Customer Reviews

Blue Devil Island (Five Star Science Fiction and Fantasy Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love reading about the WWII era and fighter planes, I also love Sci-Fi, and this book delivers both in healthy doses.

Mr. Rainey conveys his deep passion for fighter combat in a way that draws you into the lives of the pilots and makes you feel as if you are there with them on the island, and on patrol with them in the air.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes Sci-Fi and/or the WWII era, it is absolutely engrossing and enjoyable. A fantastic read.

The year is 1943 and Lieutenant commander Drew McLachlan along with his pilots who are flying in their new F6F-3 Hellcat land on their new base of operations on Conquest Island in the Solomon Island chain in the South Pacific. Their mission is the push the Japanese off Bougainville and the patriotic Navy pilots run many necessary and down many enemy aircraft.

They should feel joyous because they are not losing too many men or planes but conditions on Conquest are slowly deteriorating. The men hear noises in the jungle yet flyover shows no tribe has ever lived there. In the cave where the aviation fuel is stored, a rumbling is heard. Beast men attack the marines and pilots and a monster is seen on top of the mountain. It is getting into the military men's thoughts and Drew believes it is intelligent and evil just like the beast men with their clawed hands, unusual jaw formation and other abnormities but are intelligent and in league with the monster. Between the Japanese attacking the island and the native monsters on it, Drew wonders if any of the men will make it out alive.

This is a horror novel reminiscent of the black and white terror novels of the 1950's. Stephen Mark Raines pays homage to Lovecraft in BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, an action packed thriller that slowly reveals the truth about the beast-men and the monster. The patriotism and courage of the military stationed on the island enables readers to understand why the Greatest Generation enlisted and were willing to die for the ideals their country stands for; the audience hopes they can defeat the enemy from within and without.

Harriet Klausner

I'm not an expert on the Pacific aspect of WWII by any means, but this novel was so well written and so engaging, I was drawn right in and never felt "left behind." The characters were sympathetic and gritty, fighting the enemy they knew and could see and then facing a horrific, supernatural enemy they could only imagine. A great read for readers into WWII military tales as well as those looking for a very creepy horror novel.

this book was recommended by the magazine g-fan which covers all things godzilla. it's an excellent novel about a fighter squadron on a pacific island during world war 2 with many mysterious happenings including a sub species on the island and a possible monster who lives in a volcano. i'm not usually one for war novels per se, but this was very engaging and quite a page turner and really has a wonderful wrap up with tragic deaths and a wild revelation. if you like things similar to godzilla you might really want to check this out.

The crossing of genres is always a tricky procedure, yet certain genres just seem to beg for it. For instance, the crossing of war stories with the horror genre. Perhaps it is because human beings walk so closely to the abyss in the times when war rears its rapacious skull that is all too easy to imagine a military unit sliding directly into the maw of the unknown.

Remember those old weird-war comic books that usually opened up with a front page shot of Old Man Death garbed in the tatters of some military uniform from some period or the other, braced astride a battlefield, looking oddly cheerful. I must confess that I am a sucker for such a tale and in Blue Devil Island, Stephen Mark Rainey lets us have it with both barrels.

It is the autumn of 1943 and the United States military monster has just begun to claw its way up the long and slow island to island slog towards eventual victory in the Pacific Theatre. Just west of the Solomon Islands lies a remote desert island called Conquest, where Lieutenant Commander Drew McLachlan and his Blue Devil fighter squadron soar daily into brutal life or death combat with the forces of the enemy. Yet the Blue Devils are far from alone on this island called Conquest. Dark forces lurk in the mysterious catacombs of Conquest Island.

Try and imagine John Wayne leading the Flying Tigers straight into a toe-to-toe shoot-out with Lovecraftian evil and you'll be winging somewhere close to the proper wavelength. Five-Star lists Blue Devil Island as a science-fiction thriller, but don't be fooled. I believe it lies a whole lot closer to the realm of horror.

Whatever the label you care to hang on this book it definitely represents balls to wall combat scenes, spine tingling old school terror and plain big fun. While I was reading this novel I also checked out Rainey's Amazon 49 cent tale Sky of Thunder, Sky of Blood and the boy sure knows how to fly.

I recommend picking up a copy of this book and then aiming yourself straight at Rainey's other tales. The fellow hits a bullseye, every time.

Yours in horror,

Steve Vernon
author of Devil Tree
(note: this review originally was published in Hellnotes review section)

That the author has more than a passing familiarity with World War II aviation is apparent. There are lots of details here about flying and fighting in the Solomon Islands. The air combat scenes, which abound, are reminiscent of the pulp fiction of writers like Arch Whitehouse. In fact, if it weren't for the adult language (which was how the combatants of the Greatest Generation actually spoke) this could have been a graphic novel or something for young adults.

The horror tie-in doesn't occur until almost halfway through the book and the rest of the novel alternates between the war in air against the Japanese and the war on Conquest Island against the man-beasts and the monster of the mountain. Sorry, but it just doesn't work for me. Comparisons between Rainey and H.P. Lovecraft are frequently made and they're probably valid, so if that's what you like, then read this book.

Thanks, Mr. Rainey for the flying scenes and seeing literary tips of the hat to the likes of Tom Blackburn and VF-17, but as for the rest, well, as I said, not for me.