Customer Reviews

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Protege (New Time Cinema)

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This was a book that was hard to put down (unlike Dreamspawn, which sat on my bookshelf for a month of two after I got through about 50 pages). It tells the story about Freddy's attempt to get an agent in the real world, though a evil alter-ego of a boy he "infected" as a fetus in his mother's womb. Seventeen years have passed in the boy's life, during which he was protected by a mystical dreamcatcher his psychic aunt acquired from a stranger.

First, the characters were great. We get Jerome, who is willing to do whatever it takes to stop Freddy's plan (such as a failed attempt at suicide). We get Cheryl, the girlfriend, a sweet girl who stands by her man even when she doesn't understand what's happening. We get El, the best friend. We get Lynn, the stepmom (at first, she appears to be the stereotypical stepmom, but later we can see how much she cares for Jerome). We get Bekka, the aunt who gets a great sequence when she tries to power up the repaired dreamcatcher after it is accidentally broken (the repairing of the dreamcatcher is essentially a McGuffin, though). We get the Krueger house on Elm Street, as he learn the fear that Jerome has for it even before he knows about Freddy. And we get Jerome (I know I already mentioned him), a real sadistic SOB who is a great compliment for Freddy (I saw someone complain that Freddy doesn't really kill anyone, but I didn't even notice with Jerome).

My only complaint is that I don't know what the time frame is for the story. Is the opening sequence, which happens 17 years before the rest of the story, after the events of Freddy vs. Jason (if so, that would put the rest of the story well in the future)?

Tim Waggoner blows David Bishop and (especially) Christa Faust out of the water with PROTEGE. Freddy is the perfect mix of funny and scary, the teenagers are well-written and believable, you want them to survive (well, except for the obligatory jerks) and the battles in the Dream World are right up there with anything done in the movie series. Definitely recommended for Freddy fans!

This book is amazing. Easily the best so far out of the 3. The deaths, even though they aren't Freddy's handiwork, are still brutal. I don't want to give anything away. All I have to say is pick this book up, and you won't want to put it down!

In his original novel based on the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise, Waggoner keeps things fresh and inventive by introducing a protagonist whose body is inhabited by an evil alter ego, as "fathered" by none other than our favorite dreamstalker/trickster, Freddy Krueger. Our protagonist is thus also our (secondary) villain, cohabitating inside one body, in a modern Jekyll and Hyde situation that makes for a lot of suspense plot-wise and fascinating conflict between a kind of symbollic id and superego. As in Christa Faust's NIGHTMARE novel (which keeps Krueger out of the first half of the book without sacrificing its effectiveness), Waggoner wisely refrains from overexposing and thus dilluting Krueger's presence in his story, saving him up for maximum impact. And as in Faust's book, he gives us characters we care about, and deeply dread bad things happening to (though of course, they do). Fans of gore will find plenty of the red red krovy here; the horror is grueling, and as the book progresses it becomes an increasingly high-pitched engine of sustained terror and mayhem...yet without resorting to mean spiritedness. Waggoner likes and has compassion for his characters, so this care for them is translated to us, his readers -- but don't let that lull you into a sense of safety as you follow the author into the depthes of this pitch black nightmare. Waggoner made this jaded horror fan cringe inside with real trepidation as evil walked onto the boulevard of bloody dreams called Elm Street, once more.

I had read the first two books in the series already, and though I liked the first two okay, this one really had me going! I recognized elements from some of the previous Nightmare movies, including Nightmares #1, 2, & 5, as well as Freddy vs Jason, with respect to the adults trying to keep Freddy from spreading again.

In the story, a 17-year-old named Jerome, who experiences anger difficulties, is haunted by Freddy, who killed his mother while he was in the womb. Now Freddy wants Jerome's 'other' personality to assume control and start spreading fear throughout Springwood so that Freddy can come back. This is the basic premise of the story, and unlike the first two books in the series, I was hooked immediately. It only took me 5 days to read this one.

Though Freddy doesn't have much of a body count in this book, his 'son's' action more than makes up for it, while Freddy himself pulls the strings, in his own delightedly sadistic manner, complete with twisted one-liners that make me laugh.

All in all, I would definitely read this book again! Heck, I'd make it into a movie, if I were involved with New Line Cinema.

That's not really much action in this book. Some of the reasons is that Freddy is in only about 75-90 pages in the entire story. Another reason is that Freddy really don't kill anyone (besides a "Died in a car accident"-death in the start where Freddy was involved), but a 17-old Jerome Starkey, which body is possesed (or something like that) by a evil-him created by Freddy. Also, there is some parts in the story, that does not fit in "A Nightmare On Elm Street"-story (like when "evil Jerome" dress up as Jason Voorhees).

Besides that, Tim Waggoner really shows which gret author he is in "Protege". The book is full of good descriptions and sentence like "His laughter died, and a few seconds later, so did he" and he really makes a good mood whenever something "special" happen (which really not is often).

If you're a fan of Tim Waggoners novels, this is a excellent choice for a boring weekend, just don't expect some real action before after 150 pages.