RAZORBACK by Peter Brennan

The kid called Dicko never knew when to keep his mouth shut. "What she needs to get is one of the Big Reds grab 'er by the tits and she'll forget about what she came for," the kid was saying as Cullen pulled himself onto the stool. "Then she'll soon forget about savin' the kangaroo."

Dicko's brother Benny chuckled a bit for his kin's sake, but none of the other shooters and graziers propped over their drinks bothered to look up. Like Cullen, they didn't appreciate talk about the Winters woman or the problem unless it was important, and no one among them could remember the kid Dicko ever saying anything that qualified.

Have a drink, mate? Have a fight, mate? There's nothing else out here, except the killing. Killing roos, killing boars, killing anything that'll turn a profit and sometimes just for the hell of it anyways. 

Killing anything that gets in your way. But as we're about to learn, this killer instinct extends from the beasts of the Outback to the warehouses of Sydney and clear across the ocean to the New York mob and Madison Avenue. And now author Peter Brennan has summoned THE RAZORBACK, and nothing on two or four legs is safe!

Thicko Dicko and his brother Benny are two of the most hateable yobbos you'd ever be unfortunate enough to meet, but they're just the bottom rung of a long and crooked ladder that reaches near all the way to the top. Their atavistic sadism as they "butt shoot" scores of kangaroos (for easier butchery come morning, as the animals won't expire prematurely, stiffening in rigor mortis) is stoked by the simple logic of business, and their cruelty comes in handy when the bosses need a little problem solving to cover up some dirty business that the scabrous Baker boys won't ever see a penny from.

Author Brennan makes ready comparison between the struggle for survival for animals and human beings, whether we're on the razor's edge in the unforgiving Outback or navigating the perhaps equally dangerous modern "civilized" world. Death is sometimes quick, sometimes slow, but when it comes to Brennan's titular monster, a true freak of nature, it's all there is. The razorback, we're informed, only becomes more enraged the more it kills, and its gargantuan body hosts a litany of parasites - maggots, botflies, lung worm, stomach worm, tapeworm, plus unidentified creatures incubating under its skin and clouding up its eyes - that drive it further into painful rage.

This thrice-cursed halfbreed cross shouldn't exist, but it does, and that's everybody's problem. It's hard enough for the sheep graziers keeping the regular boars out of their wells (the only water for miles around) and the roos from devouring every last shoot of growth meant for their sheep. Now the razorback threatens to ruin them totally. Dicko and Benny's lazy method of "butt shooting" doesn't help either, as crippled roos are left out overnight for the pigs to feast upon, drawing even more trouble upon the beleaguered ranchers.

You may have caught on that nature's casual indifference to human affairs looms large here. The men (and it is men, in this world) who kill so easily, whether with guns and axes or with a word and a nod, are not prepared to be on the other side of the equation. Brennan gives us some savage instances of this turnabout, and here he maybe belabors the point a little, as we sit through perhaps just a little too much back and forth over the crime syndicate that owns the Petpak pet food company going about its dirty deeds. Come halfway through the story we realize there's about a half dozen subplots going over men named Wallace and Scully and Briggs and Wagstaff and Grabow ... somewhere we lose the sublime focus of the Outback scenery. Brennan zips us in tight for the ending though, as the final fifty pages trim the fat and knock off characters left and right. This is what we came for! The slaughter!

Above, the Fontana edition. Contra the synopsis, Gene Taylor is a New York adman and not a lawyer, by the way. Brennan works fast and tight with his characters, laying their neuroses bare under the hot Outback sun and fraying their nerves to the breaking point. Everybody's got an angle, and questions of heroics and justice are quickly abandoned for the overriding fact of survival ... although we might have some room for a little bit of simple, primal vengeance before the final curtain.

Some movie tie-in editions

Readers may be more familiar with the stylish film adaptation of this story from 1984, which ditches most of the crime angle to focus on the Outback action. If you haven't seen it, well, it's pretty damn good!

Some pig ... Brennan's freak of nature earns a nasty 3/4 rating for engrossing brutality amidst some loopy plotting.

Jovian Publications, 1981

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

AVALANCHE by Robert Weverka

Infamous exploitation impresario Roger Corman hopped onto the '70s disaster bandwagon late with a star studded pseudo-epic about a brand new ski resort on the edge of catastrophe. His film version of Avalanche is universally derided as cheap, dull, and ineffective, but Weverka's tie-in novelization brings the thunder! Weverka was an old hand at tie-in novels, and here his writing is strong and clear as his characters flit about in the best '70s tradition of bed hopping, drink tossing melodrama, while a whiteout storm blankets the scene with one snowflake too many until the inevitable AVALANCHE!

Lobby cards for the film

Weverka sets the scene with economy, laying out the shortcomings of mogul David Shelby's hubristic resort project through the sharp eye of mountain man/wildlife photographer Nick Thorne (how's that for a man of action's name?) while Shelby's ex-wife Caroline is caught in the middle. Shelby has a real blowout extravaganza planned for his suckers guests, with some famous skiers and skaters, plus famous (fictional) superstar TV host Mark Elliot, but nature has other plans as everyone will learn all too soon. Whereas the film version has been dinged for poor chemistry between the leads and inept SFX, this adaptation neatly slaloms around these obstacles. Weverka's characters are flawed but relatable people, thrown into the ordeal of their lives, and he dabs just the right amount of exposition down about snow, ice, and natural disaster. It's a pleasantly professional read and just long enough at 181 pages. If only Corman's film had been as solid!

For Weverka's brutal blizzard of prose, Avalanche gets four terrible tors out of four!

Bantam Books, 1978

IN SEARCH OF NOAH'S ARK by Dave Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier Jr.

Sun Classics, 1976

IN SEARCH OF MYTHS AND MONSTERS by Alan Landsburg

Bantam Books, 1977