|
Post by dem bones on Jan 28, 2008 7:32:51 GMT
Warning: boring old review from dead board. Guy N. Smith - The Island (Arrow, 1988) Long ago, the Laird of Ulver, angry that he had no heir, abandoned his wife and four daughters to a hellish fate on the isolated Isle of Ulver. Their bodies were never found - or so the legend said.
Now Frank Ingram owns that island, living his dream of solitude and harmony.
Until one storm-lashed night his peace is interrupted by the arrival of five frightened women.
Can they really be shipwrecked in the middle of winter? Or have the daughters of Ulver returned from their watery grave to claim their inheritance? After his wife Gillian's gory death in a car accident, Frank sells up his farm in Wales and buys the tiny island off the West Coast of Scotland. Its remained unoccupied for 48 years since the last tenants committed suicide and mainland fishermen shun the place because the dead want tae keep it for themselves. Restoring the old bothy and farming his sheep, Frank is making a go of things with just his dog Jake for company. Then the bogus girl guide troop show up and things start going badly wrong ... Interspersed with this modern day stuff is the story of what happened to the woman and her four children after the Satanic Laird marooned them on Ulver Island with a view to having them starved to death. His wife Marie had the pluck to make sure the ferryman, Zoke, was stranded with them and he fends for the women in return for his life ... until the youngest child, Edith, grows mutinous.... I'm at the halfway mark just now and its pretty much par for the course although this time there's added ingredient black magic to liven things up. ***** funkdoobyI loved this one. But then again, I loved most of what GNS wrote ***** demonik I thought it was great too. Ghoul Guides, great steamy sucking bogs, gory deaths, men with pipes - all the usual suspects, but The Island is much darker than those I've read so far and he certainly seems to have spent more time on characterisation. I like the way Frank's experiences in the present mirror Zoke's in the past. Also, you just can't beat a surly ferryman warning softy landlubbers about how stupid they are to visit places where nobody else wants to go.
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Jan 28, 2008 10:05:38 GMT
funkdoobyI loved this one. But then again, I loved most of what GNS wrote ***** demonik I thought it was great too. Ghoul Guides, great steamy sucking bogs, gory deaths, men with pipes - all the usual suspects, but The Island is much darker than those I've read so far and he certainly seems to have spent more time on characterisation. I like the way Frank's experiences in the present mirror Zoke's in the past. Also, you just can't beat a surly ferryman warning softy landlubbers about how stupid they are to visit places where nobody else wants to go. I definitely didn't like this one. It never really got me involved, and at the end... Well it's an end that Funky loved, and I think Dem will, but I thought it a waste of time and gave the book away. Mind you, as I've only liked one GNS book so far, you could anticipate my response.
|
|
|
Post by redbrain on Jan 28, 2008 19:49:15 GMT
I read a few Guy N Smith books, but never really enjoyed them. I did come to wonder at his predilection for giving his characters grisly deaths whilst they're having sex. (Rule 1 - if you're a Guy N Smith character - never have sex.) I wonder whether this represents some kind of sexual kink. (Cognate to - but not identical with - thanatophilia, perhaps.)
|
|
|
Post by weirdmonger on Jan 28, 2008 19:51:36 GMT
I wonder if it would be safer for the characters to have sex with dead bodies?
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 28, 2008 20:37:57 GMT
I read a few Guy N Smith books, but never really enjoyed them. I did come to wonder at his predilection for giving his characters grisly deaths whilst they're having sex. Most of the ones we've mentioned were written during the 'seventies and 'eighties when films like Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine and sundry Halloween slashers were doing big business and everybody who had sex in them was stabbed/ pitchforked/ decapitated immediately afterward. It was like, the law. funkdooby contributed an excellent thesis, 'Sex In Smithland', to our old board HERE
|
|
|
Post by funkdooby on Feb 5, 2008 16:18:38 GMT
I re-read The Island recently and I still enjoy it even now
|
|
|
Post by killercrab on Jun 12, 2008 3:02:14 GMT
How'd I miss this thread. It all sounds rather fab. Note to self - read the book soon. Be good if Funky's SMITHLAND posts were transferred here.
KC
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Apr 8, 2010 19:26:04 GMT
Finally read it.
I have to say I liked it a lot. Classic horror stuff, written to the point, no bloated narrative. Great scenery; the horrible island came alive with a convincing atmosphere, the ending had a nice twist. Interesting that it wasn´t as in your face as other Smith books. He tried to keep things different and was much more adventerous than today´s writer. Sure, he wrote horror, and if say Sabat would have been a smashing succcess he would have written 20 of em (like he said in this interview), but he never settled into a niche thematicly. Of course in this he was a man of his time - like Laurence James, the man of numerous genres -, but it makes his books more exciting than todays seemingly cloned genre novels. You never know what to expect.
|
|
|
Post by killercrab on Jul 2, 2010 15:41:01 GMT
I liked how Smith kept the two story threads going ( past and present). It's a trick he's used before I think but I'll be blowed if I can remember where? Maybe The Wood ( shudders). Yet again we experience Guy the hunter at work - his details on wildlife and trapping , not to mention shotguns - always ring true and ground the supernatural aspects. You kinda saw the ending coming and yet that didn't matter - it made sense.
KC
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Jul 3, 2010 15:59:22 GMT
I liked how Smith kept the two story threads going ( past and present). It's a trick he's used before I think but I'll be blowed if I can remember where? Maybe The Wood ( shudders). Without checking I think you are right. At least there were flashbacks in The Woods. This is tricky, running two threads at once which are happening in the same place. But here it worked.
|
|