From archive (archive)
From: leeper@mtgzz.att.com (Mark R. Leeper)
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Subject: SAURIAN by William Schoell
Date: 12 Aug 88 13:29:26 GMT




			  SAURIAN by William Schoell
		       Leisure, 1988, (ISBN), (price).
		       A book review by Mark R. Leeper

     Every once in a while you find a real jaw-dropper of a novel, a novel
that is compelling reading just because you cannot believe that anyone would
commit such a stupid idea to paper.  Well, the most amazing novel I have
read for a good long time is SAURIAN by William Schoell.  It's sort of a
horror novel about a dinosaur stomping and eating people today.  "Fun
stuff," I told myself, "Godzilla for adults, right?"  Well, it might have
been.  But realize that the author did not make it just any dinosaur; he
invented his own breed, a Gargantasaurus.  Not absurd enough?  Okay, how's
this: it is supposed to be the largest animal that ever lived and it walks
like an iguana.  No true dinosaur that ever lived walked like an iguana, but
this one does.  It smashes people, then licks them off its paws.  Not weird
enough?  It's not just a dinosaur, it's a were-dinosaur.  The thing changes
back and forth from an animal hundreds of feet high to a human.  Ready for
more?  It has this shape-changing ability because it is really from outer
space and it gets its mass to grow from energy like sunlight.  Can you take
a little more?  We are told all this only because one woman knows all about
the Gargantasaurus and she knows it because she has a race memory of the
creatures.  She is descended from alien were-dinosaurs and her race memory
tell her about their powers.  This is the silliest novel I have read since
THE FAMINE by John Creasey.  In that book a worldwide famine was caused by a
scourge of rabbits, but they turned out to be millions of little men in
little rabbit suits.  Honest!  That may have been sillier, but I doubt it.
You can decide.

     We get to see inside the mind of a were-dinosaur.  We share precious
family memories like that all-important first transformation to a dinosaur.
Daddy--in human form--took son out swimming and arranged for son to nearly
drown.  To save himself, son must become a dinosaur.  You know, you never
forget that first time you turn into a prehistoric animal with a head "the
size of 20 bull elephants."

     Then there all all the wonderful new options dinosaurhood brings.  Like
in making love, you can do it the traditional way or transform and literally
eat your partner.

     Yes, at last there is a new horror writer who rivals Guy N. Smith,
author of THE SUCKING PIT and the man-eating crab novels.

					Mark R. Leeper
					att!mtgzz!leeper
					leeper%mtgzz@att.arpa
					Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper