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Post by dem bones on Jul 3, 2008 21:03:16 GMT
Gary Brander - Carrion (Arrow, 1987) Raised from the dead - They will feed on your terrorBlurb: He is the nation's new hero. For he possesses the most awesome skill any man can master — he can reach beyond the grave and reawaken the dear departed. He can bring the dead back to life!
But their souls no longer inhabit their resurrected bodies. The creatures that now walk the earth are carrion — dead flesh! They are mindless things that only know he is responsible for their agony ...
As their bodies decay into hideous travesties of what they once were, they have only one mission left — To destroy their saviour!Los Angeles. McAllister 'Mac' Fain, fraudulent occultist and general chancer, makes his crust from telling deliciously wealthy, gullible widows exactly what they wish to hear regarding their rosy futures. His lover and sometimes assistant, Jillian Pappas is a stage actress with "the finest pair of bajoomies in Southern California" who makes a hell of a row in bed. Of late, it seems she's developing minor psychic abilities every bit as real as Mac's are phony. Across town and multi-millionaire Elliot Kruger is inconsolable. His beautiful second wife Leanne is dead. He may have been the best part of forty years her senior but he loved her and she him. The only time they ever had a tiff was when he insisted on converting the Pool House into a cryogenics laboratory, and that's where her corpse now lies suspended in deep freeze. For all his money, Kruger has yet to bribe a surgeon, physician or Bible-basher to assist him in the resurrection of his beloved, and he's all but given up when he spots Fain's advertisement in the LA Insider. From the start, Kruger's son Richard is set against Fain, threatening him with all sorts should he take advantage of his father's emotional instability, but Mac dislikes being pushed around almost as much as he loves the prospect of a guaranteed $20,000 plus expenses for attempting to bring Leanne back to life. He accepts the job. A dip into his Bumper Book Of Voodoo, a visit to 'Le Docteur' (luckily, his neighbour Xavier just happens to host monthly black sorcery rituals and knows where to find a local Houngan) and a quick listen to Led Zeppelin on the Dansette at the People's Sunshine Clinic is all the training he needs. Now to give the performance of his career .... To be continued .....
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 4, 2008 9:13:31 GMT
*SPOILER*
Not a gore fest (despite the cover) but an interesting tale of an occult charlatan who, in order to get some big bucks from a rich man with a dead wife, is hired to bring her back. With a little bit of research into Voodoo he actually succeeds. More a meditation on fame (or the price of it) it certainly held my attention.
From the old place. Looking back, I was perhaps a bit of a misery and this wasn't bad at all. Mind you, I interrupted it to read Dracula & The Virgins Of The Undead, so may have been a little shell-shocked when I returned. The cover is boffo.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 8, 2008 8:34:11 GMT
Mind you, I interrupted it to read Dracula & The Virgins Of The Undead, so may have been a little shell-shocked when I returned. Ah, it's only natural you'd be traumatised by a terrible experience like that! Then the dead woman opened her eyes. Haven't made as much progress with this as I'd have liked but it's been good fun so far. At first it appears Fain's visit to the tubby Voodoo man was an inspired move even if he can no longer recall much of what transpired. Of course, he's not expecting that lighting some candles, lobbing around different coloured powders and reciting supposed mumbo jumbo will revive Leanne Kruger but he's been paid for trying his best and he knows a bit about putting on a decent performance. Everyone is stunned at his success - none more so than Fain - but not everyone shares Elliot Kruger's delight. Dr. Auerbach who pronounced Mrs. K. dead four months ago and is sacked on the spot, and Pepe the poodle is something other than thrilled at his beloved mistress's resurrection. Still, she seems in tip top shape. For the time being at least ...... |
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Post by dem bones on Jul 10, 2008 10:53:56 GMT
"Fain marvelled at the way the girl was constructed of a series of globes varying in size but all with a nice resilient texture .... In a few years she would probably be fat, but right now all the globes stayed nicely in place ....."
Curses! It took me right to the final chapter to realise I've read Carrion before and so the neat pay off lost some of its impact! FM is spot on with his observation that's it a meditation on the price of fame. It's maybe more black comedy than horror novel, too, although there are some gruesome moments toward the climax. As ever, the real fun begins when Fain's career goes into rapid tailspin: from new messiah to social leper, homeless, broke and a bunch of rotting zombies on his tail. Naturally, he's alienated his real friends long before this happens making it even harder to get them to listen when he warns them of the danger they're in. Never again, for example, will he enjoy being near suffocated by those "bobbing gelatinous moons" of Ivy, the dope-smoking reporter from the LA Insider who first wrote of his miracle working as, unable to locate him, the carrion take their vengeance on those once close to him. Fain bravely goes cap in hand to the Houngan who tells him he can easily be rid of the zombies, but only at the ultimate price ....
Several pop culture references: Bantam Paperbacks, Christopher Lee, Randy Newman, Herbie Hancock, Andy Warhol, Heineken beer, "a terrible old Elvis Presley movie on TV", etc. Jillian may be eccentric but compared to her weird friends ("f*g playwrights", "leftover hippies") she's 'Marie Osmond'.
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Post by erebus on Mar 7, 2009 11:57:19 GMT
Had a tough time reading this. As I generally do with Brandner. This is dull and delivers little in the shock department.
Was happy when I had finally got through it.
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