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5.0 out of 5 stars
Kicking Book Reads like Wild Fire, Sep 10 2003
I opened this book at a time when I really had no time to read as I work full time and I do my own business on the side, and I am The EAR to everyone I know who has a problem and that's a full time job in and of itself. But I read the first sentence and it drew me into the world of Calcutta like sliding down a child's slide and wammo, I didn't get to work that day. This book had to be read in one sitting. I went to Caribou Coffee house and read it entirely straight through and for one day I was so totally transported from reality to a wonderful world of horror and mayhem that only my dad, horror and suspense author Robert W. Walker could have created. OK, so I am a little prejudiced, but how does that explain Fire and Flesh's umpteen recommendations for the prestigious Horror Writers of America Bram Stoker Award? This book is kickass fun and it has the coolest monster ever created in the "dark side of the Kundalini mythos." The book will SMOKE your mind as its evil Hari Shakir smokes cats and people for sustenance to the serpent god coiled about Hari's spine. What the professional critics are saying is true: "Mr. Walker quite simply SNATCHES your mind." and "...greatest creture I've seen in a decade." and "...a triumph for the horror genre."
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1.0 out of 5 stars
One of the worst books I have ever read, May 4 2003
After an evocative opening in Calcutta, the book switches the action to Miami during a massive heatwave. People are spontaneously combusting and B-Movie characters Detective Eric Bannon and Assistant Medical Examiner Angelica Hunter have to stop the evil Hari Shakir from joining with Adib Shakar and forming a super snake god thingy called the Kundalini capable of burning the world.
Yes, it is as stupid as it sounds. Characters are introduced and then flamed 2 pages later. Human characters exhibit stunning amounts of greed and stupidity even when faced with the reality of the Kundalini. There is no development of characters whatsoever. Most of them come and go with stunning rapidity and exist just long enough to utter some of the worst lines of dialogue I've read. You really haven't lived until you experience the ebonics-like dialogue when Shakir attacks a black woman in her apartment. I don't know if it was rascist or not but it surely was poor taste. Once Shakir really gets a head of steam towards the end and starts combusting people at random the novelty has long worn off and has been replaced with a numbed feeling of "Dear God this has to be over soon."
Words actually fail me to describe how incredibly bad this book is. I like horror and I like fantasy, but this is simply horrible. It's boring, non sensical, and trite. If your idea of a quality reading experience is dialogue like "The fate of the world rests in our hands." and "Give it more power, all you've got!" then you may enjoy this.
The introduction of a never before seen or heard of character during the last 5 minutes only reinforces the bad B-movie tendencies this book has. The ending reminded me of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and the great scene with the Ark being wheeled into a warehouse. Though something a bit similar happens in "Fire and Flesh, it is nowhere near as interesting. Mainly just mind numbingly stupid.
Avoid at all costs. There are better "mindless beach reads" out there then this pulp ....
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific police/armagaddeon thriller, Mar 8 2003
On a steaming hot day in Calcutta, India, a young girl dies. Her father, a local scientist forges a bond with a local pier burner to have her body incinerated. After the deal is completed, and as the man is exiting, a fellow Indain man comes up to him. He tells him that he will make a fantast for him beyond his wildest dreams. The man then turns into a snake like creature and burns the man to stone.Three months later, during the heat of a Miami summer, a doctor is found dead inside her car with her insides turned to flame. As the days pass, the body count rises. When snake scales are found at one of the crime scenes, Detective Eric and Angelica Hunter find that they are dealing with more than a psycho pyro. It turns out that a serpent god with a power greater than you can ever imagine is rising to take over the world with the help of his host body. And, as Brannon and Hunter later find out, it grows with the feeding of human souls. As the tension grows, so does the action as two law enforcement officers struggle to save the world as we know it. Full of suspense and action, FIRE AND FLESH is a superior by a new and gifted author. Think the movie, THE MUMMY only with snakes with Detective Richard Jury as Eric Brannon and Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta as Angelica Hunter. The book is positioned to fly off the shelves and be enjoyed by fans of Koontz and King.
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