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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein book review

Posted in books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Book Report, book reviews, books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters on October 21, 2009 by Paxton

Continuing my look at books inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Today is a series that is a direct sequel to the original Frankenstein by popular thriller writer Dean Koontz.

This book was first published in 2005 and is book 1 of a (so far) 5 book series. I actually got books 1 and 2 for Christmas from my brother back in 2006 but never got around to reading them. Koontz is a very popular horror/thriller writer. He wrote the popular Odd Thomas series and many years ago I read two other books by Koontz, Watchers and Hideaway. They were both well-paced thrillers, but nothing to get super excited over (I’ve not read another of his books since). This Koontz Frankenstein series is fairly popular so I thought it would be a good time to give it a shot. And the verdict is…AWESOME.

This is a suspense filled, tightly paced thriller. I loved every page of it. There are numerous subplots going on and despite being nearly 500 pages, it’s a fast read. I originally thought Koontz was completely re-writing the Frankenstein story, but this book is actually a sequel, taking place 200 years after the events in Shelley’s novel. Two New Orleans detectives are on the trail of a serial killer known as The Surgeon who is stealing victim’s body parts. The killer keeps eluding the police and the city is held in fear of this madman. The original Frankenstein monster is summoned by an old acquaintance from his hiding place within a secluded monastery to come to New Orleans and determine if his creator is back performing experiments. It’s an intriguing premise written with speed and lots of action. Also, this book is obviously a series, so you get some closure in this book, but it’s left wide open for the sequels. I don’t want to give much more away, but I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading Book 2: City of Night.

In fact, I enjoyed this book so much I may go ahead and order the first book in the Odd Thomas series from PaperbackSwap. Koontz (with the help of co-writer Kevin Anderson) may have just shoehorned himself back into my reading list.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: The Frankenstein Papers book review

Posted in books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, reviews with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Book Report, book review, books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters on October 20, 2009 by Paxton

Frankenstein book week continues.

After deciding that I would read Frankenstein this Halloween, I wanted to also read a few other books that were inspired by or based themselves on the original Shelley novel. One of the books I chose was Fred Saberhagen’s The Frankenstein Papers.

The Frankenstein Papers billed itself as somewhat a sequel to Shelley’s novel. Fred Saberhagen is a popular genre writer. He’s written several series of books including The Berserkers and The First Swords saga. Saberhagen has also written several books based on Stoker’s Dracula. The Dracula books (as well as this Frankenstein book) tell the events of the original novel from the monster’s point of view. It’s a clever idea that I found fascinating enough to order it from PaperbackSwap.

Frankenstein papers

This book, not surprisingly is written in a very similar style to Shelley’s novel. The events in this book happen during and in-between the events of the original novel. The monster, after the events in the original novel, is trapped in the far North and finds the captain’s log in the abandoned ship, The Argo (titular ship from the original novel). The monster begins writing down his side of the story, which means the majority of this novel also happens in flashback. As I said, the style and writing is remarkably similar to Shelley’s novel. And, like the original, it starts off a tad slow. But as the story moves forward, the book gains momentum and you start to see the events of the original novel from the monster’s point of view. Also, several events in the original novel are expanded upon. In Shelley’s tale, Victor Frankenstein becomes interested in electricity after watching a tree get struck by lightening. A family friend who’s also an expert in electrical energy happens to be there to explain some of the science to him. This event is given even greater importance in Saberhagen’s book when the identity of the “family friend” is revealed to be Ben Franklin who begins searching for Victor and the monster as he feels partly responsible for the monster’s creation. This chase for the monster and certain revelations about the nature of the monster make this a fun read. The book answers the “truth” about Frankenstein’s monster and what really happened that night of the creation. And it’s…odd. Like completely out of left field. I have to admit, I didn’t see it coming. And it’s so weird that you will either love it or hate it. It’s gonna be that polarizing.

However, despite the ending, The Frankenstein Papers a good book that starts a little slow, picks up in the middle and has an intriguing ending. If you liked the original novel, I believe you’ll like this, however you may hate the ending.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein book review

Posted in AWESOME-tober-fest, books, Classic literature, Frankenstein, Halloween, pop culture, reviews with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Book Report, books, classic literature, Frankenstein, Halloween, pop culture, reviews on October 19, 2009 by Paxton

Today, I review the book that started it all, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley’s tale of the Frankenstein monster is perhaps one of the most classic and iconic horror tales of all time. Shelley’s book has spawned not only other books, but movies, TV shows, plays, satire and short stories. It’s a veritable horror franchise in and of itself. Her book, along with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, helped ground the incredibly popular Universal Monster stable of monster movies in the ’30s. Famously played by Boris Karloff in the Universal movies and by David Prowse (Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies) in the cult favorite Hammer films, the monstrous green, lumbering Frankenstein monster created by a mad scientist looking to create artificial life is what is most popularly known by the public at large. Is this basically what the original book is about? Are the events in the book different? Before this article, I had no idea.

Having never read the original Frankenstein novel by Shelley, I couldn’t answer that question. So I picked up the classic novel for this year’s AWESOME-tober-fest and read the original novel. I had no prior knowledge of Shelley’s book (other than it existed) and all of my imagery of Frankenstein and the monster pretty much come from the Universal movies as well as cheesy ’70s and ’80s adaptations like The Monster Squad, The Munsters and The Groovie Goolies. Let’s see how different the original novel is from the image burned into our collective pop consciousness.

Published in 1818, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is considered a horror classic. Having written the book when she was only 18, Shelley originally published the book anonymously. It wasn’t until 1831 that the book was first published with her name on it. The genesis of this novel began one night when Mary Shelley, her husband Percy and Lord Byron were at Byron’s villa telling ghost stories. They all decided they should each write their own supernatural story. Byron began to research a vampire story that would eventually be written by another author. Percy Shelley would die before he could write his story. Mary came up with her story after a vivid dream. Subsequently, hers would be the only one published as originally intended. The gist of the story centers on Victor Frankenstein and his creation of a monster from dead body parts.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Monster Force cartoon

Posted in cartoons, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, cartoons, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows on October 16, 2009 by Paxton

I finish Frankenstein cartoon week with a little known monster gem from the mid ’90s: Monster Force.

This series was created in 1994 and lasted 13 episodes. The story is set around the year 2020 and features a team of teen warriors using high tech weaponry to battle the Universal Monsters as well as other spiritual beings. Frankenstein’s monster, aka The Monster, fights on the Monster Force team as does Luke Talbot, the Wolf Man (descendant of the original Larry Talbot from the Universal movie). Also on the team is a psychic girl named Shelley Frank who is somehow connected to Frankenstein.

The main villain of the cartoon is Dracula (with a weird goatee-type thing that looks totally beatnik) and his faithfully gross servant Renfield. Other monsters like Hotep (The Mummy) and The Creature (from the Black Lagoon) also pop up within the first 7 episodes. Monster Force was released on DVD this year. I got it off Netflix to watch expecting a cool, monster vanquishing adventure series. The verdict? It’s awful. Imagine a retarded kid doing a book report on Japanese stereo instructions. Now imagine that this book report is a tighter, more interesting script than anything you see in this show.

For instance, the psychic girl, Shelley Frank. Her name. Get it? Shelley, as in Mary SHELLEY. And Frank, as in FRANKenstein? And you know that she’s psychic because she and the team mention it probably three or four times EVERY EPISODE. You know, in case you forgot in the five minutes it takes for them to mention it again. Shelley is also the only one with wings on her battle armor so she can fly. Why? Why did they not think the rest of the team would want f’n WINGS on their battle armor? I would. I’m on the team, I want to f’n fly, dammit. That’s the type of character development you see in this show.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Drak Pack cartoon

Posted in cartoons, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, pop culture, TV shows, werewolves with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, cartoons, Dracula, Drak Pack, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, werewolves on October 14, 2009 by Paxton

Continuing my look at cartoons featuring Frankenstein’s monster. Today I look at Drak Pack.

This show originally aired on CBS between 1980 and 1982 and it was created by the Australian arm of Hanna-Barbera.

The cartoon had a great premise. As descendants of the original monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and Wolf Man), the three main teens use their monster abilities, and taking orders from the legendary Dracula, to fight crime and atone for their ancestors’ evil doings. Here is the opening sequence that explains the entire premise of the show (like many Hanna-Barbera cartoons are want to do).

This was a very clever series that merged the superhero genre as well as the monster genre. As you can see, the teens appeared normal until they called on their monster identities to fight evil. The three teens are Drak Jr (or just Drak), Frankie and Howler. They each had different abilities in their monster forms. To change into their monster personalities they high fived and yelled “WHACK-O!” (called the Drak Whack). Surprisingly, they went by the same names whether as regular teens or as the monsters which makes you wonder why they used secret identities. But I guess walking around as a 7 ft green monster would be a bit much. To get around they drove a bad ass hot rod called the Drakster which not only looked cool but had a ton of James Bond-ish gadgetry hiding within it.

I remember really enjoying this show. I only ever saw it a few times because the time that it aired constantly changed. I was always on the lookout for it but never could find it. It was released on DVD in Canada, but you can order it from Amazon (it’s Region 1, so you can watch it on a US DVD player). Unfortunately Netflix has not added it to their library just yet.

Definitely worth a look for monster fans as well as Hanna-Barbera fans. Another really great series staring every0ne’s favorite monsters as heroes.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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