- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; First Edition edition (Oct 14 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312981201
- ISBN-13: 978-0312981204
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10.7 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,180,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Saber-tooth tigers attack Los Angeles in Rovin's gung-ho second novel of cryptozoological horror. (In the first, Vespers, Rovin imagined mutant bats tearing up New York City.) The new novel opens in classic horror style, on a Santa Barbara hillside, as something large but unseen stalks a bobcat that's in turn stalking a dog: soon there are "streams of blood, all that remained of a bobcat on its final hunt." Cut to anthropologist Jim Grand, mourning the recent demise of his beloved wife. Cut to two engineers investigating a sinkhole near that hillside; in minutes they, too, are dead, but now we see "two glowing orbs" that move "down and then away." Cut to feisty local reporter Hannah Hughes, about to investigate the engineers' disappearance; to macho sheriff Malcolm Gearhart, who's tangled before with Jim and Hannah and who can't rest easy when there's trouble on his turf--and all the elements of grade-A schlock horror are percolating away. The buildup to the expected full-tilt saber-tooth vs. human scenes is long and slowed down by soggy excursions into Native American mysticism (Grand is an expert on the ancient Chumash, whose newfound cave illustrations warn of the saber-tooths). Rovin's characters are thin but functional, and he writes zesty action sequences, making strong use of local settings, placing the final showdown at the La Brea Tar Pits. This novel offers no surprises, but, like Vespers, it reiterates horror-movie traditions with panache. The bats ace the saber-tooths by a fright or two, but fans of horror that spins on nature-gone-amok should take to this with a growl. Film rights optioned by Universal Pictures for Sylvester Stallone. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Classic horror style." --Publishers Weekly
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The bobcat moved slowly through the cool, shallow mountain stream. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
The bobcat moved slowly through the cool, shallow mountain stream. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lions and Tigers and...okay...just Tigers,
By A Customer
Ce commentaire est de: Fatalis (Hardcover)
Rovin, with "Fatalis" has created a book that brings back the spirit of the old monster movies. You know the ones...where a creature is frozen and is somehow miraculously revived in modern times and begins to wreak havoc among human beings. In this book, sabre-toothed tigers are the monsters (or is the humans who want to kill them) and they, predictably, start eating their way through California. Fun book but predictable. Nothing new here. Grab some popcorn and relive those monster movie memories.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sabertooths sink teeth into modern day,
By
Ce commentaire est de: Fatalis: A Novel (Paperback)
After his excellent book Vespers, Jeff Rovin returns with a new type of nature attack. Sabertooth cats that have been frozen for 11,000 years are now awake, hungry, and headed for L.A.Although not quite as gripping as Vespers, Rovin does an excellent job of showing the modern world as it faces one of the greatest hunters of all time. Sabertooth cats have never been seen in cave paintings and traces of their hides have never been found. Rovin cashes in on this lack of knowledge to design some very fearsome predators. Heavy rains have created sinkholes near LA. A local expert on primitive peoples is exploring cave paintings in a newly opened cave. A pair of highway workers disappear near a sinkhole. The scientist, a local reporter, and a hard-as-nails sheriff become involved as more people go missing, leaving only blood behind. The terror escalates as incidents become less isolated and evidence begins to point to the unbelievable; sabertooth cats once again stalk California. As the cats travel through caves and drainage systems the body count climbs. There seems little chance of capturing the beasts and only a slightly better chance of stopping them before the kill more people. The book climaxes as the main characters, the police, and national guards clash with the fearsome predators in LA. This book starts fast, sets the stage and characters, and then takes off running. The sabertooth cats make great monsters and the action pulls the reader to the final page. The only question is, where there be a sequel?
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lacks teeth,
By Double W (West Virginia) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: Fatalis: A Novel (Paperback)
Dinosaurs get too much press, let's face it. It was nice, for a change, to see some other prehistoric superstars get their due - but, sadly, this book doesn't do them justice.Instead of real animals we get B-grade movie monsters. All the sabertooth cats do is move from one scene to the next, slaughtering an amazing amount of people along the way. There's no personality to these cats that makes them realistic, or makes them scary. Is you want an idea of how this book should've turned out, read "Ghosts of Tsavo" by Philip Caputo, which is a non-fiction account of man-eating lions in Africa. Now that's scary. If Rovin just stuck to a more realistic picture of his monsters, this could've been a far more thrilling work. Remember, the best thing about "Jaws" is you could believe the shark. Well, that and the great human characters. Rovins strikes out on that department too. But I'll give him two stars to giving a little attention to an under-appreciated creature.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
