Product Description

From the bones of the dead, and from a long buried secret...they rise to kill. The original Golem was molded from riverbed clay centuries ago, enchanted by spells to protect the innocent. But now a diabolical design has perverted the ancient, mystical rites to forge new Golems that stalk the night. Into the twilight deeps of the quiet Maryland coast, they come forth, to rape, mangle, and murder, and to bring horror and atrocity to all in their demonic path. Only a young couple can stop them but little do they know, an even worse secret is buried in their own midst...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143940 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 323 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780843958089
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
Something is haunting the 150-year-old Lowen Mansion, something unspeakable. Ghosts? Monsters? Or something far worse? Internationally published horror novelist Edward Lee unleashes his next excursion into the realms of the macabre with a new kind of monster. Golems hail from the oldest religion, the Kabbala, first taught to the angels by God Himself. The angels then whispered these secrets to Adam in Paradise, but they didn't know...someone was listening: Samael, the Arch-Devil of Genesis....

Horrific, erotically charged, and jam-packed with one dark surprise after another, Lee's latest novel takes the reader headlong into a gruesome, unrelenting horrorfest of occult secrets, scum-of-the-earth psychopaths, and a walking abomination that can't be stopped...

Customer Reviews

Edward Lee Channels Myth
Ancient myths and legends often provide the best material for dark tales. They echo with resonance and history. In his latest, Edward Lee harnesses this resonance with powerful and horrifying results. Under his dreadful ministrations, the golem comes alive and walks the earth. Unlike its legendary predecessor, however, Lee's golem is a dreadful engine of destruction, leaving piles of mutilated bodies and torn lives in its wake.

Seth Kohn and Judy Parker have traveled through hell and come out the other side. Seth has not only recovered from alcoholism but also put to rest the tragedy that caused it: his wife's death. Judy has also defeated her demons; a crack addiction that destroyed her teaching career and reduced her to whoring to support it. Rehabilitated, recovered, and together, the future seems bright. Seth's newest video game dominates the market, and they've just purchased and renovated an old home on the quiet Maryland coast.

Their peace is doomed. Corrupt police and redneck drug dealers run rampant, along with something worse. Informants and rival drug dealers are being killed in horrifying ways, and a dark, ancient evil creeps through the night. Both Seth and Judy will be confronted by their worst nightmares, as the Golem - once a holy instrument of justice - is perverted into a force of evil and malice. Old fears will be resurrected, and Judy in particular will once again become what she's always despised - a "dirty crack whore" - all at the whims of an ancient evil.

"The Golem" evokes all the right emotions: hope, fear, despair, and vengeance. Particularly skillful was Lee's layering of the story, interweaving past and present narratives. For most of the novel, the horror plays out in the past, while dreadful anticipation of it builds in the present. And, as all successful horror novelists do, Lee combines supernatural horror with real, tangible horrors: being haunted by the specter of a dead love and returning to a despised addiction. There's resolution at the end, but also a somber reminder: evil endures, and marches on through history.

Fairly entertaining Monster book
Lee introduces us to two intermingled stories in Golem, first we have the 1800's tale of settlers battling amongst eachother and reaching to the darker forces for help. This is an entertaining and engaging tale filled with creepy vibes, nasty curses and horrible monsters. Then we flip to the modern day - a young couple is moving into their dream house - located sqarely between the two ancient camps of settlers. They have each recently battled with addictions and survived. Leaning on eachother for support they conquered their habits and have set up a nice life together. With the sale of their new videogame, they are now rolling in wealth that they are unaccustomed to.

We know that their new house is located in a place that holds danger they could not possibly be aware of - or even believe in. The descendents of the original settlers still have a strong hold on the dark arts, and aren't above a little rape, murder, and drug sales to gain what they felt they have lost.

Though this is one of Lee's better books, it's not one that the reader will have any trouble putting a bookmark in to pick back up at a later date. It just never grabs ahold of you like some of the other writers do. For those looking for rape and violence - here it is, but it won't cause you to keep the light on at night, and the monsters have no chance of invading your dreams.

A monster with feet of clay (literally)
For a monster that has been around for hundreds of years, the golem has been one of the more underused creatures in horror fiction and films. While I am sure there have been more recent ones, the only golem movie of note dates back to the 1920s. Whatever the reason, the golem story remains fertile ground in which Edward Lee has successfully gotten new material from.

Unlike vampires or were-beasts, the traditional golem story (which comes out of Jewish folklore) has the clay automaton being often used as a force for good, instead of evil. Not so, in Lee's appropriately titled The Golem, where there are multiple golems, and they are mostly malevolent. The novel takes place around the quiet Maryland town of Lowensport and is really two parallel stories. In the main story, new residents Seth Kohn and Judy Parker have moved to the periphery of the town, into the house that once belonged to the local patriarch Gavriel Lowen. Seth is a millionaire computer game developer and Judy is a former college professor, and both are recovering addicts.

Evil is afoot nearby, led by some corrupt policemen and their drug-dealing partners. One of the dealers has a connection to a truly nasty killer who can be used to eliminate the competition, a killer that turns out to be a golem. Seth and Judy will get tangled up with the pair, not only because of the history of their house but also because of some barrels of clay they've acquired: clay with the mystical properties to create golems.

The parallel story relates the early history of Lowensport, when almost the entire Jewish population was killed in a virulent wave of hate. The killers, in turn will pay, as Gavriel gets his revenge and sets up the foundation for the main story.

The Golem is a darkly entertaining novel that, as stated before, taps into an underutilized area of horror fiction. This is true not only of using the golem, but also Jewish folklore and mysticism. For this fresh subject matter alone, this book is worth reading. The fact that its well-written too is almost a bonus.