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Post by kooshmeister on Aug 15, 2023 6:20:34 GMT
Anyone else managed to read this?
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Post by kooshmeister on May 31, 2023 8:40:51 GMT
Now this is a book that's definitely worth getting! It came out in 2009 courtesy of Permuted Press and features almost exclusively (then) new stories by authors I've never heard of, except for one entry by Guy N. Smith. Which is actually how I stumbled across it. It's edited by Ryan C. Thomas as noted on the cover, but what isn't advertised is that it also features an introducing by Meg author Steve Alten, though he has little worthwhile to say beyond the fact that giant creatures, actual huge monsters, are more fun than things like vampires and zombies. It's a pretty phoned-in intro (he also contributes one story). But anyway, what about the stories themselves? Well, here they are!
Present Tense, Future Imperfect by D.L. Snell - Time travelers find themselves facing off against giant bugs. This one was kinda confusing. Crabs by Guy N. Smith - The oldest story in the book (having been written in 1992), it focuses on a group of people hiding in a cave from (what else?) giant crabs. It's one of the shortest stories in the book. A Plague from the Mud by Aaron A. Polson - Loggers discover giant beetles, which proceed to attack a small town. Lost in Time by Steve Alten - I don't really remember this one, but it apparently involves a giant viper fish. Scales by John Towler - Giant lizards vs. humanity. The Enemy of My Enemy by Patrick Rutigliano - During World War I, some Allied troops find an abandoned Imperial German trench infested with giant lice. This isn't the last time squicky parasites feature in this book. Savage by Erin Anderson - A giant kitty cat. Attack of the 500 Foot Porn Star by Steven Shrewsbury - One of the odder stories in the book, and exactly what it sounds like. Keep Watching by Nate Kenyon - Another one I don't quite remember. A giant snapping turtle features as the monster. Nirvana by J. Thomas Jeans - Humanity, after barely recovering from a zombie apocalypse, hides out in the titular underground base, where they attempt to develop genetically engineered giant maggots to eat the zombies. Turns out the maggots would rather eat them instead. Deep, Dark Submission by Paul Stuart - A killer angler fish. Whatever Became of Randy by James A. Moore - The title character suffers from a particularly malignant brain cancer. When he's being flown to the hospital in a helicopter, it crashes and he burns alive... whereupon his cancer-riddled brain bursts out of his skull, grows into a giant brain monster and begins terrorizing the countryside. Cooties by Randy Chandler - The protagonist discovers he's got a bad case of crabs (i.e. pubic lice), and, worse, they're growing quite large and beginning to attack people. Another killer parasite story, and just as icky as the previous one. Extinction by Evan Dicken - In an ambiguous time period that has elements of both the futuristic and the medieval, dragons, giant bears, robots and other ferocious combatants fight one another in a gladiatorial arena. The Cove by Greg Norris - A prostitute and her used car salesman boyfriend are on the run after stealing a ton of money from Japanese mobsters. While attempting to hide out, they stumble across an abandoned town near a cove, where the military is up to no good as usual. They - and the pursuing gangsters - quickly find out why the place is abandoned, courtesy of what emerges from the titular cove nearby. The Locusts Have a King by R. Thomas Riley - Some soldiers fighting in the desert stumble across a statue of an ancient locust demon, which of course leads to them actually freeing said demon, dooming the world to a plague of killer locusts. The Big Bite by Jeff Strand - Only skimmed through this one. Apparently it's a "giant vampire." I wanna say it's actually a giant flea, but don't quote me on that. Gone Fishin' by John Platt - Fisherman vs. a giant reptile. Six Legged Shadows by David Conyers and Brian Sammons - To quote Indiana Jones, big damn ants. The Island of Dr. Otaku by Cody Goodfellow - A rich Australian blackmails the Prime Minister of Japan (who has a scat fetish) into sending someone to eliminate the self-styled mad scientist "Dr. Otaku," who creates made-to-order giant monsters on his remote island. This is easily the most bonkers story in the book.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jan 16, 2023 9:27:19 GMT
Got a copy of this after seeing it mentioned in Paperbacks from Hell. Great stuff! Though at least according to the reprint, the title is "Nightblood," all one word.
Vietnam veteran Chris Stiles is working a dead-end job as a night watchman when the ghost of his dead brother Alex turns and tells him he needs to go to Isherwood, Indiana. There's trouble afoot. Trouble by the name of Danner. Chris would really rather not, as he's been hunting monsters ever since he returned to the States following the war. Alex Stiles has been haunting his brother ever since he was brutally killed in Central Park by an unknown assailant while his brother was serving his latest tour of duty in 'Nam. Because of the violent nature of his death, and the fact his killer was some kind of supernatural entity, Alex's ghost has the ability to sniff out evil, although he tends to be vague on the specifics. Whether this is because he can only intuit so much or whether he enjoys yanking Chris' chain and making him work for it, I dunno. Maybe both? Anyway, as noted, Chris is tired of monster hunting and beginning to believe that no matter what he does, he'll never find his brother's killer (simply referred to as "the Enemy"). Even Alex himself isn't entirely sure who or what killed him. It happened so fast he didn't get a good look at his killer.
Nevertheless, after a lengthy conversation, with Chris feeling that their working relationship is pretty one-sided, he finally agrees and walks out on his night watchman gig, loads his P.O.S. Dodge van with enough firepower to take on a professional army from a small country, and drives off towards Isherwood. Exactly who or what Danner is, though, Alex isn't sure. Or isn't telling.
Said town is your typical idyllic little American town (think Snowfield in Phantoms, before the Ancient Enemy paid it a visit, or the titular town from 'Salem's Lot, to which Nightblood is frequently compared, not unjustifiably). Chris - probably inspired by his love of cheesy harlequin romance novels - is posing as a novelist who does carpentry and other odd jobs between gigs, which local cop Deputy Charlie Bean swallows hook, line and sinker. So much so that he hires Chris to fix his desk at the police station, which wobbles, causing the drawer to fall out when it's opened. While he fishes for information about the name Danner, he hits up the local diner, where he immediately begins making goo-goo eyes at waitress and available single mom Billie Miller. The two hit it off so well that Chris begins experiencing a longing desire to settle down in Isherwood (it's as good a place as any), get with Billie the MILF and give up monster hunting, Alex's tendency to pester him if he remains inactive too long be damned. After taking care of this Danner business, of course.
After some flirting with Billie, he drives over to the police station, where it turns out the local cops are, surprise, surprise, huge jackasses. Rusty Sanders is a human piece of garbage who likes to smack his girlfriend around, and Marshal Thomas "Dutch" Larson is every redneck sheriff stereotype rolled into one pudgy slob of a man (except for the sheriff part; as noted, he's a marshal, which is a title I didn't think made it past the Old West; I guess Isherwood is that rural). He basically tells Chris to go screw, that Charlie didn't have the authority to offer him work (!) and that besides, he promised the job to his brother-in-law. Ah, nepotism. Chris manages to maintain his temper and points out that said brother-in-law hasn't fixed the desk yet, and manages to sway the Marshal around to giving him the job by essentially offering to do it for what amounts to nothing. In reality, he has no intention of touching Charlie's desk. He just wants the cops off his back so he can snoop, and if they think he's nothing but a humble handyman, they'll leave him alone.
Meanwhile, we finally find out what the name Danner refers to when we're introduced to Billie the waitress' sons Delbert (or just "Del") and Bart. The Danners were a wealthy family who lived in Isherwood years ago, but fell on hard times. Nathan Danner ran off to Europe, and upon returning home had some kind of falling out with his twin brother Sebastian. Something to do with Sebastian's wife, Lynn Anne. One night, Nathan vanished along with his sister-in-law, with Sebastian likewise disappearing not long after. A popular urban legend has it that Sebastian murdered his wife and brother and then went on the lam, a legend so pervasive that ever since the Danners disappeared, their house and property has remained untouched, with the people of Isherwood considering the land "poisoned." The old mansion has sat empty and abandoned for decades. What does this have to do with the Miller boys? Well, they're horror movie freaks, and older brother Bart has accepted a dare from his "friend" Tommy to spend a night in the decrepit mansion, which is scheduled for demolition because some real estate company finally bought the land and plans to develop it, curse or no curse. Del is tagging along just because, apparently. Fifty bucks will be theirs if they can last the night in the old house.
The boys hop the fence and head towards the house. Del quickly discovers that watching scary movies and being able to tolerate the gore in them isn't the same as actually braving a dark, scary house at night, and he lingers uncertainly around outside, despite his brother's assurances that there's nothing to be afraid of; see, before accepting the dare, Bart actually did some research about the Danners, and it turns out there were no murders; they did just simply disappear, but there was never any evidence of foul play. This doesn't exactly reassure Del, especially when, while twiddling his thumbs and trying to decide whether to go in or not, he encounters an old man with an axe. The guy seems just as surprised to see Del as Del is to see him and books it. Despite this, Del ultimately does decide to stay in the house with his brother. Before bedding down for the night, the two decide to explore, and wind up going down into the basement, where, to their surprise, they find a lit lantern and evidence that someone has been performing some kind of excavation, having knocked down one of the walls.
Behind it is another wall, also knocked in; beyond that is a third wall, which hasn't been smashed in yet. After making the obvious deduction that the old guy seen outside is the one who's been working down here, Bart gets the idea that the old man is a thief searching for the fabled Danner fortune; among the many other tall tales about the family is the fact there's supposed to be loads of gold and jewels hidden somewhere in the house. Despite Del's misgivings, Bart grabs a handy digging tool and decides to knock down the final wall so he and his brother can claim the treasure for themselves. Before he can fully knock it in, though, something on the other side, roused by the activity, knocks it out, and a pair of pale, cadaverous hands shoot through the opening, grab the startled Bart, and begin dragging him into the darkness beyond...
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Post by kooshmeister on Nov 27, 2022 22:21:27 GMT
Back at the SWAT Kats' hangar, T-Bone and Razor are repairing the Turbokat, and have a conversation that leads to a rather stupid exchange, with Razor commenting: "This is all too weird, Chance. I mean, Dark Kat, Feral, it’s like deja-vu." To which T-Bone exclaims "Deja- who?" Bright, T-Bone ain't. Clarifying, Razor says that not only are they going after Dark Kat, but they also have to rescue Feral (although for all they know, Feral could’ve already saved the day by now, so their total lack of faith in the guy is pretty obvious). As we’ll soon see, Razor calling this situation "deja-vu" is somewhat dubious. Razor asks if T-Bone remembers "what he to us that day." Whether he means Feral or Dark Kat is unclear at the moment. "Remember?" T-Bone replies. "How could I ever forget!" The picture gets all wavy and, ooh, it’s flashback time! An unknown number of years ago, we see Chance and Jake as part of a squadron of Enforcer pilots chasing after Dark Kat. Ah, finally, three episodes in and we get the title characters' backstory! And since " The Wrath of Dark Kat" was actually the fifth episode made, this means Hanna-Barbera waited until they were five episodes into the show before bothering to explain how Chance and Jake became the SWAT Kats! And in a flashback, no less! This episode was written by Jim Stenstrum and was one of only two he'd ever do for the series, the other being " The Metallikats," which also relies heavily on a lengthy mid-episode flashback. And boy is this one a doozy. Anyway, Dark Kat, flying a purple fighter jet that looks like a smaller version of the Fear Ship, is gunning for the newly built Enforcer Headquarters. To showcase how brave and skilled our boys are, despite Headquarters being in danger, the other pilots accompanying Chance and Jake bug out (!) and flee rather than continue pursuing Dark Kat. Such valor! "You two are nuts!" cries one. "We're breakin' off pursuit!" Why? All Dark Kat has done so far is fly between two skyscrapers, a maneuver easily replicated by Chance. I can't decide if the other Enforcers in this scene are idiots, cowards or both. After some drivel where Chance mocks them for refusing to continue accompanying them in the defense of their own HQ ("Get yourself some donuts!"), he and Jake close in on Dark Kat, who is preparing to fire a missile at "the justice machine that protects Megakat City." We finally get a good look at Enforcer Headquarters here, and it's one of the most impractical-looking buildings ever, featuring a runway built some thirty or forty stories off the ground!!! Not only is it one big target, but imagine being some poor Enforcer pilot whose jet malfunctions during takeoff. Once you clear the runway, you're a goner. Just forty stories straight to the pavement. I'm unsure why the Enforcers don't have their own airfield in a different part of a city without so many tall buildings rather than deploying all of their aircraft from this one building that's just begging to be blown the hell up. Jake fires a missile, which he of course announces aloud, showing us he had this habit long before he was ever a SWAT Kat. Though because it's a regular missile that doesn't do anything except blow up, he just yells "Missile deployed!" The missile hits Dark Kat's jet, and for some reason, hitting it in the rear area near the engines knocks out his weapons. Big D is most displeased to discover he can't shoot. As Chance moves in closer so Jake can finish the job, Commander Feral, evidently flying by himself without any wingmen or even a navigator/weapons officer of his own, flies in behind and kind of beside them and demands that they back off and let him finish off the villain. Chance protests that they can't because they've already achieved missile lock. I admit I don't know enough about fighter jets, but it was once explained to me that once a missile has been locked in on a target, it's difficult if not impossible to disengage it; you have to fire it or else. So when Feral ignores Chance's protest and repeats his demand ("I'm ordering you to back off!"), he's being very much the idiot the show wants us to believe he is (more on this in a bit) and Chance is very much in the right, order or no order. The argument continues for a bit before Feral just decides to disregard Chance's insubordination and fly past him and Jake. What occurs is open to interpretation. " The Wrath of Dark Kat" is not one of the episodes we have much behind the scenes material for, which is a shame, as that stuff would really help figure out what the hell happens here. What happens is that Feral passes too close to Chance and Jake's jet and he knocks them aside. What's not clear is whether this was done on purpose or on accident. Admittedly, neither interpretation paints Feral in the best light, but if it's the former, then he's an asshole, and if it's the latter, then he's just reckless. Because he's one of my favorite characters and because of how he generally acts elsewhere in the series (more on this in a second, as well), I choose to believe he was just being reckless and impatient as opposed to deliberately trying to ram his own men aside and out of his way. But, as mentioned, neither interpretation really makes Feral look very good. Anyway, upon being knocked out of control, Chance and Jake have to eject, and their pilotless jet flies nose-first into the top floor of Enforcer Headquarters, resulting in a huge explosion that engulfs the entire top portion of the building. The explosion distracts Feral, and when he turns to look at it, Dark Kat takes this opportunity to escape. When Feral looks back, the enemy jet is gone. "Dark Kat's gone! All because of those two young hotshots!" Well, more like due to your hotheaded impatience, Commander, but whatever. Another thing to comment about is that throughout this entire sequence, the visors on Chance and Jake's Enforcer helmets go up and down. They're down in some shots, hiding their eyes, and up in others, letting us see their eyes. Whatever. Later, Chance, Jake and Feral are standing down on the sidewalk looking up at the raging inferno that used to be Enforcer Headquarters. Chance and Jake comment that it's a "heckuva loss" and a "monumental disaster." Feral, waving around a piece of paper that I'm assuming is supposed to be the repair bill (how did he get it so soon?), says he's glad they agree, "Because this is the last act of vandalism you are ever going to perform on this city!" Hoo boy is he ever wrong! Chance gets angry at Feral putting all the blame on him and Jake, and tells him it would've have happened if he hadn't butted in and demanded they back off. Feral loses his temper even more than before and promptly fires them. "That's it! You're off the force! Both of you!" Now, this is where the blame shifts from it being all Feral's fault and falls onto Chance and Jake's (Chance moreso than Jake) shoulders. Chance is angry, and rightly so, and up until now he and Jake have been in the right. However, if he'd kept his mouth shut and accepted whatever punishment Feral planned to hand out to them (his dialogue suggests he was going to ground them) and worry about proving themselves in the right later, at a time when tempers aren't so high and in a place a lot less public than the sidewalk out in front of Headquarters, they could've salvaged their careers. Instead, Chance gets in his commanding officer's face, accuses him, however justifiably, of incompetence and blame-shifting, and apparently expects no consequences for this act. If he has such a problem with authority, it makes me wonder why he became an Enforcer in the first place. Chance and Jake say that they don't need "this crud" and try to pull the old "You can't fire me, I quit" reversal on their C.O., taking off and tossing away their helmets and walking off, prompting Feral to point out that they're "off the force, but not off the hook." The repairs to HQ are going to be quite costly, and he intends to make them pay for it by sentencing them to work it off in the salvage yard. Which seems like something that would have to be ordered by a judge or something, not arbitrarily handed down by the commanding officer of the police force. But then again, this is a world of talking cat people, so whatever. Anyway, this flashback is often used as ammo by fans who hate Commander Feral to point out what an unreasonable dick he is, and that his entire motivation is not protecting the city but his own personal glory. And they're right. Feral is like that... but only here in this flashback. In the entire rest of the series, including this very episode (!), Feral is arrogant and short-tempered, yes, but no glory hound, and his problem with the SWAT Kats isn't that he's jealous of them, but that they're reckless and cause too much damage (to say nothing of making him and his men look like idiots). Jim Stenstrum does say Feral is jealous of the SWAT Kats in his script for "The Metallikats" (or at least that this is Callie's interpretation for Feral's hatred of her heroes), but he appears to be the only person working on the show (besides whoever wrote the very unflattering bio for Feral in the press kit, where he's described as "power hungry) who thinks that. As noted, everywhere else, Commander Feral hates the SWAT Kats because he thinks they're reckless and irresponsible. He doesn't agree with their "ends justify the means" approach to defending the city. So he's ordinarily a much more nuanced character outside of this flashback, even in this very episode. Another interpretation of how Feral is portrayed here is that the flashback is from the SWAT Kats' (primarily T-Bone's) P.O.V., and so naturally it's going to be one-sided and kind of self-serving and paint Chance and Jake in the best light and Feral in the worst one. As further evidence of this, see the above mentioned incompetence/cowardice of the other pilots who give up the chase early on for no clear reason. We cut to Chance and Jake driving to the salvage yard in a green car that we never see them use again (a generic model recycled a lot throughout the show), where they're greeted by Burke and Murray, who mock them as "those hotshots who wrecked the new Enforcer building." Burke gives them the keys to the yard and Murray taunts them that at their salary, "it should only take a thousand years" to pay off their debt. Then, after he explains that they'll be checking on them and reporting back to Feral on their progress, he and his brother get into their big ugly dump truck and drive off. Chance starts angrily kicking random junk around, complaining, "We’re pilots, not junkmen!" Jake however has a solution, noting that "there’s enough military salvage here to build our own jet." Uh-huh. So they built the Turbokat from scratch?!!?? Chance, being sensible for once, asks what they would do if they had their own jet. "Get back in the air and get back at Dark Kat, and all the other ugly criminal scum who rear their heads in Megakat City," replies Jake. “Only this time… we do it our way!” Boy, I miss heroes who did heroic deeds because of a sense of duty, not because they’re out for personal revenge. Anyway, Chance and Jake high-five one another as the flashback finally ends, and we return to the present to see that T-Bone Razor have also high-fived one another. T-Bone says, "Time to take care of Dark Kat! But this time, we do it our way!" Funny, I thought they’ve been doing it their way for the past three episodes… Cut to the interior of Dark Kat’s secret volcano lair, which is appropriately dark and spooky with lava flowing everywhere, and the Fear Ship sits parked in front of a tunnel whose opening is a big demonic mouth with fangs and such. A portion of the floor pulls away as what looks like a big bomb rises up into view on a wheeled platform. Dark Kat approaches it, talking an offscreen Commander Feral, identifying the weapon as the "Doomsday Device." Boy, this guy sure likes the word "doomsday." We now see that Feral is bound and gagged nearby, looking really worried for a change as Dark Kat rants, "In less than one hour, I will destroy Megakat City. From its ashes I will create a new city, where lawlessness is the law of the land: Dark Kat City!" Okay, I have to admit, as far as evil schemes go, I rather like the idea of a megalomaniacal supervillain being so in love with himself that he wants to build his own city and name it after himself, crafting it in his own image. And Dark Kat is certainly in love with himself, if the big, monogrammed "D" on his metal shoulder guard is any indication. Still, a bomb plot is rather passe once we’ve already had stuff like dinosaurs and mutant bacteria monsters.
As for Feral, he's tied to a rock and gagged, and not very happy about it, either. And for some reason, he's really afraid. I dunno. I mean, yeah, Dark Kat is a big guy, and his plan will kill a lot of people, but he's no danger to Feral himself right this second. If he was going to kill him, he would've done it already (and, no, I have no idea what he hasn't). So Feral's over the top, bug-eyed reaction with profuse sweating is pretty unintentionally hilarious.
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Post by kooshmeister on Nov 11, 2022 14:21:03 GMT
Proteus is pretty decent, but Corman's Carnosaur is a mess.
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Post by kooshmeister on Oct 30, 2022 9:59:56 GMT
It occurs to me that this book has a similar structure to Slime. Both books begin and end with characters who set the plot in motion but who never actually interact with the main cast. In this case, it's junkyard owner Karl Jurgens and his horny friend. Much like the guys who dump the toxic waste in Slime, they're in the prologue and the epilogue but not part of the main story. I found it bizarre in that book and I find it bizarre in this one. Just as the protagonists in the other novel never actually learn where the blob monster came from, so too do our heroes in this book never discover where the dogs escaped from. Though in fairness to Essex, it doesn't matter, at least not in this case. One reason it bugs me in The Pack is that you'd think Jurgens and his friend would've heard about the dog attacks and put two and two together, but evidently not. I guess they're too busy doing the books at the junkyard and boozing it up at the local bars to really pay attention to the news.
Another similarity to Slime (besides the aforementioned truck sequence) is that Sheriff Little and Chief Manning are basically Sheriff Sawyer and Chief Simpson. Or should that be that Sawyer and Simpson are similar to Little and Manning, since The Pack came first.
The stupidity of the Mayor (whose name escapes me, and I'm not too keen on bothering to look it up) is astounding. I love the scene where Little browbeats him over recalling the nightly patrols by reminding him they're elected officials and if the Mayor doesn't step things up and get those cops back on the streets, he's going to ensure he doesn't get reelected (and likely sacrifice his own chances in that regard) by going public about how the Mayor and the city council were more concerned with saving money that in defending the citizenry. That made Little one of my favorite characters in the story, that he was willing to throw away his career just to drag the Mayor down. I'm surprised His Honor didn't end up as dog chow.
And speaking of characters I thought would bite it, Niedles' callous comments seemed to be setting him up for a gruesome death as well, but somehow he managed to make it out of the story alive.
As for characters I did like, there's the aforementioned Sheriff Little, and Mark. I was certain he'd turn out to be a jerk when he was finally introduced, but he was actually an okay guy. Such a shame he joins his awful girlfriend (the hero's ex) in getting mauled.
The most memorable death in the book was the milkman. How many people can say they died in a car crash while having their throat torn out by the severed upper body of a dog? That scene was so dumb it came right back around and became awesome.
Trixie felt like a pointless character (insofar as a dog can be a character). Her reluctance to really commit to the pack and her yearning for her owner (who she didn't know was dead, killed by the very dogs she's now thrown in her lot with) had me thinking she'd turn good near the end and maybe save the day, but, alas, it wasn't to be. She dies unceremoniously gunned down by the cops. Though I guess her being brutally killed without managing to find redemption is the point - it is a horror novel, after all - and she's supposed to the tragic member of the dog pack, it still felt like Essex could've done more with her.
And that, for the moment, concludes my thoughts about The Pack.
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Post by kooshmeister on Aug 16, 2022 19:14:07 GMT
The Tanner family has just moved to the picture perfect town of Silverdale. Father Blake, an employee of the mega-corporation TarrenTech, just got transferred there. His family is less than thrilled. Wife Sharon finds the place kind of insipid and a little too good to be true. Kids Mark and Kelly miss their friends. But nevertheless, they've moved. Blake is insecure about his son being short and thin, and so, much to Sharon's eternal annoyance, he constantly pesters Mark about trying out for the football team. Mark, who prefers his hobbies of photography and tending to his pet rabbits, isn't sure he'd even make the cut, considering that Siverdale High's team are the biggest and best around. In fact, they're downright monstrous. They're bigger, faster and stronger than any other team. And meaner, too. Something the adults are happy to file under "boys will be boys" as long as the team keeps winning. Then one day, during a game, star player Jeff LaConnor tackles another player so bad he practically breaks the other boy's spine. Coach Phil Collins doesn't seem terribly concerned, confident the boy's family won't sue. Jeff's father Chuck is equally uninterested, insisting it was an accident. But Charlotte LaConnor is convinced that her son has changed somehow. Ever since he went to that sports clinic run by Dr. Marty Ames. All the football players on Silverdale's team do. Maybe there's a reason they're so much bigger and stronger. And more violent. At the hospital, Rick Ramirez, the injured player, is in a coma. The opposing team's coach, Bob Jenkins, who had hoped to marry Rick's mother, is enraged and threatens to sue. He wants Rick's mother to sue as well. ER Doctor Andrew "Mac" MacCallum is sympathetic (he doesn't like what TarrenTech and the "rah-rah-rah" win-at-all-costs football culture has done to the town), but advises against it. Despite his personal feelings about how football culture has taken over Silverdale, he knows that taking on Coach Collins is a no-win situation. In the meantime, TarrenTech offers to pay for all of Rick's medical bills. Entirely out of the goodness of their hearts, claims local company man Jerry Harris. Mac wonders why the corporation would be footing the bill. They do fund the sports clinic where all the Silverdale players go, but... In the meantime, Mark has fallen hard for a girl at school named Linda Harris (none other than Jerry's daughter). Eager to impress her, he finally makes his father proud by deciding to try out for football. This doesn't go unnoticed by Jeff LaConnor, who also has his eye on Linda and in fact considers her his girlfriend. He and his cronies decide they need to teach the little dweeb a lesson. Naturally, the beatdown goes too far. Jeff pretty much begins acting like such a wild beast that even his fellow football thugs are too scared to help him beat up on Mark anymore, and the police are involved. Jeff flees. After a lengthy pursuit, the cops nab him, but don't take him to jail. Instead, they take him to see Dr. Ames, who runs the sports clinic... Not long afterwards, Chuck LaConnor has to break the bad news to his wife that their son has been deemed hopelessly insane and is being committed to a mental institution. He won't say where. And she isn't allowed to go see him, either. And furthermore, they're moving. Immediately. In the meantime, at the insistence of his father, Mark goes to Dr. Ames' clinic (Jerry Harris just raves about the place). He doesn't remember a thing about what happens there, but after he gets out, he feels... different. Bigger. Stronger. Faster. Blake is thrilled. But Sharon, like Charlotte LaConnor, is concerned. She notices her son neglecting his hobbies and his pets, and becoming increasingly more aggressive and short-tempered. Like a typical angry, stupid jock and not the sweet kid she raised. What exactly are they doing to the boys at that clinic...?
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Post by kooshmeister on Aug 16, 2022 13:00:43 GMT
Nice of him to write the book's title in his own blood as he's dragged down to his death. From Below is a novel by John Tigges (writing as "William Essex"), who brought us such classics as The Pack and Slime. But this time, instead of ravenous dogs or living lakes of toxic waste, the horror destined to descend upon the hapless town of Riverside is giant leeches. The basic setup is that a bunch of ordinary leeches are living in a pond near an electric substation. During a storm, lightning hits the substation and this somehow causes the leeches to grow bigger, become really mean and leave their little pond home and begin oozing their way to the nearest town, Riverside. Of note is how maliciously destructive the author is to the local wildlife during this opening scene. When lightning hits a tree, it causes birds to explode in clouds of feathers and a raccoon to become fried and his eyes to sizzle and pop out of their sockets. Jeez, we haven't even gotten to the leech attacks and already this book is violent as hell. Anyway, in Riverside there's some big to-do at the town council. The mayor's brother-in-law has been elected to a position left vacant when the last guy died and this just plain smacks of nepotism. Our hero is a reporter who is suffering from PTSD from his time in Vietnam when the Viet Cong locked him in leech-infested pits. He frequently suffers horrifying nightmares about leeches crawling all over him. I guess he's gonna have to learn to confront his fears or something. Anyway, Tigges wastes no time in getting to the gooey goods with the leeches infesting the town's badly kept storm drains, emerging mostly at night to ooze into homes and attack unsuspecting people, leaving behind nothing but slimy skeletons (shades of Joseph Payne Brennan's Long Hollow Swamp). For the most part, because the victims are attacked in their homes, nobody immediately discovers their remains. The whole thing goes public when a drunk walking home from the bar decides to try and beat a train, gets clipped and falls into a ditch. Crippled, he's helpless against the onslaught of invertebrate violation. The train stops and the brakeman, getting out to see if there's anything he can do for the poor bastard, witnesses him getting stripped to the bone. Of course, by the time he's returned with the cops, the leeches are gone and he's written off as a nut. Meanwhile, one by one, the skeletal remains of the other victims are being discovered in their homes. A guy who returns home from out of town, suspecting his wife his cheating on him (she is, and getting paid for it!), tries to catch her in the act only to find what's left of her in the basement as well as her latest john out in the yard. Grief-stricken, he calls the cops (I'm surprised Tigges didn't write him as glad that his wife was dead). Then a social worker goes to pay a visit to the Anders family because the kids didn't show up for school. When no one answers the door, she calls the cops, and they break down the door to discover the entire family dead. There's also a pretty gruesome sequence at a church where some unfortunate nuns get slimed and eaten, and the priest, discovering them the next morning, vomits in horror. Police Lieutenant Traverse (one of the few characters whose name I remember from my brief skimming of the book) thinks there's a serial killer on the loose whose stripping his victims of their flesh and then re-dressing them in their clothes. But our reporter hero thinks it's animals. Of course, nobody believes him. We'll have to see how this pans out. So far, I'm enjoying the book.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 23, 2022 18:09:07 GMT
I was born in 1983 and grew up with the film.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 23, 2022 14:09:27 GMT
Interesting edition. What is is? The Marvel movie adaption by Goodwin and Williamson as a paperback? I never liked the third movie. The script was a disappointment and not very original, I loathed the Ewoks and hated the saccharine end. The phoned in performances, the smug self-awareness of the stars. They were not acting, they were role-playing. Compared to the later "prequels" it was of course a masterwork. I can watch those only on mute. The dialogue is a horror, the plot is inane (even for a bargain basement space opera).
I loved Return of the Jedi, myself. Especially the Ewoks.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 22, 2022 16:56:16 GMT
Now that's a cover!
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 21, 2022 15:39:43 GMT
Ordered Saurian by William Schoell.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 20, 2022 21:38:05 GMT
Here's a version with the Harry Adam Knight's pseudonym as the author's name instead of Simon Ian Childer. This is the version I got off of eBay.
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 19, 2022 14:00:50 GMT
I do hope these are interesting to the people on here, heh. The creators are teasing a continuation of the series, titled SWAT Kats: Revolution, so I was inspired to finally return to this episode and at least get it finished. Cut to the SWAT Kats' hangar. Razor is fiddling with some gizmo or other, while T-Bone complains that Dark Kat has never brought them anything but bad luck. Razor tells him it could've been worse, since the green laser thing almost hit the jet's fuel tanks. The alarm sounds, and T-Bone (missing his tail due to an animation blooper) answers the phone on the nearby wall. It’s Callie, of course, and we see her driving to, um, somewhere. Back to the city, I guess. Anyway she quickly fills them in on Feral’s situation. Our heroes express incredulity that the Enforcer Commander snuck aboard Dark Kat's ship. I dunno why. Cut to the Fear Ship flying along towards some pointy-looking mountains. Inside, Feral is hiding behind some crates in the cargo bay. He's talking to Steel on what I at first took to be a walkie-talkie but which the model sheets for the next episode, " Destructive Nature," clarify is in fact a "field phone." Steel, kicking back in Feral's office back at Enforcer Headquarters, tells him that they've been unable to scramble any jets yet due to "mechanical problems." Aghast, Feral demands to know what this means, and Steel, putting his feet up on Feral's desk, assures him they'll be there soon... and then hangs up on him! "But not too soon," he says, flicking Feral's nameplate off the desk onto the floor. And, no, before you go thinking Steel is a traitor working for Dark Kat, he isn't. He's just a greedy little bastard who wants his boss' job badly enough to sit back and let him get killed. "He hung up on me!" cries Feral to no one in particular. "The little creep hung up on me!" Assuming Feral gets out of this alive, methinks Steel's ass is grass. Drawing his gun (which looks a lot like a hot glue gun more than anything), Feral enters the main area of the ship. Dark Kat is sitting at the controls in a kind of big throne-like chair with his back to the door, so it appears as if Feral has the drop on him. Suddenly, two Creeplings fly in from somewhere and attack Feral, taking his gun away. Despite the size difference between them and Feral, they do a pretty good job of restraining him. But then again, these are the same critters that lifted and threw a full-grown guy in a lead-lined radiation suit, earlier, so it's obvious that Creeplings are pretty strong. Dark Kat spins around in his chair and greets him. "It's about time you said hello, Commander." Evidently he knew he was there the whole time. Feral tries to bluff. "The Enforcers are right behind me!" Amazingly, the bluff works... but even more amazingly, Dark Kat doesn't give a crap. "Let your men come!" he sneers. "By the time they arrive, Megakat City will be in ruins." After welcoming him aboard "the Doomsday Express," he turns back to flying the ship, which heads towards a kind of lava waterfall. In what is admittedly a nice bit, the Fear Ship uses its forcefield to fly through the lava-fall and into a tunnel concealed behind it, heading into the villain's obligatory secret volcano lair. Will Feral escape? Will the SWAT Kats get the Turbokat fixed in time to stop whatever Dark Kat's evil plan is? Stay tuned next time for a longer post when I have more time!
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Post by kooshmeister on Jul 19, 2022 13:42:40 GMT
Got:
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham The Thing by Alan Dean Foster The Incredible Melting Man by Phil Smith Night of the Big Heat by John Lymington
On order:
Worm by Harry Adam Knight (yeah, evidently it was published under the Knight pseudonym) Tendrils by Simon Ian Childer
Also eyeing:
Slime by John Halkin Creature by John Saul Saurian by William Schoell The Lake by R. Karl Largent
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