The Totem [Import] [Hardcover]

David Morrell (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (December 31, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0450528235
• ISBN-13: 978-0450528231
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars High adventure, low horror, March 23, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Totem (Mass Market Paperback)

Regular readers of David Morrell expect a crisp writing style, brisk pacing, and above all, relentless action. Morrell delivers once again with The Totem, but this time there are elements of the classic horror story mixed in with the thrills.

The residents of Potters Field, Wyoming, have fallen under the attack of wild animals that kill on sight, mutilating their prey. They hunt in packs, and their shadowed forms can be glimpsed running through the night forests, howling at the moon. Police Chief Nathan Slaughter soon discovers that these feral beasts are not animals at all, but the townspeople themselves. A new virus is loose in Potters Field, not entirely unlike rabies, that gives control back to a previously dormant area of the brain, in effect transforming men and women into the primal creature mankind was hundred of thousands of years ago.

Morrell's writing is as clean and tense as always, yet the book does not live up to its horror billing. Action dominates, and while the author's take on the origins of the werewolf mythology serves to deepen the theme of the book, the horror elements are only a faint undercurrent in what is essentially an action/adventure tale.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More than meets the eye, January 8, 2005

By 

Tracy Davis (California, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Totem (Mass Market Paperback)

In this, a re-issue of David Morrell's fourth novel (1979), the author, as stated in his introduction "experimented with a variety of formats, all linked by action"(xi) in his early career, from historical novels to action-chase novels, and to this one, in the horror genre. The first version of this story was apparently much different from what Morrell originally intended, edited down to what was thought appealing to readers in the 1970s: "half as long, twice as fast" (xiv). In reading this version, I cannot imagine the action being faster: as with all Morrell books I have previously read, the action comes fast and furious from the beginning, and this novel is no exception. You can see all the Morrell trademarks in this early work: a good protagonist (a sheriff with the great name of `Slaughter'); several antagonists (especially the town's mayor, Parsons); a mystery - in this case, something is mutilating animals and eventually people, with horrifying results for the town of Potter's Field, Wyoming; and a huge climax with Slaughter committing a gruesome, but heroic, act. There's also a theme of moral responsibility: several characters are faced with a choice of doing the right thing or doing nothing, and that adds another dimension to the action. Morrell also uses parallel imagery between the angry townspeople and the `hippies' who are blamed for the evils visited upon the town. Even the name of the town lends itself to the action, since a `potter's field' was where the poor and nameless were buried; there's some symbolism there! The hippy aspect of the story dates it a little bit - a modern audience born in the 1980s probably wouldn't understand the social divisions of 1970, but that historical reference is explained enough to give a younger reader the general picture.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great mix of action and horror, September 14, 2000

By 

Mickey Adcox (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Totem (Mass Market Paperback)

I have been a great fan of David Morrell for many years. The first two novels I read were The Fifth Profession and Brotherhood of the Rose. Obviously I enjoy his action works. I have never read horror novels before this so this book intrigued me. I found it excellent. Morrell combines his classic high adventure style with incredibly descriptive knowledge of the fear that can be produced by dark and lonely wilderness areas. As a hunter and outdoorsman, I know that tight feeling in your throat when camped in a strange forest and you hear movement and see shadows but just are not sure what made them. I found this novel very exciting. Just do not read it at night while camping.