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Mister Slaughter, by Robert McCammon; Subterranean Press; 2010; 440 pages; $24.95
With Mister Slaughter, Robert McCammon returns to the Colonial American world of Matthew Corbett, the protagonist from Speaks The Nightbird and The Queen Of Bedlam. As Mister Slaughter opens, it’s 1702 and Corbett has become an apprentice “problem solver” for the Herrald Agency, paired up with the rough-edged and far more experienced Hudson Greathouse,. Young Corbett is coming into his own. After the events of The Queen Of Bedlam, he is a celebrity, thanks to a series of flattering newspaper articles. He spends his meager earnings on fancy clothes, and he has begun a chaste relationship with Berry Grigsby. But his new career will soon take him far from the emerging nation’s idea of civilization.
Corbett and Greathouse accept a contract to escort a killer from a Pennsylvania asylum back to New York, where he is to be shipped to England to answer for his crimes at the end of the hangman’s noose.
Tyranthus Slaughter, the murderer, proves to be one of McCammon’s most complex and monstrous creations. On the return trip, chained in the back of the wagon, Slaughter makes his captors a tempting offer. If they will release him, Slaughter will give them a hidden chest filled with gold and jewelry plundered from his days as a highwayman, a prize ten times the value of what Corbett and Greathouse are being paid to transport the killer. Their reaction to the offer is surprising, and it propels the novel along a bloody and breath-taking thrill ride. Though McCammon steers clear of any supernatural elements in Mister Slaughter, there are horrors aplenty.
Once again, McCammon manages to organically insert period detail without making the facts seem forced. And while delivering a thriller that could stand alongside any contemporary bestseller, the author slyly addresses many of the era’s social concerns, including slavery, poverty and health care.
For those readers who have yet to try one of the Corbett novels because they’re not exactly in the horror genre, I urge you to reconsider. Mister Slaughter is one of the most satisfying nail-biters you’ll read all year.
Tom Piccirilli knows brutality. Though his fiction is littered with protagonists that readers would consider extraordinarily ruthless, their brutality is usually a result of being pushed to extremes. And though it could be anyone who forces these characters to their breaking point, more often than not it’s the people they’ve trusted the most; their family or friends who’ve wronged them, or even worse…betrayed them. And as readers have discovered in his prior novels, in a Tom Piccirilli story betrayal is the ultimate catalyst for brutality. And almost always, the betrayal involves a woman.
So with that in mind, welcome to Tom Piccirilli’s newest Bantam release called Shadow Season, where his lead character is named Finn, and he is a male teacher in a school for young women.
Finn is an ex-cop who after being blinded during a murder attempt leaves the New York City police force for a teaching position an hour and a half north of Manhattan. With the move, Finn had hoped to leave quite a bit of personal baggage behind in the city; he was being investigated for having ties to organized crime. Ties that his corrupt partner Ray was eventually sent to jail for. Ray had received five years in prison for his involvement with one of the local crime lords, but fortunately for Finn, the investigators never found any evidence to implicate him in any of Ray’s unlawful dealings.
Sadly, Finn also left behind his wife Dani; she was shot dead during the same murder attempt on Finn that left him blind. Though the hit was committed by the local crime lord’s son, Finn suspects that Ray might have had some involvement and thoughts of revenge have never strayed far from his mind.
It was the need to regain control of his life that prompted Finn to accept a job teaching English at the St. Valarian’s Academy For Girls. During his tenure at the school, Finn struggles daily to maintain his dignity, mostly by refusing almost any type of help offered to ease his handicap. Finn’s mantra since arriving at the school is “I am stone in the night, and I will not break”, and as it turned out the mantra worked well for him, he was in fact a pretty tough guy. But he wasn’t nearly as strong as he had hoped to be. All it took was young underage girl to cause his stone countenance to crack.
The novel takes place almost five years after Finn has left the police force at St. Valarian’s during Christmas break, against the backdrop of a driving blizzard. With the exception of a few of the young students who choose not to head back home, the school’s cook, it’s headmistress, and a handyman, Finn believes he and his live in assistant are the only ones left on the campus for the holidays. But one evening, while Finn is making his way to his cottage from the school, he hears the unfamiliar voice of a young girl crying out during the snowstorm.
Approaching the girl he discovers that she is not a student but a townie, and she appears to be hurt. Together they struggle to get to his cottage so he can tend her wounds and call for help. Once inside however, the girl becomes much more animated and then out of nowhere, she warns him that there is an ill wind blowing and that he better make good on what he owes. Finn is perplexed, he has no idea what the girl is talking about. As he tries to get more information from her she disappears from his cottage, apparently headed back out into the storm.
It is at this point in the story where Piccirilli sharpens his literary knives and begins his assault on the readers with the brutality he is so well known for. Shortly after the young girl vanishes, a mysterious duo enters the school property and commences with a killing spree that is vicious as anything Piccirilli has written. The blood flows easily and often from here on as the killers make their way through the hallways of the school demanding what’s owed them. It’s up to Finn to unravel the mystery of what these killers believe they are owed. What Finn eventually discovers is a betrayal so devastating, that it pushes the man over the edge.
Shadow Season is an extremely disturbing novel, easily matching the emotional intensity of his earlier masterpieces such as A Choir of Ill Children and November Mourns. Its violence is harrowing, plentiful, and realistic as hell, often evoking the stomach punching, visceral imagery of his small press novellas.
And for those only familiar with Piccirilli’s more mainstream work, it may be a surprise that Shadow Season also contains some of the most explicitly written sex scenes that appear in any of his mass market novels. Aside from some graphic love making scenes, Tom does an outstanding job describing the agonizing sexual tension and frustration of an older man who is surrounded by young, beautiful, and hormonally charged teenage girls who not only verbally tease the sightless Finn, but follow up with inappropriate touching and make a game of seducing him.
Shadow Season is Tom Piccirilli at his absolute best. It is an erotically charged and brutally violent novel that will please not only his fans, but should delight anyone who enjoys intelligently written, high octane thrillers. Shadow Season is highly recommended.
--T. T. Zuma
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A Twisted Ladder, by Rhodi Hawk; Tor/Forge Books; 2009; 544pp; $14.99
With her debut novel, Rhodi Hawk joins a select crew of modern female suspense/horror writers who have bucked the “system” and turn the genre on its proverbial ear. Like Deborah Leblanc, Alexandra Sokoloff, Sarah Pinborough, and Sarah Langan, Hawk muscles her way into the club that has long been dominated by males with an entry that bristles with strong but sexy writing, tight plotting and characters who crawl off the page and feel like they’re talking in your ear as they crack open a beer or holding a knife to your throat. Is it still a southern gothic? Sure, but one cut of a cloth by switchblade, not shears and colored by patterns of crimson, not faded plaid.
When an author dives into the waters of the mighty Mississippi near New Orleans, the setting can become the strongest character in the book – in the right hands. Hawk’s hands deftly mold the banks and guide the currents into a twisting, living, breathing entity that envelops and bleeds onto every aspect of the “Twisted Ladder” that becomes the symbolic DNA running through every chapter, every person in the story.
“Twisted” takes on a double meaning (beyond the eponymous ladder/helix) when it delves into the razor-edged land of mental illness. The Leblanc family has a unique secret – schizophrenia embeds itself in their genetic makeup, but that would be the simple, single-threaded method of storytelling. Hawk chooses to explain the disorder via a supernatural fashion.
In a dual storytelling manner, the plot unfolds with contradictory explanations. In 1912, Chloe, the first of the Leblancs to exhibit special powers which tap into the “other side” and reveal secrets of a precognitive nature, enters the Terrefleurs, the family estate, and insinuates herself into the family DNA. What she doesn’t know, or reveal, is the danger of peeking into the beyond. A river demon, the evil to the Mississippi’s beauty lurks deep within and awaits those who dive deep, whether literally or psychically. Back in modern New Orleans, psychologist Maddy Leblanc attempts to help others who suffer with similar afflictions. However, those who need her help the most have the same last name as she. Daddy Leblanc is but another colorful character of the Big Easy, something not very easy to accomplish in such a city. Her brother hides his sickness much better, but the darkness embracing both of them is constricting tighter as the days go by. Of course, Kate suspects the same demon resides within herself and seeks a solution to a malady for which none has been discovered.
The two timelines weave and swell with the currents of the river until Maddy discovers that past and present converge in a delta that sets the stage for the next book in what seems to be a series – and a very welcome and anticipated one.
Thankfully, Hawk has deep southern roots which emerge here at every turn. Her smooth but firm control of the dialect, both modern and century old, weaving together a tapestry of characters both familiar and unique.
This reads like anything but a first novel and goes down like a shot of quality bourbon – warm, silky, but with a bite like no other. Rhodi Hawk has arrived. Watch out, boys.
-- Dave Simms
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Necropolis by John Urbancik; Bad Moon Books; 83 pages; $17.95
John Urbancik's Necropolis is the latest chapbook from Bad Moon Books, a California bookseller who has quickly and quietly become a publishing force to be reckoned with in small-press Horror.
Urbancik's short, punchy tale revolves around five people trapped in the titular Necropolis (A massive cemetery, literally a "City of the dead.....) after dark: Kevin and Jill, a married couple going through a rough patch (That's about to get a whole hell of a lot WORSE); Kelli, a photographer prowling the graveyard, who may get a lot more than she bargained for when she follows the sound of a flute playing somewhere out in the darkness; and finally, Anna and Darren, a case of unrequited love if ever there was one. The hour grows late, the gates of the City of The Dead have been locked, and our overnight guests will never be the same again.
Urbancik does a credible job of making the characters unique and identifiable within the limits of the novella length, and while this kind of "Dark Fantasy" isn't usually my cup of tea, he manages to infuse enough creeping dread into the proceedings that the 83 pages flew by. I would have liked it if Urbancik had a little more space to flesh things out- As it stands, we're never really given much of an impression of the size and purpose of the Necropolis, or a reason why so many disparate people find themselves drawn to it, and some of the secondary characters that come into play later in the book cry out for some backstory. The book is illustrated by Urbancik's own Graveyard photography, and it adds a subtle but powerful punch to the overall package.
-- Dan Reilly
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Curse of Shamra: Book One of the Shamra Chronicles, by Barry Hoffman; Gauntlet/Edge; 2009; 304pp; $12.95
Most people know Barry Hoffman as the genius behind Gauntlet Press, the man who published many Richard Matheson rarities and the limited editions of the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson. Others know him as the author of the “Eyes” series from Leisure, a great set of novels as mysterious as they are disturbing.
Now he enters the world of young adult fiction. In the world of the Shamra, he has created a fascinating universe that wildly bucks many YA tropes. Slated to be the first of many in a series, Curse Of The Shamra whisks readers off to places more alive than most characters, and characters more deeply drawn than the typical stereotypes flooding the vampire and sword and sorcery stories today.
Young Dara exists in a world where men rule and women are relegated to domestic duties. She bucks the status quo as a child until she comes into her own as a teen. Nothing new, right? Same old, same old? Maybe so, until one learns about the world of the Shamra where nothing is what it seems. Simple plants attack and cry as they attempt to devour the unwitting. Creatures which defy logic and imagination leap and crawl out of every corner and page, yet each retains a shred of what readers might call human-like tendencies or feelings. This may make up for the soulless existence of the Shamra people, who go about their daily lives in a state of quiet desperation (to borrow a line from Pink Floyd). That is, until those said people are threatened with slavery from a dark force. Dara takes off and leads a resistance to free her people.
This book tackles gender issues for young adults but as with all good novels of its kind appeals to the adult with that inner child who refuses to die. Hoffman handles difficult subject matter and society with a deftness missing from some of the more popular titles and series in this age group (yes, those titles). The concept of how society can be so blind has been done to death, but what about when it cannot recover from that ignorance? Hoffman tells a tale of how a fresh mindset can transform a culture. A happy ending might not be in sight, but a change for the better through some tough blood, sweat, and tears is a welcome read compared to the pat formulaic novels churned out by the masses these days.
Better yet, Hoffman offers something truly special to the masses with this soon to be series. As a former middle school teacher, he knows how pathetic public school libraries have become and has offered 10,000 copies to any school who requests them. If any teachers read this, please go to Barry Hoffman’s site and do yourself a favor. There’s no catch – just tell him what you need and for what purpose. This could be expected from a King, Rowling, or other literary deity who feels for the coming generation.
-- Dave Simms
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Skin Medicine, by Tim Curran; Severed Press; 2009; 272 pgs.; $ 14.95
After reading countless horror novels over the years, can you think of anything more enjoyable than discovering a new author who is not only a damn fine writer, but who is actually able to scare the hell out you?
Earlier this year, on a whim, I purchased a novel called Dead Sea by Tim Curran. To say the least I was blown away by Curran’s articulate prose and a plot that was as frightening as it was riveting. Even after taking into account all the books I’ve read this year by my favorite authors, I can honestly say that Dead Sea is the best horror novel I’ve read in 2009. I enjoyed it so much that it has vaulted into my top ten favorite horror novels of all time. It was soon after I read Dead Sea when I saw that Curran’s Skin Medicine had just been re-issued. Though written in a totally different style and with a plot that is strikingly different from Dead Sea, Skin Medicine proves that lightening can indeed strike twice. Tim Curran has written a weird western that should be required reading for all fans of the genre.
Skin Medicine could easily be summed up as a horror novel that combines the bizarre imagery of Steve Vernon’s Long Horn, Big Shaggy and the realistic grit of Tom Piccirilli’s novels of the Old West. Its plot concerns the adventures of a bounty hunter named Tyler Cabe who is on the trail of a serial killer who hunts for his victims in the bordellos of the various mining towns scattered across the Indian occupied lands of the Wild West. When Cabe arrives in the small town of Whisper Lake in the pursuit of his bounty, what he finds there is more distracting and ultimately much more dangerous than the serial killer he’s after. For instance, the local sheriff is the man who severely scarred Cabe’s face during the war with a bull whip and Cabe has harbored thoughts of revenge against this man since the war was over. Also, the father of a man Cabe killed during a bar fight is looking to make good on his sons killing. The dead man’s father is almost seven foot tall, built like a grizzly bear, and just as deadly. And the man knows Cabe is in Whisper Lake. And finally, there is a pack of animals, or men, no one is exactly sure, who are traveling the country side and torturing, slaughtering, and then eating every one they massacre. And it just so happens that they have decided that the towns surrounding Whisper Lake would be a fine place to dine.
Though the story is a period piece, Curran does a splendid job in convincing the reader that they are back in the 1800’s; his novel is filled with often repugnant but realistic renderings of the Old West. Curran describes in detail the filth, rampant sexuality, and the lack of value given to human life by the era’s commodity Baron’s. And though you might think it would be difficult to pull it off, Curran wraps these accurate depictions of the west around the trappings of Indian folk lore and the occult without a hitch.
Curran describes its all; the saloon fights, the quick draws, the prostitution, and the drunken nights spent in the local jail. Curran also does an excellent job describing the horrors and after effects of those who fought in the American Civil War. And as mentioned earlier, to Curran’s great credit, he merges all of this history with his tale of the supernatural and he makes it work. Boy does he make it work! We read of disembodied heads who are pissed off and seeking out their bodies to exact brutal revenge. We witness men and women as they are sliced from groin to chin, their blood used to paint their death chambers and their entrails used in ways to boast of the killings. We learn of Indian medicine men who not only have the gift of vision, but who can curse someone into a hellish state that denies them a true death. And we are repulsed when we read of men, and those not men, gleefully eating woman and children; not only for sustenance, but for the power it gives them.
I can’t recommend Skin Medicine enough to those who not only enjoy gore laden supernatural thrillers, but also to those who just love a good ole plain fashion horror story. Curran’s writing is top notch in Skin Medicine; he keeps you glued to the pages right until its monster laden, blood drenched, and satisfying climax. After you finish reading Skin Medicine, you might want to consider it as an appetizer and then order Curran’s Dead Sea for the next course. I guarantee you’ll get your fill of horror.
--T. T. Zuma
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The Midnight Guardian: A Millennial Novel, by Sarah Jane Stratfor; Macmillan; 320 pages; $24.
Sarah Jane Stratford's debut novel The Midnight Guardian is a bit of an odd duck....Part Ann Rice "Noble Bloodsucker" pastiche, part bodice-ripping romance novel, part World War II thriller, part Edward Lee/Wrath James White gorefest, the novel (Subtitled "A Millennial Novel", indicating that we're in for a potential series here, sales willing....) is most assuredly a first-timer's effort; Stratford seems to be struggling to find her narrative voice at times, but, as disjointed and genre-bending as it may be, The Midnight Guardian is still a rather fun read.
The novel centers around a group of Vampires known as "Millennials", meaning they've been around for over 1,000 years, as they leave their native Britain to head to Germany to try in infiltrate The Nazi Party on the eve of World War II. (The basic premise never really worked for me....The Vampires decide they need to stop The Nazis from conquering the world because it would interfere with their food supply.....Why would a war hamper their ability to eat Humans? If anything, I'd think the chaos would make their predations easier....But that's neither here nor there.) The London Vampire Council decides to send it's Millennials to Germany, where they will work to infiltrate The Nazi Party, and destroy them from within.
We mainly follow youthful-looking, hot-tempered (Literally, as we discover later...) Millennial Brigit as the novel flips back and forth between three different time periods: Brigit's flashbacks to her creation a Millenia ago (And also her creation of her lover, Eamon, who is a mere lad of 750 years, and so must be left behind when the big Vampires go to war...), the start of the mission in 1938, and 1940, where Brigit is attempting to smuggle a mysterious cargo past The Nazis and back to Great Britain. Stratford does her best to juggle the multiple time-shifts in her narrative, but the shifting perspective doesn't always work; Luckily, the chapters start out by saying what year they take place in, so the confusion can be kept to a minimum.
One of the problems with the flashback structure is that, since Brigit went to Germany with a cadre of bloodsuckers in 1938, but is coming back alone in 1940 (With her mysterious cargo....), we pretty much know from the start that, somewhere along the line, the mission was a failure. Stratford manages, through some deft slight-of-hand, to distract us from that thought with worries about Brigit and her cargo: Just how WILL Brigit get off of a train filled with Nazis, various and sundry German operatives, and the ever-present threat of sunlight? (Trains have windows, you know!)
Stratford sets up her Vampire Hierarchy much like a video game, with various powers bestowed upon the bloodsuckers depending on how long they live, much like you'd get a bonus or a power-up for completing a level or beating an boss character, so Eamon, at 750 years, is far more vulnerable than Brigit, who is over 1,000 years old; Brigit, in turn, is less powerful than Mors, who is over 2,000 years old. I found these little conceits to be a touch ridiculous, especially when Brigit, known for her fiery temper, literally starts to spit fire out of her mouth and eyes, like some kind of fire-breathing Dragon. There are a LOT of eye-rolling moments like that, and a lot of Harlequin Romance-esque scenes of Eamon and Brigit pining away for each other, but Horror fans will no doubt get a charge out of the many grotesquely violent setpieces Stratford dishes out, including Brigit's massacre of a theater full of Nazis. I mean, when was the last time you read about someone getting a decapitated head thrown THROUGH THEIR NECK...? Think about that for a minute: She pulls off someone's head, and tosses said head and another person, hard enough to go THROUGHTHEIR NECK!
Somewhere, Ed Lee is smiling.
As debut novels go, The Midnight Guardian is a decent one, with enough grue and intrigue thrown in to make the mushy parts, if not more palatable, at least more tolerable.
--Dan Reilly
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Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves, written by Kevin VanHook, artwork by Tom Mandrake; DC Comics; 2009; 144 pages; $14.99
Superman and Batman have gotten together before. In fact, DC Comics is publishing a long-running comic right now featuring the two characters together (issue #66 is out in November). What you do not often see is Superman and Batman battling classic horror monsters like vampires and werewolves. Well, now you can let your breath out because the bluntly-titled comic Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves has arrived. All six issues of the mini-series are included in a trade paperback so you can have it all in one spot.
In the story, Batman is wrestling with the sudden appearance of supernatural creatures when Superman shows up to lend a hand. Here we learn something not widely known about Superman: in addition to kryptonite, he is also vulnerable to magic. Magic and magical beings/beasts can subdue the Man of Steel. That makes things a little more interesting. The vulnerability of Superman creates a real possibility of defeat so the tension of the story is enhanced. As a result of Superman’s weakness, Batman takes a somewhat more prominent role in the series and directs the action of the story. As is common in comics, there are tons of cameo appearances by other DC characters who lend a hand including Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Nightwing (formerly Robin), and the demon Etrigan (who, by the way, speaks in rhyme). For the most part the villains are not all that interesting, at least not as compared to the heroes. One exception is the vampire Dimeter, a more fully developed character who seeks to cure himself of vampirism. In all, the story breathes through the superhero side and that works just fine for a six issue mini-series.
The artwork by Tom Mandrake is suitably savage, colorful, and creative. In the past I have liked Mandrake’s work on the Spectre comic and here again with Batman and Superman he demonstrates a conceptual acuity for flowing lines.
I give this book a strong recommendation. While you are reading about monsters and superheroes, look into Batman Vampire, a collection of three tales of supernatural-superhero goodness from DC Comics. It is a solid book, too.
-- Wayne Edwards
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The Girl In The Woods, by David Jack Bell; www.deiriumbooks.com; 2009; 337 pgs.; $16.95
Diana Greene, the protagonist in David Jack Bell’s, The Girl In The Woods, sure is having a tough time of it. Come to think of it, every woman in Bell’s novel doesn’t seem to be fairing all that well.
In the first portion of the novel at least two women are dramatically raped (one of them even after she is dead!), and there are several more rapes alluded to off the pages. And when we are introduced to Kay, the mother of one of the young girls who was raped…we discover that she lives in a trailer park and is dying of lung cancer. And then there’s Janet, the protagonists mother; she had her other daughter go missing several years back and is now dying from Alzheimer’s disease. And we can’t forget poor Jacqueline; a freshman at a nearby college who is kidnapped during a bike ride, raped, and then forced to watch a policeman murdered, after which, her own throat is brutally cut. Which brings us back to Bell’s protagonist Diana.
A few years back Diana’s younger sister went missing; it seems she went for a midnight stroll and never returned. Diana is filled with guilt about the disappearance because she said some pretty unkind things to her sister the night she took off, one of which was calling her a slut. Diana could have prevented her sister’s wandering off by intervening in that fateful late evening walk, but instead Diana stood idle as she watched her sister amble down the road into the black night, never to return. As bad as these turn of events where for Diana, it turns out that her problems in life were just beginning. For one, a few years after her sister took off Diana had to quit her job as a policewoman. It seems she was having an affair with a married man who just happened to be her boss, the Chief of Police and left the force after their affair was discovered by the Chiefs wife. And as mentioned above, Diana’s mother is institutionalized with Alzheimer’s and every time Diana goes to visit, her mother’s disposition seems to deteriorate and the nursing home believes Diana’s the cause.
As you might have guessed by now, Bell’s story is weighted heavy with an atmosphere of dread and sexist violence.
Bell’s tale takes place in a small mid-western town that owes its genesis (and the good fortune to many a man) to a mysterious group of benefactors called The Pioneer Club. This colonial era group of gentlemen, the town’s founding fathers, would gather outside their township at a clearing in the woods to hold meetings that would determine the destiny of their town. As it turns out, this clearing had an unusual attribute; somehow it would posses (or something akin to possession) all of those who stood in it and gave them special powers. The Pioneer Club used these powers to kill off invading Indians, help with the crops, protect them from wild animals, and keep the peace causing some grisly murders of those they believe were a threat. They also used these powers to rape and enslave women who were unwilling to marry them in order to keep the town’s population numbers up. Over the ensuing years as America matured and prospered, the power of the clearing was used less and less; to the point where the men of the town stopped using it altogether and its existence in later years was regulated to myth and rumor. Or so it was believed.
Though Bell’s story is bleak with nary a trace of humor, readers will discover that his prose is well written and his plotting is exciting enough to compel them to continue reading. The author also does an excellent job of getting into his protagonist’s mind; one cannot help but feel Diana’s despair and guilt…and saddened by their consequences. Bell also gets very deeply into the characterization and the mental state of his antagonist, Roger. If I were to be asked if anything bothered me about this novel, it would be Roger’s portrayal. Roger is written as a confused and often dim witted young man whose deviant actions were set into motion by a suggestion from his dying father that Roger visit the clearing. This sets up the ending in the story where Roger, even though he has done some horrendous deeds, is actually pitied, a development that I had a difficult time with. I must add however, that it is a testament to Bell’s story telling ability that he had me empathize so much with his female characters, and so repulsed by Roger’s actions, that even the thought of pity for Roger was abhorrent to me.
If you are in the mood for some well written and atmospheric dark fiction dealing with very realistic and disturbing sexual situations, The Girl In The Woods will more than fit the bill.
--T. T. Zuma
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Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell; Rocket Ride Books; 2009; 168 Pages; $15.95
Originally published in the pages of Astounding in 1938, John W. Campell’s Who Goes There? went on to inspire two film adaptations: the greatly altered 1951 Howard Hawkes version, and 1982’s modern classic by John Carpenter, both titled The Thing. This new special edition of Who Goes There? doesn’t shy away from its more famous filmed counterparts, boldly declaring it “the novella that formed the basis of The Thing” in its cover. An illuminating foreword by SF giant William F. Nolan details the publication history of Campbell’s story, and gives us his impressions of both adaptations. Even more intriguingly, Nolan’s own previously-unpublished screen treatment is included here as a bonus.
The story itself is a classic of claustrophobic terror, set in a remote Antarctic outpost. We learn little about this team of explorers and experts before the discovery of a frozen, millennia-old alien beneath the permafrost surface. Deciding to thaw it (against some strident objections), the team slowly begins to understand the alien’s true nature: it is a telepathic shape-shifter … and it is alive. Once it tastes human flesh, it begins to imitate it, raging through the members of the Antarctic team and assuming their forms. As paranoia and dread take hold, the human survivors of the outpost must destroy the alien before it destroys them, escaping easily to the wider, more populated world.
Campbell’s novella holds up after seventy years, reading a little like early Bradbury or Asimov. His overreliance on adjectives and expository dialogue is at times distracting, but none of these literary ticks divert from the story’s thrust. Nolan’s screen treatment, however, is the highlight of this collection, taking a radical, more modern departure from the source text. While Carpenter’s The Thing hewed more closely to Campell’s story, Nolan’s concepts include the addition of women to the Antarctic team, and further development of both the human and animal characters. This direction makes the adaptation read more like Alien than The Thing, and it’s an exciting alternate take.
Having the original Who Goes There? back in print makes this fine presentation from Rocket Ride Books of importance to SF fans; the inclusion of William Nolan’s screen treatment and foreword makes it essential.
-- Kevin Quigley
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Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, by Various Authors and Artists; Marvel Publishing, 2009, 272 pages, $24.99
Hoping to “thin out” the population of homo sapiens, Magneto (of X-Men fame) helps bring an other-dimensional virus to Earth. The virus turns people, and mutants, into zombies. Chaos ensues. This is a boilerplate zombie set-up, but that fact does not diminish readers’ enjoyment of Marvel Zombies: Dead Days because, let’s face it, the fun part is seeing famous Marvel characters turn into zombies and eat each other. How it came to pass in the first place is not the focus of the story.
Dead Days collects the one-shot comic of the same name that originated the zombie phenomenon along with the first three zombie story arcs from current comic series, two that appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four (issues 21-23 and 30-32) and one from Black Panther (issues 28-30). At the end of Dead Days, the zombies resolve to build a machine to travel to other dimensions in search of food as they have rapidly chomped through everything in easy reach. You can see that traveling to other dimensions, or to other times, or both, can be replicated indefinitely in future zombie adventures. This series is a good example of a story that reads better in comics than in book form because the reader benefits from waiting a month or two between issues to avoid getting saturated with overly familiar content. Still, the story execution remains compelling for the length of this collection and the artwork is excellent and fascinating. I stayed with it the whole way through without nodding off. I do not know how many of these books you could sit down and read in a row but this one is certainly worth a look, especially for zombie fans.
The whole Marvel Zombies thing has proven to be surprisingly resilient. The Zombies have rolled through four series of their own so far plus spin-offs, one-shots, and even a volume collecting the stunning cover artwork. It looks like there is no stopping them now. If you want to get up to speed you have a lot of ground to cover. Dead Days is the best place to start, but really, with Marvel Zombies, you can jump in anywhere and enjoy the read. Recommended.
-- Wayne Edwards
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Complete Zombies vs. Robots, written by Chris Ryall, artwork by Ashley Wood; IDW Publishing; 2008; 160 pages; $19.99
The very idea of it is marvelous: robots fighting zombies. Wherever writer Chris Ryall goes with this concept is bound to be entertaining. It is in fact a bonus that the story and presentation are both exceptionally well done.
Complete Zombies vs. Robots collects two short comic series in one volume: Zombies vs. Robots and Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons. In the first series, a time travel device has the unintended side effect of bringing zombiism to present-day earth. One strong character decides annihilation is the only way to cure the earth of zombies. The second series shows how the annihilation did not work – both zombies and humans somehow survive and have to be dealt with again. And at the end of the second series, a whole new threat creeps in and solidifies the overarching theme that no solution is complete. Along with the delightful lessons on human nature you get from reading this book, there are many twists on the usual zombie situation and the angle of zombies fighting robots is unique. A new take on zombies is a rare thing in such a tragically overworked sub-genre.
The artwork is something to behold. Ashley Wood’s paintings and drawings are all about heavy lines, dramatic brush strokes, and earth tones. Realized in an anti-rationalist fury of delirious expression, Wood here is better than comics usually allow. Wood and Ryall are individually spectacular. The two working together complement each other in the symbiotic production of a whole new animal. Highly recommended.
It is worth mentioning that this collection has recently been re-collected by IDW Publishing in Zomnibus Volume 1, which also includes Feast! by Shane McCarthy and Eclipse of the Undead by El Torres. If you are really really into zombies then maybe the bigger book is the one you want.
--Wayne Edwards
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