|
Post by dem bones on Mar 6, 2008 10:07:49 GMT
Shaun Hutson - Breeding Ground (Star,1986) Blurb: Deep in the sewers of London there is a BREEDING GROUND ... The slugs have returned... slowly ...silently ... theyslither along dank, fetid tunnels into the City in search of human flesh. Their insatiable need knows no bounds. With them they bring a new horror... a plague which spreads insanity and death, transforming its victims into grotesque crazed killers.
Caught in this maelstrom of horror is Dr Alan Finch — the only man capable of destroying the BREEDING GROUND forever...
The mind-numbing sequel to SLUGS.Don't look under that lettuce leaf! I'm cheating a bit here as I'm reading this in a Shaun Hutson Omnibus edition of Captives/ Breeding Ground (Time Warner, 2003), but the original cover is way cooler and besides, SH doesn't strike me as a tinkerman who'll endlessly revise and otherwise clean up his early gut-churners. The nightmare kicks off in Covent Garden market and a pile of rejected farm produce. Luckless tramp Tommy Price is going about his ritual scavenge of half-eaten hamburgers and discarded fruit and veg, and today he's hit the jackpot. A bottle of Guinness, some sub- Iceland spuds, squishy tomatoes - and a baby slug-infested lettuce. He wolfs down the lot and gives himself the guts ache from Hell. Tommy repairs to the public convenience in Leicester Square and expires in agony, vomiting into the lavatory bowl. It's all bloody and pus-yellow ichor-ish and slimy mucus and - it's disgusting, it really is. In stomp two glue-sniffing skinheads. Howard Mallows (occupation: mindless thug) wants to revive the tramp and mug him and decides to best way to do this is to boot him in the stomach. Tommy's guts split open and the slugs come piling out .... of his belly, his mouth, his eyes. The slapheads wisely bomb it out of the bogs .... D.I. Ray Grogan examines the horror corpse, it's "empty eye sockets .... the gaping hole in the torso". He doesn't like the look of it. Could the Slugs have returned? to be ......Thanks to my friend Franklin Marsh!
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Mar 7, 2008 20:58:57 GMT
Up to p. 100 now. enjoyable and revolting enough, but it suffers from lacking the shock of the new that made Slugs so extraordinary.
R.I.P. John Bateson, sewage maintenance worker, Shed regular at Stamford Bridge and him on the verge of becoming a father, too. Tough nut Bateson comes to a stinky end when the slugs ambush him in the tunnels and eat hm alive face and innards first!
Little Mark Franklin loses his dog, Price, while strolling through town pretending to be Bodie from The Professionals trailing a suspect. Even worse when he finds what's left of the poor creature, devoured by slugs in a derelict shop! Now Mark's arms and face are a mess of black, boil-like eruptions because he got slime on him retrieving his loyal pet's bloody collar. Much top salivating over how much pus is festering inside Mark's swellings from Mr. Hutson.
Love interest. Caring general practitioner Dr. Finch, 32, and Lisa a receptionist at the Strand Palace Hotel, whose elderly mother is in much the same shape as young Mark. leg-over imminent if I'm any judge.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Mar 10, 2008 9:53:44 GMT
That's it! I'm never going to the toilet again!
Chaper thirteen, and after a hard afternoon's snooping through the curtains at 'er across the street with the umpteen men friends, Len Pearson, wooden-legged nosey parker, takes up his bible (The News Of The World), and repairs to the bog for a well-earned, leisurely dump. But what's that racing up the side of the lavatory bowl?
Ever the crowd pleaser, Hutson clearly thinks that this carnivorous slug business is all very well but he'd be short-changing the reader if he didn't trowel it on, hence the lovely toxic slime trails. Get some on your skin and, once you've endured the full, agonizing, all-over festering pustule experience, you're transformed into a murderous psycho with a particular hatred for your next of kin into the bargain! So, a little kid slices 'n dices his mum and dad, a frail old woman goes barmy and a nurse cops a hypodermic syringe in the eye.
It goes on. Petty criminals Pollock, Lawrence and on-off prostitute Michelle are enjoying a threesome in their Dean Street squat when a mob of big, black nine-inch monsters gatecrash the party. No wonder Inspector Grogan is in a filthy mood.
"There's been a foul-up in one or more of the sewer tunnels under central London. I just heard from the Water Board. The streets are going to be full of shit in a few hours and now you're trying to tell me I've got an army of man-eating slugs roaming around. What the fuck do you take me for, George? Do I look like a tw*t? Slugs that eat people! Do me a favour."
Leg-over watch: Dr. Finch and Lisa are certainly taking their time ...
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Mar 11, 2008 9:04:40 GMT
Into the home straight (thirty-odd pages to go), and so far, so ghastly. Progress report. Vignette. Vignette. Progress Report. Vignette .... Essentially it's another variation on James Herbert circa The Rats/ The Fog with the sex and violence cranked up a further notch. It's also the most malodorous novel ever! As Hutson is quick to remind, the week from Hell coincides with a stifling heatwave and you can smell the sewers kicking up something scandalous way before they get to overflow and engulf the West End in fecal matter. Pity the three maintenance men who are sent down to investigate what's causing the blockage. Only one returns - make that roughly half of one returns - and he dies before he can say "slugs", but even the sceptical DI Grogan now accepts the terrible truth.
Above ground, and the psycho murders continue apace. The infected are a resourceful bunch and utilise whatever is at hand to destroy their partners. Death by electric knife, axe, vibrator ....
The usual bunch of spineless, self-serving authorities finally act. The army are called in and the 'Danger Zone' - Central London - is evacuated, but there are still many stragglers. Drooly Keith, for example, won't be denied his daily visit to the 'Love Shop' in Lexington Street and is busy shoving 50p's into a slot and jerking himself off when the slugs burst in, devouring him, fatty on the door and the bored stripper he's been ogling. And the problem still remains: how to get rid of the slugs?
"They feed on human flesh, right?" the pathologist said, his tone calm and measured. "Give them what they want."
"My God, you're not serious," Grogan said, gaping in astonishment. "You want to sacrifice the lives of innocent men just so they can act as fucking bait?"
"What's a dozen or so lives compared to the number it could save?" Bennett challenged ... "Men injected with that secretion would automatically attract the slugs."
Sounds like a great plan to me, although much as I'd like to volunteer I'll have to cry off. Had a bit of trouble with my arm, you know ...
|
|
|
Post by allthingshorror on Oct 10, 2008 10:42:38 GMT
I've landed an interview with Shaun - any questions anyone would like asking?
|
|
|
Post by David A. Riley on Oct 10, 2008 10:53:08 GMT
What's his favourite Ramsey Campbell novel would be a good ice-breaker. David PS Looking forward to reading this. Though I don't believe I have ever read one of his books, his reputaion goes before him.
|
|
|
Post by allthingshorror on Oct 10, 2008 10:57:56 GMT
No Ramsey Campbell questions David! Though I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask him if Ramsey was tied to a table - and Shaun had a choice of tools - which one would he use on him?
|
|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 10, 2008 11:59:52 GMT
Go Johnny! What about asking him which pulp novels 'influenced' him,how Bob Tanner came to be his agent, what he thought of the NEL heyday, what he thinks of Garth Marenghi, and how he came to be interested in Sam Peckinpah?
|
|
|
Post by justin on Oct 11, 2008 7:04:22 GMT
Suggestions (I'm meant to be leaving for Heathrow in an hour, but couldn't resist this one....)
The Chainsaw Terror controversy- pulled from Smiths, later released in a cut edition as Come the Night by Nick Blake or vice versa, people selling pirate copies of the book at conventions
The non-horror work- the Wolf Kruger and Sam Bishops were Leo Kessler and George Gilman knock-offs. And there was a Falklands war one and a couple of UFO pulps as well.
He always argued that his superior sales figures to Ramsey meant he was delivering a superior product. Did anyone argue back to him that Steps sell more than his beloved Iron Maiden so his own argument was flawed?
Ask him about the support he received from the horror fanzines in the early days? Such as Samhain and Deep Red?
Hutson always strikes me as self-deprecating but intentionally controversial during interviews, so I reckon if you get hin stirred up this could be a cracker Johnny!
|
|
|
Post by funkdooby on Oct 11, 2008 7:45:19 GMT
I can't believe execrably awful Hutson has the bloody nerve to criticise Ramsey Campbell - arguably the finest living horror writer Regards the slugs - why the hell didn't people just carry a nice big packet of salt with them? Problem solved!
|
|
|
Post by carolinec on Oct 11, 2008 14:44:24 GMT
I can't believe execrably awful Hutson has the bloody nerve to criticise Ramsey Campbell - arguably the finest living horror writer Ah, but I think Ramsey might have started it! I have a piece by him in his collection of non-fiction "Ramsey Campbell - Probably" where he rips Hutson's writing to shreds. Personally, I'm with Ramsey on this one though. I've tried reading a few pages of Hutson to see if he really is as bad as Ramsey suggested - and, in my opinion, I'm afraid he is! Apologies to any Hutson fans .. It's a brilliant interview to get though, Johnny - good luck!
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Oct 28, 2008 12:12:41 GMT
to be perfectly honest hutson may not be the most technical writer BUT he always manages to spina good yarn and keep the pace up whereas i really find it hard to engage with any of campbells work.
|
|
|
Post by allthingshorror on Nov 24, 2008 22:16:34 GMT
|
|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 25, 2008 15:07:23 GMT
Nice one, Johnny. Was he a decent bloke to interview?
|
|
|
Post by bushwick on Nov 25, 2008 15:45:36 GMT
Your site seems to be down Johnny...firefox can't find it. Will try later, as I'd like to read this...
|
|