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Post by kooshmeister on Mar 15, 2011 0:13:14 GMT
Thanks. I'll be sure and try to track one of those down.
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Post by kooshmeister on Mar 14, 2011 22:16:17 GMT
My enthusiasm for it is unusual, as I am actually usually a very squeamish person. I guess it isn't disturbing to me because instead of ever being horrifying, it's funny. As someone else pointed out, Nace is just trying too hard. Trying too hard to be scary, gruesome and offensive, that he/she just goes so over the top it turns the novel in a really hilarious grossout comedy. If ever a movie were made it would certainly be a black comedy like Brain Dead. As to Nace's gender I support the idea it was Evelyn Pierce Nace who penned this wonderful little book, if only because the idea of an over-fifty woman penning this insanity amuses me. Oh and I did a TV Tropes entry for the book, too, just to help it get more well-known: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EatThemAlive
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Post by kooshmeister on Mar 14, 2011 12:29:40 GMT
Unsure of where this ought to go, but since it is for an American (I think) novel published by Berkeley Medallion I figured I would put it here. If it belongs elsewhere, I apologize. Not as gruesome or sex filled as many of the other books mentioned on here, and it being nominated for a Nebula Award certainly elevates it above standard pulp paperback fare, but I've been a huge fan of The Clone by Theodore L. Thomas and Kate Wilhelm for some time now. I feel it is a marvelous and meticulously written spin on the "giant blob monster" idea. Has anyone else here read it? My favorite part is when they're experimenting with the clone tissue sample in the lab and naturally it gets on someone's arm leading to the standard "cut the guy's arm off" to save him. It works. But then it happens again to a different character, and this time... well, they aren't as successful. Supposedly the novel was based on a short story by Thomas. Does anyone know where this short story can be read?
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Post by kooshmeister on Mar 14, 2011 12:23:12 GMT
Wow. This book was absolutely amazing in its sheer audacity, cruelty and gruesomeness. But that's what I bought it for! It was well worth the money and the wait for it to come in the mail.
I love how hypocritical Dyke is. Clearly he thinks the entire world revolves around him. And I love how he doublecrossed the other guys first, something he doesn't factor into his thinking (i.e. that maybe he deserved what he had coming). God, did I ever hate him. The story progression was great but I think Dyke Mellis is the least likable main character since... ever.
But it was a good kind of hate. It was like reading a horror novel from the insane villain's viewpoint where all his twisted reasoning makes sense because it makes it no sense.
I also love how he, early on, entertains the idea of getting military-grade weapons to deal with the mantises he can't control when his handgun doesn't penetrate their shells... only to, closer to the end, be so drunk with power that he is fantasizing about the mantises tackling entire armies. Guess he forgot his own initial reasoning. And that most modern militaries have things like armor-piercing rounds and rocket launchers and such. Heck, a properly-armed SWAT team could wipe out his stupid mantises.
This is completely random but I was thinking how neat a sequel would be, and if it were Sir Darren Penward from Carnosaur who leads an expedition to Malpelo Island or Marno to catch himself some giant mantises for his private zoo. Can't decide if I'd want it to be a Carnosaur prequel or a sequel revealing Penward survived somehow.
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Hello!
Mar 14, 2011 12:12:37 GMT
Post by kooshmeister on Mar 14, 2011 12:12:37 GMT
Hi there.
I stumbled across this place searching for information on the, erm, interesting novel Eat Them Alive, after a friend recommended it to me (the book, not this place).
Although my friend's recommendation had me interested (I have a severe love of praying mantises), it was the thread for the novel here which convinced me I had to add Eat Them Alive to my collection of horror paperbacks which also includes The Clone and Carnosaur. It also gave me some idea of exactly what to expect from Nace's masterpiece.
Anyway I figured I'd make an account here for, like, whatever, since because of my friend I am becoming interested in these old pulpy horror and science fiction novels. Although I myself am not British I hope I will fit in here.
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