![]() |
The Bamboo Demons
New English Library, London, 1979
dedication:
To the memory of Remy Montes - who gaves me the old legends in the first place - and to her children, who possess her spirit.
The blurb on the back:
The night creature crouched in front of her. It was changing ... changing ... The hair, long and beastlike, was growing, hiding the naked body. A low growl rose to a snarl as the lips peeled back over yellowing canine teeth. The stench of carrion flesh choked her. It moved, half-straightened, sprang...
There are good werewolf novels, of course - The Werewolf of Paris and The Wolfen leap immediately to mind - but mostly they're pretty poor. This one at least attempts to ring the changes by locating it within a Filipino mythology, but the net result is to bore a reader to tears. Too much time is spent on a travelogue and on making sure the research is visible, and too little on getting a decent storyline going. Frankly I don't care much about how rice is cooked in the Philippines, and although I'm happy to be told that an aswang is a local variation on the werewolf myth, I still need a glimmer of original narrative to keep me going. I quite like the cover though. ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 2/5 HIPNESS QUOTIENT: 1/5 home |