Creature From The Black Lagoon: Times Black Lagoon (Universal Monsters (Dh Press)) [Paperback]

Paul Di Filippo (Author)

Book Description

Series: Universal Monsters (Dh Press) | Publication Date: September 19, 2006

In 1954, an expedition found what seemed to be a missing link in the evolutionary chain: an ancient, immensely powerful amphibian creature. Scientists tried to tame it, break its will, and even change its very being with surgery and torture, but the beast rebelled, killing nearly all in its way. But was the creature truly a throwback, a freak survivor of some prehistoric era-or was it something more? Six decades later, one scientist attempts to find out, using a time machine to journey into the past. What he finds not only shatters his vision of what the Creature might be, but could change the history of the human race forever. Paul Di Filippo reinvents the Creature with a tale of time travel, horror, and mystery that blends Cold War science fiction with today's cutting edge cyberpunk.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595820337
• ISBN-13: 978-1595820334
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #963,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointing Trip, June 17, 2008

By 

E. T. Dexter "Dex1138" (near Salem, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Creature From The Black Lagoon: Times Black Lagoon (Universal Monsters (Dh Press)) (Paperback)

Let me start by saying the Creature is my favorite of the classic Universal monsters...
The premise of the book sounded interesting...time-travelling back to the prehistoric period to learn about the Gill Man in his natural habitat. But once you meet the monsters, so to speak, it removes the mystery of the Creature seen in the films. It's like being in Disney and seeing Mickey behind the castle with his head off smoking a cigarette.
The ending very much reminded me of a classic monster movie where there's an epic world-threatening crisis that is very quickly resolved to finish the story up all nice and tidy so the credits can roll.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars * * * WARNING - POSSIBLE PLOT SPOILER COMMENTS * * *, November 29, 2006

By 

Michael A. Aquino (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Creature From The Black Lagoon: Times Black Lagoon (Universal Monsters (Dh Press)) (Paperback)

Like the previous reviewer, I snarfed this paperback on impulse. As a kid in 1954, I was duly mesmerized by Blacky LaGoon's film trilogy (which I am happy to see on Amazon as a pristine, if only 2-D, DVD set). And here, it seemed from the beautiful cover-art, he came *again*!

_TBL_ starts out a bit like a nautical _Stargate_: The bright young scholar gives a heretical talk about possible amphibian links to humanity and is tomatoed by his professional audience - except for one old coot who takes him aside to offer the hidden reality behind his amateur speculations. In this case it is not a Stargate at Cheyenne Mountain, but the fragmentary record of the hushed-up, scientifically-impossible appearance of the Creature in 1954 (as per the film trilogy).

Up to this point di Filippo does fine, constructing a very authentic academic/marine biological atmosphere and giving his main characters remarkably deep and interesting personalities. I was happily anticipating a departmental fricas over funding, an _Apocalypse Now_-type expedition up today's Amazon to you-know-where, of course to find at least one, but perhaps more gillpersons. Imagine the ruckus that would have caused not only on campus, but amongst creationists, animal-rights activists, et al.

Alas, it was not to be. Instead the scholar has a friend who just happens to have made a pocket time machine, to whisk him and his girlfriend back a few Earth-ages to the Devonian, where they meet nice, friendly, and conveniently telepathic gillies. Turns out that the 1954 Creature was one of their badly-devolved brethren with Terminator attitudes. Hence, after the hero & heroine have at least temporarily sated their recurring desire for Devonian swamp-sex, the rest of the story is telepathic & flipperfight good gills vs. evil gills, aided/complicated by humans with time machines. This is a bit much, particularly since the contest rages across a present-era college campus & city, apparently to only normal surprise/annoyance of the locals. Well, perhaps the town in question is Innsmouth, and this sort of thing happens around the campus every Friday night.

Thanks to di Filippo for taking on this challenge. It brought Blacky back to life after all these decades, and that was fun. But I'd still like him to rewrite the second half of the story.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Laughable "Sequel" to The Creature From the Black Lagoon., November 9, 2008

By 

James Simpson "James Simpson" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creature From The Black Lagoon: Times Black Lagoon (Universal Monsters (Dh Press)) (Paperback)

The beautiful cover art fooled many a monster fan when this one hit the shelves,and i'm here o warn you,speaking as a monster fan....IT'S REALLY LAME!
The novel takes place in the future,and begins interestingly enough with a student studying the legend of the Gill man and becoming enthralled.
This leads him to go on an expedition to find the Creature's origins...by using his I-pod to go back n time(!),where he finds that the Creature descended from a race of aliens!
The creatures remind one a little TOO much of the kind of forgotten civilizations that H.P Lovecraft would write about,and melding that in a Universal horror way,just dosen't work.
And that the Creature is nothing but a violent MUTANT is sad indeed for our friend,the gill man.
The characters are largely unmemorable and inconsistent.
Sex seemed out of place but didn't bother me so much....so two young people had sex in the Devonian Age,sounds kind of cool....it was the MINDLESS action that got me.
This story was more Stephen Sommers than Jack Arnold as dumb action scene after dumb action scene,repeat themselves frequently.
It would be a wise move to pack some big guns if your on a dinosaur safari,but someone should have told the author to do his homework.
The rifles they carry are Barret .50 sniper rifles,basically an anti-tank weapon,that holds a ten round magazine and is semi-automatic.
In this it's full auto(!) and has no recoil(!)....huh?
How about the "Creature invasion" sequence at the end?
Did that part make ANY sense?
Wouldn't it be pretty big news?
Nope....no one seems to care that Florida got invaded by fifty Creatures from the Black lagoon...no big deal I guess.
To call the book dumb,would be kind,so i'll just call it boring an innane.
Come on people...i'm sure some of us out there can make an exciting story about Universal's last great movie monster.
Give it a try!(Just don't read this book).