A review by tobsi
Slimer by Leroy Kettle, Harry Adam Knight
3.0
Slimer is a pulp horror story. The protagonists are couples: Paul and Linda, Alex and Rochelle, Mark and Chris. They are stranded in the ocean after Mark sunk their yacht, which was filled with drugs. After days aimlessly floating in a lifeboat, they've reached an oil rig. But without much inspection they found it deserted, except for one unkillable creature...
I didn't like this book in the beginning, mainly because of the characterizations. Paul and Alex get into a hierarchy fight. It's just plain and boring. Look, it's okay if a book only has unlikeable characters. Everybody hates Dostoevskys' Undergroundman, or his Rodion Raskolnikov. Yet, here I couldn't identify with any character. Paul is the hero, but not as strong as he seems. Linda is his sidekick. Alex is the antiforce of empathy, a sociopath only caring about his own needs. He is the only developed character in the book - and that isn't well done.
But in the end the story is gripping. It gets tense. I had a good time with the second half of the book, and I liked the authors' decision to switch the narrator from person to person. Mark didn't get his fair share, but hey! This book isn't about socialism.
The creature is nice and scary, while the pseudo-science is not that bad. The author used characters that, like we all do, only knows the basics of genetics. So, the short pretentious explanations on what was happening weren't too bad.
The prose distracted me. It's not bad, but average. Sometimes stylistic devices were used too obviously. I really disliked the dream in the end. It's unnecessary and disrupts the flow.
Overall, a fun short read. You wouldn't miss anything by not reading *Slimer* - but you won't regret it either!
I didn't like this book in the beginning, mainly because of the characterizations. Paul and Alex get into a hierarchy fight. It's just plain and boring. Look, it's okay if a book only has unlikeable characters. Everybody hates Dostoevskys' Undergroundman, or his Rodion Raskolnikov. Yet, here I couldn't identify with any character. Paul is the hero, but not as strong as he seems. Linda is his sidekick. Alex is the antiforce of empathy, a sociopath only caring about his own needs. He is the only developed character in the book - and that isn't well done.
But in the end the story is gripping. It gets tense. I had a good time with the second half of the book, and I liked the authors' decision to switch the narrator from person to person. Mark didn't get his fair share, but hey! This book isn't about socialism.
The creature is nice and scary, while the pseudo-science is not that bad. The author used characters that, like we all do, only knows the basics of genetics. So, the short pretentious explanations on what was happening weren't too bad.
The prose distracted me. It's not bad, but average. Sometimes stylistic devices were used too obviously. I really disliked the dream in the end. It's unnecessary and disrupts the flow.
Overall, a fun short read. You wouldn't miss anything by not reading *Slimer* - but you won't regret it either!