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William Meikle

The Dunfield Terror Paperback – April 6, 2015

by William Meikle (Author)

4.1 195 ratings

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It starts with a strange glowing fog that arrives at the height of a snowstorm.

A terror from the past has returned, bringing with it death and destruction that threatens to overrun the town. The old stories tell of a post-war experiment gone wrong, one that opened the way for the fog—or whatever was behind it—to begin its reign of terror.

A small team of workmen are the last hope to keep their town alive through the long, storm-filled night. But the many horrors that await them are beyond anyone’s worst nightmares.

Print length

226 pages
Language

English
Publication date

April 6, 2015
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.57 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1940544696
ISBN-13

978-1940544694
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William Meikle
85
Paperback
1 offer from $14.99

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ DarkFuse; 1st edition (April 6, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 226 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1940544696
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1940544694
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.57 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,225,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #170,271 in Horror Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.1 195 ratings

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William Meikle

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I am a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with over thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries. I have had books published with a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, DarkFuse and Severed Press, and my work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

I live in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company and when I'm not writing I drink beer, play guitar and dream of fortune and glory.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

195 global ratings

5 star		44%
4 star		29%
3 star		22%
2 star		4%
1 star		1%

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Jason Waldman

Consider This Lovecraft Lite

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2015

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"The Dunfield Terror" reads almost like an homage to Lovecraft in plain English. It has a lot of the Lovecraftian hallmarks like bizarre creatures from another dimension and a lack of explanation for what's going on, but it's missing the dense language that made Lovecraft such a challenge (and pleasure) to read. Though it shows a lot of promise in parts, the story becomes too convoluted with stories in three timeframes, and with an ending that just seems to come out of nowhere.

The plot centers around a small town in Newfoundland that is in the midst of its worst snowstorm in recent memory. During the storm, a mysterious fog that has the power to bend matter appears throughout town, causing death and destruction to anything it touches. Through flashbacks, we learn about experiments in the town back in the 50s that lead to the fog being brought to life. Further flashbacks provide even more background on the mysterious fog and the creatures that come with it.

Meikle does a decent job of balancing out the present day action with the flashbacks by alternating chapters to keep things from getting too confusing. Unfortunately, aside from a few minor tie-ins later in the book, there isn't much to connect the stories from two distinct eras. The addition of a further flashback later in the book helps better explain the flashback to the 50s, but the present day story is really almost left to stand on its own. While it does have moments of horror and grotesque imagery, I didn't feel that there was enough of a build-up to really make me care about any of the characters. One scene later in the book that could have been extremely moving really fell flat due to lack of character development.

I actually felt that the two flashback stories, particularly the 50's flashback, were much better, more developed stories and could have easily been standalone stories. Both had chilling moments, with the later flashback especially having some truly chilling descriptions. The two main characters in the 50s flashback were also way more interesting than the characters in the present day story.

I definitely would not consider this a bad read by any means, but it really could have been so much more. For Lovecraft fans, this book pays a decent tribute, but there are better stories out there that are closer in spirit to the master's style.

7 people found this helpful

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pml

An Atmospheric, Thrilling Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 16, 2015

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I really enjoyed this book. It's my first experience with Mr. Meikle's writing, and I was very thrilled, chilled, and entertained.

I grew up reading Lovecraft and other horror writers, and I watched the film version of The Philadelphia Experiment story with my retired Naval WWII veteran grandfather as a boy. He was generally quite down to Earth, but he had a love for science fiction after seeing what he believed to his dying day to be a UFO in 1947. This opened his mind up to a lot of sci-fi ideas, and while I'm not sure he believed it, he really enjoyed this story of a naval degaussing experiment gone awry. I bring that up because there is very interesting and entertaining play on that story at the core of this one. It is a jump off point, and Meikle goes his own way with it for sure, but the feel of TPE and the parts that horrified me as boy watching that movie make it into The Dunfield Terror to great effect.

There is also an element of haunting beauty at work in the descriptions of weird and sometimes frightening situations, objects, and creatures. Mix that with the effectively ooky and slimy thing that also come up, and there's a lot to get into here. Not the least of which is the setting: the harrowing snow, wind, and freezing waters of Newfoundland are--and I know how often this is said, but it's true here--a character in the form of a place and feeling.

If you enjoy horror with equals parts Weird, thrilling, and slimy, this is one you should read.

pml

3 people found this helpful

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stachehunter

a real page-turner appears to thrill readers of weird fiction and not leave them disappointed

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 15, 2015

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Finally, a real page-turner appears to thrill readers of weird fiction and not leave them disappointed. William Meikle's "The Dunfield Terror" has it all, folks: a driven mad scientist, a faithful chronicler of events, a bitch of a snowstorm, a rip in time/space, creeping octo-crabs, sentient fog that melts everything in it's path, a stalwart guy on a snowplow who smokes too much, and a legacy of decades old horror that started in 1955 and couldn't be stopped.

Meikle moves this hair-raising tale along at a very brisk clip, moving between years past and present. Characters feel real, people that you probably know forced to confront something that cannot be explained. You won't soon forget Mrs. Malloy and the refrigerator. Yes, this is Lovecraftian in tone, a coda of sorts to the classic "Color Out of Space", but yet author Meikle makes this homage his own. Refreshing in the sense that no "real" explanation is given for the events or how the whole business got so out of hand, the reader is simply pushed into the blizzard and goes from there.

If you enjoy the pulp feeling of werid fiction, give this a try. You'll be glad you did.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle reader

A fun read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 16, 2015

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It is an interesting story about inter-dimensional entities and their affect on our realities. There is a definite Lovecraft influence for all of the Yog-Sothoth addicts. There is a small coastal town, a professor doing some very different physics (From Beyond influence there) and a protagonist doing his best to keep people alive. The flash backs to different times are well done and so is the character development. It was enjoyable reading.

One person found this helpful

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Mike_Duke

Science Run Amok looses Eldritch Horrors

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 21, 2015

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This is the first William Meikle book i've read and I was quite impressed. It kept me intrigued and wondering about the source of the disturbance / entity and it's exact nature the whole time. The characters were well written and I personally liked the way he jumped back and forth from present to old journals and used them as a way to advance your knowledge of what is going on and reveal the scientific experiments that took place there. The pace is steady and actively pulled me along the whole time. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes horror, and particularly Lovecraftian type horror.

One person found this helpful

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K Krane

Yet another great tale!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 6, 2020

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There’s an amazing amount of creativity that goes into his stories. I can’t imagine how he keeps coming up with this stuff!
I was a bit disappointed with the ending as he usually does a good job of tying up the loose ends. It hardly matters though, this tale is all about the ride!

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Top reviews from other countries

Daz Pulsford

I have to say; I'm not sure I want ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 16, 2015

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I have to say; I'm not sure I want to go on holiday to Newfoundland anymore, if Mr Meikle's tales of horror keep coming…

Essentially running three storylines, we have the present day horrors visited on the quiet community in a frightful snowstorm - and as the story unfolds and the remaining inhabitants are picked off (well, I say picked - you'll have to read it to see exactly how nasty the author's imagination can get) - the caffeine- and alcohol-fuelled heroes realise that the nightmares of the past and their elders' stories are more true than they'd hoped.

The second timeline reveals the back story to the embellished memories of our present day - the 1955 post-war experiments narrated by Duncan, and the Lovecraftian tones of horror and profound inexplicable madness that abounds.

The third timeline is told through notes from the previous Century, when a mission to rescue the crew of a whaler reveals the first encounters of humans with the terror from the seas.

Combined with a distinct nod to the manifestations in 'The Color Out of Space' - and you get a tale that whips by in breathless horror, stark scenes of awful demise mixed with the boundless enthusiasm of reckless science and the hard-edged courage of those who pick up the pieces.

Refreshingly - although the cavalry are called to save the day, we never really find out what was going on, why it happened there, and you're left with the uneasy feeling that it will be back some day.

2 people found this helpful

Techno Hippy

A damn fine read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 26, 2015

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I'm a huge fan of Lovecraft and cosmological horror stories in general and this is a fine take on the genre. The story is told in two threads - the more immediate of which is set in the present day with a small Canadian town tormented by an otherworldly fog during a heavy snow storm.This forms the meat of the story, but the bones comes from the second thread set in the past about how this fog came to be.

Of the two threads the present day is the stronger and epitomises everything that a decent horror story should be. It's more immediate and has some wonderfully tense and scary moments. The main character is well drawn and you feel for him as he tries to survive through the night and rescue his fellow townspeople.

The historical thread isn't as strong, but not bad by any means. It has a different feel that sets it apart from the more chaotic present day story. I enjoyed the slower, more considered build up of the historical journal. The how and the why of the tale is told here and that adds some depth.

The only real issue I have with the story is the ending - the actual ending is fine, but the final sequence feels a tad abrupt and I think deserved to be expanded. I would also have liked to discover more about the phenomena itself as the glimpses of what it contained were astounding.

The quality of the writing is superb and the story is well placed. A definite recommendation for any fans of the genre.

Clever Spud

Good old fashioned monster madness

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 12, 2015

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Bill Meikle is an unfairly unsung writer who is uncompromising in his approach. He writes genre stories, which are inventive and full of excitement, but which aren't trying to push any boundaries.

This is a story about a post-wartime experiment gone wrong and the modern snow plough operator who has to deal with the consequences. Our hero is dogged both by a shadowy monster literally consuming the town around him, but equally dogged by the lure of rum. He encounters horror and rum in fairly equal measure and to be fair to the rum he comes off better when dealing with damaging spirits coming out of a bottle rather than the fog.

The story primarily jumps back and forth between the 50s and the present day - I feel a call back may have been wasted here but that's my inner-editor speaking.

If I had a problem with the book it would be that the plot feels like it was made up as it went along. It's still an entertaining ride, but it really feels like plot elements were bolted-on towards the finale. Still a fine read that doesn't descend to anatomical gore to shock, this would be fine for an older teen.

One person found this helpful

Michael Kelly

Classic Horror for the Modern Day

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 28, 2015

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This book is its own thing, but it wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, and rightly so, because it's right up there with them!

Part of it is reminiscent of the more disturbing and horrible reports concerning the fabled Philadelphia Experiment. It has an affinity with Lovecraft's 'The Colour Out of Space'. At times it reminded me of that classic old Hammer film, 'X - The Unknown'. If any of these three things float your boat, you're going to LOVE this!

The novel takes place across three time periods. The main thrust of the story is set in the present day, in a town cut off by the snows of a Newfoundland winter storm. This is interspersed with reports dating back to the start of the terror in the 1950s, with a briefer interlude between these two times in the middle of the book. It works well, as the nature of the menace is revealed slowly. It also makes you want to keep on reading, as the switches keep you hooked and are very cleverly paced, especially at the end, building tension.

It's a great, solid, thoroughly enjoyable horror novel that I recommend wholeheartedly.

Neil Davies

You really should read William Meikle

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 17, 2015

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By most writer's standards, an excellent book. By Mr Meikle's standards, it falls just a little short. I think my problem lay in the regular chapters going back into the past, showing the history of 'the f**ker' (Amazon won't let me give the proper title in a review). One or two would have been great, but they, for me, dragged the action down. Having said that, the present day chapters were amazing, as you would expect from this writer. Tense, exciting, everything I wanted. Would have liked more of them and less looking back. However, that only knocks it down to a 4 instead of 5 star review, which for most other writers would be excellent. If you like horror and you haven't read any of William Meikle's books yet, then I envy you the joy of discovery.

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