Scott Cole (2)

I was just coming off of a big, heavy book and I was looking for a light, mindless (in a good way) palate cleanser. Needless to say Crazytimes fit the bill perfectly!

Basically it’s just one dude trying to survive while the world goes violently insane around him. The book is gruesome. All manner of limbs are dismembered, bodies split open, and gory flung about with reckless abandon. Lots of creative kill scenes. The book is fast-paced. The story rips right along, all taking place in a single day. We’re given few lulls to catch our breath, and even those end in disaster. The book is gross (whatever virus is infecting people has some real nasty side effects). And ultimately the book plays out like a trashy, fun grindhouse B-movie (think Planet Terror meets The Crazies).

My only complaint is that I was left wanting more in terms of character development and plot events. There’s hints at possible reasons for the world ending, but then the story ends without ever really exploring/explaining them.… (més)

Have you ever had the experience where you feel sensation or pain in a limb that you no longer have, a phenomenon known as phantom limb? Me neither, primarily because I've never lost a limb, but that's beside the point.

SuperGhost by Scott Cole is based on this phenomenon, putting forth the idea that a phantom limb is really just that: A phantom. The ghost of a severed limb lives on connected to the rest of the body. But what if a mad scientist devised a way to remove the phantom limb? A spiritual amputation, as it were. Then, what if said mad scientist decided to use the phantom limbs to create a ghostly Frankenstein's monster to destroy the world? MUAHAHAHA!… Oops, got a little carried away there. Sorry.

SuperGhost is part of the New Bizarro Authors Series, where new authors who haven't had a book published get a chance to prove that they have the chops. And Cole has the chops. First, Cole takes a somewhat unusual approach to his bizarro book, setting it in the “real” world, or a close facsimile. The world is identifiable and entirely believable and could very well be our own world. That is, until a giant ghost made of severed phantom limbs goes rampaging through the city. The characters are well developed, especially give the small space Cole has to work with. It was surprising how the characters could feel so fleshed out in such a short book. And the characters are likable. Heck, even the mad scientist villain is likable. It would have been interesting to see how much more developed he could be in a longer book. As they say, audiences will hate a good villain but love a great one.

It's both accurate and unfair to compare this book to “Ghostbusters.” The comparisons are obvious, especially given the overall humorous tone of the book. But Cole adds more to it than just a “Ghostbusters” vibe. Comparisons could be made to lots of other sources, such as “Frankenstein,” but they are mashed and stitched together in Cole's own unique way, creating his own Frankenstein's monster of literary tones. But it's all fun. In fact, if I was to describe SuperGhost in one word, it would be “fun.”

Unfortunately, while Cole does an admirable job with the short space he has, I would have liked to have seen this story written in a longer form. It's a story that feels like it was meant for something bigger, and that it had to be trimmed down to make it fit with the maximum word allowance for a NBAS book. Still, SuperGhost is definitely a lot of fun and worth the short time it takes to read.

SuperGhost by Scott Cole earns earns 4 severed limbs out of five.… (més)