Hey gang, look what's coming soon from Valancourt Books! It's the 1984 prehistoric animal-attack classick
Carnosaur, by prolific pulp purveyor Harry Adam Knight (
John Brosnan when he's at home). Highly sought-after in its original Star UK and Bart Books US paperback incarnations, you now will not have to pay an astronomical sum to own a copy. I've contributed a new introduction for this edition, which features a brand-new cover by artist extraordinaire
Lynne Hansen. Finally,
Carnosaur gets a cover worthy of its contents. I mean, look at that baby! Fearsome indeed.
This book will not be part of the Paperbacks from Hell series, however; rights issues prevented Valancourt from reprinting it as a mass-market, so this guy will be a trade paperback. However I can recommend it to all and sundry who enjoy the finest of dino destruction tales. You won't be disappointed! Looks to be let loose September 2022, so go here for all pre-order and other info.
P.S: I've just now noticed the date and say to you this is no April Fool's Day japery! Good God, would I joke about something like this?!
9 comments:
Is there any plans to release the book in UK or will it only be available on Kindle ?
You know, Harry Adam Knight was among those practitioners who were regarded with disdain by ‘skilled’ horror writers:
‘Maybe 90% of horror novels of the past decade are pointless, derivative crap, churned out by hacks who will now go back to writing romances, or by amateurs who have seen a dozen splatter films, read a Stephen King novel, and now want to write the same.’
- the last interview of Karl Edward Wagner, by Bradley H. Sinor
Still, I'll take 'Carnosaur' over Peter Straub's 'Julia' any day of the week.........
luvtoread: the Valancourt page I linked to says the book will not be published in the UK. This happens sometimes with publishing rights. Contact Valancourt directly if you have other questions.
tarbandu: Karl isn't wrong. But I've read a lot of hack horror novels, and while CARNOSAUR has some of those elements, it was obviously written by someone who can actually write and who loves the genre. Give me Harry Adam Knight over Laymon, Johnstone, Williamson, any damn day!
To answer your question: I don't think so, Homey don't play that.
I got a tie-in version for Corman's loose film adaptation from a library sale at a far too young age. Interesting in several ways for predating Jurassic Park, and where Chrichton loaded up the technobabble for his dino cloning Harry Adam Knight disposes of it in maybe a sentence - he knows what's important! The riverboat party scene is a highlight imo, as is the finale with the baby Rexes.
I like how Bronsan included a Dilophosaurus before Jurassic Park did...and here, it's the dino that gets blinded!
Actually, the cloning-of-dinosaurs theme got started even further back that that, in a short story titled "Our Lady of the Sauropods". I think it was written by Robert Silverberg and originally published in 1980.
One anthology that has it at the end of the book is titled THE SCIENCE-FICTIONAL DINOSAUR, but I can't remember the year of publication, the editors or the publisher offhand. All I know is it's a mass-market paperback.
It had an even earlier beginning than that. The Judge Dredd story the Cursed Earth which ran in 2000AD comic in 1978 had a sub plot about dinosaurs being cloned and a dino theme park. http://arche-arc.blogspot.com/2016/08/mythcomics-judge-dredd-brings-law-to.html?m=1
In the notorious 1974 horror film 'The Freak maker 'aka 'The Mutations', mad scientist Dr.Nolter, (played by the great Donald Pleasence) wistfully muses about the possibility of one day bringing dinosaurs back to life through cloning.
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