PREHISTORIC GERM WARFARE by Robin Collyns

IS MANKIND AN ALIEN EXPERIMENT? Brother, sometimes I feel like one! Author Robin Collyns has packed one hell of a head spinning hypothesis into 146 pages of punchy planet busting potpourri!

Just dig those chapter titles. Ancient astronauts? Of course! Ancient nukes, ancient genetic engineering, ancient secrets of time and space and color blindness? You betcha! Various indigenous legends from the Sioux, Maori, Australian Aborigines and others are crowbarred into the ancient astronauts matrix: this guy came from the sky, those guys wore something on their heads, these other fellas had powers beyond our comprehension ... all aliens!

Bigfoot and all his friends? Alien as all hell! How about the Bermuda Triangle? Do you even have to ask? Collyns' dedication is admirable as he stitches together almost the whole damn paranormal smorgasbord into his tapestry. Did you know the asteroid belt is all that remains of Planet X after a nuclear war with Mars? Collyns kind of stole that one from James P. Hogan and his 1977 SF novel Inherit the Stars, but then again Hogan was a Holocaust denier so we'll let it slide. Tunguska, of course, was an out-of-control alien craft that suffered nuclear detonation over Siberia. Stanton Friedman, Carl Sagan, CUFOS, and France's GEPAN try to ground things, relatively speaking, but Collyns will not be contained! Incan cities on Mars, titans from outer space, ginseng as a cure all wonder drug ... all food for thought and grist for the mill.

Collyns makes frequent reference to his prior works, including Ancient Astronauts: A Time Reversal? and the delightful title Laser Beams From Star Cities? The present work moves too fast for this padding to become an issue, and Collyns never belabors a point before moving on to the next wonder. The author also makes lots of references to film and TV: the germ warfare chapter features The Satan Bug and The Missing Are Deadly, to name two. This chapter's pretty creepy by the way, not only dealing with hypothetical alien attacks but also real life germ warfare from very earthly sources!

Recently departed Australian fringe researcher/yowie hunter Rex Gilroy is also referenced, as is good old Zecharia Sitchin and von Daniken's beloved iron pillar of Delhi. Collyns manages an entertaining brew mixing all the old standards.

Don't just take my word for it, though: Prehistoric Germ Warfare is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Star Books, 1980

DEATH BITE by Michael Maryk and Brent Monahan

In the closing days of 2024 we learn that MAN IS THE PREY! In fact and fiction, on the ground and in the air or underwater, no one and nowhere is safe from nature's fury!

First up: it's almost 20 feet long, can kill a dozen men with a scratch of its fangs, and exists in a permanent state of pissed off! It's the near-mythical island taipan of Naraka-pintu, a tiny (fictional) hellhole between Australia and New Guinea. Locals call the island the gateway to hell, and as for the snake? The devil himself. Now, one of these demons is loose in San Diego, CA, and no one is safe from the DEATH BITE!

Authors Maryk and Monahan have crafted a winning monster here, a killer snake twice as long as its "mainland" (real world) variant, nurtured to extreme size and temperament by its isolated island home. The authors do a bang up job incorporating real snake science into their work, as well as the murky, dangerous world of exotic animal smuggling. Our giant taipan is being smuggled into the USA for Scott Miller's private zoo of dangerous snakes, with researcher Marcus Wrightson offered a sweetheart deal on the snake's rare venom if he'll help transfer it from the boat off San Diego to Miller's zoo in Florida.

Hardcover edition, 1979

Some shady characters have other plans, however, as does the snake ... Soon, our titan of terror is loose in the San Diego hills, and Miller and Wrightson are caught with their pants down explaining just what the hell they were thinking with their reckless scheme. Wrightson meanwhile has become entangled with Miller's mysterious assistant Ioka, and her connection to Miller's past may hold the key to the man's obsession with this demonic killer he's unleashed. The authors do a good job balancing some subtle character work with the unfolding action, especially the bad guys who we learn more and more about as their own harebrained plot for snakenapping unfolds.

This book belonged to George P. Asvos!

When Death Bite strikes, it's with a vengeance. However, just as most snakes can go a long time between meals, conserving their energy, so too does Death Bite rest between feedings, perhaps for a little too long. The middle of the book sags a bit, especially once all the pieces are in place and everything seems ready to cut loose. All the buildup leaves us rushing through the final 50 pages in a whirlwind.

Above, the Granada edition. Pacing aside, Maryk and Monahan's thriller seems ready made for a film adaptation, and Death Bite eventually made it to the screen as Spasms. The coolasscinema blog has an in-depth article on the troubled production of Spasms, including insight from Maryk and Monahan about their frustrations with the shoot. Co-author Brent Monahan has also written a bit about the novel and film adaptation at his personal website.

Maryk and Monahan's Death Bite earns a 3/4 rating for some lethal strikes amid languorous pacing.

Ace Books, 1980 (original pub. 1979)

AVALANCHE by Steve Cohen

Light the candle

Put the lock upon the door

You have sent the maid home early

Like a thousand times before

Like the castle in its corner

In a medieval game

I foresee terrible trouble

And I stay here just the same

The Lodge at Hightown is ready for its grand opening, and handsome, honest, wonderful hotel manager Bob Coombs is afraid his sleazy boss Everett may have cut one too many corners building his winter wonderland. The intimidating architectural writer sent by the NYT has already pointed out cracked walls and a bad foundation. And now someone smells eggs in the basement ...

Comparisons are helpful. Robert Weverka's Avalanche, published just two years before, manages twice the action in half the pages, and scratches that disaster itch with evocative passages on snowfall and ice layers. Cohen doesn't really bother with any of the science behind his disaster, and in fact (spoilers here), an avalanche isn't even really the big event! It goes back to Everett's glad handing deal with his brother-in-law who owns a propane heating business, and maybe didn't do the best job installing the furnaces in the basement. We'll have to slog through hundreds of pages of melodrama and dark hints of imminent destruction before we get any payoff ... though Cohen does start things off with a pointless scene of Coombs witnessing the big explosion as the lodge goes up in flames, before flashing back for a long, long build up.

Some characters are more successful than others. Dr. Feldman and his wife Miriam are lovely, as is heiress ski bunny Ann Heath. Coombs is too perfect by half, a boring cardboard superman who is failed by everyone around him. The depressed artist Souvaroff and the bitchy Hollywood starlet Patricia Sindt (Sindt? SINNED? Get it?) are flat as well, and Sindt's death is petty and ridiculous - Cohen has her body crammed into a toilet bowl by the blast. There are too many other guests and employees who make little impression. Cohen's attempts at weaving a grand tapestry bore me! Even his final destruction of the lodge lacks verisimilitude, failing to tune us in to that sublime disaster frequency, that terrible knowledge an author can share with readers about just how wrong things can go and are going, right now! But this work lacks immediacy, urgency, or even any purpose.

Coomb's steady gal Kay works for the lodge doing graphology on potential employees - that's handwriting analysis! She doesn't seem too good at her job, what with the quality of workers who slip through, but Coombs stands by her work. It's an interesting bit of midcentury flavor, at least.

In an oddity similar to Belmont/Tower's advertising for Rochelle T. Larkin's The Raging Flood, there's an ad for this very title right on the front page, credited to an author named "Max Steele!" What was going on in the cheapo publishers back then? Paul Patchick's Eruption gets an entry in the backpage ads, if we want to be reminded of other, better books we could be reading. For another odd note, Cohen's own website claims that this book was the basis for the 1979 disaster film of which Weverka's book was an adaptation ... but this just seems flatly incorrect.

Cohen's Avalanche earns a pitiable 1/4 for wasting our time. It's a lovely cover by Zebra anyways, with the title text embossed.

Zebra Books, 1980

BULLET TRAIN by Joseph Rance and Arei Kato

There's a bomb on Hikari 109!

Down and out contractor Okita lashes out at the railway that ruined his life, using some stolen gelignite along with the unsold speedometer parts that dragged him into bankruptcy. His plan is simple: he wants 5 million US dollars to split with his two co-conspirators. They've planted a bomb on bullet train Hikari 109 to ensure compliance. If the train slows below 80 km/r, the bomb explodes. And if Okita doesn't get his money soon, the train will reach the end of the line ... there's no turnaround at Hakata, so soon there won't be any train, and the authorities can kiss the 1,500 souls onboard goodbye. The miles are slipping away by the minute ...

When the train doesn't stop at Nagoya, passengers get mad. When they find out why they didn't stop, they get scared. Can the rail employees onboard control the panic before things spiral out of control? Can the authorities track down Okita and co. or at the very least manage to locate and disarm the bomb? And can Okita hold it together with his partners feckless playboy Sato and nihilistic student radical Koga? It should be no surprise that nothing will go to anyone's plan.

Author Trevor Hoyle (as Joseph Rance) has written an English language novelization of a classic 1975 Japanese disaster flick, and oddly enough Dell doesn't acknowledge the film anywhere in their copy, though screenwriter Arei Kato is credited as co-author. The cover art looks suitably melodramatic, but maybe a better fit for an adaptation of a TV miniseries than an out-and-out disaster film. Alas, none of the original cast (like Sonny Chiba!) have their likenesses reproduced. Comparisons to Jan de Bont's Speed (1994) have been made.

Author Trevor Hoyle (1940-)

Hoyle carries over the film's sympathetic portrayal of mad bomber Okita and the mad scramble of the authorities to control an uncontrollable situation. He adds an American couple for gaijin readers, but Dr. Laura Brennan and her bomb squaddie husband Matt are the thinnest characters of the bunch. Laura delivers a baby onboard the train, but Matt mostly hangs around being worried about his wife until his explosive expertise is needed in the final act. Despite these two wet blankets, Hoyle does a fine job fleshing out the rest of the cast, including many passengers who were merely background characters in the film. This is a classic disaster epic cast, as human passions intersect with doomed systems, and random chance and choice can set someone on an unbreakable path to destruction or salvation.

The hardcover art is a little more dynamic than the paperback ...

But neither of the book covers can match the explosive drama of the original film posters:

Over at the excellent Paperback Palette, writer Jeffersen has posted an exploration of the Reader's Digest condensed version of this title, which cut approximately 50% of the text but also added some handsome interior illustrations:

Very cool map!

There's plenty more pics and info over at the Paperback Palette, so check it out! Meanwhile, the film has been released as a gorgeous region B Blu-ray from UK company Eureka (out of print so check the second hand shops):

Hoyle's tense adaptation of an excellent film earns a 3/4 rating, and both book and film are highly recommended. Next time baby, we'll be bulletproof!

Dell Publishing, 1980