I must have seen Ken Greenhall books on the WaldenBooks and B. Dalton shelves over the years. I didn't give him a second's thought. I'm sure I lumped him in with the rest of the Zebra Books set. I never stooped to the depths of Ruby Jean Jenson or William Johnson. I read a sentence or two of these kind of books and moved on to better things.
Along came an upstart named Grady Hendrix. With his Paperbacks From Hell bestseller Hendrix sang the dubious praises of a lot of bottom rung horror books, so you'll perhaps forgive me for not leaping right into a Greenhall book.
I eventually did jump aboard, and I must eat my cynical thoughts once again.
I was not without prior knowledge of Hell Hound. A friend saw the French Hell Hound adaptation, Baxter, and showed it at a party. It was late, people were gabbing, and I didn't retain much of it.
Recently between books, I decided to read Hell Hound. It's short, which helped. I am waiting for a bounty of library reserves to come through, and I didn't wish to embark on a long novel.
I am pleased to report that Hell Hound is an outstanding book. It's not the maniacal killer dog story people may expect. Instead, Hell Hound is a sublime, thoughtful, and disturbing story that serves as a study of the contrasts between civilized beings and a savage ones. If there truly any differences between the two.
There are multiple viewpoints in Hell Hound, but the best are from the perspective of Baxter himself. He's a bull terrier with an unpredictable nature and preternatural intelligence. Baxter's contempt for humans is at times amusing and in other instances chilling.
True to seventies fiction tradition, there isn't a lot of character depth in Hell Hound, but there are a lot of stereotypes examined. Societal roles are seen as hollow, while the cunning nature of dogs are portrayed as more honest and noble.
Ken Greenhall is truly an exceptional writer who was far ahead of most of contemporaries. Better, I think, than some of the Zebra writers I like. Rick Hautala and Matthew J. Costello, for instance.
It's nice to know I have more books to read by this author. I'm excited to see what other feral thrills await me. Thanks, Grady.
Written by Mark Sieber
Along came an upstart named Grady Hendrix. With his Paperbacks From Hell bestseller Hendrix sang the dubious praises of a lot of bottom rung horror books, so you'll perhaps forgive me for not leaping right into a Greenhall book.
I eventually did jump aboard, and I must eat my cynical thoughts once again.
I was not without prior knowledge of Hell Hound. A friend saw the French Hell Hound adaptation, Baxter, and showed it at a party. It was late, people were gabbing, and I didn't retain much of it.
Recently between books, I decided to read Hell Hound. It's short, which helped. I am waiting for a bounty of library reserves to come through, and I didn't wish to embark on a long novel.
I am pleased to report that Hell Hound is an outstanding book. It's not the maniacal killer dog story people may expect. Instead, Hell Hound is a sublime, thoughtful, and disturbing story that serves as a study of the contrasts between civilized beings and a savage ones. If there truly any differences between the two.
There are multiple viewpoints in Hell Hound, but the best are from the perspective of Baxter himself. He's a bull terrier with an unpredictable nature and preternatural intelligence. Baxter's contempt for humans is at times amusing and in other instances chilling.
True to seventies fiction tradition, there isn't a lot of character depth in Hell Hound, but there are a lot of stereotypes examined. Societal roles are seen as hollow, while the cunning nature of dogs are portrayed as more honest and noble.
Ken Greenhall is truly an exceptional writer who was far ahead of most of contemporaries. Better, I think, than some of the Zebra writers I like. Rick Hautala and Matthew J. Costello, for instance.
It's nice to know I have more books to read by this author. I'm excited to see what other feral thrills await me. Thanks, Grady.
Written by Mark Sieber
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