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    A Winter Haunting
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    A Winter Haunting
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    A Winter Haunting
    Ebook409 pages6 hours

    A Winter Haunting

    By Dan Simmons

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A once-respected college professor and novelist, Dale Stewart has sabotaged his career and his marriage -- and now darkness is closing in on him. In the last hours of Halloween he has returned to the dying town of Elm Haven, his boyhood home, where he hopes to find peace in isolation. But moving into a long-deserted farmhouse on the far outskirts of town -- the one-time residence of a strange and brilliant friend who lost his young life in a grisly "accident" back in the terrible summer of 1960 -- is only the latest in his long succession of recent mistakes. Because Dale is not alone here. He has been followed to this house of shadows by private demons who are now twisting his reality into horrifying new forms. And a thick, blanketing early snow is starting to fall ...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061803239
    Unavailable
    A Winter Haunting
    Author

    Dan Simmons

    Dan Simmons is the Hugo Award-winning author of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and their sequels, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. He has written the critically acclaimed suspense novels Darwin's Blade and The Crook Factory, as well as other highly respected works, including Summer of Night and its sequel A Winter Haunting, Song of Kali, Carrion Comfort, and Worlds Enough & Time. Simmons makes his home in Colorado.

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    Reviews for A Winter Haunting

    3.5/5

    358 ratings21 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Good book with decent story foundation. I listened to the audio version which improved it.

      BUT, I do get sick of so many authors' delusional fears of never ending "skinheads" an obsession with some authors ..... There are lots of racist words in this book they are the authors not any true person; I have lived 65 years and never heard these slurs except in movies and these books.
      ...
      These authors need to get out more.
    • 3/5
      I listened to the audiobook--kudos to Bronson Pinchot for the work on Middle English, Middle German, and all of the other crazy language stuff here. Very smoothly rendered.

      I would have liked the end to have blended more smoothly, so that if the question about Dale's sanity or haunting were the big twist, then the narrative did not seem to just be confused. I listened to the end three times, trying to figure out what I missed before realizing that this seems to have been intended as a twist: the possession. I don't need to necessarily understand the logistics of the possession, but I do need to know that it happened a little more certainly: a change in the voice beyond the shift from third to first person. And: did Dale want to become possessed? To give control over to his old friend? Was this just because he no longer was interested in controlling his own life? Like I said, the end lost me a bit here.

      All that said, lots of intriguing concepts: love the nod to Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf, the ambiguity of the language, even the references to the dogs...the concept of a dog with human teeth is unspeakably creepy. Nice touch. Enjoyable on the whole.
    • 3/5
      Sometimes I wish books came with an "asshole main character" warning.

      For me to enjoy horror, I need to feel the tension. I need to worry for at least one character's safety, otherwise I'm just bored. And if I dislike every notable character, I just do not care about what's happening. It doesn't matter that the main character is (presumably) insufferable on purpose.

      The plot is not really anything special either, pretty scattered and disjointed by the end.

      I'm pretty bummed that this was my first Simmons, but I'm hoping his sci-fi is better.
    • 3/5
      This is a solid horror story. Part psychological, part supernatural. It's my first Dan Simmons novel and I'm told it isn't his best, but I enjoyed it. Got creeped out at times. Liked all the literary references. Kept me guessing and worrying about what was going to happen next. Made me happy I don't live alone. Even after finishing it I find myself thinking about its twists and turns.

      A Winter Haunting is the second horror novel in a row that I've read that goes beyond just tipping its hat to Henry James. In this book James's short story "The Jolly Corner" (1908) looms large. In the prior horror story I read, The Turning (2012) by Francine Prose, it was "The Turn of the Screw" (1898). Makes me want to read more James.

      Another book that's mentioned is James Dickey's Deliverance (1970), which I recently finished and have been digesting. This book is set in rural Illinois, in the central part of the state, and there's a small gang of neo-Nazis involved. Not that there were neo-Nazis in Deliverance, but there was the violence of rural, backwards people and the threat of the wilderness to modern man. Similar things going on here in some ways. There are dozens of other literary references--from The Egyptian Book of the Dead to Beowulf to Proust--so this is a fun book for book nerds. Computer geeks will enjoy the ThinkPad the protagonist uses (DOS is part of the plot!).

      As I said, A Winter Haunting is set in Illinois, where I live, so it was the perfect pre-Halloween read for me. I plan on giving it away tomorrow for All Hallow's Read.
    • 4/5
      A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
      4 ★'s

      Forty years, a failed marriage, an affair, and suicide attempt later, Dale Stewart returns to his hometown and rents out the farm where of his childhood friend Duane had lived. He hopes to write a novel about the mysterious events of the almost forgotten summer of 1960, when Duane died. But strange and disturbing phenomenon, black dogs, neo-nazis, and old friends and enemies continually distract him. Someone is trying to tell him something but is it a friend...or something else?

      I love what Dan Simmons has done in A Winter Haunting, which is write a classic, literate ghost story that both plays by the rules while intellectually reinventing them. He has both Dale Stewart and the reader wondering about Dale's sanity. What exactly does Dale's failed affair have to do with the events at the farmhouse? Is Dale leaving himself notes? Is any of this really happening at all? Just who is haunting who? A Winter Haunting is a classic chiller that expands on the psychological complexity of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House with stunning power.

      Before reading this book you should first read Summer of Night so you will understand Dales journey back 41 years.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Not Simmons' finest work: A weak-willed English Professor has a "thang" with one of his graduate students, thus losing his home, family and jeopardizing his job. So, what does he do? Tries to kill himself and fails; moves back to his hometown and writes a book. Ghosts are involved. All white pipos. Meh.
    • 4/5
      Another excellent book by Dan Simmons. I've said it in other reviews of his books, and I'll say it again: Dan Simmons is probably my most favorite of contemporary writers - he is articulate, thorough, engaging ... even when he writes a less-than-commendable book (e.g., The Abominable) it's still a good book, and a good read.This story takes place 40 years after the events in Summer of Night. Dale Stewart (who is, apparently, Simmons' self) returns to his hometown of Elm Haven, Illinois. He is a Professor of English, a writer of mediocre talent, divorced father of two, now reeling from being dropped by the woman for whom he'd sacrificed his family. He has returned home to write a book about the town in 1960 - although he cannot remember what actually happened back then. He hopes that rummaging through the belongings of his late friend, Duane McBride, will freshen his memory.Duane actually plays a fairly significant role in the book, as do a few certain other people from Dale's past. The title doesn't include the word "haunting" for nothing. There are twists galore, with quite a few "Oh, WOW!!" moments where Simmons just bowls you over with excellent revelations.The only issue I take with the book appears towards the end, when certain post-1960 events are being related to Dale by the town sheriff. One series of events is not possible, as anyone who's read Summer of Night is sure to notice - an uncharacteristically sloppy error of continuity on Simmons' part.But I forgive him.
    • 4/5
      I didn’t know this novel was the third part in a series, but I’m not in the slightest upset about this news. I’m heading off to find book one and two to listen to, and then I’ll probably just listen to book #3 again so they are then set straight in my head. And with a good book like this one, listening to it again is no chore. In fact, I listened to the last two-thirds of the last chapter three times just now, so I could keep everything straight in my flu-addled brain. It was awesome, and I cannot wait to get ahold of the first two novels in this series.
      Again, Bronson Pinchot the actor narrated this audiobook. Again, kudos to Blackstone Audio for hiring him to do these novels. His pronunciations (if that really was him) of Egyptian and Old English was superb, and masterful. Listening to him (or someone?) pronounce them so fluidly was absolutely enjoyable to me. But I have to admit, trying to figure out Old English is easier for me in print, lol.
      Please give this series a try, you will love them. 4 stars, and highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      A non-sequel sequel that will sadly have less readership than it would if it weren't billed as a sequel. Summer of Night is a fine book - frequently compared with It by Stephen King (but assuredly not based on, inspired by, or otherwise related to the actual book It). I liked it, but not as well as A Winter Haunting, which is really just this wonderful stretch of atmosphere and mystery that's full of self-referential clues and misdirection, unreliable (or is it?) narration, and... sadly - some painful schlock.
      There is also a lot of window dressing that doesn't add to the story, necessarily - Dan Simmons likes to write a long book - but, that ends up feeling like atmosphere that works (like so much of the unnecessary atmospheric work in 70's horror movies, that makes them so wonderful today - because of how their subtlety is enhanced).
      It's just plain fun to be the reader of this book. You're totally being told a tale, and it's being told to you in ways that will honestly have you listening to the sounds around you after you've shut off the light to go to sleep. I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of deer walking across the ice of my yard after a night of reading this book - the sound was amplified by the coating of ice over everything that night, and it was singularly spooky.
      I want to point out the schlocky bits - but at that point this description becomes a spoiler, so I'll hold off. Don't worry, they shouldn't ruin it for you - don't let them put you off from reading through. This is a great winter's night read, especially poignant for a middle-age male reader, and there's very good reason that Stephen King and Dan Simmons (the more literary of the two, if not as skilled with voice) exchange drafts with one another before publishing books - and for SK to refer to DS as a genius.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Hmmm... I enjoyed this book enough to finish it before leaving for work but it was not one of Simmon's better efforts. At under 400 pages it is not too long and although not really frightening it is a nail-biting read. It is listed as a sequel to The Summer of Night but don't let that put you off. SoN was far too long, a self-indulgent peaon to post-war small town America: it may have evoked fond nostalgia in Americans but as a South African who doesn't remember the 60s, it was tedious.A Winter Haunting is never tedious: Dale Stewart is an English professor at a Montana university but after having an affair with a young student who ultimately dumps him, he loses his family, his self-respect and, to an extent, his sanity. After months of psychiatric care and with a heavy regime of psychotropic drugs, he decides to return to Elm Haven, the moribund small town where he spent much of his childhood, the setting for Summer of Night. . He barely remembers the dark events of 1960 but knows something bad happened which included the death of his friend Duane McBride. Anyway, Dale heads out east and hires the farm where Duane died, at the age of eleven. The town, 40 years on, is naturally even more derelict than before and it's unseasonably cold and even snowy for Halloween, but Dale is detemined to stay at the remote and neglected little farm house [no telephone, no cellphone connection] and write a novel. He meets the school bully, now sherriff, and the school sexpot, now a failed film star and lesbian. and is plagued by a gang of skinheads who took exception to articles he wrote on white fundamentalists. Cryptic emails appear on his computer, often in Old English, despite the fact that it is not connected to the internet, and the farm is threatened by a pack of sinister black dogs. The upper floor of the farm house is sealed off - has been for over 40 years - and in one of the creepiest scenes of the book, Dale sees a flickering light on the inaccessible upper floor. How much of what he sees is delusional, brought on by his depression, lack of sleep and psychiatric drugs? Is the house haunted or is it all in his mind? The witnesses to his ghosts/delusions turn out to be ghosts/delusions themselves. I admit I skimmed over many pages but on the whole found this an enjoyable page-turner. Far from bis best book but an engrossing read.
    • 2/5
      Engaging, but it didn't do the one thing a horror novel should do. It didn't scare me. The fact that I've seen many of the plot devices before - a man with a past, a haunted house (of course), questionable sanity (elicited early in the novel by a scene of the MC in his psychiatrist's office), psychotropic drugs that make everyone around the MC question his version of events - probably didn't help any more than the rather tired is-it-or-isn't-it-real feel the novel had. Simmons manages to make it feel somewhat real by interspersing the ghost of a murder victim in first-person throughout, but much of that felt like he was telling me the story rather than showing me what happens. Simmons is a good writer, possibly even a great one, but this novel is not his best effort. If you want him to scare you, read DROOD.
    • 3/5
      This is the sequel to Summer of Night and while it's not necessary to have read that first volume to enjoy this one, it does enhance the experience. Now having said that, while I thought Summer of Night was a classic, one of my favorites of the year and one that might get pulled off the shelf again for a second read, this novel was just ok and probably not really worthy of a re-read. Had I not already read Summer of Night, this would have been just a typically horror novel and really a fairly tame one. Being familiar with the background of this (being set about 40 years or so after the original) it was a bit interesting to see how everyone turned out, but I was a bit disappointed that the mythos of the original didn't really play a part, just most of the characters were the same. Definitely worth the read if you've read Summer of Night, otherwise, just average.
    • 3/5
      This was my first read by Simmons. I enjoyed the little ghost story with the main character reliving his childhood via his dead friend. I plan to pick up a few more of his books when I see them.
    • 4/5
      I stayed up til 8am finishing "A Winter Haunting". I felt a bit as if I was chasing a bit of cheese on a string.The first half of the novel is quite disturbing. I believe the most memorable as well as visually disturbing thing here was the small black dog with what Dale thought he saw as having human teeth. The mythology in the book was great, as was the mention of several other works of classic literature. The Black Wolf/Dog theme was very much a draw for me, as I've had personal experience with like phantoms. I might go to the library, as Dale did, and collect some of the books he listed.At present, I have not read "Summer of Night" or "Children of Night",so I can't comment on the connections between the three. I did enjoy the nostalgia wrapped up so neatly and all of the small details within, such as descriptions of Dale's camping equipment, his computer, the comfy yet creepy basement complete with bakelite radio sets, et cetera.This was my first sampling of Simmons writing and I enjoyed it very much. There is a light intellectuality and a sprinkling of classic literature throughout. I very much look forward to digging deeper into Simmons' writing!
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book, but not the way I intended to enjoy it. From the blurbs and reviews, I expected a subtle, eerie ghost story similar to The Haunting of Hill House or The Turn of the Screw. Instead, it was a clever, twisty thriller with a supernatural bent. The plot is contrived and the set-up is painfully obvious, but it still entertains, although it is seldom scary.The protagonist, Dale Stewart, is a professor/novelist who has been dumped by the young woman for whom he left his wife and kids. No sympathy from me there. After a suicide attempt, he decides the perfect place for a sabbatical would be in the home of his childhood friend Duane, who died in a grisly accident on his farm in Elm Haven, Illinois. Winter is approaching. Local skinheads are out for Dale's blood. The local sheriff hates his guts and won't offer any help. He can't get cell phone service at his place. What could possibly go wrong?I'm making fun of the book, but it fooled me in places and kept me interested throughout. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more had I read its precursor, Summer of Night, since I felt there were a lot of unanswered questions about the evil lurking in Elm Haven. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I was reading a sequel until I finished the book.
    • 4/5
      A Winter Haunting is a sequel to Summer of Night. I never read that one by A Winter Haunting seemed perfect for this time of year and I was loving Dan Simmons after reading Drood. Dale Stewart returns to his childhood town in Illinois as his life in Montana has gone to hell. His job as a professor was in jeopardy, his young lover has left him, he has lost his wife and children due to the affair, then fails at a suicide attempt. He decides to take a sabbatical, and when he returns to Illinois, he rents the home of his childhood friend that died a violent death (the plot of the first novel).Dale begins to see black dogs that no one else sees, plus he gets messages on his computer, but he's not hooked up to the internet. Dale begins to wonder about his sanity. Also, he is being harassed by some Neo-Nazi punks based on some articles that he wrote.my review: This was a pretty good read, lots of paranormal and plot twists. Some I saw coming, some I didn't. I might have suspected more if I'd read the first book, but I don't think it matters.It was a bit like watching a horror movie, when you are yelling at the person to not walk into the basement. I would have hightailed it out of that town the minute anything happened, but I guess that would not have made for a good story.Sometimes the story dragged a bit, but I was still intrigued. Luckily this was not one of Simmon's doorstop books, or I may have felt differently. All in all, not too bad.my rating 3.5/5
    • 3/5
      This book is something of a sequel to Simmon's Summer of Night. Dale Stewart, one of the intrepid heroes of Summer of Night, returns to Elm Haven after an affair gone wrong, divorce and suicide attempt. He moves into his friend Duane McBride's farm and begins to have very strange experiences including run-ins with skinheads, former classmates and an old nemesis.It's an okay read but several points don't make sense. Why is the WWI soldier/doughboy from Summer of Night still roaming around? He should have been destroyed at the end of the first book. That Dale doesn't recognize him can be explained by his blocking of the memories of that summer but I would have thought some things would have come out during his stay at the farm where his friend was killed. I also got frustrated by a time line inconsistency. At the very end of the book an event is described as having taken place in 1961. It is explained as having been quashed by a character that died in the summer of 1960 in Summer of Night. Little thing like that bother me.Overall this book is an okay read. Quite honestly it probably would have been better if it had not been tied to Summer of Night. Considering the lack of overlap between the stories there is almost no point even using Dale Stewart as the lead character. I probably would have enjoyed it more if there was no connection to the other book. Simmons is a good writer but this is not one of his better works.
    • 5/5
      I read the first half of this alone in the house. I got to the part where a strange, small black dog follows him around the farm, and he notices that the dog' smile is off, like maybe the dog has human teeth, and I threw the book up in the air and watched Tomb Raider until Chris got home. I haven't freaked myself out like that for years. Excellent, subtly scary stuff!
    • 3/5
      After reading this book, I had no idea it was a sequel. I would not rate this in my top 10 list of horror books to read, but that does not mean I did not enjoy it. Good thought out plot, well written, but not enough 'scary stuff' for me in it.
    • 5/5
      This is such a happy discovery for me. I picked this up from a bargain stack in a bookstore, intrigued by the synopsis on the dust jacket.With a contemporary setting and real characters, the story is fast-paced and engaging. I easily got into the story and enjoyed it right through to the end. It was a bit spooky reading it alone at night, but that's exactly the thrill of it!It's my first Dan Simmons book, and I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed the book so much that I'd like to check out his other works.Note: I haven't read Summer of Night, so I'm reviewing this as a stand-alone piece.
    • 3/5
      A follow up to Summer of Night, this one takes the main character from that novel revisiting the town where he grew up and witnessed so many horrors and the death of his friend. It's good, but not in the same league as Summer of Night. It feels a little rushed and left me feeling that there was so much more that could have been explored, as the idea of the survivors of the horrors of the first book growing up and dealing with what they witnessed from a psychological standpoint seems intriguing.