bmacenlightened's review
4.0
At times the style is hard to read through, but an entertaining enough story that it's worth it.
david_agranoff's review
5.0
This recently re-issued horror classic is a most easily described as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring if it was polluted by George Romero's the Crazies. Right up there with the eco-horror-science fiction classic the Sheep Look Up (John Brunner) or the more recent Demons by John Shirley for combining the reality of pollution and environmental destruction with a down right scary horror novel. If you don't know John Skipp and Craig Spector maybe I should back up. These two men were the ultimate splatterpunk writing team who wrote the most extreme horror novels to grace the New York times bestseller list in the 1980's. They also wrote a novelization for Fright night, wrote set reports for Fangoria and even wrote a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel (the fifth film).
The team long ago split both doing excellent solo work, and Skipp now working with one of my favorite writers Cody Goodfellow. Spector released the amazing novel Underground. The Bridge is set in Paradise Pennsylvania, a small town near a nuclear reactor. For years a a small salvage company has used the the same bridge to dump unwanted waste into the river that flows by the city. One night a barrel cracks open in the river and sets off a chain of events. At times the novel follows the news crew trying to follow the story, the family responsible for the waste, the CEO of the company who created it, the crew running 911, and the nuclear reactor. Terror creeps across the town and every single page is entertaining.
The Bridge is an amazing example of horror, it leaves little doubt what novel is Skipp and Spector's masterpiece. Less dated than The Scream or Light at the End (Both work as excellent novels of their era) The Bridge elevates the splatterpunk to the lofty some what fake arena of literary horror. (I know almost all of it is literary – I say that for the doubters). It's not that this writing duo had not written other fine works of horror, this one is just head and shoulders above the rest. It is one of the best horror novels of the 90's if you ask this humble reader.
What makes The Bridge such an essential horror novel? First Skipp and Spector shred the rules, these are tired and true rules the teachers and wise sages in our genre have set up to help us young writers. The thing is Skipp and Spector have the skills to violate some of these rules and get away with it. They create lots of characters and shift the readers point of view all over the place. Often using this technique with a razor sharp punchlines that end chapters or transition the action from one location to another. They speak directly to the reader often in this novel and some times just slightly break down the fourth wall. Some readers might find this preachy but considering the topic of the novel that doesn't bother me, it excited me that the authors were boldly telling it like it is.
Another aspect that sets The Bridge apart is the obvious heavy lifting the duo did in research. This novel came out in 1991, Al Gore had not created the internet. This book has detailed information on toxic waste, pollution, the operation of 911, Hazmat clean-up, on and on. It breathes a realism into this novel.
The characters are rich, their motivations believable and the horror climbs a ladder of suspense. As British petroleum creates the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history (40 days in at the time of this writing) The Bridge could not be more relevant for re-issue. This is more than just another horror novel it is a entertaining thrill ride that happens also to be a warning with incredible foresight.
It's a mass market paperback, and I am afraid that libraries avoid these books. A trade paperback or pretty looking hardcover might do a better job of conveying the importance of this novel, but it should be in every collection. It's that good.
The team long ago split both doing excellent solo work, and Skipp now working with one of my favorite writers Cody Goodfellow. Spector released the amazing novel Underground. The Bridge is set in Paradise Pennsylvania, a small town near a nuclear reactor. For years a a small salvage company has used the the same bridge to dump unwanted waste into the river that flows by the city. One night a barrel cracks open in the river and sets off a chain of events. At times the novel follows the news crew trying to follow the story, the family responsible for the waste, the CEO of the company who created it, the crew running 911, and the nuclear reactor. Terror creeps across the town and every single page is entertaining.
The Bridge is an amazing example of horror, it leaves little doubt what novel is Skipp and Spector's masterpiece. Less dated than The Scream or Light at the End (Both work as excellent novels of their era) The Bridge elevates the splatterpunk to the lofty some what fake arena of literary horror. (I know almost all of it is literary – I say that for the doubters). It's not that this writing duo had not written other fine works of horror, this one is just head and shoulders above the rest. It is one of the best horror novels of the 90's if you ask this humble reader.
What makes The Bridge such an essential horror novel? First Skipp and Spector shred the rules, these are tired and true rules the teachers and wise sages in our genre have set up to help us young writers. The thing is Skipp and Spector have the skills to violate some of these rules and get away with it. They create lots of characters and shift the readers point of view all over the place. Often using this technique with a razor sharp punchlines that end chapters or transition the action from one location to another. They speak directly to the reader often in this novel and some times just slightly break down the fourth wall. Some readers might find this preachy but considering the topic of the novel that doesn't bother me, it excited me that the authors were boldly telling it like it is.
Another aspect that sets The Bridge apart is the obvious heavy lifting the duo did in research. This novel came out in 1991, Al Gore had not created the internet. This book has detailed information on toxic waste, pollution, the operation of 911, Hazmat clean-up, on and on. It breathes a realism into this novel.
The characters are rich, their motivations believable and the horror climbs a ladder of suspense. As British petroleum creates the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history (40 days in at the time of this writing) The Bridge could not be more relevant for re-issue. This is more than just another horror novel it is a entertaining thrill ride that happens also to be a warning with incredible foresight.
It's a mass market paperback, and I am afraid that libraries avoid these books. A trade paperback or pretty looking hardcover might do a better job of conveying the importance of this novel, but it should be in every collection. It's that good.
kkehoe's review
3.0
An eerily unsettling monstrous mutation story that gut punches you with hopelessness. Refreshingly above the curve on the basic end-of-the-world tale, as a detailed fall of man rather than its aftermath.
sticksnstout's review against another edition
2.0
Couldn't finish it. There were too many people, none of whom I cared about. The plot just didn't hold me
kkehoe's review against another edition
3.0
An eerily unsettling monstrous mutation story that gut punches you with hopelessness. Refreshingly above the curve on the basic end-of-the-world tale, as a detailed fall of man rather than its aftermath.
errantdreams's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
4.0
John Skipp and Craig Spector’s The Bridge is what we call “eco-horror”–a story in which nature and the environment become mankind’s enemy. In this case, our long history of dumping our refuse wherever we can is coming back to haunt us. Boonie and his father and cousin are illegally dumping all sorts of hazardous waste into a river beneath the Black Bridge. When that hazardous spill comes to life and creates the Overmind, it decides to spread its filth as far as it can, taking over everything from machines to people and making them a part of itself.
Engaging the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief is a tricky thing. If the first half of your book is hard SF and then suddenly you interject what we like to call “science fantasy,” readers will hit a wall, because you’ve changed the rules and feel of the universe. In The Bridge, we’re immediately plunged into the idea of a hazardous waste spill developing sentience. It’s established quickly, so we accept that as a part of disbelief that we’re suspending. But when we’re most of the way through the book and suddenly tainted lawn ornaments come to life? That seems to cross an invisible line from where we’ve been up until now, and it kind of took me out of the story a bit. In contrast, the fact that one character practices witchcraft and has a spirit guide is mentioned in passing early on, so when it turns out that she really can do magic, I can grudgingly let it pass (even though it really doesn’t seem to belong in the same genre).
There are a couple of things the authors do that remind me of Stephen King. One is that characters tend to be larger-than-life, exaggerated just shy of cartoonish (mostly). Another is that they interleave and overlap characters, continuously introducing a stream of new people. Some become fodder, some become antagonists, and a very few live long enough to become heroes of a sort. The authors’ “voice” however, is quite different from King’s.
There are some great characters in here. Gary is maybe putting too much extra time in at the local television station, especially considering his very pregnant wife Gwen will give birth any day now. Austin Deitz leads the local largely-volunteer HazMat crew, so he and his people end up on the front lines, even though he’d really prefer to be spending time with his girlfriend of one month, Jennie. Harold Leonard is in charge of the facility that’s supposed to be safely storing all of these hazardous wastes, and he knows perfectly well that Boonie and company have been dumping. So does Werner Blake, the man who seems to have his fingers in all of the local pies, and to whom Leonard unofficially reports. Virtually no one is wholly good; everyone seems to have at least one way in which they’ve fallen short in their lives.
This tale shows its age with Beta tapes and a lack of cell phones, and it works great. This story is a lot of good, plain horrific fun!
Content note: A lot of people in here are not good people, and in a very few instances, that’s evidence by the use of slurs (one racial, one homophobic). They didn’t come across to me as being a stand-in for the authors’ views, but rather intentional characterization. However, I’m not an authority on such things, so if you think they would bother you, you can skip this book. In addition there’s a little bit of sex, a lot of death (including children), a not-insignificant amount of body horror, and a sort of second-hand description of a piece of art that depicts a really gross scene of a baby being killed.
Engaging the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief is a tricky thing. If the first half of your book is hard SF and then suddenly you interject what we like to call “science fantasy,” readers will hit a wall, because you’ve changed the rules and feel of the universe. In The Bridge, we’re immediately plunged into the idea of a hazardous waste spill developing sentience. It’s established quickly, so we accept that as a part of disbelief that we’re suspending. But when we’re most of the way through the book and suddenly tainted lawn ornaments come to life? That seems to cross an invisible line from where we’ve been up until now, and it kind of took me out of the story a bit. In contrast, the fact that one character practices witchcraft and has a spirit guide is mentioned in passing early on, so when it turns out that she really can do magic, I can grudgingly let it pass (even though it really doesn’t seem to belong in the same genre).
There are a couple of things the authors do that remind me of Stephen King. One is that characters tend to be larger-than-life, exaggerated just shy of cartoonish (mostly). Another is that they interleave and overlap characters, continuously introducing a stream of new people. Some become fodder, some become antagonists, and a very few live long enough to become heroes of a sort. The authors’ “voice” however, is quite different from King’s.
There are some great characters in here. Gary is maybe putting too much extra time in at the local television station, especially considering his very pregnant wife Gwen will give birth any day now. Austin Deitz leads the local largely-volunteer HazMat crew, so he and his people end up on the front lines, even though he’d really prefer to be spending time with his girlfriend of one month, Jennie. Harold Leonard is in charge of the facility that’s supposed to be safely storing all of these hazardous wastes, and he knows perfectly well that Boonie and company have been dumping. So does Werner Blake, the man who seems to have his fingers in all of the local pies, and to whom Leonard unofficially reports. Virtually no one is wholly good; everyone seems to have at least one way in which they’ve fallen short in their lives.
This tale shows its age with Beta tapes and a lack of cell phones, and it works great. This story is a lot of good, plain horrific fun!
Content note: A lot of people in here are not good people, and in a very few instances, that’s evidence by the use of slurs (one racial, one homophobic). They didn’t come across to me as being a stand-in for the authors’ views, but rather intentional characterization. However, I’m not an authority on such things, so if you think they would bother you, you can skip this book. In addition there’s a little bit of sex, a lot of death (including children), a not-insignificant amount of body horror, and a sort of second-hand description of a piece of art that depicts a really gross scene of a baby being killed.
xterminal's review
2.0
John Skipp and Craig Spector, The Bridge (Bantam, 1991)
Skipp and Spector wrote seven novels together, of which The Bridge is the sixth. The first five are inconsistent, but pretty bang-up thrill rides all the same. When they started on the downhill slide, they started steep.
The premise is pretty simple and very well-used in the atomic age: a whole bunch of toxic waste that's been dumped in one particular site starts mutating things and eventually takes on a will of its own. Hard to go wrong with that one, eh?
It's hard to pinpoint what, exactly, it is about The Bridge that makes it so much less fun than Skipp and Spector's first five wild rides (I have yet to track down a copy of their final collaboration, Animals, which many fans consider their finest). Perhaps it's the kludgy, overbearing moralizing mixed in with Skipp and Spector's usual closet-romance-novel style (one-sentence paragraphs liberally used, large chunks of melodramatic prose, that sort of thing). Perhaps it's an unsuccessful attempt to combat one of horror's most glaring problems-- the "I need some minor characters to kill off, so I'll just put them in the chapter where they die" problem-- by introducing almost every minor character in one previous chapter before they get offed. (Not necessarily THE previous chapter, just A previous chapter.) But hey, at least they made the effort, even if it didn't work too well. Perhaps it's the feeling that there really ARE no major characters here. But then, that ties back into the first problem, which violates the One Sacred Rule of Art: if you have a Big Sociopolitical Idea you want to get across, make sure you have a good enough framework to carry it (or, to once again misquote McLuhan, "the medium IS the message"). Idea Novels that push for social change are almost uniformly bad. As much as I hate to say it, this one is no exception.
That's not to say that there's nothing good about this novel. If you know Skipp and Spector, you know you're in for a gleeful ride through the wonderful world of splatterpunk, where nothing is sacred and every cow gets shish-kebabed before the book ends. All of the unwritten rules get broken here in throughly disgusting ways (the "toddler bouilliabasse" is a particularly nasty moment, I must say). Even with all the moralizing, the lack of connection to the characters, the usual genre-based bad editing, it was still fun. And then I got to the ending.
Not the ending of the novel. The ending of the novel is actually bloody fantastic for a horrorbook. Not a single punch is pulled.
But what happens after the ending of the novel.
(Note: the above is the kind of emotionally manipulative one-sentence paragraph to be found at least twice per page in this book.)
What happens after the ending of the novel as that John and Craig trump their overbearing morality by adding a whole lot of nonfiction morality that's even MORE overbearing. The "please save our earth" appendix chops a star off the book's rating by itself. Note to authors: once you've slapped raders in the face with a dead fish, proceeding to then cram it down their throats is a real good way to anger them. **
Skipp and Spector wrote seven novels together, of which The Bridge is the sixth. The first five are inconsistent, but pretty bang-up thrill rides all the same. When they started on the downhill slide, they started steep.
The premise is pretty simple and very well-used in the atomic age: a whole bunch of toxic waste that's been dumped in one particular site starts mutating things and eventually takes on a will of its own. Hard to go wrong with that one, eh?
It's hard to pinpoint what, exactly, it is about The Bridge that makes it so much less fun than Skipp and Spector's first five wild rides (I have yet to track down a copy of their final collaboration, Animals, which many fans consider their finest). Perhaps it's the kludgy, overbearing moralizing mixed in with Skipp and Spector's usual closet-romance-novel style (one-sentence paragraphs liberally used, large chunks of melodramatic prose, that sort of thing). Perhaps it's an unsuccessful attempt to combat one of horror's most glaring problems-- the "I need some minor characters to kill off, so I'll just put them in the chapter where they die" problem-- by introducing almost every minor character in one previous chapter before they get offed. (Not necessarily THE previous chapter, just A previous chapter.) But hey, at least they made the effort, even if it didn't work too well. Perhaps it's the feeling that there really ARE no major characters here. But then, that ties back into the first problem, which violates the One Sacred Rule of Art: if you have a Big Sociopolitical Idea you want to get across, make sure you have a good enough framework to carry it (or, to once again misquote McLuhan, "the medium IS the message"). Idea Novels that push for social change are almost uniformly bad. As much as I hate to say it, this one is no exception.
That's not to say that there's nothing good about this novel. If you know Skipp and Spector, you know you're in for a gleeful ride through the wonderful world of splatterpunk, where nothing is sacred and every cow gets shish-kebabed before the book ends. All of the unwritten rules get broken here in throughly disgusting ways (the "toddler bouilliabasse" is a particularly nasty moment, I must say). Even with all the moralizing, the lack of connection to the characters, the usual genre-based bad editing, it was still fun. And then I got to the ending.
Not the ending of the novel. The ending of the novel is actually bloody fantastic for a horrorbook. Not a single punch is pulled.
But what happens after the ending of the novel.
(Note: the above is the kind of emotionally manipulative one-sentence paragraph to be found at least twice per page in this book.)
What happens after the ending of the novel as that John and Craig trump their overbearing morality by adding a whole lot of nonfiction morality that's even MORE overbearing. The "please save our earth" appendix chops a star off the book's rating by itself. Note to authors: once you've slapped raders in the face with a dead fish, proceeding to then cram it down their throats is a real good way to anger them. **
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