Gary Brandner (1933–2013)

Shades of Pet Sematary (this was written 3 years later), dead is indeed better. A charlatan fortune teller decides to perform a resurrection and has unexpected success. Initially everyone involved seems so relaxed about this it felt bizarre, but the way Brandner sets up the 80s soulless rise to fame with dealmakers fighting to sign him for their run at the LA big leagues is really funny and validates the flat affect as pure comedy. Unfortunately Brander doesn't lean into this and tries to show more get a horror ending, the satire elements fall away and the rest is hackneyed, stereotypical use of voodoo and entirely expected, while retaining the now mysterious blasé attitude to the now far less friendly resurrected dead.
This is roughly akin to a James Herbert story, or worse Stephen King. show less

This is essentially 28 Days Later by way of the first third of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead with heavy Cold War Era political thriller undertones. Basically, a hippy eco-terrorist chick gets her boyfriend to screw up a harmless test involving spraying dye to test air dispersal, and the brain eater parasite is unleashed. The book, for the most part, follows a disgraced newspaper reporter as he discovers and unwinds the crisis. It was a fast-paced and easy read though the last fifty show more pages had a couple of lulls that probably should have been shortened. Otherwise, all the character work and introductions had something to do with driving the plot along including cutaways to the several first incidents of brain eaters causing people to go berserk.
The story had plenty of horror and some tense action pieces though I preferred the straight horror scenes more. The subplot that finally intersected in the last bit of the book with the KGB Agents and the Soviet “Agricultural” Specialist, which was the espionage undertone of the work, surprised me in its final twist involving the hippie girl which I thought that I had figured out already. It was a little punch to my political stances as she was made out to be a vicious idiot who was violently against war and pro-environmentalism that the reader was supposed to hate. At the same time, some of the victims of the parasites had racist and homophobic thoughts as they were succumbing and portrayed as victims. I might be reading too much into it as I have no idea what the author’s political bent was at all.
Overall, I recommend this if you’re looking for a not-too-heavy end-of-the-world horror story. The story is fast-paced, it never stops moving forward save in a few spots, and there is no doubt that it is meant to be a straight horror story judging by the very horror-morality ending, the other elements from outside genres being just a part of the scope. In fact, I definitely now want to check out the first [book:The Howling|481462] book now. I loved the movie since childhood so it’s not like I wasn’t interested beforehand. show less

This one is interesting. Brandner decides to not even mention Karyn or any of the major players from the first two novels and instead begins a new and interesting alternate look into the world he created. From what I can understand, this story likely plays out roughly at the same time as the second novel.

He also, in dumping Karyn, loses his perennial damsel in distress, which isn't a bad thing.

In fact, my only issue with this one is the same as what some of the other reviewers have stated: show more the ending seems rushed.

This novel ran about 50 pages longer than the other two, and it also felt like the author was setting up an entirely new direction for future books. Then, within a few short pages, all that changed. Which is disappointing.

I'm actually bummed there are no more books in this series. show less

I read this novel when it was originally released in 1977, back when Stephen King released The Shining and then every horror novel had to have a title ending in ing. I was fifteen years old.

I seem to remember enjoying it, but could remember no details whatsoever from the story. So, it was interesting revisiting it (through the Books of the Dead reprints, with gorgeous interlocking cover artwork). And you know what? It's a fun read.

Brandner will never be mistaken for a stunningly talented show more wordsmith, but in this novel he crafted a decent, suspenseful, sexy werewolf tale. It certainly isn't without its flaws, and I think the rape at the beginning felt a touch gratuitous, but taken as a whole, while the wolves are kept mostly at bay until the final pages, it's still an engaging story.

I'm actually finding myself looking forward to the next novel. show less