Once again I am reminded of John Saul's reliability. I've read a half-dozen of his books and the worst of them was still pretty good.
A big point of his stories are the characters are just flawed humans acting as flawed humans should. There's no great underlying preachiness, he picks a target, one within the realm of reasonable fear, and builds some chills and thrills. This one tackles heartlessness of science and military industry to convey a particularly chilling tale with a super-good-times finish.
Fast, feels highly plausible (my ignorance of DNA probably helps this notion), ultimately entertaining.

This is my 3rd John Saul book and my admiration for him just grows. Some books are just amazing that it leaves me speechless at the end (just like a Jeffery Deaver book).

The first few chapters of the book would leave you wondering: is a supernatural force responsible for the death of a baby? Is a sect responsible for the kidnapping? Or is there something inherently evil within the children?

The suspense goes down admittedly in the middle part of the book because you now knew what's happening. I felt it became a psychological suspense because it now dealt with growing rifts and suspicions between the characters (John Saul did this superbly in the Blackstone Chronicles where there is apparently no supernatural culprit and the characters' fears and emotional/psychological turbulence led to deaths and devastation within the community).

The action and conflict though skyrockets in the end where the true nature of the characters and the system (apparently the God project involves the collusion between a leading pharmaceutical corporation, the medical community, and the government)is revealed and what the God Project survivors turned out to be.

Note that this book is written sometime in the 80s. I'm an IT expert and I know that the main character couldn't have possibly "hacked" or extracted all the data she needs from any computer, given that the character's "specialized expertise" was not established in the story; she is more of a "general computer expert" and her expertise is in the intermediate level at the most. But this is the 80's and systems then probably wasn't as secure and controls weren't as stringent and robust as they are now. So it just seems reasonable to give the author some slack on this aspect.

I also would have preferred the title "The God Project" instead of the "All Fall Down" (which my copy has). The former has a much more disturbing feel that is more apt to the theme of the novel.

I am so happy that I rediscovered how awesome John Saul is. I am going to have to put him in my favorite author list along with Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Bentley Little and Laurell K. Hamilton. Just that little list alone should give you a little insight into what my favorite types of books are. If you've read my blog before though, you'll know that I read pretty much anything I can get my hands on.

In The God Project Saul focuses on a little New England town where children are dying in their sleep of SIDs while others there and across the nation are disappearing or turning up dead too. At first it doesn't seem like these kids could have any connection at all until the story really gets rolling. Genetics and the Department of Defense all have a role to play and its still shocking all the way til the end of the book.

Saul writes a futuristic tale for the time that this was written, and it is fast paced and hard to put down. Just when you think you have it all figured out, he pulls another card out and plays a fast one on you. Things keep getting interesting and it left me wondering all the way til the end.

Good story line that is suspenseful and very creative.

In Eastbury the children have begun disappearing or dying. Some are dying of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) while others just simply disappear one day. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but one mother, Sally Montgomery is not going to go away and forget about it. She is on a mission to find out the truth, no matter how disturbing it may be.

This is a horror book by John Saul; the first book by John Saul I have read. This feels more like a Robin Cook medical mystery than a true horror novel, but I have no other Saul experience to base this off of. I'm not sure if I will read more Saul books. The characters were fairly thinly developed and the dialogue felt like a script from some 1970's show. I kept expecting to hear a laugh track whenever a kid objected to a parent's demand. Oh, and this book was published in 1982, and the story shows it's age really badly. It has aged like milk. For example: landlines still exist. 911 did not exist. People smoke in doctor's offices. Doctors freely share medical record information between patients. There's bound to be other things; I just can't remember them all right now.

Anyway. There are a few violent scenes scattered throughout the book, many of which are adult vs. child. The majority of them are nearer the end of the book. There is I think one or two scenes of alcohol use but no substance use. There are no sex scenes in this book. I am giving this book three stars for the underdeveloped characters and the script stolen from the Brady Bunch.

Mi primera incursión el obra de John Saul, y seguro no será la ultima.
Me parece que es acertado compararlo con autores como Stephen King, Dean Koontz o Peter Straub. Es decir, un terror urbano y contemporáneo, donde el mal se aggiorna y adapta a la modernidad. Aunque lo que caracteriza a Saul es que en sus obras siempre sufren los niños, lo que le agrega cierto morbo a sus historias ya de por si terroríficas. Y por eso este proyecto científico termina siendo "diabólico".
Es un libro que va de menos a más, empieza como la típica historia de "algo raro esta pasando con nuestros hijos" (de hecho comienza con la muerte de un bebe en un inicio traumático), después pasa a la investigación donde van apareciendo datos cada vez mas escalofriantes, pero avanza mostrando las distintas vivencias de los personajes ante esta situación, y llega un momento que uno esta tan inmerso que no deja el libro hasta saber como termina.
No es demasiado original, es el tipo de Best Seller del que hay a montones, pero esta bien construido es uno de los buenos productos del genero "científico loco jugando con la vida".
La historia es lo suficientemente interesante, los personajes son creíbles, la acción se regula correctamente, y el terror esta muy bien dosificado.
Si les gustan las historias de los autores que mencione antes, o las de Ira Levin o Peter Blatty, esta también la van disfrutar.

Nice read, one of those you can't put down. But ending wasn't really satisfactory. It was ok, but I'd say it missed something. Unless there's second book on the way... :)

Loved this book (but horror is my niche). Used this book to do a compare and contrast with Frankenstein (in college).

It was my ONLY college A in an English class (I SO can't write for beans).

Alright, this goes for most of John Sauls books. He has really good storylines but what I like the most about his writing is his use of artificial intelligence with the human mind/body. I read his books when I was like 15-16-years-old and the science thrown into the plot always fascinated me.

Have been picking up John Saul whenever I find his works (as a horror fan), this was the first introduction to his writing. Trying to go chronological order to get his writing style and growth.

Be warned this book starts off with heavy material, sudden infant death syndrome, child abduction, and all the associated emotions in between. Could easily be considered horror, but this is something darker, more nefarious.

This is an 80's story before we cracked the DNA code, but still holds ups with is meticulous insight and application. Saul does a solid job of putting the reader in the victim's seat, hitting us with the situations and predictable observations from those outside the know.

Part medical "Frankenstein", part adult sorrow and adaptation, part police procedural, and part secret government agency doing illegal $hit, it all adds up to a great "What if?" tale of curiosity.

Easy to get hooked into what's going to happen until the surprise ending indicative of 80's horror stuff.

Work a look if you can find it.
Thanks for reading.

This story was only a little over 300 pages but was pretty boring. I'm guessing that maybe in the early '80s, the genetic engineering and computer critiques were new and fresh and enough to make up for the rest of the story. I thought the writing style was a little amateurish considering how revered Saul is. I'm guessing that maybe his later books are better.

I had so much high expectations about this book. Sadly i couldn't quite get in to this book. It was my first ever John Saul book that i can recall reading. i don't think i've read any of his work's before and  it left me very disappointed.
 
This book is over 30 years old and it simply hasn't aged well. It is a horror novel about genetic engineering, as several people in a small town suspect their children may the products of an experiment in human evolution.
 
The ending also. Well i was very disappointed. i was expecting better. i did take this book on my wedding trip with me, but i'm kind of glad i left it till i got home now. I'm not going give up on John Saul but  I guess this book is like marmite you either love it or hate it.