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Post by dem bones on Mar 8, 2008 21:24:17 GMT
Stephen Gallagher - Valley Of Lights (Nel, 1988) blurb: Phoenix Police Sergeant Alex Volchak is having a hard enough time holding together the somewhat battered remains of his life even before the call to the Paradise motel. It is at this sleazy location that he finds the bodies - inert and barely clinging to life - that the local press are quick to label 'zombies'. And when one of them seems to have got up from a hospital bed and simply walked away, Volchak has a major problem on his hands. It is a problem, furthermore, which no-one else seems anxious to share, even when Alex becomes convinced that the incident is related to a gruesome set of murders. Is it me, or is that a deathly dull cover? Either way, it's the reason why I passed on Valley Of Lights until Jerrylad kindly gave me a copy at Zardoz. More fool me. Sergeant Alex Volchak lives for his job because, as he points out, since his wife left him his world outside is an empty void. All that might be about to change. Lately he's struck up a friendship with single mum Loretta and her little daughter Georgina and romance is in the air. On the professional front, he's been called to a sleazy dump in Skid Row central to investigate the pseudo-'death's of three men from wildly different backgrounds who have no business sharing a room, but there they are, slumped before the TV, literally brainless. Their breathing borders on the non-existent and when he attempts to move one the guy gives up the ghost altogether. Volchak learns that the room was rented to Gilberto Mercado, a Mexican with a badly beat-up face on account of his hanging around playgrounds sizing up infants, and decides to wait for him to return. However, when Mercado sets eyes on him, he legs it, dropping his grocery bags which smash on the pavement. His shopping consists of umpteen cans of baby food in various flavours which he's evidently been using as sustenance for the trio in suspended animation. When Volchak eventually nails his man, the Mex deliberately drops dead on him. At that precise moment, one of the 'zombies' springs up on its trolley and beats it out of the Hospital. Shortly afterward, it commits the first of the child murders. Volchak realises that the zombie, the two other brain-deads and the late Mercado have each of them been used as a host body by a terrible elemental, although how he can make his superiors buy his enlightened theory is another matter. Thinking to put an end to the body-thievery, he locates the next zombie-in-waiting and garrotte's him, dumping his corpse in the waste disposal. Locating the escaped patient, he drives him out into the desert. The parasite admits to what he is but warns Volchak that he can't be destroyed. When the sergeant informs him that he no longer has a body to flee into, the entity seemingly panics. Volchak blows him away. The End. Or so he thinks ... I suppose it wouldn't have looked quite as bad if the big lounge hadn't been all-over white; the plaster walls, the wool carpet, even the furniture was white leather. It looked as if somebody had dynamited a live pig in the middle of it all. The entity announces its resurrection with the slaughter of a family that has the TV stations dusting off their Manson footage. The killer has also taken to leaving blood messages to Volchak on the wall - he's clearly upset about that whole nasty murder in the desert business. And the worst of it is, the fiend now inhabits the body of fellow cop Michaels who has taken Georgie hostage. Volchak has to agree to leave him alone or he'll torture the little girl to death, and slowly. As they part Michaels promises him a "benefit performance" which, considering the savagery of the murders he's committed so far, should make the final third of the novel kind of lively.
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Post by Calenture on Mar 8, 2008 21:45:41 GMT
It must have been back at the old Vault that I commented on the similarity of this story to that of Fallen, a film starring Denzel Washington, made 10 years after this book was published.
The similarity must have been reinforced by my finding the book in a library sale and reading it the same week I hired the video of Fallen. Both concern a detective hunting a killer who is able to move into the 'zombie' corpses of his victims. Of course, there's no copyright on ideas, and people frequently strike similar ideas independently at the same time. Both the book and the film are good.
Gallagher loves the music of Frank Zappa, and his novels bear the titles of Zappa songs, this one included.
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Post by sean on Mar 9, 2008 10:03:50 GMT
I don't remember a Zappa song by that title! Maybe its a mix of 'Valley Girl' and 'City of Tiny Lites'.
Gallagher's forthcoming novel is apparently to be named 'The Illinois Enema Bandit'....
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Post by Calenture on Mar 9, 2008 12:36:25 GMT
I don't remember a Zappa song by that title! Maybe its a mix of 'Valley Girl' and 'City of Tiny Lites'. Gallagher's forthcoming novel is apparently to be named 'The Illinois Enema Bandit'.... That remark about Stephen Gallagher's use of Frank Zappa titles for Gallagher's own stories was taken from an Interzone interview with Gallagher. I'm trying to find it now. I think the actual title was Valley of Little Lights. I must admit I haven't listened to much Zappa after once making the mistake of buying Lumpy Gravy, not realising that this was just a compilation of studio outtakes, better aimed at the bin. Trying to find a list of Zappa titles online is not easy - I just unintentionally created a "custom radio station" playing Zappa by clicking a link... Jango - Social Internet RadioOh, now it's playing Jethro Tull and The Beatles... Edit: Here's another page with free stuff: Utter Lyrics - Zappa
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Post by carolinec on Mar 9, 2008 14:17:49 GMT
Nice to see a Stephen Gallagher thread! ;D
I must admit, "Valley of Lights" is one of his novels that I haven't read. But from the synopsis here it sounds similar to another I'd recommend - his novella from PS Publishing, "White Bizango". That's another detective/zombie novel which really hooked me into it such that I couldn't put it down (unusual with me as I usually only go for short stories, unless a novel/novella is really, really good). Well, I say it's a "zombie" story, but that's not strictly true - you'd have to read it to find out what I mean ...
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Post by dem bones on Mar 9, 2008 14:42:27 GMT
There should be more Gallagher on here. There should even be more of that (for want of a better word) review, but having finished the novel - which I enjoyed - I promptly lost me notes and left "everyone" in suspenders! Maybe I should start from scratch, although where to find the time. ... And i just spotted a copy of Chimera lurking on the shelf, too, which I didn't even think I had!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 4, 2008 12:39:36 GMT
Valley of Lights was reissued a little while ago by Telos Publishing. It's still available and they've done a very nice job with it. At the back is a diary detailing the attempts to get it made into a film. I thought it was a splendid book, much better than the film 'Fallen' which it most certainly resembles
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Post by andydecker on Jan 6, 2022 10:53:13 GMT
Another edition. NEL 1988
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