Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!
Time travel novels are tricky to pull off because most current ones come off as little more than gimmicks. There are exceptions: John Varley’s MAMMOTH, the Arthur C. Clarke/Stephen Baxter collaboration TIME’S EYE, and now THE PLOT TO SAVE SOCRATES. In it, author Paul Levinson wonders what would happen if the famed Greek philosopher was saved from his fatal hemlock cocktail by a female graduate student from 2042. She becomes involved with the whole shebang when a friend shows her a transcribed conversation suggesting as much, conveniently leading her to a time machine so she can do just that. I’m shortcutting things, but it doesn’t read so far-fetched as Levinson tells it. In fact, his speculative account has the added benefit of sounding plausible, if only because he eschews the usual flashy trappings in favor of a serious, smart plot. For a journey through time that’ll make you think as it thrills. It’s so accessible, even those generally put off by sci-fi should enjoy the trip.
It’s hard not to get sucked in by Mario Acevedo’s X-RATED BLOODSUCKERS. Eyebrow-raising title inside, the humorous horror-mystery begins with a porn actress named Katz Meow offering first-person protagonist Felix Gomez $100,000 to find out who murdered Roxy Bronze, her co-star from SUPER-VIXEN SKANK FEST, VOLUME EIGHT. Even better, Meow thinks it involves vampires, and Gomez happens to be one. His investigation takes him to porn sets, nightclubs and a vaginal resculpting procedure, encountering other persons undead that often require him to fight and/or fang. It’s amusing and just crazy enough to keep you engaged, even if Acevedo isn’t as funny as he thinks he is. His penchant for silly names – Cragnow Vissom, Lucky Rosario, Mordecai Niphe – is annoying, but any book that uses tampons to shield flesh wounds can’t be all bad.
With HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS a few months away, fans are salivating in anticipation of the series’ finale and also speculating what’s going to happen. To help weave through the loose ends so that all questions are raised, David Langford offers THE END OF HARRY POTTER? This “unauthorized guide to the mysteries that remain” is a cash-in, and one which will be rendered irrelevant come July 21. However, it’s a cash-in that the POTTER freaks understandably could go nuts over. As a guide, Langford knows his target audience, and clearly aims for their attention. He’ll get it.
Welcome to Bryan Smith’s THE FREAKSHOW, the only novel you’ll read this year in which evil clowns deflate like bloody balloons! In which complete strangers are forced to have sex in front of an alien! In which a two-headed woman vomits “puke jelly” into a guy’s freshly empty eye socket! In which a girl is raped by a car’s shape-shifting stick shift! In which one sick scene follows another, which would be fine if you were clued in as to what the point was, but that doesn’t arrive until the last 50 pages. Interjecting a sci-fi angle helps keep this more interesting than it would be otherwise, but ultimately lost me to indifference. A little too freaky, with not enough freaks, THE FREAKSHOW is more along the lines of Smith’s silly DEATHBRINGER (although much better than that bomb), instead of the hardcore horror promise behind his debut, HOUSE OF BLOOD.
WAKE THE DEAD is Steve Niles’ comic-book take on FRANKENSTEIN. But other than the main idea of a dude named Victor with a God complex reanimating life, it’s unlike any take on that legend you’ve ever read. Here, Victor is one of three college students working on a secret science project that they hope will “cure death.” Their work on pigs soon graduates to people when a carful of bully athletes collides with a semi, and the end result is a mishmash of people parts, but hey – it walks and talks and … um, well, eats. Their creation has some zombie-like qualities, giving artist Chee a good excuse to get gory. It’s great stuff, if you don’t have an aversion to the color red. –Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS:
• BIG BOOK OF HORROR by Steve Niles, Scott Morse, Ted McKeever and Richard Sala
• BIGFOOT by Steve Niles, Rob Zombie and Richard Corben
• THE CRYPTICS by Steve Niles and Benjamin Roman
• DAWN OF THE DEAD by Steve Niles and Chee
• DEATHBRINGER by Bryan Smith
• FUSED by Steve Niles
• HOUSE OF BLOOD by Bryan Smith
• THE NAIL by Steve Niles and Rob Zombie
• REMAINS by Steve Niles and Kieron Dwyer
• SECRET SKULL by Steve Niles and Chuck BB
• STEVE NILES’ CELLAR OF NASTINESS by Steve Niles
• 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: RUMORS OF THE UNDEAD by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte
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