Communion Books In Order

Publication Order of Communion Books

“Communion” is a series of novels by Louis Whitley Strieber, the American author best known for the writing of horror novels. The first novel of the series was “Communion: A True Story” an allegedly non-fictional account of his experiences with aliens. Srieber was born to lawyer Karl Strieber and Kathleen Mary of San Antonio Texas in 1945. He went to San Antonio’s Central Catholic Marianist High School before he proceeded to the University of Texas ,and finally moved overseas to attend the London School of Film Technique graduating in 1968. He then got a job in advertising in which he was so good that he rose to vice president at one of the prominent New York City advertising firms. He left the world of advertising in 1977 to become a full-time writer. Since then he has been living the double life of advocate for alternative theories on podcast “Dreamland”, and a writer of non-fiction and fiction horror novels. Strieber got started in fiction with the publication of the 1978 work “The Wolfen” followed by “The Hunger” both of which were later adapted into feature films. He then wrote speculative fiction about the risks of nuclear warfare on a limited scale in the novel “Warday” which he wrote with James Kunetka. His 1986 novel based on the same themes of stories with a social conscience was an environmental apocalypse novel titled “Natures End” that he published in 1986. He published Communion in 1987, a novel that catapulted him to international fame among UFO enthusiasts.

The Communion series of novels by Whitley Strieber may be referred to as non-fiction works based on the author’s very vivid experiences with aliens that he calls “visitors” rather than aliens. The events in the series started in 1985 when Strieber got a visit from strange creatures that visited his home in upstate New York. It was a dark night in December 1985 when he got up to a bizarre noise in his room. He woke up just in time to see a weird and small creature dash to his bed. He lost his memories of the events of the night as he woke up the next morning feeling angry and disoriented without reason. He would get his memories back under intensive hypnosis that helped him remember huge chunks of the terrifying night which he used to write Communion in 1987. In the novel he asserts that he was physically assaulted and abducted by small unknown creatures. For years, what haunted him were who the visitors were? What did they need from him? And were they trying to communicate something? Or maybe warn him of danger?

While the first novel of the Communion series posed all the questions, the subsequent novels offered the theoretical answers. In the novels following Communion, Strieber adopts a mystical philosophy mode of writing, and even asserts that the novels are similar in nature to the likes of books by P.D. Oupensky and George Gurdjieff. In the subsequent novels, he asserts that his experience was about getting over one’s fear of the unknown as fear is the primary obstacle that holds us back and confuses us. The novels assert that understanding of fear will only come when one successfully confront their fear. The novels of the Communion series present compelling theories about a world that is halfway between the intangible world of imagination and thought, and the real and tangible world that we live in. In essence, the novelist asserts that what we think are fictional creations may be more tangible than ever imagined. The first novel of the series Communion was made into a horror film drama that came out in 1989. The movie has Frances Sternbhagen and Christopher Walken in the lead roles. The movie told the story of a family that experiences an extra terrestrial visitation event while vacationing in a remote home in the desert. During the phenomenon, the father who acts out Striber’s experiences is abducted changing the lives of the entire family.

“Communion: A True Story” is the first novel of the Communion series of novels by Whitley Strieber. The novel kicks off with two spooky accounts of how the author is abducted by visitors while sleeping in his home. The first story is about vague memories of a dark night that saw the author visited by what appears to be a crystal fire hovering over his house. In the second story, the author is abducted by aliens that take him to a UFO where little grey men perform experiments on his body. The stories unfold in a dreamlike unreal way that is so nightmarish and yet more believable than an ordinary day’s account. The stories come full of tension as the author explains just what is happening by offering up theories that are a mixture of weirdness and madness. It culminates into a puzzling story that would be difficult to categorize as either fiction or non-fiction. However, the parallax is compelling enough to imply that even if all this is imagination, there is a lot of unusual stuff happening in either story. Using hypnosis, the author remembers more of the memories of his encounters and abduction experience that progressively become weirder. A compelling theory that Strieber makes is that the UFOs are making contact with humanity in the different eras simultaneously, as they try to find something to better their own race.

“Transformation: The Breakthrough” is a bizarre narrative of the author while vacationing in his upstate New York cabin. He writes a good story with vivid imagery that gets one immersed into the whole experience to make for a very thrilling ride. However, its not all thrill as there are many events that happen that may best be described as unsettling at best and nightmarish at worst. Combined the two novels were later made into a 1989 movie “Communion”. Unlike Communion, Transformation seems like a more believable narrative with its creepy noises and weird lights on the roof of his cabin. He recounts his experiences of frightening visions, psychological torture that cripple him so much that he is even afraid of going out of the house at night.