Retro Book Review: THE WOLFEN (1978), Atlanta Comic Convention Reminder

A 1970s NYC creature feature, another reminder for a great big show I'm going to next week, another bookstore signing, and store with my stuff in inventory

Back when I was living in McDonough and working for The Griffin Daily News, I checked out from the library an ancient copy of Whitley Strieber's 1978 debut horror novel The Wolfen, adapted into a questionable 1981 film featuring Edward James Olmos. I didn’t review it at the time, but later did so for my geriatric Blogger blog back in 2015. Here it is for my loyal readers now.

The left is the cover of the first edition, which I got from the library. The cover of the Kindle book I now own is on the right.

The Plot

Two police officers are ambushed and killed by unknown attackers in a New York City junkyard in the late 1970s. Ambushed, killed, and at least partially eaten. Cranky old-school detective George Wilson and his partner Becky Neff investigate and soon discover that the killings weren't the work of attack dogs, but something far worse.

In New York, human beings are not at the top of the food chain, and the creatures that actually are don't take very kindly to the threat of their existence being exposed...

The Good

*The protagonists figure out very early on what they're dealing with and that they're being hunted. Yes, the antagonists of the story are intelligent enough to recognize specific witnesses and try to eliminate them. And Neff and Wilson are smart enough to take precautions, so we get this gigantic cat-and-mouse game involving the titular monsters and two human detectives across late 1970s New York.

*There's a strong 1970s vibe to the book, which makes sense given when it was written. Neff is one of the few female police officers dealing with something as important and public as homicide and she has to deal with a skeptical partner and a generally skeptical police force. New York City is depicted as being a cesspool of decaying neighborhoods and crime, which it became in the 1970s. One character is a police officer on the take from a gambling syndicate, also an issue in the 1970s.

*Strieber's antagonists are one of the more creative horror monsters I've ever seen. They're not werewolves, although they're the origin of the werewolf legend. They're not a pack of conventional wolves that have adapted to city life the way coyotes have. They're entirely new, and if they were real, they'd be incredibly dangerous.

*And one character's visit to the library reveals a new horror — not only do werewolves have a factual basis, but so do vampires. A 100% human basis (unlike the werewolves), but an extremely creative and creepy one. This might come off to you like monster overload, but I promise you, it's not. It's really quite clever. The library visit also touches on how these creatures might adapt to various historical periods and how different human cultures would adapt to them. Strieber even touches on Native American culture (and possible awareness of the creatures), something that I suspect inspired the Native American cultural stuff that made it into the film.

*The scenes from the monster's points-of-view are really well-done. No goofy infrared monster-vision here. It's poetic and fascinating.

*The book moves along pretty quickly — it didn't take too many elliptical sessions to finish this. It's never boring.

*The book is legitimately creepy in many places. I'm fairly inured to movie/book scares, so if I thought this, you, dear reader, will probably be quite scared. The ending in particular gave me the chills.

The Bad

*There's a fair bit of telling and not showing in the book. Sometimes telling is necessary (as Mary Robinette Kowal pointed out in the podcast Writing Excuses with an Inigo Montoya quote from The Princess Bride, showing can take too long and sometimes a writer needs to sum up), but there could have been more showing. The places where telling could be replaced with superior showing seem most prominent in the beginning, but there are instances toward the end as well. To be fair, this is Strieber's first published novel, so I can be more forgiving.

*I would have liked more scenery description. In Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, we get a portrait of New York City at roughly the same time (or perhaps a little bit later) and the descriptions are much, much more vivid.

*A love triangle starts to come on partway through the book, and so somebody has to die. Strieber reveals some less-savory aspects of one man's character during the last third of the book to make his doom more palatable, stuff that wasn’t adequately foreshadowed. He does have a pretty impressive death though.

The Verdict

A great debut novel of a writer who did a lot of good work in the horror field before focusing on a new interest in UFOs. Hopefully someday he'll come back. A sequel to The Wolfen describing what happens in the aftermath of the (literally) world-changing ending would be really interesting.

After all, I've heard the competition between humans and the cave bears for shelter in the face of the oncoming Ice Age described as mankind's first war, so some late 1970s/early 1980s equivalent involving the titular monsters would be a fun book to read.

9.0 out of 10.

If you prefer your reviews in video form, check out my YouTube review of The Wolfen below:

Atlanta Comic Convention Next Week!

Less than week from now — July 18-20 — the Georgia World Congress Center will host the Atlanta Comic Convention. This is absolutely massive event with hundreds of vendors. I first attended in 2018 with C.S. Johnson and did very well. Back in 2021 I attended with Vanessa Giunta and decided to give the show a break for a few years as it recovered from COVID.

Well, based on pics Cineprov has posted from more recent events, it looks like attendance has well and truly recovered. This time around I’ll be splitting the table with Lynette Bacon-Nguyen, with whom I’ve split tables at Days of the Dead and Charlie’s Collectible Shows in the past.

This will be the first time I’ll be bringing Serpent Sword and The Walking Worm to this particular show, so if you’ve bought books from me there before, I’ll have new stuff. :)

I’ve also scheduled The Thing in the Woods to be $0.99 for e-book for all retailers to coincide with the show. The promotion should be live on all retailers now, since it’ll be part of a promo newsletter on Friday 7/18 and I wanted to get an early start.

Book Signing July 26, 1-3 PM (And Books You Can Get In Kennesaw)

If you can’t come to Atlanta Comic-Con, I’m signing books at Virginia Highlands Books from 1-3 PM on Saturday, July 26th. This is the second time I’m appearing at that bookstore. It’s definitely the first time I’ll have The Walking Worm available for signing — I can’t remember if Serpent Sword was available last time I was there.

If you’re convenient to in-town Atlanta (Virginia Highlands is between Midtown and Emory), definitely come by.

And if you’re looking for places to eat before or after, I can personally recommend Surin (Thai), Ocean Wave (the same Thai food as Surin as well as sushi), and Morelli’s Ice Cream for dessert. Here’s a whole list of VaHi restaurants.

Finally, if it’s more convenient for you to go to Kennesaw than ITP (Inside The Perimeter) Atlanta, the staff at the 2nd and Charles on Barrett Parkway bought three copies each of The Thing in the Woods, The Atlanta Incursion, and The Walking Worm and two copies each of Battle of the Wastelands, “Son of Grendel,” and Serpent Sword at the end of the 6/21 book fair. I signed each copy before I left. Store staff have set up dedicated science fiction and horror tables, so they should be there.