Journal Entry 1 by choclaholic from San Antonio, Texas USA on Wednesday, August 17, 2005

2005/48
5/10 stars

I recently discovered the genius that is Richard Matheson (The Incredible Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes, Somewhere in Time, What Dreams May Come, I am Legend, Hell House, etc.), and I have been pouring through much of his oeuvre in this past year. So when Amazon.com notified me that "You might also like" this new and interesting-sounding book by him, I immediately put it on my wish list, and bought it as soon as it was published.

Unfortunately, this one was a bit disappointing. Not only did I think it was overpriced (over $10 for a 125 page trade paper novella), but I think Matheson finally lost his muse. Although I was actually surprised to see he was still alive and writing at all, (since a lot of his best stuff was written 30 or 40 years ago), I forgive him this small misfire, as he had such a large volume fabulous work -- and I think he had nothing left to prove.

Anyway, to tell you about this book, it was about Doctor David Harper, a talk radio psychologist. This doctor was approached for help by a strange woman named Ganine, who was quite disturbed and possesed strange powers. As she was disuaded from remaining in the company of David and his family and friends, she turned to terrorizing them in a Twilight Zone-esque manner (Matheson also wrote many episodes on the Zone).

Some of my issues with this book include the scenes with David's brother-in-law, Val, who was overly offensive in his dialogue and manners; I think Matheson could have made his point of the character of this man in a slightly more sublte way. He also exessively used foul language. It was so overused, that it was like he was merely trying to keep up with the pop fiction writers of the day -- kind of like Captain Kirk yelling "Double dumb ass on you!" when he traveled back in time to the late Twentieth Century and wanted to be "cool". Finally, the conclusion of the story really seemed quite forced. It didn't seem to me that it made much sense to the body of the story. It was fairly inconsistent, and seemed to me that he concluded it that way to be able to make the sensationalistic claim on the cover "Men and women can no longer co-exist"; a great hook to sell books with.

Who knows. Maybe Matheson, like that "Deep Throat" guy, just needed the money so he wrote another book. Oh, well. I'll stick to his earlier work. This is ready for wild release.


 

Journal Entry 2 by choclaholic at City View Building, 10999 I 10 West in San Antonio, Texas USA on Thursday, August 18, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (8/18/2005 UTC) at City View Building, 10999 I 10 West in San Antonio, Texas USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Left on the Microwave in the 6th Floor Break Room. 

Journal Entry 3 by choclaholic from San Antonio, Texas USA on Tuesday, November 15, 2005

I saw this get picked up from the 6th floor break room the day I released it. Just yesterday, I saw it crop back up on the 5th floor :) Thanks for reading and releasing!