Customer Reviews

Floater

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"Floater" is about four people. It is set partly in 1966-67 (their senior year of high school) and partly during 1987, about twenty years later.

The protoganists are a couple of guys -- the star quarterback and his hanger-on -- and the quarterback's girlfriend.

The villain is a 14-year old genius. (He skipped ahead to the senior class at an age when he should be a freshman.)

Besides being an outcast because of his young age, below-average looks, and above-average intelligence, he is also skilled at astral projection: he can travel outside his body as a disembodied spirit.

When he accidentally offends the three kids from the in crowd, they play a prank on him that goes too far.

The villain plans revenge. His power grows over the next twenty years, and then he finally tries to *take* that revenge.

Some points in the book's favor are that the protoganists are realistically flawed (I avoid calling them 'heroes') and the villain is often sypathetically portrayed (during the first half of the story, at least).

"Floater" isn't Brandner's best novel. ("The Howling", "The Brain Eaters", and "The Boiling Pool" are probably his top three.) Still, it's a solid book and a fun read.

(Note: I like the cover of the Fawcett edition better than the cover of the Backinprint.com edition.)

I hope Gary Brandner writes another novel. I have only one Richard Laymon book left and only a few of Brandner's left. (Fortunately, Dean Koontz writes a new novel every ten minutes!) I'd love to have something new.

If anyone reading this knows Gary Brandner, steer him toward the "Richard Laymon Kills!" website (run by Australian novelist Steve Gerlach). There's a link to a Laymon message board there, and I'd love to see Brandner stop by.

Be warned that two of the Gary Brandner books listed on Amazon, "The Experiment" and "Mind Grabber", are not novels. Each book contains a single short story which is less than a hundred pages long.

Also recommended:

By Gary Brandner:
The Howling I,II,III, Hellborn, Walkers, Carrion, The Boiling Pool, The Brain Eaters, and Rot.

By other writers:
"Nightflyer" by Christopher Fahy, "Body Rides" by Richard Laymon, "Out of Body" by Thomas Baum, "Salvation" by W.A. Heisler, and "Nobody True" by James Herbert.