Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Other People

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Author: Pat A. Brisco
Genre: Horror
Setting: USA / undisclosed
Types of Werewolves: Normal Wolves
How Lycanthropy is Caused: Hereditary

Synopsis: When Mrs. Constantine Vidor hires private detective Carl Denner to
search her missing brother, Ladius Doln, he assumes it to turn into a routine
case, but his investigations soon after indicate that there is more to it.
Everything points toward a involvement of "the others", a race of Witches,
Vampires and other beings. And Carl Denner should know, because he's one of
them.

Review: The 1970 written novel The Other People would by today's standards
fall under "Urban Fantasy", and what stands out while reading, is that it seems
to have been set-up as opener for a planned series which then never got written.
As such the book makes for nice, light reading material but there's a lot of
unnecessary character backdrop for something that runs only about 140 pages, and
the actual plot is paper thin.
The main character of the book, Carl Denner is a werewolf by birth and as such
he's part of "the others", a race consisting of Werewolves, Vampires, Witches
and other things that go bump in the night, that, so we are told, evolved along
side the human race as predators, but the unexpected growth of the human
population forced them to live in secret among them.
Brisco weaved with her book a mix of classic sleuth novel and supernatural
folklore that has it's roots in story serials with their typical brand of smart,
irresistible heroes.
Fans of "Pulp Novels" and "Urban Fantasy" fans should find it entertaining
enough for a day at the beach or a winter's evening, but for fans of the Horror
genre it likely lacks enough supernatural content to satisfy them.

-Reviewed by Daninsky

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

High Bloods

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Author: John Farris
Genre: Crime, Noir, Science Fiction
Setting: California (future)
Types of Werewolves: Bipedal
How Lycanthropy is Caused: Viral Infection, Through Tainted Blood Transfusions.

Synopsis: In the future a virus that causes Lycanthropy is unleashed upon the human population, those who contract it transform into werewolves once a month during a full moon. Those who remain wholly human are referred to as "High Bloods" and are the ruling class of society. International Lycan Control officer Rawson is searching for a missing movie star named Mallory Scarlett. He suspects that she's been kidnapped by a rouge motorcycle gang called the Diamondbackers, High Bloods who enjoy killing Lycans for sport.

Review: High Bloods was disappointing to say the least. It promised post-apocalyptic werewolf action, a disease run rampant, and a cult of werewolves seeking control, but the story only barely touched on these subjects. Mostly it was about a kidnapping/murder investigation with dry dialogue, a bunch of technical jargon, and too many secondary characters to keep track of. It started out promising in the beginning but soon went flat for the majority of the book. The main character, Rawson, has about as much personality as a wet rag and I couldn't really care much about what happened to him. His relationship with the character Bea is nonsensical and i think the story would have been improved without her. The ending of the book is pretty decent, but it just didn't cut it for me. If you're a fan of crime drama, this might be for you, but if you're a hardcore werewolf fan, I'd just skip it.

-Reviewed by: PenningtonBeast