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Post by dem bones on Aug 15, 2014 10:30:07 GMT
Recycled from Vault MK I after performing emergency running repairs.Nightreader wrote: "Horny nails tore through the roof as though it was parchment. The hand wormed, groped and wriggled through the widening crack. Wrist, forearm, elbow and shoulder twisted and strained. The bones were draped in rotting green flesh like Spanish moss, striped with putrid flesh that pealed off mealy gouts on the edges of the crack" It's not all as exciting as the quote on the back cover would have you believe, but am half-way through now and really haven't found it slow going. The brutal murder of the roachbacks occurs fairly early in the proceedings and, although there's a long wait until their ghosts begin to avenge themselves, the deaths are imaginative and the scene where the rapidly decomposing corpse army appear to be smashing their way through the roof of the mine is deliciously creepy. Badillo, originally as obnoxious a character as the mob who brutally slay Foxy and his entirely harmless friends, at least manages to cut short the sexual assault of a young girl by coal-hauler and rapist Buddy Rice - without him, as nightreader points out, you'd not really have one character to root for. The 'hunkies' certainly don't give a shit for their deceased colleagues and only attack the transients for sport because they know they'll get away with it. Being thoroughly biased, I would have preferred an English industrial setting, but so far I've enjoyed it and with at least two of the worst offenders on the night of the 'roach massacre still at large, there are doubtless some more grisly moments to look forward to. Later .... Finally finished this and have come to appreciate fully what a fine job nightreader did on this. Haunting Of Waverley Falls became a slog halfway through.. It's the dialogue that drags; there's plenty of conversation which, while not exactly superfluous, does seem to be prolonged beyond any great necessity. The male characters - Badillo apart - are a despicable bunch (notably the suits and Badillo's conniving, murderous deputy, Jevons), quick with their fists when they can't have their way and ever seeking scapegoats. By contrast all the women are sympathetic to the point of Sainthood. I enjoyed Haunting ... in fits and starts, certainly glad not to have given up on it for something less taxing, but doubt I'll read it again. Rae writes under many different pseudonyms - crime, mystery, S.A.S.and even romantic novels - but the only other novel of his I've read - and it's a decent one - is Skinner.
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