THE NIGHT ETERNAL

The Night Eternal is Book III in the Strain Trilogy, written by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.  In this final installment, the Earth is experiencing nuclear winter with primarily darkness covering the planet, and only a couple of hours of sunlight occurring daily.  The main character Ephraim Goodweather, is a scientist with the CDC, who continues to tackle the problem of the strigoi.  Another important character, Vasiliy Fet, a pest control exterminator who lends his expertise to Goodweather, and put together a network of resistant humans.  

The continuing premise from Book I, a virus is spreading among the Earth, turning people into vampires.  Del Toro and Hogan attempt to meld the worlds of science, fantasy, myth and reality into one.  However, it was not the most convincing of stories, mainly because by mixing all of these concepts, the traditional vampire lore is somewhat lost, so the storyline loses some credibility.  However, what Del Toro and Hogan do accomplish is a suspenseful, action-filled, quick read, leading the reader to want to continue to turn the page and read on.  In speaking of the will of the Master, “who understood the dark side of human nature completely, but not love”, in contrast to Eph, who states “this is love…it hurts-but this is love…” the intention of the authors is brought out, and is confirmed by Nora reflecting on the words of her mother.  “Looking back on one’s life, you see that love was the answer to everything”.  The story culminates with a moving scene between Eph and his son Zack.

Del Toro and Hogan effortlessly portray vivid scenes of this fantasy world of vampire-monsters, with an apocalyptic nature.  Del Toro is known for directing such films as Blade II, Hellboy I and II, Pan’s Labyrinth and most recently, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.  Hogan is known for his acclaimed novel Prince of Thieves.  It would be interesting to see this collaborative effort transcend to the big screen, as many of the scenes depicted in this final chapter of The Strain Trilogy are written in classic Del Toro style.