Gary Brandner - HellBorn

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Gary Brandner - HellBorn (Hamlyn 1982)

Haven't read this yet, just getting a thread started. Here's The Cover:

[erebus]

Not read this myself either pal. But I hope its better than the atrocious Carrion. Man thats a bad un.

[vaughan]

I had two copies of this. The cover above is the original, but I ended up passing it on to a friend.

The cover I kept is an outrageous rip-off of the monster from "Night of the Demon". I couldn't possibly let it go.

[dem bones]

Gary Brander - Hellborn (Hamlyn, 1982)

Blurb:
Astragoth is risen

From the dark night of the centuries he has returned.
He will have his rightful bride or he will utterly destroy the Earth.
He is the HELLBORN

"Almost impossible to put down" - Publishers weekly

i'm not sure what it is about Gary Brander but if, as is often the case, i find four or five paperbacks on a stall, his is the novel i always end up reading last even though i invariably enjoy his work. Hell Born begins "In a time before men measured time, in a village in a distant land" where the demon Astragoth has demanded the fair Delphine as his bride. The villagers have no choice but to comply, and it looks all up for Delphine until Zelan, a wise and powerful sorcerer, intervenes on her behalf. After a Mexican standoff lasting several days, Astragoth finally tires of the entire business and vanishes in a cloud of evil-reeking sulphur and feces with a chilling parting shot: "The girl is mine. I shall have her."

Cut to present day California and Diana Cross, 28, an illustrator of childrens books, picnicking in the mountains with her little boy, Matt. A pair of thugs (denim and facial hair chapter) who go by the names Bear and Joker pull up alongside them and intimidate the attractive divorcee with sub-Vault sexual innuendo. When she drives away, the ruffians follow.

A fog descends on the lonely road.
All of a sudden there's a ghastly stench.
A pair of demonic eyes glare at Diana from close ahead!
Diana brakes. The Pick-up smashes into her backside and shunts the Pontiac over the edge of the mountain ...

As it turns out, she and Matt don't come out of it badly as their car collides with a tree. The Pick-Up, on the other hand, plunges into the abyss. Exit Bear and Joker in the resulting conflagration.

A month after the accident. Diana is haunted by bad dreams and pays a visit to Saul Julian, a [genuine] psychic who, recognising her gift as being even greater than his own, invites her to sit on a seance. Sure enough the grieving Lindley's get to see their son, but something else manifests at the table - the shapeless mass with the eyes from the night of the fatal car smash. Saul offers first a partnership - he's confident they'll make a fortune - then, when he sees how abhorrent the idea is to Diana, he offers his assistance in getting rid of the evil entity ...

On the advice of her psychoanalyst, Dr. Alex Letterman, Diana moves to Tranquilo Beach for the summer where she immediately befriends Edith Werhaus and her gang of idle rich housewives, who've formed themselves into a very mild thrill-seekers club. All is well until Edith procures a copy of The Book Of The Damned and the ladies set to raising a demon for a giggle. Diana is against this silliness from the off but finds herself cajoled into participation regardless. She alone witnesses the manifestation of the Demon - Edith doesn't even notice when it rams its huge and horny member up her backside - and, of course, it is the red-eyed, malformed beast from the night of the accident. After the others have left, Edith, now possessed, makes a pass at Diana. When Timmy, her little boy walks in on them just as she's about to pounce, Edith is not best pleased. A flustered Diana makes her excuses. Edith takes some kitchen utensils, slices up her son, and makes herself sexy for the return of husband Philip. By morning Edith is a corpse and Astragoth wears the body of Philip Werhaus (who has been shagged to death!). Maybe he can succeed with Diana where his late wife failed.

Diana has been seeing handsome Kirby Franklin, editor of the local newspaper for over a month and he's growing impatient that she will always find an excuse not to sleep together. When he storms out after a bust up, demon Phil gets more than his his hopes up ...

Meanwhile, the bodies of Edith and - most of - Timmy are discovered after a dog digs up the child's severed hand ....

To be continued ...

[dem bones]

Hell Born is taking me a whole lot longer to tackle than a 190 pager has any right to. Anyhow, it's all gone very musical chairs since the last gripping installment as the demon possesses character upon character, still fails to get it on with Diana. Nancy Urich, 16, who babysits Matt when Diana fancies a gallivant with Franklin Kirby, is victim number i've lost count, instantly transformed from virginal, most pleasant girl in Tranquilo to voracious sexual predator. If she can't have Diana, there's always Mr. Kirby or even little Matt! Eventually she has to settle for sneaking into bed with her own brother - Guy, the handsome lifeguard and most pleasant young man in Tranquilo - and giving him a blow job (my guess is someone at Hamlyn reminded Brander that this was the day of the nasty and advised him to up the bad sex). After the ensuing grappling match, Astragoth enters Guy and Nancy joins the fast-growing fatality list. For Diana, this latest mysterious death confirms her long held suspicion that the demon is targeting HER and the only hope she has is Saul Julian. Leaving Matt with trusted friend, "fat, talkative" Harriet Nagre of Harriet's Art Supplies, she drives out to Santa Monica to recruit him.

Guy Urich watches her leave.

Guy pays Harriet and Matt a visit.

He has a monster in his swimming trunks in more ways than one.

Harriet succumbs (off-page this time; Brander's given it enough explicit for one novel)

If Saul Julian is going to save the day he'll have to get a move on as there are only 34 pages left to do it in.

[dem bones]

Armed with Diana's painting of her demon, Saul drops off at a seedy one-stop occult shop whose huge black proprietor, "The Duchess", is rumoured to be anything from 80 to 110 years old, and what she doesn't know about Black Sorcery ain't worth knowing. Her business premises are Venice CA's answer to interzone, Bethnal Green.

"One entire wall was books. Old books, soiled books, torn books, forbidden books. Books that could be found nowhere else. Presiding over the confusion, on a perch above the door, was a mummified monkey. And looking very much like a mummy herself was the Duchess."

The Duchess immediately identifies Diana's demon as Astragoth and reluctantly refers Julian to a woodcut in Daemons Of The Olde Worlde.

" ... The creature held in its talons the limp figure of a pale-haired woman while it engaged in a foul act of sex. Julian was stunned by the resemblance of the woman in the old illustration to Diana Cross. The caption under the picture read: Astragoth claims his bride."

Julian picks up Kirby Franklin at the latest murder scene and heads off for the cellar of the Werhaus place where the Demon has offered Diana a stark choice. She either endures his vile caress, or little Matt drowns ...

Of the Branders i've read to date, The Brain Eaters is the most fun but Hellborn has its moments. To my mind, though, he misses a trick at the last. You can't argue that setting a desperate demon loose on a party of camping Girl Guides lacks potential, but a page earlier he set himself up for a REAL nasty kiss off, only to spurn the opportunity.