Thomas Page - The Spirit

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Thomas Page - The Spirit (Hamlyn 1979, reprinted 1981)

It arrived this morning, so here's the cover & back blurb:

[dem]

this one's the '81 reprint, dave.

Thomas Page - The Spirit (Hamlyn, 1980; originally 1979)

Blurb:
It's the stuff of nightmares and legends.
It has many names:
Bigfoot....Yeti.... Sasquatch.
But whatever it is, it's out there in the woods and very dangerous.
For John Moon, a half-mad Indian, it holds the key to his inner self. He worships its power and he'll kill to protect it.
Desperate, exhausted, half-starved, Moon will follow wherever it goes.
For Raymond Jason, bored millionaire, it becomes a challenge — he must hunt it down and prove its existence. Though he's never quite sure what he's pursuing.
But when the two men finally corner their prey they set loose a flood of terror and destruction which may leave no survivors.

"Some bloodcurdling scenes, including a blizzard, fire, avalanche and snowmobile chase" — Publishers Weekly

Fifty pages in and it took all of about four paragraphs to have me rooting for fiesty the abominable snowman over his human pursuers (what's left of 'em). Sasquatch/ Bigfoot/ The Yeti wanders the Canadian wastes, doing his own thing, offering no harm to mankind whatsoever, and generally getting on with his business in an omnivorous way. All would most likely be well for mankind were it not for Moon the mad injun and Raymond Jason the indulged millionaire who, for their very different reasons, insist on harassing him. In the case of mental patient Moon, it's because he's mistaken Bigfoot for the spirit guide he's been lacking all his life and, therefore he'll do whatever he need to prove his loyalty to the creature and his tiny but fearless mongrel dog. It's Moon who hunts down a mink ox with his rifle and tracks it for days before landing the kill. Sasquach rips off the head to make sure it's dead, then feasts on roughly 100lb of meat from the carcass. Despite the offering, Sasquatch keeps his distance from Moon. He's not being surly, it's just that he hates rifles.

So, of course, Raymond Jason and his crew come terrifying him with their tranquilliser dart guns. Jason is a successful businessman who has romped to his first million to find it means zero. His wife has gone, everybody avoids him because of his serious anger management issues, essentially, all that success amounts to nothing. How to fix things? Easy, bag a Bigfoot!

Before you can say 'heads will roll!' they do, and Jason's team is effortlessly whittled down to just him. He returns to civilisation to plot his next move ....

(TBC. So far, so very Rambo: First Blood with a yeti and lots of snow)

[dem]

The theory is that this particular Bigfoot is third generation and relatively advanced for the species - he's evolved, but at a far slower rate than man. From what we've seen of him to date, this is being diplomatic. Jason almost bags himself a yeti carcass when the creature's raid on an orchard next door to a trailer park is curtailed by a line of wet washing - even Moon the Indian loses heart at his God's ineptitude after that woeful display. Tired of waiting for Bigfoot to reveal his spirit name, Moon rebels and makes off alone to endure his 'nam flashbacks. Turns out he was the the most ruthless killer in his platoon, feared by the enemy and his own men alike - this novel is getting more Rambo with every page - and still capable of putting the creeps up everybody, even when he's being "friendly". Bigfoot eventually gets him back onside with a peace offering of eviscerated dog - Jason's. If the hunter was pissed with the trio before, he's apoplectic now. That pedigree hound was his only friend in the world!

Will have to see how it pans out, but so far it's one of the better Bigfoot/ Yeti/ Sasquatch/ Abominable Snowman novels i've read, if not entirely dissimilar to M. E. Knerr's Sasquatch.

[dem]

if i'm making very hard work of Spirit, it's not the fault of the novel which is very readable, just that there are several drains on my free time right now. The Sasquach has finally come good, lobbing a rattlesnake at Jason which duly sinks its fangs into the hunter,only to get carried away with his success and attempt to drown him instead of sticking with his trademark ripping-of-head-from-shoulders routine. Jason is saved by the quick-thinking of passing motorist Martha Lucas (potential love interest) who knows all about snake venom and, equally important, is writing a thesis on native American tribes.

Part two, and the action shifts to the mountains of the Colby Valley in Washington where entrepreneur Simon Helder has opened a ski resort. Moon takes a job as the resort's token native injun, teaching archery to shrill housewives and proto-yuppie slime barbies of either sex. Martha, who works in the gift store, compares notes with Jason. She tells him the customs of the Flatheads, he tells her that Moon is wanted for murder in Canada.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kimberley of the Kansas Primate Centre has delivered Jason a worrying report. Overlook the tusks, the deformed head, the horn-like growths and prodigious height. Bigfoot has a chin which means he can only be human.

100 pages to go. It's miles more fun and plenty easier on the brain than Michael Slade's Zombie/ Evil Eye.

[erebus]

This ones been on my local Oxfam shelf for a while now , but I keep passing on it. I ventured on over here to see if anybody had any info on the book, and lo and behold here we are. The one they have is the initial release with the shadow standing in the soap suds. I'll go pick it up tomorrow.

Bet its gone now

[dem]

Nov 20, 2013 18:59:07 GMT erebus said:

This ones been on my local Oxfam shelf for a while now , but I keep passing on it. I ventured on over here to see if anybody had any info on the book, and lo and behold here we are. The one they have is the initial release with the shadow standing in the soap suds. I'll go pick it up tomorrow.

Bet its gone now

Did you get lucky, mr. erebus? I had a good time with Spirit, though damned if I can remember the ending (teach me not to keep up with the notes!). And that reminds me: inspired by Nick Pope in the latest issue of Paperback Fanatic , we really must have a crack at a cryptozoology top 10.

[erebus]

Sorry for late reply Dem. No I didn't pick it up. It was there Tuesday ( Thursday today ) but I got in one of those I'll pick it up ont way back mindsets, and I never did. Theres a few tasty offerings there to be honest. The two Scorpion books I am missing. And Fungus by HAK. Sadly its that rubbish upsidedown head cover not the one with the guy with the bad face . Some Halkins, Smiths and Richard Lewis stuff too. Seems a connoisseur has had a clear out.
If your still keen on THE SPIRIT I can pass it on to you when I'm done Dem. Thats if its still bloody there .

[dem]

Dec 5, 2013 13:41:41 GMT erebus said:

Sorry for late reply Dem. No I didn't pick it up. It was there Tuesday ( Thursday today ) but I got in one of those I'll pick it up ont way back mindsets, and I never did. Theres a few tasty offerings there to be honest. The two Scorpion books I am missing. And Fungus by HAK. Sadly its that rubbish upsidedown head cover not the one with the guy with the bad face . Some Halkins, Smiths and Richard Lewis stuff too. Seems a connoisseur has had a clear out.
If your still keen on THE SPIRIT I can pass it on to you when I'm done Dem. Thats if its still bloody there .

Thanks erebus, but I still have my copy, but don't have time to re-read it just now. I'm a bit worried for our connoisseur. No-one gets rid of such treasures lightly. i hope he or she are OK.

[humgoo]

Valancourt edition, 2019; cover painting by Tom Hallman (1982)

Another one from Valancourt's "Paperbacks from Hell" series, though it doesn't feature in Mr. Hendrix's book (the honour goes to Snowman).

From Mr. Hendrix's introduction: "Starting in 1976 with the novelization of the Six Million Dollar Man episode "The Secret of Bigfoot Pass" by Make Jahn, Bigfoot books were booming. And, Steve Austin aside, everyone wanted to have sex with Sasquatch. [...] So it's not surprising that the first thing you notice about Thomas Page's bigfoot novel, The Spirit (1977) is that absolutely no one has any sex at all with Bigfoot. In fact, we don't even get a single glimpse of his dong. This isn't the only reason—but it's certainly one of them—why The Spirit is the best Bigfoot book out there."