Product Description

Thirteen years after recording and hiding an album in a tower house that had been an abbey in the twelfth century, the members of The Philosopher's Stone band reunite and agree to confront the dark horror that prevented the album's release.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #269192 in Books
• Published on: 1996-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In December 1980, a rock band whose members are all psychics, records an album amidst the ancient ruins of an abbey in Wales. The result is tragic; but 14 tormented years later, the band members are lured to a reunion by inescapable forces. Together, they try to stem the evil emanating from the abbey. Though long, this novel rarely drags. But neither does it terrify. A surfeit of plot may be the explanation; it's hard to work up a good scare when moving so quickly and shifting focus so often. The idea of an all-psychic band?a real stretch?suffers here from overkill: the talents of these four men and women include precognition, teleportation and much more. And the novel's whirlwind ending, however entertaining, does not sufficiently resolve all of the preceding conflicts. December remains a good editing's distance away from the caliber of Rickman's (Curfew) best. Less would have been more.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Just didn't do it for me
I have read other Rickman books and they were wonderful page turners that kept the story moving and full. This one was tough to finish but I kept hoping something was going to happen...but it didn't..

Another brilliant Rickman book
He's my current favorite author, and if Rickman keeps writing for the next fifty years I will be one happy reader! I started with the Merrily Watkins series, which led me to start reading the standalones... hence DECEMBER.

The coolest thing that happened, reading the books out of order as I've done, is that I'm finding characters in DECEMBER that I recognize from other books, particularly from the Merrily Watkins series. They're not major characters, for the most part, but there's a wonderful glimmer of recognition as I encounter them in the book, and a certain, "Aha! So *that's* how they met!" sort of thing. It gives a sort of organic continuity to his work that I find fascinating.

DECEMBER is another ghost story of sorts, shining and complicated, with characters' paths crossing and re-crossing to weave a fascinating tapestry of relationships and a slowly building sense of immediacy and fear. Yet another book (like *all* of Rickman's) that was stunningly difficult to put down.


--- Jeannette Angell, author of Callgirl

Original and clever
December was a well written and original novel albeit one in need of an editor. 1980 and 4 psychic musicians are brought together to record in an old Abbey in Wales with a bad history. They spend the next 14 years mentally tortured by the experience. 1994 and they are brought together again at the Abbey to finish the recording. They are all frightened but know they must finish it to dispel their personal demons. There's a lot more to the story and a lot more characters which is part of the problem. I found the idea to be very original and interesting, especially the history of the Abbey. The book is generally well written and the characters well drawn. You are however kept from completely losing yourself in the book or feeling any real dread or fear because it goes on too long with too many people criss crossing too many paths. At some point, as interested in the story as I was, I just wanted it to end. An inventive novel that could have better.