Review: Drachenfels

Drachenfels by Jack Yeovil
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Drachenfels is both the name of an evil demon wizard and his castle. Much like the second half of Stephen King's "It", a team of adventurers are forced to regroup 25 years after defeating Drachenfels, who has risen again much like Harry Potter's nemesis Voldemort. Seeing that this book takes place in the Warhammer universe the team is made up of various fantasy races and classes like dwarves, elves, wizards, a fighter prince, and most interestingly the vampire Genevieve, the glue of continuity that holds this four-book series together. The main narrative here concerns playwright/director Detlef who has been commissioned to put on a new play by the prince commemorating the defeat of Drachenfels and in a bad move - hold it in his abandoned castle. I liked that the plot revolved around putting on a play, not a typical fantasy/vampire storyline, although it was really kind of weird too. Well written, although a bit slow for my taste, inducing some snores for bedtime readings. Anyway, I liked it enough to give it three stars.

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Review: Killer Crabs

Killer Crabs by Guy N. Smith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The second book in the Crab series shows significant improvement in the author’s writing, which unfortunately negates most of the amateurish charm of the first book. This time the monster crabs have shown up in an Australian resort area - discovered by a cantankerous fishing boat captain named Klin, who reminded me of Quint from Jaws, only a lot hornier. Fortunately for him (but not for us) a promiscuous model impersonating a wealthy woman is staying at the resort, a goofy subplot that yields several gratuitous and puerile sex scenes with various partners, but ultimately doesn’t really go anywhere. Professor Davenport is back and teams up with Klin to fight the monsters. No surprise that I didn’t like this as much as the first book, which wasn’t very well written, but was entertaining and charming in a pulpy way, where this one is mostly just a clunker.

Available from Amazon.

Review: Night of the Crabs

Night of the Crabs by Guy N. Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Monster attacks are a common theme of cheesy 1950s horrors movies, but not so much when it comes to novels. Guy N. Smith made a career out of writing them. Night of the Crabs from 1976 is one of his early novels and the first in his eight book “Crabs” series. These crabs aren’t some mysterious Cthulhu type creatures, they’re just big-ass crabs the size of cows and pretty much invincible, led by a giant one cleverly called King Crab. The novel is an easy read, maybe eighth grade reading level, has plenty of action, a little romance with some fairly graphic sex, and a welcome pulp fiction sensibility. With sort of a Hardy Boys/Scooby Doo/B-Movie vibe I thought that the novel was a total blast.

Inexpensive ebook available from the author or Amazon.

Review: The Slime Beast

The Slime Beast by Guy N. Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s like a novelization of a silly ‘70s monster B-movie that never existed. An entertaining, albeit simplistic plot, is hindered by characters without depth, clunky dialog, and sex scenes more awkward than any Adult Western. I’m willing to overlook all this however as long as it’s a story worth reading, and it is. Sure, it’s not well written at all, but it's short, easy to read, and a lot of fun. I liked it okay.

Review: Hell In Heaven

Hell In Heaven by Lee Goldberg
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Dead Man: Hell in Heaven finds Matt Cahill on the road where he finds himself trapped in a mysterious village where he is hailed as a hero, a role that Matt is unwilling to accept - he only wants to get the hell out of there. A linear, albeit wacky plot keeps the book moving at a nice pace. It bothered me that Matt was oblivious to the strategy of playing along with the hero role until he found a means of escaping, but that would have trashed the plot which already has its share of holes. These books have faults, however they have all been quick and entertaining reads. I’ll continue to read them when I’m in the mood for bite-sized horror novellas.

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Review: Ring of Knives

Ring of Knives by James Daniels
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book in the series chucks most of the backstory and characters from the first book and sends Matt Cahill on a road trip to try to determine why he was resurrected, why people around him are prone to looking rotten to him then inexplicably turning evil, and the haunting of a spectre that he calls Mr. Dark. Cahill ends up at an horror infested mental hospital where the story turns into a sort of an action book with Cahill fighting evil orderlies and rescuing a pretty girl. The story is more focused that the first book and I actually liked it a bit better.

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Review: Face of Evil

Face of Evil by Lee Goldberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first novella in this multi-book series can be somewhat excused for all the necessary backstory that introduces Matt Cahill, his love interest, and his best friend who is a complete jackass. This encompasses the first two thirds of the book and is entertaining enough. The final third of the book sets up the horror element and it runs off the rails with some hasty plotting and gratuitous gore. I liked it well enough to look forward to the next book in the series, which was probably the intention of the author anyway.

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Review: Frozen Hell

Frozen Hell by John W. Campbell Jr.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Who Goes There?”, the sci-fi classic short and the source of “The Thing” movies was once the unpublished and lost novella “Frozen Hell”. Now available, this version of the story adds opening chapters that expands on the discovery of the monster frozen in the ice while keeping most of the later version narrative intact. It’s hard to say if this version is any better than the short story. The both tell a terrific story, just differently.

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