Latest Finds!

[django]

Made quite a good find in my local Oxfam shop today, I got The Survivalist 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, just need to get 1 and 5 now to give myself a nice little run, I was well pleased to get these as it's always been one of those series I intended to read one day, anyone on here familiar with these books?.

[Craig Herbertson]

I've been wanting to read this for a while but I've got to find number 1

[andydecker]

^Yes, I have the complete run, the NEL edition was cancelled mid series or so, the rest was published in the US by Zebra. I guess you could call it the granddaddy of all those Survivalist yarns.

It begins quite conventional, lots of shoot em up and gun porn. But Ahern put a lot of soap operatics into the novels, so it is the hero Thomas Rourke and his family surviving WWIII and a russian conquered USA. There is a love triangle with a beautiful KGB agent, and there is an everyman sidekick who later marries the heros daughter.

Later it became a pure sf series with cyrogenic sleep and a new world order hundreds of years into the future, where a new Germany rule Argentina and fights against Neo Nazis so the hero has a lot of extras to kill. I never came to read the last ten novels or so, the series became a bit tedious toward the end. And the SF was so downright idiotic it defied my suspense of disbelief.

Ahern never went the an earth populated by cannibal mutants route, it was more paramilitary action. But maybe I mis-remember, I read this so long ago. Maybe there were some brain-eaters. But this wasn´t the main thrust of the series.

As a writer Ahern has his moments, but in many regards he never was an Laurence James. Exploitation never was his thing which I think is a must in this kind of genre. But he wrote a few solid action thrillers which weren´t half bad.

[django]

Thanks Andydecker, I've now ordered a copy of book 1 from Amazon marketplace so I can make a start on them, they sound great, it's just a shame there's no brain eating cannibal mutants in them, I can't think of a book that wouldn't be made better with the addition of brain eating cannibal mutants:).

[erebus]

Found a book called Subterranean by a chap named James Buxton. Only cost a quid on a market stall. Maybe I should put a post up elsewhere for it.

[jamesdoig]

Picked up Death Spore by the late, great HAK-meister. This is the US Pinnacle edition, published in 1990, 5 years after the UK original.



It was the happiest day of Jane Wilson's life. The giant mushroom she had cultivated in her laboratory - the result of seven years of hard work and painstaking research - was big and protein-rich enough to provide a full day's nourishment. In quantity, her gargantuan vegetable could solve the problem of world hunger. Who knows - she might might even win a Nobel prize.

What Jane didn't know was that her genetic experient had created a monstrous plague. The man-made microbe was loose and proliferating, its microscopic spores carrying the horror to far reaches of the earth, even beyond the range of nuclear weapons. Victims found their bodies transformed, their minds taken over, haunted by dark obsessions and inhuman desires.

And Jane - the only one who could synthesize an antibody - had gone stark raving mad...

[erebus]

Wow looks and sounds superb. One I will look for but no doubt will never find.

Got MEAT by Ian Watson today though.

[jamesdoig]

Ah, Death Spore - wot larks! The sexy scientist's estranged husband lives in Ireland where he writes thrillers: "She knew his books were beginning to enjoy a popularity of sorts - but what a waste! Imagine spending your time producing escapist fantasies for emotionally retarded adults when you could be doing something useful with your life."

[dem]

Mar 25, 2010 20:26:59 GMT jamesdoig said:

Ah, Death Spore - wot larks! The sexy scientist's estranged husband lives in Ireland where he writes thrillers: "She knew his books were beginning to enjoy a popularity of sorts - but what a waste! Imagine spending your time producing escapist fantasies for emotionally retarded adults when you could be doing something useful with your life."

Steve reviewed this (brilliantly, i thought) under its AKA The Fungus and it's been on my wants list ever since. i think the only HAK i have is Worm (when he was 'Simon Ian Childer'), which, in terms of 'when creepy crawlies & slithering things attack!' novels, is right up there with the very best of Richard Lewis - and that is not a compliment i dispense lightly.

[jamesdoig]

Yep, great review - that's what it's about...

Is it my imagination or are US pbk covers a bit tamer than UK covers, with the notable exception of KEW Years' Best Horror?

[jamesdoig]

Here's the uninspired cover of the Whiting & Wheaton edition, 1966. Not a patch on the Corgi paperback with the hag riding some sort of giant bat-like thingy.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Phillip Pullman - The Haunted Storm, 30p at a bootsale. Just looked it up & it's his first novel published by nel in 73 (copyright 71), the cheapest listed copy is £70

[fritzmaitland]

I'd virtually given up on my local hospital bookstall, but today scooped Pan 29 for 20p.

[Craig Herbertson]

£100 a go sometimes. Good one.

[killercrab]

Sell it! ... I mean er great find for the collection.

ade