Spore 7 By Clancy Carlile

Spore 7
By Clancy Carlile
1979 Avon Books
Paperback, 280 pages

                This one had been on my shelf for a long time. Every once in a while, I’d pick it up, think it looked great, then start a different book. I finally gave this one the green light and it turned out to be a pretty satisfying experience. Not perfect, but good.

                It starts right off and hits the ground running. A disease is running rampant in Mendocino, California. People are losing their shit, going feral and becoming slime mutants. What caused this to happen? Germ warfare? Outer space meteor shit? Something far more sinister? All of these theories are pursued, and a case could be made for any of them. But while everyone tries to understand and solve the problem, the disease is running rampant, spreading like wildfire, and time is of the essence.

                The military move in and block off the area but as always, things aren’t that easy. If it sounds to you that a lot of meetings with scientists, doctors, generals, and the president take place, you’re not wrong, but it never drags the story down too much (I’m looking at you, Edward Jarvis’ Maggots). Carlile manages to keep the reader interested and emotionally invested as the mystery is unraveled.

                One point to nit-pick… the main character, a middle-aged doctor, is romantically linked with a 19-year-old girl. At no point in the story does her being almost underaged come into play; she could just as easily have been 25. To me, her being just 19 speaks more to the author’s wish-fulfillment than anything else.

                That aside, Carlile delivers a page turner with an ending that plays like an intense 80s action flick. Some might find it preposterous, but I found it fun and exciting. This is the only novel by Carlile that would interest me. He is best known for the book, then screenplay, to Honkytonk Man, the 1982 Clint Eastwood film.