Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
The Third Beast
 
See larger image
 

The Third Beast [Paperback]

Patrick H. Adkins


Available from these sellers.



Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Xlibris Corporation (October 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0738826790
  • ISBN-13: 978-0738826790
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.8 x 1.4 cm
  • Shipping Weight: 318 g

Product Description

Book Description

When civilization collapses around you into depravity and madness, the only reasonable response may be to arm yourself to the teeth and try to fight your way out! A gripping tale of imagination, suspense, terror, and headlong action in suburban America.

About the Author

Patrick H. Adkins was seduced by the Muse at the tender age of ten and has been in and out of recovery ever since. At different times he has been a bookseller, small press publisher, "slush pile" reader for Galaxy magazine, medical and technical editor, freelance writer, story doctor, ghost writer, and editor-in-chief of a multimedia publishing company. His published works include Lord of the Crooked Paths, Master of the Fearful Depths, and Sons of the Titans, a highly regarded series of mythological fantasies issued by Ace Books (Berkley-Putnam Publishing Group).

An antiquarian in taste and a futurist by inclination, he spends inordinate amounts of time exploring the byways of popular literature, especially 19th and early 20th Century writers, playing with his computer, and ruminating upon the implications of 21st Century science and technology. Presently he is at work on several books and short stories.


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.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Reviews

There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon Canada
5 star:    (0)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
Share your experience with this product with others
Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars awesome attempt to recast zombies into science fiction!, Aug 23 2011
By Clayton E. Cramer - Published on Amazon.com
Someone gave me this book; it is ordinarily $0.99 on Kindle. This is one of about five books in my entire life that I started reading--and I could not go to sleep until I reached the end, which meant that I was still reading it at 2:00 AM. (And I had to go to work the next day.)

This was originally published on paper in 1995, and alas, some of its subtle social commentary is even more painfully accurate today than it was then. It won't spoil anything for me to tell you that in the first chapter or two, the protagonist is clearly disturbed by the general degradation of the society, and its return to a form of primitivism, such as the increasing focus on tattoos and body modifications, and he recounts a discussion with another faculty member about whether there might be an argument for censorship at the extremes of the media. The protagonist, being a proper liberal academic, argues of course not, while acknowledging that much of the garbage (think Jerry Springer) is provoking a degraded view of humanity. The person with whom he is arguing points out that, "Okay. You are going to have to live in a society filled with people that think this is normal."

The novel itself is, I would say, an attempt to do for zombie novels what Richard Matheson's I Am Legend did for vampire novels: take what is fundamentally a supernatural idea and recast it as science fiction, with a plausible, rationalistic explanation for what would otherwise be horror. And it does that extraordinarily well! The novel is first person, and the protagonist is a paleoanthropologist who finds the book he is writing about Homo erectus disturbingly similar to trends that he is beginning to see happening in his neighborhood near New Orleans--but he knows that this can't be happening!

This is a horror novel; there are parts that may be a bit too intense for sensitive readers.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Horror Story, Jan 15 2012
By JeffS - Published on Amazon.com
A novel like this could defy being pegged as simply a horror story since there are elements of science fiction in it and it deals with an unspecified time in the near future. It was, however, written some years ago, before the pervasiveness of cell phones and laptop computers.

Most of the story takes place in a small town along the Mississippi River, opposite New Orleans. A series of strange, seemingly unconnected incidents in town have the Protagonist and his girlfriend perplexed. The disappearance of a child. The death of a man at the hands of a gang of youths. A report of a blood-thirsty creature living under a home. And especially, the complete indifference of the local police.

But the incidents are not isolated. They are part of a shocking regression of society; both physical devolution and moral degeneration that is occurring across the nation.

Needless to say, the author makes a very good case for firearms ownership.

Lots of action, plenty of setbacks for the protagonists. And, as in any good horror novel, enough (but not too much) gore to make you cringe.

I'd love to see Adkins pen a sequel that covers the time period near the end of the story. There's plenty of drama and plot still to be wrung from his premise.

I enjoyed The Third Beast immensely and as Clayton said in his review, once I started reading it, I had to finish reading it. Make sure you've got an afternoon or evening set aside.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Ripping Good Yarn, July 26 2011
By Peter Pan - Published on Amazon.com
Carl Stevens, a professor of paleoanthropology, takes a sabbatical to write a book about Homo Erectus, the precursor to modern man.
But Carl is in for a shock when the society around him starts to collapse. Things go from bad to worse. The phone, radio and television quit working. People are attacked on the street. Carl note that his attackers are starting to resemble Homo Erectus.
Carl goes all out. He arms himself with a shotgun, bandoleer,.45 automatic and a German Luger.
Armed to the teeth Carl must fight himself through a society descended into violent anarchy.This is a really good apocalyptic science fiction novel. I highly recommend.
 Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars 

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback