War of the Worlds

Perhaps the father of science-fiction, H.G. Wells, is best known for his celebrated classic War of the Worlds. The book was written between 1985 and 1897, and first published in Pearson's Magazine in the U.K. and Cosmopolitan in the U.S. The serial transitioned into a novel in 1898, and has been reprinted and offered in numerous formats since then. The seminal alien invasion novel has also been adapted into radio drama, films, comics, and television.

The novel, presented in third-person by an unnamed narrator, begins in Southeast England as a cylinder launches from Mars and arrives on Horsell Common in Surrey. The narrator approaches the pit where the capsule is laying. He then gets a neighboring journalist to accompany him and the news spreads as more and more people arrive to gaze into the pit. Eventually, the cylinder's top spins open and the aliens, possessing tentacles and a beak-like moth, emerge. Within a few minutes the aliens incinerate over 40 people with a devastating heat ray. The human slaughter commences and another capsule arrives.

The book's prose intensifies with more descriptions of battle. Wells focuses a great deal on catastrophe and destruction, elevated with the emergence of the tripods, three-legged Martian fighting machines that simply annihilate military forces. Entwined in the narrative is the narrator's flee with his wife to the nearby town of Leatherhead, leaving her there with relatives. The narrator (for reasons unclear to me) returns to the Woking area to witness more carnage and then the mass exodus of people abandoning London.

The book's second half (labeled Book 2) is more atmospheric as the nature of the novel expands into a more despondent post-apocalyptic tone. London, referred to as “Dead London” in chapter eight, is described as a truly dismal place littered with corpses and alien scavengers. These scavengers seemingly squeeze the blood from humans as a source of nutrients. 

The more intimate details of the book's second half features the narrator and a soldier trapped in a deserted house. The narrator is concerned with his wife's safety and irritated with the soldier's deteriorating mental state. There's a lack of food and water that adds more misery to the situation. Both characters eventually leave the house, only to find themselves trapped in another dwelling as the alien scavengers continue to scrape the streets and houses with probing tentacles. 

The book's climax comes as the narrator travels into lifeless London. As he walks through wreckage he begins to hear an eerie sound emanating from the aliens. I won't ruin the surprise here, but this is a hopeful sound that eventually leads to Earth's liberation from the Martian invaders. 

Reviewing literary classics is challenging. These works are over a century old, and my personal exposure to their legacy – various adaptations of the material, decades of critique, imitators, and overall cultural awareness – means I have been desensitized from the novel's initial grandeur. I hadn't read the book before, but I had watched the movies, heard the radio drama, and was made aware of the book's importance in science-fiction and as a catalyst for the genre's sub-genre of alien invasion. One watch of something as flashy as Independence Day (1996) makes this novel's action sequences a little underwhelming. But that's a personal problem reflective of my absorption of media, not any fault of the author or the work. 

With all that in consideration, I found War of the Worlds to be a good novel. I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the narrator's survival horror perspective. The Martians appearance as tall blood sucking creatures with large eyes, tentacles, heat rays, and deadly gas played on my fears of being flesh-squeezed by a hideous alien invader. The description of England as a lifeless and decimated husk was described in the darkest way imaginable. In post-apocalyptic situations, humans can be the worst horror of all. Wells does an excellent job presenting human suffering and the mass lunacy of everyday people forced into extreme circumstances. Selfishness and greed leads to the greatest suffering of all.

I think my only real complaint with the book was the inability to really hone in on the narrator. Often this character would tell me things happening in other parts of England or explaining in great detail his brother's exploits to survive the invasion, including a naval battle between a battering ram and an alien. I felt that I lost the intimacy of things directly occurring with the character, his personal predicament and the things affecting only him. It took me out of the moment and made the narration more epic in nature than personal. 

Needless to say, War of the Worlds is an important book, and a praised work of science-fiction worthy of imitation, inspiration, and discussion. Read the book and appreciate the novel's legacy and impact. You won't be disappointed.

Get the book HERE.

No Exit

Taylor Adams is an American thriller writer from Washington state who built his reputation on fast-paced, high-concept suspense novels that read like crackling paperback nail-biters. His 2017 novel, No Exit, is his most popular book, and it was adapted into a Hulu-original film.

Darby Thorne, a college student racing through a Colorado blizzard, is stranded overnight at a remote highway rest stop with four strangers. The setup is pure pulp gold complete with an isolated location, rising dread, and the sense that any of the snow-trapped travelers could be dangerous. Adams detonates the plot with one hell of a hook: Darby spots a kidnapped child locked in a van outside. No phone service. No escape. Someone inside the rest stop with her is a monster.

Adams writes with the smooth readability of a seasoned paperback pro. The chapters are short, the cliffhangers brutal, and the violence is gruesome and intense. Darby herself is a terrific modern pulp heroine: resourceful, scared, stubborn, and willing to take a beating to do what’s right. Fans of stories where a lone hero takes on overwhelming odds will eat this up.

No Exit is the kind of lean, high-concept thriller that would’ve sat nicely beside the old Richard Matheson or Day Keene paperbacks, but with a contemporary cinematic punch. The novel is a white-knuckle, snowbound thriller that reads like a classic Gold Medal paperback dragged into the 21st century. Adams gives us an ordinary protagonist shoved into an impossible situation and forced to improvise her way to survival. If you like your suspense tight, your villains vicious, and your heroes forged under fire, this one delivers the goods.

Get the book HERE.

Lady Wrestler

The Gardner Francis Fox Library, established in 2018 by Kurt Brugel, has created a remarkable resource to explore the author's life and literary work. Along with information about the writer, the online library offers a robust selection of Fox's novels and pulp stories in ebook and audiobook formats. You can obtain affordable digital copies of sexy spy series titles like Cherry Delight and Lady from L.U.S.T. or sword-wielding tales starring Kothar or Kyrik. Thankfully, the library also includes numerous Fox stand-alone novels that he wrote under pseudonyms. One of those, Lady Wrestler, was published by Midwood (F193) in 1962 under Fox's pseudonym of James Harvey. Vintage copies of the paperback net over $200, but I was able to purchase the book for two bucks. 

The novel opens with Bella Woods completing a short, ill-fated run of a Broadway performance. The experience left her financially devastated, emotionally depleted, and her body abused by the show's perverted producer. In bed with the sleazy promoter, Bella comes to the realization she needs a change and new life goals. An interview with a male model and entrepreneur opens up a world of possibilities: Pro-Wrestling. 

Brick hires Bella to join his budding stable of female wrestlers. With these eight ladies, Brick hopes to secure a few local bookings, tap into the market share of male pro-wrestling, and secure a television deal. It's all on the up and up, and Bella rightfully trusts Brick and his tunnel vision.

Bella arrives at Brick's family farm house and meets the other wrestlers. There are women there who use gimmicks like an obese jungle native, a tatted carnival oddity, a royal Queen, a revolting slave, etc. Needless to say, it is a colorful house filled with diversity and different perspectives. Bella's conflict is with a rival ex-Broadway star named Charlotte, that is sleeping with Brick. Her other conflict is with Brick's sister, a domineering lesbian named Cleo, who rapes Bella during her first night at the house.

Through Lady Wrestler's narrative, readers enjoy the rags-to-riches rise of these eight women from bingo halls to a local television program. Fox weaves a multitude of minor plot points that include Brick's financial struggles, Bella's romantic flings with Brick, Cleo's uprising, and the lifestyles of a few minor characters both in and out of the ring. The most satisfying plot point is a lawsuit from the television producers over Bella's indecent exposure on their programming. 

After watching the Netflix show GLOW, which fictionally documents the rise and fall of the women's Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling organization in the 1980s, I found so many interesting comparisons to this 1962 paperback. The characters, the TV deal, the promoter, the lifestyles – all of this is remarkably told by Fox nearly two decades before G.L.O.W. first aired on television in 1986. 

If you enjoy pro-wrestling, then you will really enjoy Lady Wrestler. The gimmicks and wrestling personalities were thoroughly enjoyable, and I liked Bella's perspective of being new to the industry. However, Fox was just a serviceable writer, never great but never dull. His writing leaves something to be desired, but nonetheless has enough variance and texture to bring these characters to life, albeit a little wonky on dialogue. 

For $1.99 you can't go wrong. Get Lady Wrestler HERE. 

Matt Helm #06 - The Ambushers

Donald Hamilton's sixth installment of the Matt Helm series, The Ambushers, was published by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1963. The book was loosely adapted into a comedic spy film in 1967 with star Dean Martin. As the old saying goes, the books are always better than the movies. The Ambushers is proof positive.

The book begins with Helm in a place he describes vaguely as “let's call it Costa Verde”, an unknown banana country in South America. His mission is to carry a heavy sniper rifle through the jungle, meet up with a resistance fighter named Jimenez, and help assassinate the country's newest political rival. After snubbing a revolution, Helm's job is through, and he can head back to Washington. But like most Helm novels, things don't go quite according to plan. During the successful assassination, Helm finds two surprises. First, a nuclear warhead that was probably smuggled from the Russians. Second, a former Nazi senior leader whom Helm recognizes from a prior mission. 

In Washington, Helm receives a backhanded compliment from his direct Mac – praise for succeeding on the assignment. But Mac's associates scold Helm for ignoring two international threats during the mission. Defensively, cool-headed Helm dismisses their Monday morning quarterbacking and expresses interest in his next mission.

The fallout from the assassination is now spreading into southern New Mexico. In a quiet suburb, the former Nazi leader that Helm identified is now setting up shop for a new movement. Helm's job is to team with a reserved, previously traumatized agent named Sheila to expose the leader and quell this new Nazi uprising. 

Hamilton's prose is a smooth telling of espionage in a conversational tone. Both Helm and Sheila work well together, creating a cohesive fighting pair that both complement each other's scarred pasts. When the two find themselves at odds with a Russian spy (lovely as ever) they must jeopardize the mission to stop a much larger threat. There's plenty of mountainous terrain, gunfire, fisticuffs, and tepid lovemaking, but the real main event is always Helm's thoughts. In a generous first-person perspective, Helm talks to the reader in a way that is just uniquely captivating. 

I paired my reading of Hamilton's narrative with listening to Stefan Rudnicki's gripping audio narration. Either way, your experience with The Ambushers will be thrilling. Highly recommended. Get a modern reprint HERE or vintage copies HERE.

Pack Animals

I've always admired Greg F. Gifune's writing and have covered his books here on the blog and on the YT channel. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to exclusively reveal his newest book's cover, a glorious piece by the talented Zach McCain, an internationally published artist who also created visually striking artwork for Gifune's 2022 horror novella Savages (Cemetery Dance). Since seeing the cover for Pack Animals (Macabre Ink), I've been anxiously counting the days until the book's release. Finally, the hunt is over. Or is it?

Thankfully, Gifune's writing style - an effective combination of visceral violence and horrifying psychosis - takes on one of my favorite aspects of horror. Like Savages, the early description for Pack Animals was a homage to the survival, late-night horror films of the 1970s and 1980s. Films like The Pack, Day of the Animals, The Howling, and Grizzly all sprang into my mind. This was the VHS market I grew up in in the 1980s and early 1990s, and I'm always searching for that same nostalgia in pop culture.

Pack Animals begins with an unknown woman arriving at a medical facility. Inside, she learns that her husband, or boyfriend, has experienced a significant trauma and now remains in a state of mental shock as his body recovers from exhaustive injuries. Inside his room, there's this heavy vacuum that seemingly sucks the hope from the room. The man is despondent and silent as he fixates on something far beyond the hospital, far beyond anything the two of them can understand.

As the book's narrative unfolds, Gifune then takes readers back to the start to explain the happenings and surroundings that have crushed the man's body and spirit. The author introduces a group of thirty-something male friends starting with Truck. He has experienced infidelity, a divorce, and a type of midlife crisis reassembling his life. He moves to an off-the-grid place nestled deep in the rural mountains of New Hampshire. Yet his peace and tranquility are shattered routinely with night visitors that hover in the treeline. Truck's defense is a shotgun, a handgun, and lots of ammunition, which sends up red flags for the tiny community. They don't trust outsiders and send one of their own to warn Truck to keep the peace. 

Later, Truck's assemblage of friends arrives to spend a week with him in his newfound mountain oasis. On their drive to Truck's house, they see an old woman in a bloody nightgown walking through the forest. Later, at Truck's house, they discover there's no phone signal. This isolation becomes alarming when they find Truck's behavior unsettling. He warns the group to leave before dark, before the visitors arrive. When they refuse, Truck provides them with details on something, or someone, that he chained up in his shed. Is Truck insane, or does the darkness bring a host of Hell?

I'm careful with reviewing Gifune's work because it is subjective. Many of his novellas and full-length novels play havoc with your imagination. Many of the horrors in the author's work present themselves differently depending on the reader. However, there's no denying that Pack Animals is a monster story. The book's cover, title, and synopsis suggest a werewolvish type of reading experience, and I believe the lead into the book's release promises survival horror. But it still possesses many of the ingredients that make Gifune's writing so good. 

Truck's move to the country reminds me of the events leading to Lance Boyce's move to snowy Maine in the excellent Lords of Twilight, one of Gifne's best. The disturbing arrival of the town sheriff called to mind the arrival of Bob in Gifune's equally entertaining The Rain Dancers. The idea of average individuals stranded and cold is a concept that Gifune often uses, most effectively in Midnight Solitaire. However, as much as Gifune uses his old tricks to scare us, it isn't simply a recycle. With Pack Animals, Gifune takes all of these elements and thrusts them into an action-oriented, fast-paced survival yarn that is bone-jarring horror, but equally a white-knuckled thriller. It is compared to Gifune's Savages, which is a fair comparison, but also something like Oasis of the Damned. These stories and concepts work well because they pit vulnerable, everyday people into harrowing fight-or-flight situations that push the boundaries of mental awareness and physical exhaustion. 

I could write for days on Greg Gifune's work and how much of an impact he's made not only as an author, but also as an editor. It is novels like Pack Animals that remind me just how great a storyteller he is. If you are searching for an enjoyable action-oriented monster novel, pack your bags for Pack Animals. It's a trip worth taking.

Get the book HERE.

Random Notes – I jotted down a few things as I was reading the book that didn't necessarily fit the review. The sheriff's name of Leland made me think of the nefarious shopkeeper and rival of Sheriff Pangborn, Leland Gaunt, the star of Stephen King's Needful Things. There's a character mentioned at the end of Pack Animals named Maynard. This seems like a nod to Herman Raucher's classic horror paperback Maynard's House. It would be remiss of me not to say that Michael McBride's own monster novel Snowblind came to mind as well. Both Pack Animals and Snowblind should now be the high-water mark of the survival horror genre. 

Condemned to Devil's Island

Blair Niles (1880-1959) was a Virginia native that authored non-fictional accounts of global human suffrage and fictional novels that expressed commentary on social issues. She was a founding member of the Society of Women Geographers and was honored with a Women's National Book Award. I'm always searching for an entertaining prison-themed adventure, so I decided to read her novel Condemned to Devil's Island, which was published as a hardcover in 1928 and adapted into a film in 1929.

Niles authored the book after interviewing an unnamed French prisoner, named “Michael” in the book, that was serving a sentence at the notorious Bagne de Cayenne, referred to as “Devil's Island”, in French Guiana. In flashback scenes, readers learn of Michael's servitude to a Russian Prince and his descent into criminality, leading to a temporary prison sentence in France before being sentenced to seven years of hard labor on the island. 

When the book begins, Michael is jovial about the trip, looking forward to the passage by boat to the island and seeing a new land full of possibilities. He makes friends with another inmate named Felix and the two converse about their pasts and the opportunities that lie ahead on this new island of imprisonment. Despite the horrific aura of Devil's Island, Michael is in a blissful state of denial. He never seems to fully grip his real undertaking here.

As the book expands into the cumbersome chores of prison life, Michael becomes a type of prison courier that works in the village. At night he's behind bars in the less restrictive dormitory portion of the facility, and by day he socializes and gathers gossip that he later trades for various  goods in the prison. Eventually Michael develops a relationship with a warden's wife in town and makes a few escape attempts to no avail.

Condemned to Devil's Island isn't a men's action-adventure prison break novel. Instead, this is simply a character study in the form of a tepid melodrama about Michael's hopes and desires behind prison walls. In fairness, I barely finished the book and found myself skipping entire sections of pointless deliberation between characters over tedious things. This book was a sluggish bore and I can't recommend it to anyone. If you want a more inspiring prison-break adventure try Henri Charriere's Papillon (1969), Peter McCurtin's Escape from Devil's Island (1971), or Rene Belbenoit's Dry Guillotine (1938).

Time to Kill

Ted Stratton was a pulp author who wrote a 1953 Popular Library paperback called Time to Kill published under the pseudonym of Terry Spain. It’s basically an entertaining Mike Hammer ripoff, and it was recently reprinted by Cutting Edge Books.

Mack Berry is a hardboiled private eye assigned to collect intel on a local mobster named Dominic Parente. The racketeer’s organization sold marijuana to a teen girl who (of course) progressed immediately to heroin, overdosed and died. The dead girl’s dad hired Mack to do the gumshoe work to dismantle Parente’s dope operations in this rural New Jersey county.

Among the way, Mack encounters an array of hoodlums, crooked cops and two-timing dames who are itching to bang the PI. Mack also knows how to crack some skulls, and the fight scenes are vividly executed in his one man war against the mafia. Time to Kill is fast-moving, bruising, sincere, and unapologetically thrilling.

1953 was a year when Mickey Spillane could drop a Mike Hammer novel and outsell the Bible, and every aspiring pulp writer was trying to bottle the same mix of bruised masculinity and righteous mayhem. Taken in that context, Stratton’s pastiche is right on the money.

If you like novels where the hero saves the day but pays for it physically and emotionally, this is your kind of book. Just don’t expect a masterpiece. Get it HERE.