Customer Reviews

The Nightrunners

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got into Joe Landsdale through his comic book work and I thank G-d that he took those jobs because it lead me to this twisted nasty little edge of Hell. A nice liberal couple comes face to face with hell when the wife is raped and the husband must confront his notions about human goodness head-on and ponder whether or not he is a coward instead of a pacifist. Meanwhile the rapist, hanging in his cell, isn't completely dead as his compatriots are alive and well and one of them is possessed. The car is racing towards them ready for more death. This book brings you face to face with pure evil.

There are rough portions. The teenagers are just nasty and evil, while you can see the husband's transformation from weakling to ravenous fighter coming a mile away. But this is an amazing book on its own merits and shouldn't be read if you are expecting a deep philosophical treatise on human nature. It's just fast, evil and damn good.

I had read more recent Lansdale books (A Fine Dark Line, The Bottoms, etc.), so when I read this book I was little behind the times. Nightrunners is a show of the extreme dark side of human nature and what happens when light and dark begin to mix unwittingly. Lansdale is a master with the articulation of how good must fight the murky veil of evil without falling into the same mindset or abyss of an incredibly chaotic and insane situation that he draws so well in his story. The story compels one to reevalute the weakness of a person that when confronted with nightmarish horrors, as presented in this book, that person will not only rise to the ocassion, but can find a hidden strengh that may well take the breath away. Some books have to be read between the lines, not just as horror stories; i.e. The Drive-In: A Double Feature Omnibus, but as studies of human nature. When you read Nightrunners and are immediately plunged into the depth and degradation of the human spirit, you are also reading about the characters who are regular people who battle their own, albeit well-hidden, dark side. But when really examined, both are chasing their own demons and their own side of weaknesses and strengths. The big question is, which side will win out. Like the movies, we all want a happy ending. Just dont't go to the triple feature at the Orbit Drive-In.
I purchased a hardbound copy in excellent condition and it is on its way to Lansdale right now to be signed.

this book truly made me live all the events in it, all the thoughts, all the horror. once i started to read it i just couldn't stop, i did try.. it usually takes about half a year for me to read a book but this took only a day. the story is so captivating, to get into the minds of all the characters. i just want to read it again and again, live it once more. in the middle of the night when i finished the book i could swear i saw a wooden doll sitting close to me in a blood red chair staring to nothingness ready to break the silence.

Here's a book that should NOT be read in the young adult circle. "The Nightrunners" is my stock answer to the question, "What's the most extreme horror novel you've ever read?" In the hands of most other writers, it would be dismissable as sick, even pornographic, with its hyper-violent storyline, sex-driven villains, and the whole "riding the razor" thing ... However, this was written by Joe Lansdale, and he's both talented and empathetic. His characters don't just force stories along. They resonate.

I will say, I read this book when I was much younger, and I still recall how disturbing, upsetting, and riveting the book was. It had a lasting hold and influence on me. That reason, more than any other, is why I include the caviat FOR ADULTS ONLY, that to date I have not put on any other book I've reviewed. Great stuff, but not for everyone.

(This review posted by Marcus Damanda, author of the vampire book "Teeth: A Horror Fantasy.")

How would one describe the plot? In Hollywood terms its "Strawdogs meets The Evil Dead." I think this is Lansdale's last CONVENTIONAL horror novel to date, but man if it doesn't hold up. As always his prose is blistering and white hot. This if one man who DESERVES to have his works made into films. Read this one and you'll know why.

Like all of Lansdale's stories, this one is a tour of the off beat crash course known as America. Lansdale's language is very human, without the hidden baricades that many writers use to hide there inability to tell a good story. This tale of suspense, no matter how outrageous the turns may be, is made believable by Lansdale's amazing talent to make the reader believe his words, whether they choose to or not. Lansdales best work since Mucho Mojo..

WARNING: This book is very scary, and very very good. Read it in the daytime, with the lights on, and as many locks on the door as possible. The story never slows down, it's never rushed, and all the characters are fascinating. Also, there is a description of a house that is some of the best prose I've ever read

Originally published as "Night of the Goblins" by Lansdale in 1982, "The Nightrunner" (better title BTW) is different than other Lansdale books I've read. But I guess that's true about most of his books - he doesn't write the same old thing.

We have Montgomery Buford Jones, Jr. and his wife, Becky, heading away to a friend's cabin to try to forget the awful happenings of Becky being sadistically raped. Doesn't work as well as hoped because the rapist's gang wants to complete the job and follows them. Monty has to decide if he's going to stay the pacifist he has always been and believed he should be, or whether he's going to man up and protect his wife.

This is a very brutal, violent book. But then Lansdale's books aren't known for being "G" rated. It is scary; the bad guys are really, really bad. There is some of the supernatural thrown in. Does evil really exist in this world? Lansdale is a great writer and while I think The Bottoms and A Fine Dark Line are his masterpieces, this older book of his is well worth reading. Just know you've been forewarned.

Oh, and Dean Koontz did a great introduction for the book.

Mr. Lansdale is by far and away my favorite horror writter. I am a devout follower of his work and srongly suggest this book to anyone who has yet to meet his aquantance.

This is Lansdale's first, and finest, work -- unfortunately, it's long been out of print and collectible prices are astronomical. Apparently now that Joe has gone onto bigger and "better" things (like his bestselling series about a gay Black southern civilian detective-hobbyist), he'd prefer to forget about his past. Woe be unto any fan of his mainstream novels who stumbles upon this nasty little secret by "that nice Mister Lansdale."

I'd never heard of this book before -- nor had a friend, who is a huge Lansdale fan. Looking up "splatterpunk" on Wikipedia I was surprised to see mention of the same Joe Lansdale I'm familiar with -- and the amazon reviews convinced me that this was going to be page after page of gratuitous and highly explicit violence, so I just had to add it to my Inter Library Loan queue.

If you're familiar with the splatterpunk sub-genre, or "extreme horror" as it's nowadays called, you'll probably find the violence somewhat tame. Yes, it is violent, but Lansdale is a skilled writer who doesn't need to linger unnecessarily on the description of said violence for the titillation of freaks attracted to such. Not a mainstream book by any stretch of the imagination . . . but it really should be.

Like King, Lansdale knows that it is not spooks and monsters that terrify us, but the atrocities of which humankind is oh so capable. The casual violence of the sociopath -- which degrades into rape and slow torture when he realizes that, hey, he's got a few hours to kill and ain't no-one gonna interrupt. This is what the goblins lurking outside our civilized society like to do. They are sadistic, they are vile, and they are REAL. Like the boogyman, wussified liberal dingbats want to deny their existance -- until, like the protagonists -- they come face to face with their worst nightmare . . . and Officer Friendly ain't there to save the day (or he's rapidly cooling on the front lawn with a bullet in his head -- several cop-killings in this story).

One thing that surprised me was the startlingly accurate depiction of demonic possession portrayed within. I've studied Comparative Demonology for years (accounts and legends from all cultures throughout recorded history), and folks, it ain't anything like "The Exorcist". The typical possession involves a malevolent entity taking near total control of a human host almost like slipping into a skin suit. They appear to be "normal", but the perceptive can see the malice in their eyes, hear it in their voice, and note it in their actions. Most sadistic sociopaths seem to have much in common with the demonically possessed. "The God of the Razor" takes possession of a youth gang leader -- and when he dies, transfers the leader's mind to his lieutenant in a form of dual possession. The astral/oneric interaction with "The God of the Razor" seemed quite authentic to me.

This novel was very well written, sensitive to the delicate subject matter (without going into lurid detail), and an utterly absorbing read. The motivation of the sociopathic gang members is consistant with that of goblins I've met in the past (Clyde sodomizes a former teacher because, "She was nice to me once, and I've been thinking about that *** ever since"). This book should be more widely read: there are genuinely evil creatures walking amongst us, and that fact is ignored at your peril.