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Book Review: Raptor by Paul Zindel

Raptor by Paul Zindel

Hyperion Books For Children, 1998

ISBN: 0786823747

Available: New and Used

 

When Zack and his Native American friend Ute explore the cave where Zack’s paleontologist father was mysteriously injured, they discover a strange nest with very large eggs. Zack, thinking they might be worth a lot of money, takes an egg with him despite Ute’s warnings that he should leave it be. Ute is right, of course. As soon as she and Zack get the egg home, it hatches into (surprise!) a baby raptor, and not thirty minutes later, its mother comes by looking for junior. And all of that happens in the first fifty pages! Teens will love the fast pace of this book. It opens with a gruesome raptor attack, so there’s no waiting around for dinosaur action, and there’s a thrill in every chapter. I also loved Zack’s eating a live grub to impress Ute’s wise old grandmother. Why, you may ask, is a supposedly extinct raptor roaming around the Utah desert? Well, that’s the book’s big mystery and I won’t spoil it for you.  Situations are extremely contrived, the characters are painfully flat, and the writing is awkward, overdone and melodramatic. The scenes involving raptors attacking people were well described, fun to read and surprisingly gruesome. Personally, I rooted for the raptors to chomp Zack and Ute and end this silly novel early on, but teen readers, especially boys, will eat this story up.

Contains: gore, violence, adult alcohol use.

Review by Horror Master

Posted on September 10, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: Predators: The Hunt Begins by Michaelbrent Collings

Predators: The Hunt Begins by Michaelbrent Collings

Amazon Digital Services

ASIN: B07GZZZ9MT

Available: Kindle edition

 

Predators: The Hunt Begins by Michaelbrent Collings is a horrific novel.  Horrific in a good sense.   It is scary, gory and suspenseful, and will keep you reading late into the night.  Reviews of his previous novels include comparison to Stephen King’s novels because of similar qualities.  While reading Predators I thought of the Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman’s, classic 1957 movie, The Seventh Seal.  In that film a disillusioned knight and his squire return from the Crusades to Denmark that has been decimated by the Black Death.  The knight confronts the personification of Death, who collects the souls of characters that the knight meets on his journey home.  Some are innocents, and some have a sordid past.  One by one they perish.

Collings describes a group of American tourists on a wildlife safari, stranded in the wild in a part of Africa ravaged by drought.  The group is a conglomeration of despicable, pitiful, admirable and innocent characters.  In the story, there are predators and there are prey.  The apex predators are the hyenas, and the tourists are their prey.  However, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that some of the humans have been predators or prey in the past.

The tourists and their guides are tracked, and some of them killed, by a hungry pack of hyenas led by a vicious, cunning queen.  The queen must lead the pack to food and dominate her rivals, or be killed herself.  The pack doesn’t care who is good or bad.  But does the author take into account the victims’ character and past in deciding who dies and how they die?

Collings writing is direct, powerful and vivid.  How does it feel to be disemboweled by the queen and have your intestine, liver and heart eaten while you are still alive?  Stephen King fans will enjoy this novel. Highly recommended

Contains: Mild profanity, sexual situations, gore.

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on September 5, 2018 by , 1 comment

Book Review: Fauna by David Benton

Fauna  by David Benton

CreateSpace, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1983765049

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

“Nature fights back” is a familiar theme. Making it special takes some tinkering and imagination, not to mention strong storytelling. David Benton succeeds on all fronts, keeping the teeth gnashing and adrenaline pumping until the final page. He combines the visceral brutality of Edward Lee or Richard Laymon with the globe-trotting skills of James Rollins, resulting in an exciting romp that evokes James Patterson’s The Zoo, albeit with a message.

In the Amazon, a shaman warns photojournalist Michael Keller that a big change is coming in nature. What Michael doesn’t know is that it will be a concerted, global effect, an attack on mankind everywhere. Dr. Andrea “Andy” Keller working in a lab back in Milwaukee, is struggling to find an answer for the sudden aggression in both wild and domestic animals. Officer Devon Coleman just wants to keep his family safe in the city, a tough task as the family dog fights off the change.

Benton strings together scenes that display both the savagery and grace of the animal kingdom, suggesting that maybe the world would be a better place without people. As the story unfolds and blood splatters, he brings the stories’ threads together at a rapid fire pace. The story doesn’t slow down to explain the catastrophe occurring across the globe– but it doesn’t need to. This rollercoaster of a novel hits its message home with a powerful punch.

Recommended for fans of old-fashioned fast-paced horror, especially killer animal books.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

 

Posted on September 4, 2018 by , Reply
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