Review: “Pit Stop” by Ben Larken
Posted by Jacko | Filed under Jacko's Reviews
I was hoping to have reviewed more books by now, but, alas, no. I’ve been caught up writing A Fistful of Rubbers. Now that is done, or at least, a draft has been handed into my publisher, I am free once more to roam, to play, and to frolic.
To begin my season of frolicking, I am going to review an award winner. Pit Stop is Ben Larken’s debut novel, and it won best horror in the Eppie Awards, 2009. The Eppies recognise outstanding achievement in the world of electronic publishing (Pit Stop is available both electronically and as a paperback), and to win one with your first novel is something special indeed. So, I am going to read it and I am going to review this “award winner.” And let me warn you, Ben Larken, I am one jealous bitch…
…who was very impressed, very entertained and ultimately enthralled by your work.
Pit Stop follows the journey of ten individuals…actually, no, first line in and already I’ve misguided you. Pit Stop is not about a journey, at all. It’s a story of waiting; ten people, waiting for their last voyage, a one-way ticket to Hell. Impressively, everyone is dead from page one. It’s good to start on a high.
Ten souls wait in purgatory, and they’re waiting, strangely, in a service station. The Pit Stop, on Route 66 in Arizona, is somewhere I really wouldn’t fancy a coffee. The trip to Hell is not a pleasant thought, and if I was to use my deepest and darkest grey matter to concoct an image of the being that would guide me to the only place worse than Great Yarmouth, I’d be thinking spikes, tentacles, mucus, blood and possibly a little faeces. Bearing in mind the horrible nature of Larken’s warped mind, I was expecting a monstrosity from the very bowels of Hell…oh yeah, that’s sort of obvious, as it technically is something from the bowels of Hell. Still, I was expecting something a little scarier than a bus. However, as I got to know the bus and its psychopathic, ultra-powerful driver, Ramsey, I hoped that the bus would stop being so damned nasty. The bus and its driver are desperate to take the ten occupants of the diner straight to Lucifer and Pit Stop is the tale of their bid for freedom.
Pit Stop is unquestionably horror. It is gruesome, vile and disturbing in its imagery and Larken makes sure the reader not just sees the horrific violence, they feel it too. On top of that, with a set of characters lined up to be royally buggered in Hell, you know you are going to be in the same company as some rather unsavoury beasts. Paedophiles, murderers and prostitutes are the order of the day, but we have some heroes to make this a wonderfully eclectic mix of the damned. Scott Alders and Dustin Calloway are the boys you’ll be rooting for. Dustin’s a bad man with a talent for avoiding any heat that’s coming down on him (death not included). However, his heart is questionably in the right place. Scott Alders is the interesting one. He’s a straight down the line cop who puts his job first. From the start, you’ll be wondering what Office Alders did to earn a trip to Hell, possibly my only point of contention in the story.
Is Pit Stop scary? Pit Stop is a slasher tale with a beautifully evil stalker, Ramsey, who is roguely charismatic for someone who doesn’t really say much, and whose main role is to maim, torment and torture. Personally, I don’t find slashers particularly scary, even though I love them, and I get my kicks from the inventiveness of the violence and my affinity to the characters. Pit Stop had me routing for Scott and Dustin who are wonderfully linked. The book also appealed to my carnal instincts and my desire for bloodlust was well and truly satisfied. I desperately wanted to see some of the characters torn into a thousand gory pieces and Mr. Larken gave the mob what they wanted. To answer my initial question, I didn’t find Pit Stop particularly scary, but that wasn’t in the slightest bit detrimental to my enjoyment of the book (incidentally, I’ve just picked up his latest book, The Hollows, and read the first chapter and that scared the bejesus out of me. I’m hooked already).
Is Pit Stop worth reading? Oh yes, undoubtedly so. It’s an exceptionally good read from start to finish and Ben Larken should be extremely proud of what he has achieved. If you read this, Ben, not many fictional bad guys have quite grabbed my attention as much as Ramsey, the bus driver, and if you ever base a book solely on him, I’ll camp outside the bookstore, the night before, to get hold of it.
Listen out for Ben Larken. I won’t be the least bit surprised if you hear the name in the future.
Pit Stop is available direct from the publisher, LL-Publications, and is also available from Amazon (UK and USA
Find out more about Ben Larken on his website.
Tags: Ben Larken, e-book, Epic, Eppie, horror, Jacko, Jacko: Author, LL-Publications, mark jackman, paperback, Pit Stop, Ramsey, review
WARNING! Books Are Being Wiped From Existence!
Posted by Jacko | Filed under Chewing of Fat
It reads like a warning from a tabloid newspaper, one written to drive fear into the public. If you are an author, you have developed a cold sweat. “What’s happening to my book?” you ask. As a reader, you are terrified that you’ll never be able to read your favourite story, ever again. I’m not joking, either. Soon, your book will cease to exist.
OK, I’m using the word “soon” on a universal level. And a couple of thousand years is a short period of time when considering the history of existence. But before you panic too much, let me tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I am going to attack you with facts!
In the British library there are 150,000,000 items sat on 640 kilometers (398 miles for my American friends) of shelves. They have built a new depository at Boston Spa which will hold 7,000,000 books, weighing in at 12,000 tonnes spread over 263 kilometers (163 miles for my American chums) of shelves, and kept under a reduced oxygen atmosphere of 16% rather than the 21% that you are breathing right now.
That is a lot of books.
The British Library also holds 5300 tonnes of newspapers and here is the shocker. 1.4 tonnes are lost every year to the atmosphere. That means in 3800 years all the papers will all be gone! Can you imagine that? In a few millennia, our descendants will not be able to see a picture of Britney Spear’s lady-bits flashing out of a car, and they will not be able to find out how many slappers were nailed by our professional footballers round the back of London nightclubs.
Does it matter?
The British Library think so (you’d sort of hope so, wouldn’t you?) and they care so much they are investing 130 million pounds into the whole process.
How are they going to do it?
What do you love about books, apart from reading them? For me, it’s the smell. I love the smell of old books and libraries (although not when the local tramp comes in and starts downloading pornography on the library computer) and scientists at the British Library believe that the smell is the key to understanding how the books are degrading.
There are 109 chemicals that give us that magnificent smell. One of them is acetic acid. You probably know it. You probably put it on your chips/fries earlier tonight. At the moment, they think that it might be one of the chemicals that is causing the problem, but we shall see.
E-books rock!
E-books solve everything. Unless someone lets off a global EMP (electromagnetic pulse) bomb, like in “Escape from LA,” they will be stored on our computers for as long as there are geeks in the universe. The information from every book in the library can be stored on computers. You could argue that if there are no books, then we won’t have that wonderful book smell. Surely the 130 million pounds is worth that alone?
Actually, you can buy that smell, and it will probably cost a little less. CafeScribe, an e-book selling website, are releasing a scratch and sniff sticker that will give you that musty magic! What a great idea! People love great smells. Scientists are trying to recreate the new car smell… but in a non-toxic form. Yes, that’s right, the new car smell kills you! Everything does.
To end this scientific paper, I’ll ask you a question. Does it matter that we are losing our books? Isn’t the information the important thing? I, as a man, was born with the sentimental values of a horny tomcat, but I can understand why people want to save these beautiful books, packed with heritage and history. 130 million pounds is a lot of money, though. Think what we could have done with it and the people we could have saved. Is it worth saving books that are kept in a depository, which cannot be touched by human hands and are held in an atmosphere where you won’t be able to breathe properly? You tell me.
Your books are still dying.
Does that scare you?
Tags: British Library, britney spears twat, e-book, end of the world, Jacko: Author, mark jackman, pissflaps, science, science saves the day
