Blood Flies By Gene Lazuta

Blood Flies
By Gene Lazuta
1990 Charter/ Diamond
Paperback, 265 pages

    
                                              

                I just finished this book and I have absolutely no idea what I just read. Never have I slogged through a more confusing book.

                OK… here’s the gist. Pete Blackwell is summoned to Sharthington, Ohio in a dream. His grandfather had basically built the town and discovered an old Indian legend living beneath Black Island. Oh, and there’s a tower on the island. Anyhoo, Pete’s grandad experimented with this legendary life-form, mixing the DNA with other animals, creating new, weird animals.

                The Blood Flies? They’re described in many different ways, but mainly like toads with wings. They secrete a poison that Kyrik, the bad guy-sheriff, milks to sell and do his own nasty experiments. The flies themselves aren’t even mentioned after the half-way point. Kyrik doesn’t last much longer. The last third of the book is the old Indian legend taking over.

                Or something.

                Now, the story did hold a kernel of interest in it for me, but Lazuta overwrites to the point of parody at times. Conversely, some elements are glossed over so I had no idea what he was “talking” about. The story has an epic scope but seems only partially told. An early 10 pages of exposition told by a drunken sot sets it up, but it still never became clear for me.

Overwriting and senseless prose; a case in point, talking about a girl that Kyrik was holding captive for vivisection (yeah, I know…):

                “She wore a pair of dark trousers, with cuffs— Kyrik always liked cuffs, Pete didn’t think, he just knew, somehow, without thinking, he wasn’t thinking, he just… was— and her shirt was pink.”

                I shit you not. I didn’t change a thing.

                At the end of Part 2, the story pretty much seemed like it should end, but no… there were 100 more pages of word soup to go. Other than some cool mutated animals in the beginning of the section, the third part drags on and on and on. I had to power through to finish it. No fucking clue what went on. Cool cover, though.

                Sorry, Gene. I won’t be looking for your other books.