The Burning

Rating:
Summary:

A Better Synopsis than what was provided.
Review:

"Lord Denman is stunded when informed that his fiancee is dead. The circumstances are grotesque: she calmly immolated herself in a parking lot ... and smiled as the flames leaped up. Celia's is just the first bizarre death by fire. A busload of people bursts into flames in the desert. The passengers die .... calmly, waiting for the fire to reach them.

Celia and the passengers have become Salamanders - immortal beings, fire made flesh. Followers of a cult whose rituals were set to music by Richard Wagner, they have sworn to serve Otto Mander and the fourth Reich he intends to found"

I just could not put this one down. I could not go to sleep till i read it cover to cover.

Rating:
Summary:

A Better Synopsis than what was provided.
Review:

"Lord Denman is stunded when informed that his fiancee is dead. The circumstances are grotesque: she calmly immolated herself in a parking lot ... and smiled as the flames leaped up. Celia's is just the first bizarre death by fire. A busload of people bursts into flames in the desert. The passengers die .... calmly, waiting for the fire to reach them.

Celia and the passengers have become Salamanders - immortal beings, fire made flesh. Followers of a cult whose rituals were set to music by Richard Wagner, they have sworn to serve Otto Mander and the fourth Reich he intends to found"

I just could not put this one down. I could not go to sleep till i read it cover to cover.

Rating:
Summary: Bizarre Plot, Gruesome Horror
Review: What type of world do we live in when books like this are out of print? I ask that question often when I think about Graham Masterton's gripping horror novel, "The Burning." Masterton is definitely one of the undervalued horror novelists in recent times, a slightly obscure writer who has written numerous spooky thrillers over the years that combine great gore sequences, engaging characters, and bizarre plotlines that would falter in anyone else's hands. This is only the third Masterton novel I've read in recent months, but I'd like to read all of his stuff at some point. The problem with doing so is that most of his books are out of print. It's not like publishing houses don't know who he is; his new books find mass-market release with regularity. What us horror fans need is for Leisure to start reprinting his back catalogue. I know I would snatch up every one of Masterton's old books.

"The Burning" builds itself around one of the strangest plots I've ever encountered in horror fiction. What's great is that Masterton makes it believable. What we have here is a story combining Richard Wagner's lost masterpiece "Junius," ancient pagan rituals concerning immortality, the Third Reich, Native American spirituality, and reanimated humans called Salamanders who can burn people at will. Now does this book have potential or what? Even better, the author doesn't skimp on the Salamander's ability to set people on fire. There are numerous examples of people torched by these evil beings, told in intricate detail in page after page of cringe worthy descriptions. I don't find anything remotely amusing about people on fire in real life, as I can't think of anything as painful as suffering burns. But in a fictional horror novel where fire serves as a major plot point, the author in question better deliver the goods. Masterton goes above and beyond the call of duty in this department in "The Burning," even torching a bus full of initiates who seek entry into the cult of the Salamanders.

The hero of the story is one Lloyd Denman, a restaurant owner who has everything in the world going for him. He has a successful business, a beautiful fiancée, a wonderful house, and a nice car. Regrettably for Lloyd, tragedy strikes when his girlfriend self-immolates in a McDonald's parking lot. Lloyd is dumbfounded. Why should his beloved Celia do such a horrible thing to herself? She had a great life, with a successful career in music and a mutual happiness with Lloyd. Denman just can't bring himself to believe that Celia's death was suicide, and he begins looking around for clues to this tragic incident. It isn't too long before Lloyd finds some old sheet music stashed in Celia's piano, music that looks like an original work by Richard Wagner. This discovery, along with another one made at the scene of Celia's immolation, leads Lloyd directly to the tender mercies of Otto Mander and his stooge Helmwige. These two characters are strange, dangerous birds directly responsible for a lot of the weirdness going on. Through Mander, Denman learns that Celia's suicide is only the tip of an iceberg stretching back to pre-Christian Europe, and that in the present day a dark idea better left in the ashes of 1940s Europe is soon to attain resurrection through Mander and the Salamanders. It is up to Lloyd and a small band of oddball heroes to save the world from the evil actions of Otto Mander.

"The Burning" ultimately rests on its author's abilities, and Masterton possesses wonderful abilities that allow him to deliver in spades. The characters are interesting, especially the Nordic Helmwige and the bug eating Otto Mander. These two creepy characters only get weirder as the story progresses. Lloyd Denman is also believable as the slightly milquetoast businessman who rises to the occasion to fight an evil he doesn't comprehend. The conclusion blends Wagnerian opera, Nordic ritual, and reptilian monsters into a seamless, albeit slightly mystifying, ending. It all makes for a great, fun read. I'll continue to read Graham Masterton books as I come across them, as I've yet to suffer a disappointment at the hands of this horror master. I hope you give Masterton a whirl, too.