Gila!

De: Kathryn Ptacek

Narrado por: Lou Hecker

Harkening back to the days of giant creature movies of the 1950s, a horde of giant Gila Monsters is on the loose in New Mexico, threatening every living creature in sight. Nothing and no one is safe from the ravenous creatures as they tear their way through the desert and into heavily populated areas. Can these atomically mutated creatures be stopped? Or is this the beginning of the end for mankind? It's up to Chato del-Klinne and Dr. Kate Dwyer to kick the hiss out of the oversized lizards!

From the mind of Kathryn Ptacek, writing under her Les Simons pen name, comes a tale of grisly horror with man being the hunted and Mother Nature being the hunter.

©1981 Kathryn Ptacek (P)2012 David Wilson

Gila!

This book is reminiscent of old-time horror flicks of the 1950's, such as "Them", with monsters being created by nuclear bombs in the desert of New Mexico. Huge Gila monsters start attacking people, killing them in bloody, gruesome ways. A herpetologist, Dr. Kate Dwyer, is tasked by the Governor to try to find out what is happening and save "his" state from destruction.

There was plenty of gory details about the ways the monsters killed people, with body parts being thrown around as the monsters feasted. Although I enjoy the movies that this book reminds me of, I did have some problems with the book. It appears to be set in the 1980's, but the stereotypes of Native Americans and women was more like the Fifties. Also, the people of New Mexico, especially the Governor, are depicted as buffoons and idiots for the most part. And, I don't think that there are Gila monsters in the areas described (White Sands National Monument/Trinity Site). Since I have lived in New Mexico for many years, I found this bothersome.

The narrator did a pretty good job, but he should have learned the correct way to pronounce many of the town names and Hispanic names in the book. I would recommend this book only for those diehard fans of the 1950's movies that focus on monsters created by nuclear tests. I was given the chance to listen to this audiobook by the narrator/author/publisher and chose to review it.

Old school sci-fi horror

This story goes old school sci-fi horror...could easily be an old black and white with cheesy graphics or it could be a great sci fi channel original. One reptile scientist with an old love interest. One stereotypical big n loud good old boy governor, and some mutated giant Gila monsters on a rampage. What else do you need? Oh that’s right, a cliffhanger ending to leave it open for a sequel. Loved it.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Blah.

I went into this hoping for something really good and I wound up very disappointed.

Two main characters who have little to no charisma and there are only real relationship to each other is that they hump. There is supposed to be some kind of great romance between these two but you just don't feel it.

Not only that, the numerous times they hump feel very inappropriate in their timing and context. When they realize Giant gila monsters are heading toward Albuquerque before calling the governor they decide to screw. in fact talking about or actually humping is pretty much the only thing they do together. I'm not against sex in novels by any means ( I'm a huge James Herbert and Graham Masterton ) but this honestly just felt forced and weird. kind of awkward.

There were many moments throughout this book where I found myself saying "really? " or just rolling my eyes.

Several people have said that the book is better than the movie they based off of this book. I would say yes that is true, but then again the movie is also known for being a very corny bad movie.

There are several moments in the last half of the book that try to wax philosophical about Vietnam, and who are the real monsters in this story the humans or the Gila lizards.

They also try to act like a white woman and a native American man being together is somehow shocking to white people even though this whole story takes place in New Mexico and even in the early eighties when this book came out that wasn't a shocking or unbelievable thing.

And of course all the white people in this book were either a scumbags, useless or just plain stupid.

Ultimately this is very sad because considering who this author is married to, Charles l Grant, I was expecting something much better. Perhaps her other works are better and indeed I will give her other books a try. This one however left a bad taste of my mouth.