Clickers III: Dagon Rising [Paperback]

For me, the whole "Clickers" series has been a bit of a guilty pleasure. Ever once in a while it's nice to escape the prose and depth of say, Stephen King, or Dan Simmons, and read something that requires little thought or the right frame of mind. Like the trashy and campy Grindhouse films of the 70's, Clickers and Clickers II: The Next Wave were exactly the right kind of books. They weren't great by any means but they were fun, ridiculous, and full of EVERY horror cliche known to man.

Somewhere along the line, Keene and Gonzalez lost that vision and penned "Clickers III: Dagon Rising".

Since I'm being honest here, "Dagon Rising" is really the best written in the series. The duo of Gonzalez and Keene have stepped up their game. The dialogue (while still cheesy and laughably bad at times) is better, as is character development. Choosing the entire novel to be set on an island was a smart move as well, leading to increased tension and a pacing that is fast and quickly read.

What happens though is that "Clickers III" has lost all of it's fun. It's no longer a simple blood and guts gore fest, but instead has become something of an H.P. Lovecraft/conspiracy theory/alternate reality mash up. I had no problem with Keene's 7 level alternate reality theories he's presented in pretty much all of his books from The Rising [RISING] [Mass Market Paperback] to A Gathering of Crows and I like that there are always hints and scenes from other works in all of his stuff but to me this Cthulu mythos mixed with the violence of the Clickers and the Dark Ones just didn't mix well. The original Clickers and Dark Ones were scary and violent but now to add in that human element (worshiping Dagon, wanting to release him from his Ocean World, etc etc) kind of loses that original premise.

I could have let that go and still enjoyed this book, but even I couldn't get past the Black Lodge conspiracy theory that took up over half of this story. If you recall the first 2 books, the characters were normal people, placed in precarious situations where they had to fight based on their skills and the things in hand. In this third installment, you can pretty much forget that because now they are replaced with a group of the secretive Black Lodge who use psychic ability (seriously) and bizarre energies to fight the Dark Ones and Dagon. In one of the most downright silly moments one agent uses power from his fingertips (think Dragon Ball Z) to take down his enemies and in another there's a possible mention of quantum leaps and wormholes. I'm pretty open when it comes to fiction and these ideas are interesting, to say the least, but in a novel about underwater lizard-people and crab/scorpion hybrids, there's no place for such musings.

Yes, this was fast paced and bloody and gory like the last 2 were, but for me, despite it's streamlined style and writing improvements, it was a disappointment. Bringing on Keene to replace Williams after the first novel was a good idea and a great way to keep the Clickers alive but "Dagon" didn't seem to fit well in this trilogy. If you've already read the first 2, then by all means tackle this one, but if you're a first timer, start with 1 and 2 before you get to the island of Naranu.

i never could get interested in this book. after reading 1 and 2, this one just didn't grab my attention. i read it all, but it got to be a chore as i really didn't enjoy it. i zipped right through the first two and just dragged along in this one. i really wanted to like it and expected that i would. i didn't...

I've been a Keene fan since the Rising and actually was fan of the Clickers series from the start. These books are great late night reading. Just enough character to not seem cardboard and I love a book where NO ONE is safe. Like Kirkman's Walking Dead, everyone starts on equal footing so death and dismemberment comes as a complete surprise in a lot of cases.

This was a satisfying end to a solid series. Don't go looking for Shakespeare here and I think you'll be happy.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars