff Gentry and FBI Agent Haines interview a visiting psychologist named Saul Laski. Saul is famous for his theories about seemingly strange and impossible violence, but is as stumped as the sheriff. Later, Saul is compelled to break into the house where the murders started to investigate, and meets Natalie; who has come for the same reason; to find out why her father, a photographer used and murdered in the battle, has died so bizarrely. After realizing they are both looking for answers, Saul reveals to Natalie that he has a past with supernatural violence, having been used by someone with the Ability in Chełmno long ago, ever since looking to find the SS Officer, an Oberst, who controlled him in a perverse series of ways, including as a living pawn in a life-size game of chess with a Nazi General where each piece removed from the board was executed. As the chess game ended, Saul continued to be used to hunt down the Nazi General, who apparently had a weaker Ability than the Oberst. Saul is controlled to kill the General. Regaining his willpower for a moment in an explosion, he flees into the forest and survives the rest of the holocaust amongst Partisan Polish and later Partisan Jewish forces before finding solace in Zionist Israel. This story is shared with sheriff Gentry later.
Sheriff Gentry, now the only one investigating the murders as the FBI has shown no interest, realizes he is being followed. Eventually he confronts his follower, who instead of speaking immediately attacks Gentry and is killed in the ensuing struggle. There is no record of the person existing in US Government files, which leads Gentry to begin to believe Saul's incredible story. It is revealed that the reason the FBI was quick to stop investigating is that it is in part controlled by elements of the 'Island Club,' a Cabal of influential people with The Ability in the United States, such as Charles Colben of the FBI and Special Agent Haines, as well as billionaire C. Arnold Barent, Senatorial aide Nieman Trask, an influential Televangelist, and others. They discuss that Ayatollah Khomeini has a weak ability and thought he was the only one, and thus saw himself as godlike. They also discuss that they are manipulating the 1980 United States presidential election by way of the Iran Hostage Crisis to ensure Ronald Reagan's election. Willi kills a member of the club through long-distance use of a controlled surrogate to get their attention, asking to be a part of the games.
Meanwhile, Melanie flees, accessing hidden identities and bank accounts throughout the US, and prepares to hide using identities and money she has waiting in France. At the Atlanta Airport, she is terrified by a courtesy phone call when she hears Nina's voice, convincing her that somehow Nina has cheated death, perhaps with a stronger Ability than previously known. Melanie uses people in a blind panic and ends up in Germantown, Philadelphia. She meets and conditions a new pawn, a hitchhiking thug called Vincent, into a mute killer. Saul, after years of working with various groups to track down the Oberst, believes he has found him—a man named Willi Borden. Saul hires Private detectives to track Willi, but they either disappear in Los Angeles or die. Saul reaches out to family members working in the Mossad for help in the same search for Willi Borden. This leads to his nephew Aaron, as well as Aaron's wife and children, being killed by agents of the Island Club.
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Carrion Comfort
Carrion Comfort is a science fiction/horror novel by American writer Dan Simmons, published in 1989 in hardcover by Dark Harvest and in 1990 in paperback by Warner Books. It won the Bram Stoker Award, the Locus Poll Award for Best Horror Novel, and the August Derleth Award for Best Novel. It is based on a novelette of the same title, published in 1983 in the magazine Omni. The first half of the novelette makes up chapter 1 of the novel, while the second half forms chapter 3.
The novel portrays a tiny fraction of humanity that has immense psychic powers, which they refer to as "The Ability.” These powers can be used to completely control people from a distance to commit any physical action, including murder. This Ability has been used throughout history to have a direct or indirect influence, via the perceived charisma of world leaders or the actions of more covert individuals, on everything from individual senseless murders to the Holocaust. Across multiple timelines, the novel mostly follows two groups of amoral people in 1980, some with aspirations of world domination, as their clashing involves a group of investigators. These non-psychic investigators follow a series of bizarre murders to the conclusion that a cabal of powerful psychics must be stopped.
The characters Saul and Natalie, learning about the actions of The Trio and The Island Club, observe that these people with immense psychic powers could be considered a type of vampire, as they feed off the energy of those they indirectly kill to gain youth and energy.
The story begins in 1942, with a man named Saul Laski who fears for his life while at the Chełmno extermination camp built by Germans during World War II in Poland. He is determined to resist being taken away in the night but something supernatural compels him to obey the orders of the Schutzstaffel.
It continues in 1980 with a meeting of Melanie, Nina, and Willi in Charleston, South Carolina. They discuss a game that involves using an innate power they have, which they call an Ability, to take remote control of people simply through thought and cause them to do anything. When these people are controlled to murder, it imparts those with the Ability to look and feel younger and more alive. As each member of the group presents their recent exploits, such as the murder of John Lennon, a tension and unease between them is revealed as a kind of truce. When Willi's plane explodes the next day, Melanie suspects Nina and then a fight ensues, with both characters using innocent bystanders as soldiers and victims in a bizarre series of brutal murders involving children, old men, and security guards until Nina is shot in the head and dies.
There is a police and FBI investigation into a bizarre series of seemingly unconnected murders that span down a street on a single night as Sheriff Gentry and FBI Agent Haines interview a visiting psychologist named Saul Laski. Saul is famous for his theories about seemingly strange and impossible violence, but is as stumped as the sheriff. Later, Saul is compelled to break into the house where the murders started to investigate, and meets Natalie; who has come for the same reason; to find out why her father, a photographer used and murdered in the battle, has died so bizarrely. After realizing they are both looking for answers, Saul reveals to Natalie that he has a past with supernatural violence, having been used by someone with the Ability in Chełmno long ago, ever since looking to find the SS Officer, an Oberst, who controlled him in a perverse series of ways, including as a living pawn in a life-size game of chess with a Nazi General where each piece removed from the board was executed. As the chess game ended, Saul continued to be used to hunt down the Nazi General, who apparently had a weaker Ability than the Oberst. Saul is controlled to kill the General. Regaining his willpower for a moment in an explosion, he flees into the forest and survives the rest of the holocaust amongst Partisan Polish and later Partisan Jewish forces before finding solace in Zionist Israel. This story is shared with sheriff Gentry later.
Sheriff Gentry, now the only one investigating the murders as the FBI has shown no interest, realizes he is being followed. Eventually he confronts his follower, who instead of speaking immediately attacks Gentry and is killed in the ensuing struggle. There is no record of the person existing in US Government files, which leads Gentry to begin to believe Saul's incredible story. It is revealed that the reason the FBI was quick to stop investigating is that it is in part controlled by elements of the 'Island Club,' a Cabal of influential people with The Ability in the United States, such as Charles Colben of the FBI and Special Agent Haines, as well as billionaire C. Arnold Barent, Senatorial aide Nieman Trask, an influential Televangelist, and others. They discuss that Ayatollah Khomeini has a weak ability and thought he was the only one, and thus saw himself as godlike. They also discuss that they are manipulating the 1980 United States presidential election by way of the Iran Hostage Crisis to ensure Ronald Reagan's election. Willi kills a member of the club through long-distance use of a controlled surrogate to get their attention, asking to be a part of the games.
Meanwhile, Melanie flees, accessing hidden identities and bank accounts throughout the US, and prepares to hide using identities and money she has waiting in France. At the Atlanta Airport, she is terrified by a courtesy phone call when she hears Nina's voice, convincing her that somehow Nina has cheated death, perhaps with a stronger Ability than previously known. Melanie uses people in a blind panic and ends up in Germantown, Philadelphia. She meets and conditions a new pawn, a hitchhiking thug called Vincent, into a mute killer. Saul, after years of working with various groups to track down the Oberst, believes he has found him—a man named Willi Borden. Saul hires Private detectives to track Willi, but they either disappear in Los Angeles or die. Saul reaches out to family members working in the Mossad for help in the same search for Willi Borden. This leads to his nephew Aaron, as well as Aaron's wife and children, being killed by agents of the Island Club.