Review - Bigfoot Hunters by Rick Gualtieri (CreateSpace)

Title: Bigfoot Hunters
Author: Rick Gualtieri
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: March 16, 2012

Reviewed by: Nick Tab

In the interest of full-disclosure, I’m a sucker for Bigfoot fiction.  The problem is that up to this point, it hasn’t really been done right.  I read the Eric S. Brown Bigfoot Apocalypse trilogy and came away only slightly impressed.  I’ve always thought that the legend of Bigfoot could provide a talented author with a great opportunity to write a heck of a suspenseful horror story.  So it was with great hope and expectation that I picked up Rick Gualtieri’s Bigfoot Hunters.  The book starts out as a group of campers are getting ready to make their way to a campsite near the area for a weekend of outdoor fun.  This is where I began to see my first issues with the book.  Each member of the camping party was almost a carbon copy of every “hot” young actor that you see in every horror remake movie from the past ten years.  There was no real connection with any of the characters to the point where you were almost rooting for them to purchase the farm, so to speak.  None of them had a compelling story; they were all just beautiful people looking to score with each other.  Now on to the part of the story that I was waiting for – the Bigfoot, or in this case the family of Bigfoot, that begin terrorizing the group of campers shortly after they arrive at the campsite.  They engage in monologue.  Yes, that’s right monologue!  Okay so it’s delivered in the story by means of internal monologue, but it is still monologue in the sense that you get a viewpoint regarding what the Bigfoot(s) is/are thinking.  This was the part that I really couldn't get past.  The few times that I actually began getting into the story somewhat, were ruined by the cheesiness of the internal Bigfoot monologue.  Coupled with this was a side-story about a Bigfoot-adventurer reality show being shot in the same area that was sort of interesting, but in the end didn't really save this from being just an average book.  I guess I will have to keep waiting for a satisfying horror book based on Bigfoot, because this sadly was not it.  I did enjoy certain stretches, especially the scenes where the Bigfoot(s) go on a violent rampage, but there was just too much fluff for me to enjoy it fully.

(3 out of 5 stars)

Review - Red Sky by Nate Southard (Thunderstorm)

Title: Red Sky
Author: Nate Southard
Publisher: Thunderstorm Books
Release Date: December 1, 2012

Reviewed by: Nick Tab

Nate Southard is an author that I have never read before.  For that reason, I approached Red Sky with no real expectations.  After reading the first few chapters however, I soon realized that Nate is an author that we should be seeing big things from very soon.  Red Sky starts out with a bank robbery gone horribly wrong when a trigger-happy member of the gang begins shooting victims indiscriminately. This attracts a ton of unwanted attention (mainly from the local police) that results in a high speed chase as the bank robbers attempt to make their getaway.  As the gang of robbers are trying feverishly to avoid the police, they come across an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the New Mexico desert.  The warehouse is a mystery because although it has the appearance of a factory of some sort, there is no equipment or machinery inside.  The machinery was either removed for some reason, or never existed in the first place.  The question then soon becomes, is it really a warehouse at all or something more sinister?  With no real options and limited gas, they decide to hole up there until the heat blows over.  The only problem is the creatures that call the warehouse their home also reside there - and they're very, very, hungry.  This book was a pleasant surprise.  It is definitely not your run-of-the-mill horror novel.  The suspense is what carries the story, and the characters are not cookie-cutter in the least.  The mystery of what the creatures are and where they came from is handled masterfully.  Red Sky is a really good horror story.  I can't wait to see what Nate Southard has in store for us next!

(4 out of 5 stars)