A book review - John Skipp & Craig Spector - The Bridge

I've got one or two book reviews over. I normally try to send these all in to various mags etc to get published but I have a couple of books I've read and not managed to find a home to send in a review (not because they're rejected, merely because I try not to oversaturate the markets I submit to). But I still think these books need a bit of an airing so I'm going to post some of the reviews here.

First up is John Skipp and Craig Spector's The Bridge - just reprinted by Leisure Books. If you fancy ordering it I'm adding the Amazon link

http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-John-Skipp/dp/0843963964/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0

The people of Paradise Pennsylvania are people you'll find anywhere. They want to make a few bucks, live comfortable lives, and not be overly bothered with the messy stuff. So they entrust their waste to a waste management company and forget about it. Only problem is that company has been illegally dumping the toxic goo for years, and now all those chemicals have reacted and produced a big bad monster who's bringing the fight back to the townsfolk in true gorefest fashion.

This book originally came out nearly two decades ago in 1991. It's hard to believe. Its core plot of mankind ruining the planet (dumping toxic chemicals in this case) until the Earth decides it's had enough is, if anything, more suited to this decade than the nineties.

This is horror as a vehicle for an environment point and, despite reservations to the contrary before starting reading Messieurs Skipp and Spector have proven that horror is the perfect genre for such a political point. And they've done this by not forgetting the most important thing in a novel - a damn good plot. Oh, and great characters and wonderfully easy-to-read prose.

You'll be left wondering one thing when you've finished this novel. Why the hell didn't this book raise the two authors into the same heady heights as Stephen King or Dean Koontz. Yes, it's that good.