Book Review: MEAT EATERS (2022), My Movie Podcast Month
What happens if velociraptors had the metabolism of hummingbirds and got loose in cattle country? Problems. Also, I picked Myopia's March episodes and will return to Charlie's Collectibles May 4.
On the advice of a friend long ago, I got a Kindle Unlimited subscription and found that for $10/month (at the time), I could borrow and return near-endless books, including a lot of the schlocky monster stuff I enjoy. Not only would this save me money, but would also keep my Kindle relatively uncluttered.
So here comes one of my Kindle Unlimited elliptical reads, the mutant/dinosaur saga Meat Eaters by Michael Cole. I originally wrote this as a blog post in January 2023 when the Substack was new; now I’m sending it out to everybody.
The Plot
Out in cattle country, something is hunting and killing off first the wildlife, then the livestock, and finally the people. It’s a swarm of raptor-like creatures that have the appetites of hummingbirds—if they don’t eat multiples of their body weight every day, they’ll starve to death.
And did I mention the only thing they can eat is meat? Hence the title.
The Good
*The book is absorbing and never dull. It got me through a couple elliptical sessions without checking the clock. The descriptions are vivid and it’s action-packed.
*Modern horror fiction suffers from “the cell phone problem.” If people have cell phones, it is much easier for them to call for help if they’re trapped in a house with a serial killer, attacked by monsters, etc. An isolated back-country setting solves that, plus even if you can reach help, there aren’t many people and it’ll take awhile for them to get there.
*The creature concept is interesting and draws heavily from real-life science. They make for a dementedly dangerous group of antagonists.
The Bad
*The book could have used some stronger editing. There are some typos and usage errors here and there.
*One shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the cover looks like an image collage. It certainly shows the reader what they’ll get (a dinosaur in a livestock barn), but it looks kind of cheap.
*As a Kindle Unlimited read it’s great. As far as a full-blown purchase is concerned, $5 for an e-book this short is a bit much.
*Toward the end I started getting serious Xenomorph vibes off the critters.
The Verdict
This would make for an entertaining, albeit extremely gory, movie. A few flaws, but entertaining. 8.5/10
Quinntoberfest on Myopia Movies
As part of the tenth season of the film podcast Myopia Movies, host Nic allowed each regular participant to pick four films for a dedicated month. I picked four films for a month called “Quinntoberfest,” which ended up being this past March. Heh.
Here are the films and episode links. The episodes have spoilers for movies that range from the mid-1990s to 2011, so be warned if you haven’t seen them.
Priest-This one one features Paul Bettany, aka Vision from the Marvel films, as a priest with Matrix-like fighting abilities in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by the Catholic Church. Despite its Warhammer 40,000-level of corruption and oppression, the church rules by virtue of having defeated the vampires, a predatory race I compare to naked mole rats that has plagued humankind for thousands of years. Only it turns out they didn’t. I thought this was awesome (and Karl Urban chews the scenery as the villain — he’s great), but it didn’t make enough money. And Bettany and Urban have moved on to bigger and better things. Reboot as a TV series?
The Ghost and the Darkness-This is based on the true story of the man-eating lions of Tsavo that killed dozens of African natives and Indian railway workers. I liked it, but a lot of the other people on the podcast didn’t.
Mimic-The one with the giant flesh-hungry roaches that can mimic human appearance. Don’t talk to the abnormally tall, quiet dude in the subway because he might be a lot more than he seems. :) It’s actually (loosely) based on a pulp short story from 1942, which I didn’t know until I watched it. Although I’m usually one of the quieter podcast participants, in this one I talk a lot and go absolutely off the chain. It was fun. :)
The Phantom-This is based on the long-running newspaper comic my dad liked and I read as a kid all the way through college. Billy Zane is the titular Phantom, part of a father-son line of international crime-fighters the baddies are convinced is actually an immortal “Ghost Who Walks.” Zane kind of plays him like the dorky Bruce Wayne of the 1989 Batman. It also features Catherine Zeta-Jones as an air pirate. I saw the movie in theaters with Dad when I was a kid. Features me making a WWII strategic bombing joke that didn’t really land — I see what I did there.
(In addition to a whole month I picked, I’m also in a new episode dedicated to the first Pokémon movie. This one features a villain who’s basically Poke-Hitler and a surprisingly emotional climactic sequence. And I’m in this episode on D3: The Mighty Ducks that came out this past Friday. This is the one where everybody acts like a bunch of jerks.)
I’m a regular on the podcast and there are a literal decade’s worth of episodes for you to partake. You can find the different podcast services we’re on on the Podbean page and by Googling the podcast title. Enjoy!
Free Comic Book Day At Charlie’s Collectible Show (5/4/24)
Charlie’s Collectible Show in Stone Mountain is hosting a comic convention for Free Comic Book Day. For those of you who are uninitiated, that’s May 4, 2024. I’ll be there selling my usual books from 10 AM to 6 PM.
Looking forward to seeing everybody there!