Tag Archives: Horror

Blockade Billy: something different from Stephen King

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Blockade Billy
by Stephen King
Scribner, May 201o
ISBN: 978-1-4516-0821-2
Hardcover
132 pages
Suspense/Horror

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Fans of Stephen King know he’s passionate about music and baseball. In his little hardcover, Blockade Billy, King has written such an authentic feeling baseball story I went looking to see if such a character (or a composite of such characters) actually existed. I knew the story was fiction, yet there I was foolishly researching old-time baseball. That should tell you a lot about the story.

How can you be a baseball fan and not like the tale of  Blockade Billy? Narrated to Mr. King by an old man who was there, the reader gets to meet Billy Blakely, perhaps the greatest player who ever lived. Yet today’s generation has never heard of him. It’s as if the game tried to erase his very existence. Now I don’t know about you, but that’s enough of a hook to keep me reading to the shocking end of the story. And what an end it is. King does not disappoint.

Blockade Billy contains a second story entitled Morality. The questions asked here are  “What would you do if a person you look up to offers you a lot of money to do something you know is morally wrong?” and “How would the amoral choice effect you?”

I thought this second story was more horrifying than Blockade Billy, simply because it made me uncomfortable, where the first didn’t. The end will disappoint many people; a subtle, maybe even simple ending that will anger those used to being spoon fed, I found it to be realistic and therefore more disturbing than a larger than life finish would have been.

A great read for a slow Sunday afternoon.



Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye


Fifth Sun: The Awakening

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Fifth Sun: The Awakening
Hilary McLean
Iuniverse, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-47871-2
Trade paperback
330 pages
Dark Fantasy

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“Fifth Sun: The Awakening uses the Mayan [2012, end of time] prophecy as a backdrop because it is a classic story of Light and Dark, Chaos and Creation. Humanity enjoys stories with heroes and villains, action and adventure. It is fun to imagine that all of life is in the hands of a reluctant hero who chooses hope over despair in the face of overwhelming odds; a parable for each of us in our life’s journey.”
—Hilary McLean

Sarah Riggs arrived in the tourist town of Jasper, Alberta as a teenager with no memories of her past. In time she built a family there: her husband, Hal, who works as a warden for Jasper National Park; her children, 3 year-old Alex and 5 year-old Andy (Andromeda) and their comfortable home in the lovely mountain town. But Sarah’s past has caught up with her, and it doesn’t care that she’s forgotten who she is.

When her children begin to show strong psychic abilities, “he of many names” begins to appear before them all in dreams that are not dreams. He knows Sarah is his opposite: he’s Chaos and she’s Creation; he has the power to end the world, she has the power to remake it. Old legends say that there have been 4 previous suns where the world was remade. It is told that in the final battle for the last or 5th sun, should Chaos prevail, then the world will end forever. With his opponent unaware of her tremendous powers, Chaos finally sees an end to thousands of years of similar conflict.

Weaving a tale with several story lines, Hilary McLean convincingly follows the terrifying awakening of Sarah as guardian of the world and all its powers. In one scene Sarah accidentally flattens Mexico city and kills millions of people. This incident falls under the mantle of  “remaking of the world,” and leaves you wondering if there’s much difference between Chaos and Creation. McLean also sets up the beginning of world chaos as “Mr. Silver” (guess who) manages to take control of a secret branch of CSIS, Canada’s version of the FBI and CIA. First order of business? The destruction of Cold Lake, Alberta: Canada’s largest air force base.

The Awakening sees Sarah split off from her two children—her husband separated from them all. As each of them moves toward reunion, they must face unbelievable dangers, events, people and things; find out who they are and what their role in this nightmare is; and they must above all avoid the dreams that are not dreams… If they are to stay alive.

Hilary McLean’s Fifth Sun: The Awakening is an interesting story of cataclysmic times caused by people who are but vessels of earth shattering powers, the humans who try to support them as best they can and the immortal King of Lies. Quite an epic and difficult first novel to write. Which brings me to my criticisms. The opening was too loose for the number of ideas and plot lines being tossed out. I found it confusing and had to reread it before attempting the review. The middle and end of the book moved well, entertained and intrigued. The confusion dropped away as the author hung more meat on the skeletons which make up the book. On the other hand, her commitment to describing Creation and Chaos using endless descriptions of light and darkness, with a showing of elementals such as earth, water, wind and fire, made it difficult to arrive at firm mental pictures of what was going on.

In my opinion, if Hilary McLean set out to keep the reader in the same kind of nail-biting confusion her characters face until all is made clear at the end of the book, then she achieved her goal admirably. If not, she should recognize just how important it is to find the professional editing help you need when self-publishing.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon

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This review contains spoilers.


Mr Slaughter
Mister Slaughter
by Robert McCammon
Subterranean Press, Jan 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59606-276-4
Hardcover
440 pages
Historical Fiction/Crime/Thriller

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Matthew Corbett is back. The quick-witted hero of Speaks The Nightbird and The Queen of Bedlam is now a New York investigator of some renown. He’s also a man marked for death by the elusive, master criminal Professor Fell.

When Matthew Corbett and his mentor, Hudson Greathouse, are assigned by Governor Lord Cornbury to collect Tyranthus Slaughter from the colonial asylum known as Bedlam, they aren’t happy about it. But £5 to escort a killer back to New York is just too much money to turn down.

“Mister” Slaughter, as he prefers to be called, is a man of many faces and a serial killer who makes today’s celluloid villains pale in comparison. When Mister Slaughter offers Greathouse and Corbett a treasure in exchange for his freedom, the men should have bound his mouth and whipped the horses. But Greathouse has a noble thing he wishes to accomplish and no money to do it with. He convinces Corbett to take Mister Slaughter up on his offer. After all, they have no intention of letting the madman go free.

But the two investigators underestimate Mister Slaughter’s ability to plant seeds of evil far in advance and patiently wait for those seeds to grow and bear fruit. Not only do the two men get cheated out of their treasure, Mister Slaughter manages to arm himself, seriously injure Greathouse, incapacitate Corbett and escape.

Rescued from their dire circumstances by Indians, Greathouse finds treatment for his wounds, while Corbett manages to acquire the services of the village outcast as a tracker.

Soon the adversaries are pursuing each other through the wilderness. A portrayal of a deadly serious and horrific game, this part of the book is real entertainment. Particularly, the few settlers who make their homes in the area have the gruesome misfortune of meeting Mister Slaughter, and we, the readers, finally see the fiend revealed. There’s also a night-time battle between the killer, Corbett and his guide, which is especially thrilling.

As the chase moves ever closer to civilization, Corbett, who has a secret he feels makes him responsible for the killer’s escape, experiences a gradual breakdown of his mental and physical abilities. It would seem that Mister Slaughter is unstoppable.

Corbett is poised on the brink of defeat when the two come upon a small village, so he plays his one last card: a name he remembers. In doing so, the young investigator stumbles across a connection between Mister Slaughter and a local business woman. While this puts him back on the killer’s trail, it also brings Corbett into greater conflict with the chilling Professor Fell.

The final meeting of Corbett and Mister Slaughter involves so many disturbing and complicated story lines, one has no choice but to rip through the pages of this unique and gritty thriller in order to find out if the horror being suggested is actually true.

Mister Slaughter is Robert McCammon doing what he does best. His descriptive abilities take us back to a world that is a composite of 30 some years of development in New York City (1700-1730). His characters, always larger than life and ever so quirky, never cease to entertain. And his story is complicated enough that Matthew Corbett can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.

I noticed another reviewer complaining about McCammon’s overuse of cliffhangers (based on wordplay) in Mister Slaughter. I say the same thing to this critic as I did to the one who criticized the author’s over-the-top approach to character development in The Wolf’s Hour. It’s good to see a writer having fun and playing with his audience. McCammon’s willingness to play and experiment in his writing happens to be one of the reasons I’m a fan. Good for you, sir. And I hope to see much more from you in the future.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009