A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Reading at the Beach.Here are the rules: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the Letter of the Week and post the following:
- A photo of the book
- Title and synopsis
- A link (Amazon, B&N, etc.)
- Come back here and leave your link in the comments
If you’ve already reviewed this book, post a link to the review as well. Be sure to visit other participants to see what books they have posted and leave them a comment (we all love comments, don’t we?) Who know? You may find your next “favorite” book.
THIS WEEK’S LETTER IS: M
My “M” Book is:
The Manitou
by Graham Masterton
by Graham Masterton
(New York: TOR Books, 1982)
Paperback, 216 Pages, Fiction
ISBN: 9780523480701, US$2.95
From the Cover: A tumor. That’s what pert little Karen Tandy had, a tumor. A strange growth that puzzled her doctor. In fact, it as so unusual that he recommended a specialist and hospitalization. Dr. Jack Hughes looked at it, a smooth round bulge. He ran his fingers over it, and it seemed to have the normal texture of a benign fibrous growth. He gently squeezed it; it was firm and hard. “It only seems to grow at night, doctor. Every morning I wake up and it’s bigger,” Karen said. Dr. Hughes studied the X rays. The little knot of tissue and bone was too formless to make any sense. There was only one thing to do, operate and cut it out. Then it moved… And a chain of events began which would soon baffle medical science and terrify all who came in touch with Karen Tandy. An American Indian sorcerer would erupt into the twentieth century after being dead for four hundred years. He was the Manitou, Misquamacus, seething with rage, returned to wreak vengeance upon the conquering white man. It would be a test of our science and his magic … a war of medicine men!
My Thoughts: So, this is another in my Weird Fiction series that I have not read in a while … like since middle school (a good twenty years ago) but I remember being terrified by it. I read this during my Being-Fascinated-with-(Faux)-Native-American-Mythology Phase (this was also about the same time that I first saw John Frankenheimer’s film Prophecy). I don’t know how accurate Masterton’s mythology is—I suspect “not very”—but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a very scary and very strange story. I don’t remember much of it beyond that … beyond staying up late into the wee hours on a Friday night (yes, I had a boring childhood) reading this story, and then being scared beyond belief and falling asleep with the light on. I haven’t done that often in my life … after I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining comes to mind (I watched that one at my aunt and uncle’s house from a secreted place as my aunt, uncle and parents watched it (they didn’t know I was there)) … but this memory certainly earns The Manitou a place in the pantheon of the New Weird Horror. (I’ll also have to keep my eyes peeled now, because what I have only found out recently is that this is the first in a series … something I didn’t know twenty years ago.)
Paperback, 216 Pages, Fiction
ISBN: 9780523480701, US$2.95
From the Cover: A tumor. That’s what pert little Karen Tandy had, a tumor. A strange growth that puzzled her doctor. In fact, it as so unusual that he recommended a specialist and hospitalization. Dr. Jack Hughes looked at it, a smooth round bulge. He ran his fingers over it, and it seemed to have the normal texture of a benign fibrous growth. He gently squeezed it; it was firm and hard. “It only seems to grow at night, doctor. Every morning I wake up and it’s bigger,” Karen said. Dr. Hughes studied the X rays. The little knot of tissue and bone was too formless to make any sense. There was only one thing to do, operate and cut it out. Then it moved… And a chain of events began which would soon baffle medical science and terrify all who came in touch with Karen Tandy. An American Indian sorcerer would erupt into the twentieth century after being dead for four hundred years. He was the Manitou, Misquamacus, seething with rage, returned to wreak vengeance upon the conquering white man. It would be a test of our science and his magic … a war of medicine men!
My Thoughts: So, this is another in my Weird Fiction series that I have not read in a while … like since middle school (a good twenty years ago) but I remember being terrified by it. I read this during my Being-Fascinated-with-(Faux)-Native-American-Mythology Phase (this was also about the same time that I first saw John Frankenheimer’s film Prophecy). I don’t know how accurate Masterton’s mythology is—I suspect “not very”—but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a very scary and very strange story. I don’t remember much of it beyond that … beyond staying up late into the wee hours on a Friday night (yes, I had a boring childhood) reading this story, and then being scared beyond belief and falling asleep with the light on. I haven’t done that often in my life … after I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining comes to mind (I watched that one at my aunt and uncle’s house from a secreted place as my aunt, uncle and parents watched it (they didn’t know I was there)) … but this memory certainly earns The Manitou a place in the pantheon of the New Weird Horror. (I’ll also have to keep my eyes peeled now, because what I have only found out recently is that this is the first in a series … something I didn’t know twenty years ago.)
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