Customer Reviews

Steel Ghosts

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

 

 

It seems the only thing truly alive in the old steel town of Steadbridge, PA are its dead people.

Here, Michael Paine takes the pulp horror fiction genre and ups the ante by giving us believable, three-dimensional characters: Tom, the NYC film executive who ambivalently returns to his hometown to start up an industry in the town's abandoned mill; Ruth, a single mother of a claivoyant son. Whether alive or dead, no one seems capable of leaving Steadbridge; all are rooted in place to fulfill some unfinished imperative.

Paine is obviously a shrewd observer of the human condition. He gives us more than our money's worth by creating not only first rate moments of suspense and terror, but he also supplies a cautionary tale. Namely, the cost of inertia, the price of refusing to change when change is the only option. He also imparts the nagging realization of how this country's wealth was/is built on the backs of those people who do filthy, demeaning, dehumanizing jobs; many of whom frequently lose life and limb in the process. Paine also proves himself quite a humorist when using his characters to comment astutely on everything from the film business to the Catholic church.

As I said earlier, you get more than you bargained for in this book, and all of it worth the time. A minor gem.

I thought this book was terrific - a nice sense of mystery and creeping dread. I could hardly put it down.

The principal characters were well written and refreshingly complex.

Highly recommended.

The blast furnaces of the No. 5 Steel Mill in Steadbridge, Pennsylvania have been cold for decades when Tom Kruvener returns to his hometown to convert the abandoned mill into a movie studio. Although Tom manages to conquer his own demons by returning to the place he'd sworn never to set foot in again, he finds himself totally unprepared for the ghosts that now inhabit the mill.

STEEL GHOSTS is the story of a man who spent the first eighteen years of his life in a small steel town and lost his father to a gruesome accident in the mill. Over the years, many others died in the mill before they closed the gates, including the husband of his childhood crush, Ruth Fawcett. Tom and Ruth rekindle their romance while the stagnant Steadbridge experiences an influx of prosperity with the arrival of the new studio and the flurry of activity surrounding a B horror movie production.

Michael Paine sets the stage for a horrifying thriller as victim after victim is pursued and, ultimately, consumed by the evil inhabiting the mill. Paine gives the reader an interesting background and storyline, and the action, although predictable, runs true to genre. Although the story lacks the fear factor that would keep this reviewer awake at night, horror buffs will be satisfied and find the events at the mill perfectly ghastly. (RAW Rating: 4.5)

Reviewed by Kim Anderson Ray
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

I'm sure there are plenty of snobbish literary critics who would find some fault with this book, but for me, the true measure of a fiction novel is whether or not you enjoyed reading it. I did very much; in fact I even slowed my reading of it in order to make it last. Turn on your reading light in an otherwise darkened room and enjoy your stay in "Steadbridge"!

Michael Paine, Steel Ghosts (Berkley, 2005)

Michael Paine is quite the enigma. He wrote three novels in the late eighties and early nineties (only one of which, Owl Light, I've been able to track down; a fine book it is, too), then dropped out of sight for almost fifteen years. Earlier this year, Paine showed up on bookshelves again with Steel Ghosts. And let me tell you, folks, it's been well worth the wait.

Steel Ghosts centers around Steadbridge, Pennsylvania, a dead steel town that just hasn't realized its demise. Its factory, Number Five, shut down ten years before, and there was a mass exodus of populace. The town now has a skeleton crew keeping it alive, and their main form of entertainment is drinking away their relief checks. Tom Kruvener, who grew up in Steadbridge, mentions offhand in a meeting at Overbrook, the firm he works for, that Number Five would probably make a great tax write-off if they bought it, demolished it, and put up a movie studio there. Despite having sworn to never set foot in Steadbridge again, he finds himself heading back to scout locations for a Z-grade horror flick (titled, amusingly, The Colors of Hell-- the name of one of Paine's older novels) at the behest of his superiors.

Steel Ghosts is your classic haunted-house tale, but it's far more than that, as well. Tom and his old friends Ruth and Bill spend a lot of time mulling over the old saw "you can't go home again," and Paine adds another layer to the discussion by not only having the town, but Tom's old friends, change remarkably in his absence as well. It's almost as if he's penned a coming-of-age tale where the actual coming-of-age took place offscreen, and the characters are musing on how and why it all happened. There's also a subtext about the death of the Pennsylvania steel industry.

All this, of course, plays second fiddle (as it well should) to the simple ghost story that overlies it all, and it is at the simple ghost story that Paine excels. Steel Ghosts is the kind of horror novel that you'll go back to years later because you still remember a random piece of scenery and feel the sudden need to re-read the book. I have little doubt that the second (and third, and fourth) time I read this, it'll be just as good. Welcome back, Mr. Paine, we have missed you. **** ˝

I really enjoyed this story. I can relate to the decrepit industrial environment that reminded me of Gary, Indiana and all the bankrupt steel mills. I do not usually read ghost stories but this one had an atmosphere that kept my interest.

Mr. Paine also writes with a wit that I find most enjoyable.

Highly recommended.

Everything is cyclical, and "Steel Ghosts" makes the point. Paine was making a reputation during the last horror boom in the eighties, and here he is again during this one. Now, like the eighties, indie horror was the rage, and in "Steel Ghosts", ex-patriot Tom Kruvener returns home as an avatar of Overlook Media, which is branching out into indie horror movies. Only thing is, the dying town of Steadbridge is physically haunted, and is hostile to Tom's return and trying to pump new life into the town.

Fortune-telling Grandma Kibben predicts that with Tom's coming, death will follow, and sure enough, people start disappearing and dying. Unfortunately, the ghosts that Tom encounters are sometimes real, and sometimes of the psychological variety. His once best friend has become both a priest and a drunk, and his ex-girlfriend has gotten married, widowed and given birth to a very difficult child, and as his relationship with Ruth deepens the problems around Tom start to snowball.

Now the jacket copy gives the impression that "Steel Ghosts" is a working class horror novel involving an old steel plant. Well, it is, kinda. But, it's more of a satirical novel about the trials and tribulations of filming the indie "The Colors Of Evil", the title of which sounds an awful lot like Paine's early novel "The Colors Of Hell", and which takes place in a closed steel plant haunted by those workers who have died there. It's this part of the novel that works the best, as Paine has fun with writing about Tom and his dealings with both the sour townsfolk and the assorted divas that make up the cast and crew of the film, even though the novel could have been even more wickedly satiric than it was. As the movie-making progresses, the ghostly phenomena escalates. People die, more people start seeing the increasingly belligerent ghosts, and the town becomes cut-off from the world. And while the ghosts walk, so does Tom, as he investigates some of the ghosts of his past.

Paine gets correct all of the decay of a forgotten and abandoned backwater town. I especially loved the abandoned movie house that contains the ghosts of a hundred movie matinees. Michael Paine's novel is classically gothic; an outsider visits a dying town and discovers its hidden and horrifying secrets. In this backwater and dying town Tom isn't a complete stranger, but he might as well be one for all the good that being an ex-local does him, the townspeople hate him anyway. Which isn't necessarily hard to understand. Tom is such a whining, passive narrator that you quickly tire of him and his backstory. And the townsfolk's constant bitterness also grows tiresome after a while.

A criticism of Paine's early novels centered on their abrupt endings, and it seems a valid one. As the suspense of "Steel Ghosts" escalates so do the ghostly happenings until the book seems headed for a grand finale. Oddly, the grandiose ending is a disappointment, as it seems a convenient way for Paine to cease typing than a true resolution to his otherwise pretty good novel. A slightly different version of this review originally appeared in "Cemetery Dance #54 in 2006 and was edited by Bob. Thanx Bob.

Although this book kept me entertained from cover to cover, upon finishing it, I'd have to say it was a rather bland foray into the realm of supernatural horror. Artistic and thought-provoking, yes, but this story definitely hasn't robbed me of any sleep, and hasn't left any vivid imprints on my memory.

The largest thing that struck me was the characterization. The first few townsfolk that we meet are witty and sarcastic, which leads one to believe that the author has a unique voice with which to tell his tale. However, after roughly 150 pages, it becomes apparent that everyone who steps foot in the town of Steadbridge seems to be magically gifted with the ability to insult one another with a dry, cocky wit. This approach grows old after a while, and causes the characters to blend together.

Additionally, everyone in this book seems to have their vices. If a person isn't a homosexual or a homeless squatter, then they're an alcoholic or a drug addict... perhaps even a combination of all 4. Although the author's intent was likely to paint an image of a broken town in a state of despair, to me this just served to blur the lines between the characters, weakening their overall impact.

The events that unfold thorughout the story seem to be rather lacking in detail. Characters die in passing over the span of one or two sentences. I suppose one might call this approach "quiet horror", but something about the author's style caused the "horror" aspect of the book to be undermined for me. Perhaps he dealt too much with character interaction and too little with narration of events.

In retrospect, I would sum this novel up as a tragedy; a tale of the horrors of a town that refuses to let go of it's past. However, while reading, I just hungered for something more...