Vic Valentine: Fever Dreams by Will Viharo

 

(pb; 2021: serial-vignette anthology. “Foreword” by J.J. Sinisi.)

Review

Writing about Viharo’s work is different than reviewing most other authors’ works because of Viharo’s fierce, neo-pulp and pop-culture quippy insular logic, surroundings, and characters, which mix explicit lust, violence, melancholy, jubilation and other relatable emotions in intuitive slip-slide “cross dissolves” (Viharo’s words). True to that creative and intensely personal adherence, Fever’s sixty-three serial-vignettes, originally published online in serial form during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, force stick-with-it readers to let go of real-world preconceptions and just enjoy the go-damn-near-everywhere ride (provided its not far from a tiki bar, a retro-cool movie soundtrack, or a salvation-or-damnation vixen). While Fever continues in the vein of relatively recent Viharo books (e.g., Things I Do When I’m Awake, Vihorror! Cocktales of Sex and Death and his Mental Case Files trilogy), it reflects further maturation, less wallowing-in-despair in its often-clever prose.

Fever’s loose storyline, such as it is, takes place during a pandemic where Vic time, place, and character travels through vivid, possibly crazy, and highly personal scenarios, any of which are merely titular fever dreams or reality. Vic has guides for this wild rollercoaster─namely his wife (Val, who’s appeared in previous Valentine books and stories), Rose (another Vic-chronicled lover) and Harold Floyd, a client, a demon of sorts, and who-knows-what-else.

The vignette chapters are short, possibly excessive for those who like tight, logical narratives. As I’ve written before, fans of David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and other offbeat creative types may revel in this blink-and-everything-changes anthology, with its strangely satisfying and collection-true ending, one worth owning.

Jaws by Peter Benchley

 

(pb; 1974)

Review

This is one of my all-time favorite pulp-thriller novels, a hard-to-set-down, entertaining mix of pulpy corruption, class warfare, a killer monster, character development and cinematic-vivid (without becoming verbose) writing. Obviously, given its setting, this is a great beach read, one worth owning (I’ve re-read it three times in four decades, and been wowed anew every time).

Followed by Hank Searls’s notably-different-from-the-film Jaws 2.

Note: The novel is considerably different than its streamlined 1975 film version, by having Martin Brody as a native of Amity, Long Island (in the film he’s “not an islander. . . [he's] from New York”). The book, which may upset those sensitive to bad things happening to cute land animals, also has equal-to-shark-time focus on corrupt mayor/real estate agent Larrry Vaughan (it’s Vaughn in the movie) and his likely criminal “silent partners.” A subplot about a key character’s infidelity and Amity’s history is also highlighted, as well as how the Brodys have three sons (not two, like the film version) with different fates for one of the main characters.

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The resulting film was released stateside on June 20, 1975. Steven Spielberg directed the film from Carl Gottlieb’s screenplay (Gottlieb also played Harry Meadows in the film).

Roy Scheider played Brody. Robert Shaw played Quint. Richard Dreyfuss played Matt Hooper.

Lorraine Gary played Ellen Brody. Chris Rebello played Michael Brody. Jay Mello played Sean Brody.

Murray Hamilton played Larry Vaughn. Peter Benchley played an “Interviewer.”

Resident Alien: An Alien in New York by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse

 

(pb; 2018: graphic novel, collecting issues 1-4 of the Dark Horse miniseries. Volume 5 of the six-volume Resident Alien novel series, published by Dark Horse Comics.)

From the back cover

“A stranded alien visitor to Earth hides in plain sight in Patience, Washington, posing as the small town’s doctor. He has no intention of leaving─unless it’s to get back to his own planet! When a startling new mystery catches the odd-but-friendly Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle’s attention, he takes a trip to New York City with a close confidante and the hope of finally finding a way to communicate with his home world. Peter Hogan (2000 AD, Tom Strong) and Steve Parkhouse (Milkman Murders, Doctor Who) continue their unique, acclaimed science-fiction/murder-mystery series!”

 

Review

When Harry sees a symbol, an alien phone number, on a famous artist’s paintings, he dials it. An electronic voice tells him to head to New York City, prompting Harry and Dan (Asta’s father) to go there. Once there, they meet Violinda Darvell, agent to the artist (Raoul “Goliath” Benoit), where the mystery surrounding Benoit’s disappearance deepens.

New York is my favorite Resident Alien graphic novel thus far. Beautiful is a word I rarely apply to comic book collections, but New York fits the bill. Its theme of kindness, love, loss, immigration and hope is deftly and palpably written and illustrated, elevating Resident to another level, making this one of the best books I've read this year. New York is worth owning, like other previous entries in this standout hexalogy. Followed by Resident Alien: Your Ride’s Here.

Tawdry Tales and Confessions from Horror’s Boy Next Door by William Butler

(oversized pb; 2021: nonfiction/memoir)

From the back cover

“In the last forty years, actor, director and former effects artist William Butler has easily lived three lifetimes. From his early beginnings creating super-8 horror shorts and working the circus midway to a blissful existence as a producer-director living in the Hollywood hills, he’s seen it all, gained it all and lost it all.

“Tawdry Tales chronicles the jaw-dropping, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking life an industrious young artist who started out with an unflinching determination to work in film and who’s somehow became ‘Horror’s Boy Next Door,’ appearing in dozens of movies along the genre’s most legendary villains, including Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13^th, Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the George Romero zombies from Night of the Living Dead. Butler chalks it all up to having a face you just want to hit with a butch knife.

“Butler lovingly has transcribed thirty-five years’ worth of journals he kept into one fascinating and heartfelt memoir that follows his story around the world as he worked with and, in some cases, lived with some of Hollywood’s most beloved and ‘colorful’ personalities including Viggo Mortensen, Leslie Jordan, Tom Sizemore and the legendary Prince.”

 

Review

Tawdry is a fast-moving, heartfelt, funny, smart, and relatable tell-all book about how Butler went from making backyard films and FX with his small-town childhood friends (including John Vulich, who later went on to become a legendary FX artist) to becoming an FX artist himself, as well as a successful, LA-based writer and director, one who struggled with chemical addiction and his sexuality.

There’s a lot of great stories in this, from his chance meeting with film director Joe Dante, working with FX legends Tom Savini and John Carl Buechler, as well as actors Kane Hodder, Malcolm McDowell, Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, Klaus Kinski, Royal Dano, Yvonne DeCarlo Christopher Reeve, Danny Trejo, and Madonna.

An excellent and hard-to-set-down read, this is worth owning, whether you’re a hardcore movie fan or a more casual reader who enjoys reading about celebrities and character actors.

The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman and various artists

(pb; 1989, 1990: graphic novel, collects issues 8-16 of the comic book series The Sandman. Third book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.) 

Overall review

Doll’s House continues to mine the rich vein of genre fiction-fused-with-literary gold of the second Sandman volume, Preludes and Nocturnes. This time out, it’s Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Robbie Busch, Chris Bachalo, Michael Zulli, Steve Parkhouse and Dave Kean delivering the heady, less-melancholy-than-Preludes goods, with a storyline about missing entities, nightmare-led “Cereal Growers” and an unwitting, good-natured vortex.

Worth owning, this. Followed by The Sandman: Dream Country.

 

Review, issue by issue

Caveat: possible, vaguely stated spoilers for those who haven’t read Preludes and Nocturnes (Vol. 2).

“The Sound of Her Wings” (issue 8): Death, a petite, Goth-pale woman, visits her fellow godling brother (Morpheus) who’s sitting in a Parisian park, feeding pigeons. (This issue is also included in the previous Sandman graphic novel, Preludes and Nocturnes.)

 

“Tales in the Sand” (issue 9): During a male coming-of-age ritual, an elder tribesman tells a younger one about a long-ago queen (Nada) who becomes the lover of the Dream Lord, Kai’Ckul─also called Morpheus─and the tragic results of that forbidden love.

 

“The Doll’s House” (issue 10): Desire and Despair─younger siblings of Dream, Death and Destiny─speak about Nada and Morpheus. Elsewhere, Miranda Walker and her twenty-one-year-old daughter (Rose) arrive in England after a mysterious benefactor (Unity Kinkaid, an impregnated coma victim in Preludes and Nocturnes) pays for them to be flown over from the US. Lucien, in the Dreamworld, tells Dream (a.k.a. Morpheus) of four missing Major Arcana entities, among them the deeply unsettling Corinthian, a nightmare who births serial killers.

 

“Moving In” (issue 11): Rose Walker flies to Florida to find her missing twelve-year-old brother (Jed), whom she hasn’t seen in seven years. What she doesn’t know is he’s chained to a pipe in a wet, dark basement. Meanwhile, Matthew─a deceased mortal-turned-blackbird in Morpheus’s direct service─watches Rose for the Dream King: it seems Rose is a “vortex,” bound to trouble the dreams of those around her, and to draw the attentions of the four missing Major Arcana entities, particularly Glob, Brute, and Fiddler’s Green. The Corinthian continues his sleazy motel killings.

 

“Playing House” (issue 12): Hippolyta Hall, pregnant and sharing dream-space with her husband (Harold) and his strange associates, Glob and Brute, faces a harsh reality. Rose Walker and her quirky, middle-aged housemate (Gilbert) head to the state of Georgia to retrieve Jed, who’s escaped his abusive legal guardians (Clarice and her husband, Barnaby). Unfortunately for Jed, he’s just made the acquaintance of someone more sadistic.

 

“Men of Good Fortune” (issue 13): 1389, England. Morpheus befriends a man (Hob Gadling) whose pub opinion leads him to being granted eternal life─for as long as he wants it.

 

“Collectors” (issue 14): After their car breaks down, Rose Walker and Gilbert─who shows that he’s more than seems─find themselves holed up in a sleazy motel where a “Cereal Growers” (serial killers) convention is taking place. The unexpected guest of honor? The Corninthian, who may’ve brought Jed along with him.

 

“Into the Night” (issue 15): Rose Walker, still a vortex, returns to the Florida boarding house, further troubling the dreams of her housemates (Hal, “Spider Women” Chantal and Zelda, and Ken and Barbie─Gilbert disappeared after the dissolution of the Cereal Growers convention). Morpheus pulls Rose into the Dreamworld, saving her housemates. Gilbert and Matthew the blackbird talk.

“Lost Hearts” (issue 16): Morpheus reveals to Rose her anomalous nature and unintended effect as well as her fate. Gilbert, one of the missing entities, returns to Morpheus. In England, Unity Kinkaid dies of old age, altering what is to happen.

Six months pass. Rose writes in her journal, mentions her friend, Judy, who died a year prior─Judy was one of the diner customers shown in “24 Hours” (issue 6, collected in Preludes and Nocturnes). Morpheus visits Desire, confronts her/him/they about the impetuous godling’s previously secret act of treachery, connected to Unity Kinkaid’s coma pregnancy (in Preludes and Nocturnes).

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(pb; 1988, 1989: graphic novel, collects issues 1-8 of the comic book series The Sandman. Second book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

Overall review

The Sandman series is one of the comic book series that elevated illustrated, often spandex-dominated action and funny books to serious literature. Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg’s characters and writing fuse ancient and modern mythology, history, DC Comics characters (e.g., Jonathan Crane, a.k.a. the Scarecrow), human nature and its results. Sandman’s distinctive artwork─courtesy of Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III─is a perfect accompaniment to Gaiman and Dringenberg’s writing, mixing appropriate, beyond-the-words loopiness, gravitas, and humor with the haunting sense of melancholy and horror that hangs heavy over these opening storylines. The artwork is made more effective by the efforts of colorist Daniel Vozzo, letterer Todd Klein, and Dave McKean’s unique covers.

This series is considered one of the all-time best comic book series for good reason. Worth owning, this. Followed by The Sandman: The Doll’s House.

 

Review, issue by issue

“Sleep of the Just” (issue 1): June 16, 1916─Wych Cross, England. A cult, led by the arrogant Roderick Burgess, try to summon Death─they don’t get her, but what they get proves to be just as dangerous, their actions bringing strange maladies to the waking world.

 

“Imperfect Hosts” (issue 2): Morpheus, still weakened by his decades-long imprisonment by the Burgesses, is taken in by Abel and Cain in their House of Mystery, where he begins healing in earnest.

 

“Dream a Little Dream of Me” (issue 3): John Constantine, supernatural detective from Hellblazer, and Morpheus try to locate one of the oneiromancer’s many stolen items, namely Morpheus’s magical bag of sand─their investigation leads them to a nightmare-transformed house.

 

“A Hope in Hell” (issue 4): To retrieve his helmet, Morpheus heads to Dis, a city in Hell, where─surrounded by demonic enemies and opportunists─he engages in ritual combat for it.

 

“Passengers” (issue 5): Dr. Destiny, a murderous madman held in a dark basement in Arkham Asylum, escapes. Morpheus, with the help of the Martian Manhunter, locates “Dorilar, the Stone of Binding,” a supranatural power-infused ruby he once owned─later held by Destiny, who also seeks it.

 

“24 Hours” (issue 6): Dr. Destiny drives a diner’s customers into full-blown craziness even as worldwide depravity and nightmares run rampant.

 

“Sound and Fury” (issue 7): Morpheus and Dr. Destiny battle for Dorilar, which Destiny appears to have mastered─for the moment.

 

“The Sound of Her Wings” (issue 8): Death, a petite, Goth-pale woman, visits her fellow godling brother (Morpheus) who’s sitting in a Parisian park, feeding pigeons.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

 

(hb; 1934)

Review

Postman is an excellent, no-words-wasted, twisted tale of raw sexuality, adultery and murder, with two main characters who, in spite of the seeming amorality, are relatable (at least for this reader), who aren’t evil just unhappy, and willing to do what they need to do to achieve it. Simple (but not simple-minded), entertaining and darkly clever, this is one of the best pulp novels I’ve read. Worth owning, this.

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Two film versions of Postman resulted.

The first version was released stateside on May 2, 1946. Tay Garnett directed it, from a screenplay by Harry Ruskin and Niven Busch.

John Garfield played Frank Chambers. Lana Turner played Cora Smith (in the book her married surname was Papadakis). Cecil Kellaway played Nick Smith.

Hume Cronyn played Arthur Keats. Leon Ames played Kyle Sackett. Audrey Totter played Madge Gorland. Alan Reed (who later voiced an animated Fred Flintstone) played Ezra Liam Kennedy. Jeff York played Blair.

The second version, directed by Bob Rafelson from a script by David Mamet, was released stateside on March 20, 1981.

Jack Nicholson played Frank Chambers. Jessica Lange played Cora Papadakis. John Colicos played Nick Papadakis.

Michael Lerner played Mr. Katz. John P. Ryan played Kennedy. William Traylor played Sackett. Anjelica Huston played Madge. Thomas Hill, billed as Tom Hill, played Barlow.

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett

 

(pb; 1931)

From the back cover

“Paul Madvig was a cheerfully corrupt ward-heeler who aspired to something better; the daughter of Senator Ralph Bancroft Henry, the heiress to a dynasty of political purebreds. Did he want her badly enough to commit murder? And if Madvig was innocent, which of his dozens of enemies was doing an awfully good job of framing him?”

 

Review

Glass is an excellent, twisty, fast-moving, and character-interesting read─no shock, considering its author. This is one of Hammett’s easier-to-follow novels (some of the sharp plot turns in his Continental Detective Agency works and The Maltese Falcon can be hard to follow). Not only that, Glass is perhaps my work of his thus far, with characters who are corrupt but relatable, even the more cruel ones (e.g., Shad O’Rory─called Nick Varna in the superb 1942 film─and Jeff Gardner, an apish thug). Worth reading and owning, this.

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Two film versions have been made.

The first version was released stateside on June 15, 1935. Frank Tuttle directed the film from a screenplay by Kathryn Scola, Kubec Glasmon, with additional dialogue provided by Harry Ruskin.

George Raft played Ed Beaumont. Edward Arnold played Paul Madvig. Claire Dodd played Janet Henry. Rosalind Keith, billed as Rosalind Culli, played Opal Madvig. Emma Dunn played “Mom” Madvig.

Robert Gleckler played Shad O’Rory. Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, billed as Guinn Williams, played Jeff Gardner.

Charles Richman played Senator John T. Henry. Ray Milland played Taylor Henry. Tammany Young played Clarkie. Ann Sheridan played “Nurse.”

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The second version was released stateside on October 23, 1942. Stuart Heisler directed the film from Jonathan Latimer’s screenplay.

Alan Ladd played Ed Beaumont. Brian Donlevy played Paul Madvig. Veronica Lake played Janet Henry. Bonita Granville played Opal Madvig.

Richard Denning played Taylor Henry. William Bendix played Jeff Gardner. Francis Gifford played “Nurse.” Joseph Calleia played Nick Varna.

Light Source by Bari Wood

 

(pb; 1984)

From the back cover

“A physicist makes a great energy discovery─and disappears. Her research partner dies in a plane crash. And a brutally ambitious oil executive plots his last lethal strike.

“Torture. Blackmail. Even murder. There was nothing David Lucci wouldn’t do to stop Emily Brand from going public with her plans for an inexpensive, safe source of unlimited energy.

“Because of what Emily Brand had done to him, over twenty years ago, David was going to use all of NARCON’s vast resources to see that she paid for it─with her life.”

 

Review

Light is an excellent, tight-prosed and character-interesting thriller set in the then-future 1990, that’s as timely as it was in 1984 (when Light was published). Wood deftly avoids the usual cliches, while providing a familiar yet fresh suspense tale, one that easily could translate into a satisfying movie if the producers and filmmakers didn’t tamper with the characters, storyline and pacing too much. This is one of my favorite books by her, a consistently standout writer.

Evidence of Love by John Bloom and Jim Atkinson

 

(pb; 1984: crime nonfiction)

From the back cover

“They were two suburban mothers who attended the same church, went to the same parties, looked after each other’s kids. In the small-town Texas world they shared, liefe seemed peaceful and pleasant. Yet underneath the surface, pretty blonde Candy Montgomery and schoolteacher Betty Gore were simmering with unspoken frustrations, unanswered needs. And one hot summer day it would all explode in the laundry room of Betty Gore’s home─as the concrete walls rang with the blows and screams of an ax striking forty-one terrible times.

“Here is the incredible true story of the murder trial that made headlines across the country. . . the unthinkable crime that ripped away the serene façade of a quiet Texas community to show the passions and jealousies that boiled underneath. You will come to know the world of Candy Montgomery and her friend Betty Gore and you will wonder how such a monstrous thing could happen.”

 

Review

Evidence is an excellent, detailed-with-a-hint-of-mystery true crime book that is an immediately reader-immersive work. Bloom and Atkinson provide just enough─a lot of─background about those who experienced Evidence’s events as well as background on the places and institutions where they happened. This is an intense, fact-driven, steadily paced, and occasionally grisly-but-non-exploitative read, one of the more emotionally involving books I’ve read recently, and easily one of the best true crime books I’ve read in a long time. I can see why Bloom (a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs) and Atkinson are award-winning journalists. 

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The resulting television movie, A Killing in a Small Town, aired on CBS on May 22, 1990. Stephen Gyllenhaal directed it, from a teleplay by Cynthia Cidre.

Barbara Hershey played Candy Morrison. Brian Dennehy  (First Blood, 1982) played Ed Reivers. John Terry played Stan Blankenship. Richard Gilliland played Dale Morrison. Lee Garlington (Cobra and Psycho III, both 1986) played Peggy Blankenship.

Hal Holbrook played Dr. Beardsley. Matthew Posey (Mr. Brooks, 2007) played Norman Billings. James Monroe Black, billed as James Black, played Dr. Giles. Dennis Letts (A Perfect World, 1993) played Chief McAlester. Marco Parella (A Perfect World, 1993) played Rick Slocum.

Picnic on Nearside by John Varley

 

(pb; 1980: science fiction anthology. Originally published as The Barbie Murders.)

Overall review

Picnic is a bold, ambitious blast of science fiction free love at the world. Many of its key characters are young people─worldwise children with adult experiences to back their age-accelerated awareness up and technology to pull off fantastic science-fiction feats. That includes non-explicit (mentions of) sex, sometimes incest (which no longer, in Varley’s future centuries, bears out genetically questionable fruits), and if those notions are upsetting for you, Picnic is not the book for you.

Picnic also shares themes and references Varley espoused in his Gaea trilogy (Titan, Wizard, Demon), e.g., a love of cinema and 1950s-era culture, repercussion-free promiscuity, a flouting of conservative culture rules, and advanced maturity and awareness beyond the limits of one’s flesh.

This is an excellent collection, some stories better than others, but all interesting (in a good way), unique and thematically solid (in relation to Picnic’s other stories and in general). Worth owning, this, if you’re not put off by gender-fluid, tastefully stated explorations of love beyond physical boundaries and age.

 

Review, story by story

“Bagatelle”: A depressed cyborg-nuclear bomb (Hans) threatens to blow up the space city of New Dresden. Can a seemingly crazy explosives expert (Roger Birkson) and a police chief (Anna Bach) defuse Hans in time? Excellent, fun, and often unpredictable story.

 

“The Funhouse Effect”: Multiple disasters aboard a tourist comet (Hell’s Snowball) make two of its passengers (Quester and Solace) question the dangerous surreality of their situation. The twist is not unexpected, but the ride is a blast.

 

“The Barbie Murders”: A police detective (Lt. Anne-Louise Bach) is tasked with a near-impossible task: find a killer in Anytown, a religious megacult haven for those who’ve had surgery to look and live like a conformist Barbie doll. Intriguing story, solid ending.

 

“Equinoctial”: A human woman─a Conser─sharing her body and her awareness with an implanted Symb (Symbiotic Space-Environment Organism) named Equinox, floats around the rings of Saturn when her Symb is taken from her by Engineers, religious fanatics who want to paint one of Saturn’s rings red. This theft impels the long-lived woman (Parameter) to retrieve her Symb, who is incubating Parameter’s unborn children. For Parameter, this is the start of an unpredictable and bumpy mission. Clever, satirical, funny, perverse, imaginative, and sporting notions of hippie-era free love (not unlike Varley’s Gaea trilogy), “Equinoctial” is one of my favorite stories in this collection.

 

“Manikins”: Solid story about a student (Evelyn) who interviews a man-hating paranoid schizophrenic (Barbara), a life-changing experience.

 

“Beatnik Bayou”: On Lunar, a planet where age and gender are physically, easily changeable, a thirteen-year-old Lunarian boy (Argus-Darcy-Meric) is about to go through a Change, when he transfers from one life-teacher to another. His current educator, Cathay (a middle-aged man physically regressed to Argus’s age since age seven) is about to age-regress, educate a new student.

Things get complicated when a mentally ill─possibly sociopathic─woman (Tiona) stalks Cathay, Argus and their friends, then files a complaint against them with the Central Computer, Lunar’s legal authority. This not only jeopardizes the scheduled transitions of Argus, Cathay, and their friends, but could get them executed.

 

“Beatnik” is one of my favorite stories in Picnic. This offbeat, playful, thematically mature and warm-hearted tale is delightful and full of unpredictable turns with its imaginative, free-love-meets-ancient-Greece-and-1950s-America mindset (adult teachers can─possibly expected to─have sex with their adolescent students in certain situations, à la the way ancient Greeks did. . . a thirteen-year-old Lunarian is practically the equivalent of an eighteen-year-old in California, United States.) If this last aspect bothers you (there’s no explicit sex in “Beatnik”), you probably shouldn’t read this anthology.

 

“Good-bye, Robinson Crusoe”: On the artificial bubble island of Pacifica beneath the surface of Pluto, a memory-infused, teenage clone of an old man (Piri) resists leaving and growing older─things change quickly with the arrival of Lee, a beautiful dream of a woman, who is more than she appears to be.

This is an excellent, cinematic-intense, and unique reversal-twist of a sort-of-coming-of-age story, memorable for its setting.

 

“Lollipop and the Tar Baby”: A young woman (Xanthia), hovering near Pluto in a lifeboat ship, is contacted by a talking (via radio) black hole. They form a friendship, one that dramatically alters her relationship with the woman (Zoe) who created her through cloning. “Lollipop” is a fun, dark-humored, emerging-identity story.

 

“Picnic on Nearside”: On the moon, two hundred-plus years after the Invasion of Earth, a twelve-year-old boy (Fox, who has the maturity, awareness, and many of the experiences of a seventeen-year-old) and his same-age friend (Halo, no longer a boy but a sexy woman) head to the dangerous, metropolitan ruins of Archimedes. Archimedes, during dark and immediately post-Invasion times, was humanity’s first enclave, but was abandoned because its view of Earth bummed people out─but is there more to it than what people initially saw?

The Blooding by William Darrid

 

(pb; 1979)

From the back cover

“Simmering under the Kansas sun [in 1944], Crowley Flats looks like a typical prairie town. Now comes the time of the stalker─relentless, violent, death-dealing. Fear trembles like the dust, stirring up naked emotions and lustful passions long held in check. . .”

Review

Blooding is an excellent, cinematic-vivid novel with well-rounded characters, steady pacing, clear explanations of the literal disease (rabies) that brings to the surface darker passions and resentments within a small town. There are no bad guys in this well-written, measured work, just people who afraid and act on those fears. Blooding is one of those rare books that is at once many things: a love story, a coming-of-age story, a home-front-during-wartime [1944] story, a lone-hero-doing-the-right-thing story. A book worth owning, this, and one of my favorite reads this year.