The Strain starts with an airplane that lands in New York City and then just stops. All power goes out and there is no sign from anybody. They call in many government agents, including the CDC. Everyone appears dead - ecept for 4 people. They are taken to the hospital, and seem to have a full recovery, even though there body is showing some weird vital signs. The government tries to bury the news by having it released just before a total eclipse over Manhattan. An old man who knows about the vampire tries to talk to the CDC man. We learn that this has been a vampire infestation and part of a battle among vampires where humans are mere pawns. The dead passengers wake up and attempt to go to their homes, vampirizing everybody, including the UPS guys. They have plenty of vampire battles. We also have the human interest side. The CDC guy is trying (unsuccessfully) to get custody of his boy. He misses an important court date to attend to the plane. Later he warns his ex to get out of town with his son. However, her boyfriend doesn't want to go and they say. Eventually both die, but the son remains. (How convenient!) Our "heroes" also come really close to getting killed by vampires. However, they manage to always escape just in time. (Wouldn't it be interesting if the main guy died in a book and then it had to switch over.)
I was drawn in by the airplane. This does seem somehat similar to del Toro's Mimic.
After reading the second Strain book, I was eagerly anticipating this one. However, I forced myself to read a few other books first. Alas, by the time I started reading, Night Eternal, I was disappointing. Troll Hunters essentially had the same story with a much lighter tone. This book is very dark. Many of the "good guys" die. People struggle against each other and themselves before finding a way to eliminate the vampires. In the end, the vampires are just nuked out of existence. You know it will happen, making some of the tension feel forced. There is a ton of mythological and religious background to explain things. However, most just serves to delay the outcome.
Trollhunters is essentially a children's version of del Toro's Strain series. There are a bunch of supernatural beings that are much more powerful than humans. However, they have limitations to their power and can use human assistance to carry out some tasks. They have lived in relative peace with humans. However, one of them decides that is enough and is going to destroy humanity. Luckily there are others working with humans to prevent that from happening. The tone of the two works, however, is much different. Trollhunters is much more bright and fun. The protagonists are two geeky kids. They like to sneak through the San Bernadino historical society. They notice a new bridge being assembled. They later learn about trolls. The bridge can enable trolls to do even more badness. They meet a lost uncle who became a troll fighter after the last "milk carton kids" epidemic. They have an epic battle and team up with the good trolls to defeat the bad ones. And in the process discover that the class bully is a troll in disguise. And even better, they discover that his "crush" is actually a troll hunter also. They are all able to live happily ever after.
The Fall is the middle book in the Strain trilogy. New York is becoming invested with Vampires. We learn of the plan for world domination. A rich guy had been helping out with the plan with the hope of vampiric immortality. He uses his nuclear power plants to help prepare the world for vampires, but the vampires have no need for him. We do get clues as to ways the vampires can be stopped. However, this book is about the vampires wrecking mayhem. We see some key characters die, while others seem to be prolonged longer. Vampires don't really care for humans. The war is really a war of vmapires for domination, with humans as mere pawns. The vampires chose humans to befriend based on their needs, not on the desires of humans. The powers that be could have ended this pandemic early on. However, they were influenced by those that wanted destruction and did too little too late.
