Dark of the Eye

Rating:
Summary: Douglas Clegg is brilliant
Review: Apparently I am not alone in just discovering this amazing talent. I had heard that Clegg wrote novels like King, and I wasn't sure this was a good thing (although Stephen King is still an amazing writer, I wasn't sure if someone "like" him would be very good). Douglas Clegg is a blazingly original talent, and to confuse his work too much with King is to miss out on truly enjoyable fiction. I found both The Children's Hour and Dark of the Eye to be remarkable in their level of character development and Clegg's literate style of writing. Then I found second-hand copies of his first novel, Goat Dance, as well as his third, Neverland. Both of these should be classics of the genre, except that the critics of this particular genre tend to be moribund and bitter, and I suspect much of the horror audience is made up of people who have never heard of Shirley Jackson but know all the films of Wes Craven. The fact that Clegg's publishers have all but buried these novels shows the blindness of publishing. If anyone can locate a copy of his second novel Breeder, drop me a note.

James Falmouth

Rating:
Summary: Dark Eye
Review: I read this book to its end. The writing itself is well done but the characterization was so intense that I finished it feeling tense. I've read other stuff by this same writer and this book was no doubt one of his earlier books. A man implants an alien element into a small girl which causes her to take on and cure other people's diseases. The characters make a few wild character changes. Worth a read, though.

Rating:
Summary: poorly built
Review: this wasn't all that bad. a little kid with a "gift". a mother trying to escape with the kid. someone chasing them. standard stuff. the mad/evil scientist was a little too much, i mean, really. it lacked suspence. the mother and the child was a little bit too dull for me. talking to a waiter, thinking about whether or not they could afford a burger, etc. the book didn't really peek my interest. but the worst thing was the way the story was built. a little bit from the scientist's journal, the mother, the chaser, an so on. the book jumped from one scene to another.