What do you think?
Rate this book
X the Unknown
In a quiet field in Buckinghamshire, a huge crack has appeared in the earth's surface. And people are dying. Incinerated beyond recognition. At the same time, hospitals have noticed an increase in catastrophic deformities in foetuses, and cancer levels soaring.
Dr Adam Royston, a scientist working at the nearby military base, thinks he knows what it is; a creature as old as the earth that slumbers for centuries, then wakes to feed on the energy and radiation produced by humans. But if he's right, and they can't find a way to destroy the creature roaming the countryside, then it's not just Buckinghamshire that could be in danger, but the whole world.
Dr Adam Royston, a scientist working at the nearby military base, thinks he knows what it is; a creature as old as the earth that slumbers for centuries, then wakes to feed on the energy and radiation produced by humans. But if he's right, and they can't find a way to destroy the creature roaming the countryside, then it's not just Buckinghamshire that could be in danger, but the whole world.
368 pages, Paperback
First published July 5, 2012
21 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Shaun Hutson
115 books536 followersBritish horror novelist, including horror and urban thriller novels.
His novella Slugs was made into a movie, although Hutson didn't like the movie. He also appeared in two horror movies himself.
Hutson is a Liverpool F.C. fan.
His novella Slugs was made into a movie, although Hutson didn't like the movie. He also appeared in two horror movies himself.
Hutson is a Liverpool F.C. fan.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 17, 2022
This is a novelization of an old Hammer film of the same title, originally released in 1956; Hutson has updated it, however, so the events take place now. I have never seen the original film, or if I have, it was a long time ago and I do not remember it. This has some obvious 'cold war nuclear fears' in it for sure, but it still works nicely.
X the Unknown is set deep in Buckinghamshire, fairly close to a military base and the small town of Broughton Green. It kicks off with a military exercise, with troops trying to find a pseudo 'dirty bomb' as part of their training before heading to Afghanistan. Hence, they are equipped with Geiger counters and turned loose into the swampy marshland near the base. One unlucky soldier detects something and then screams and then nothing. His commanding officers head out to see what the deal is and find a huge chasm opened up and the body of the soldier horribly burned next to it; the next day, the soldier dies, beset by several huge tumors and looks almost melted. What could have caused such a thing? Further, in town, several pregnant women suddenly find out that their fetuses are horribly deformed.
Our main protagonist, Dr. Adam Royston, is a scientific researcher at the nearby military base, and leads the investigation into the situation. How are all these events related? Not really a spoiler, but this is a creature feature right out of the cold war era, with some strange radioactive monster at the heart of it. You can tell Hutson really dug the story and he did a good job 'updating it' for the 21st century. This has some good creeps to it for sure and if you like the old b-films of the era, you should really enjoy this! 3 radioactive stars!!
X the Unknown is set deep in Buckinghamshire, fairly close to a military base and the small town of Broughton Green. It kicks off with a military exercise, with troops trying to find a pseudo 'dirty bomb' as part of their training before heading to Afghanistan. Hence, they are equipped with Geiger counters and turned loose into the swampy marshland near the base. One unlucky soldier detects something and then screams and then nothing. His commanding officers head out to see what the deal is and find a huge chasm opened up and the body of the soldier horribly burned next to it; the next day, the soldier dies, beset by several huge tumors and looks almost melted. What could have caused such a thing? Further, in town, several pregnant women suddenly find out that their fetuses are horribly deformed.
Our main protagonist, Dr. Adam Royston, is a scientific researcher at the nearby military base, and leads the investigation into the situation. How are all these events related? Not really a spoiler, but this is a creature feature right out of the cold war era, with some strange radioactive monster at the heart of it. You can tell Hutson really dug the story and he did a good job 'updating it' for the 21st century. This has some good creeps to it for sure and if you like the old b-films of the era, you should really enjoy this! 3 radioactive stars!!
June 30, 2022
This story originally was a movie made in 1956. In Buckinghamshire, England, a large rift has developed in the marshes. When soldiers and some civilians, including children, show up at the hospital either horribly burned or suddenly filled with cancerous tumors and saying they heard a loud sound of crackling, like electricity, American scientist Adam Royston, who just happens to be in England, is given a problem he’s determined to solve. After finding radiation was present, the army closed the rift with concrete, but that didn't stop it. The radioactive entity was crawling up out of the earth and feeding on radioactive elements in the vicinity. It undulated like a mass of moving mud and Adam was committed to putting an end to it. This wasn’t the greatest of stories, but it was readable. This book was read to fill one of my book challenges (a book that begins with X).
July 1, 2013
Well it was OK as horror stories go, but nothing really startling. Nothing really unusual either. Ive read better by this author
October 15, 2017
I really enjoyed this, a very quick read that flowed very well. A definite must read for fans of the Hammer Horror films, and fans of horror in general.
January 24, 2013
Shaun Hutson has done a worthy job in translating a 1950s British attempt to mimic the American monster movie (and Hammer's effort to follow on from the initial success of Quatermass) to twenty first century Britain.
It is often tougher to write a page turner for the average bloke than a literary effort for the soi-disant intellectual in Hampstead and from that point of view Hutson does well.
Indeed, I would go further and suggest that he has a talent for introducing simple descriptions of very real emotions into a story.
I 'liked' in particular the way he wove very real daily twenty-first century fears - death or maiming in military service, cancer, family loss and deformity in children - into the story.
However, the book is a bit of pot-boiler for a fault that is not Hutsons - he has been remarkably creative in adding new elements to an old 'radioactive monster from out of the ground' story but a story that was entertaining on film is far too limiting as literature.
Hutson had a choice here whether to 'stick to the script' for the sake of Hammer's revival and the fans or go spinning off into more credible characterisation, political context and science - he chose or was instructed or pitched the former.
The result is an entertainment of sorts but also a reminder that any attempt to stick to a film story too closely in literature is likely to produce flawed material.
This ties in with the common experience that films of books may be great films but never as great as the original text while some of the iconic films, especialy in genre cinema, are quite free adaptations of short or relatively popular and simple fiction.
The book is part of the attempt to revive the Hammer brand (which we welcome) and assure the British public that the 'spirit' of Hammer lives on but be warned, the blurb in the GoodReads introduction is inaccurate and suggests a lazy copywriter who has not read the book.
The book is not set in Afghanistan or Scotland (yes, the film was set in the latter) but in the English countryside - the only connection with Afghanistan is that the British soldiers are sympathetically drawn as facing duty in that useless war.
There is no horrific chemical weapon being created by the British Army - who is this guy, a Fenian? I won't give the story away here except to note that the 'hero', as in all early Hammer cinema attempts to reach the US market, is an American scientist like the early Quatermass.
And a boy stumbles on something but only after British troops have done so and it is not anything man created but a classic monster from the deep.
As so often in a reading since the crash of 2008, this is another sign of the sheer laziness and perhaps cost-cutting of the publishing industry. The sales agents do not even read the books they are selling.
Still, though a potboiler, and it looks as if he hurried the commission in the last third, it made me interested in reading a 'real' Shaun Hutson, one he initiated and plotted rather than one fitting a strict pre-set formula, and I may look out for one of these.
It is often tougher to write a page turner for the average bloke than a literary effort for the soi-disant intellectual in Hampstead and from that point of view Hutson does well.
Indeed, I would go further and suggest that he has a talent for introducing simple descriptions of very real emotions into a story.
I 'liked' in particular the way he wove very real daily twenty-first century fears - death or maiming in military service, cancer, family loss and deformity in children - into the story.
However, the book is a bit of pot-boiler for a fault that is not Hutsons - he has been remarkably creative in adding new elements to an old 'radioactive monster from out of the ground' story but a story that was entertaining on film is far too limiting as literature.
Hutson had a choice here whether to 'stick to the script' for the sake of Hammer's revival and the fans or go spinning off into more credible characterisation, political context and science - he chose or was instructed or pitched the former.
The result is an entertainment of sorts but also a reminder that any attempt to stick to a film story too closely in literature is likely to produce flawed material.
This ties in with the common experience that films of books may be great films but never as great as the original text while some of the iconic films, especialy in genre cinema, are quite free adaptations of short or relatively popular and simple fiction.
The book is part of the attempt to revive the Hammer brand (which we welcome) and assure the British public that the 'spirit' of Hammer lives on but be warned, the blurb in the GoodReads introduction is inaccurate and suggests a lazy copywriter who has not read the book.
The book is not set in Afghanistan or Scotland (yes, the film was set in the latter) but in the English countryside - the only connection with Afghanistan is that the British soldiers are sympathetically drawn as facing duty in that useless war.
There is no horrific chemical weapon being created by the British Army - who is this guy, a Fenian? I won't give the story away here except to note that the 'hero', as in all early Hammer cinema attempts to reach the US market, is an American scientist like the early Quatermass.
And a boy stumbles on something but only after British troops have done so and it is not anything man created but a classic monster from the deep.
As so often in a reading since the crash of 2008, this is another sign of the sheer laziness and perhaps cost-cutting of the publishing industry. The sales agents do not even read the books they are selling.
Still, though a potboiler, and it looks as if he hurried the commission in the last third, it made me interested in reading a 'real' Shaun Hutson, one he initiated and plotted rather than one fitting a strict pre-set formula, and I may look out for one of these.
March 9, 2013
This was Shaun Hutson's second novelisation of an old Hammer film [the first being Twins of Evil].I didn't think this was quite as good as Twins Of Evil, but I still really enjoyed it. Hutson also set it in the modern day, which I felt worked well. Just found out his third Hammer novelisation [Revenge Of Frankenstein] has just been released, which I look forward to checking out. However, I'm beginning to wonder when Hutson will write some of his own stuff again, which is alway's top notch IMO.
June 20, 2024
In the middle of the English countryside army troops preparing for Afghanistan, come across a huge fissure in the ground.
A scream and static is heard on the radio, a soldier so badly burned, parts of his boots are melted and the radiation count is through the roof.
What has come out of the ground? Can it be stopped?
A classic 50’s B movie style. If you’ve ever watched ‘The Blob’, this book encapsulates the style and feel of that film.
The creature isn’t described until the last few chapters of the book, which leaves it completely up to your own imagination.
Very gory in places which is typical of Hutson’s style, and I like it a lot 😂
A scream and static is heard on the radio, a soldier so badly burned, parts of his boots are melted and the radiation count is through the roof.
What has come out of the ground? Can it be stopped?
A classic 50’s B movie style. If you’ve ever watched ‘The Blob’, this book encapsulates the style and feel of that film.
The creature isn’t described until the last few chapters of the book, which leaves it completely up to your own imagination.
Very gory in places which is typical of Hutson’s style, and I like it a lot 😂
September 25, 2024
There is a problem with constraining Shaun to a more acceptable horror; you lose the thing that makes his stories his.
That is not to say that this is an awful book; not by a long shot. The fleshing out of the story from the original film's simplistic b-movie tropes and the elements included to make it work in the 21st century are well presented.
However, whilst I don't particularly dislike any of the characters, I found it hard to connect to any of them fully. And although the women were given more page time than in the film, they were still disposable or peripheral to the plot.
That is not to say that this is an awful book; not by a long shot. The fleshing out of the story from the original film's simplistic b-movie tropes and the elements included to make it work in the 21st century are well presented.
However, whilst I don't particularly dislike any of the characters, I found it hard to connect to any of them fully. And although the women were given more page time than in the film, they were still disposable or peripheral to the plot.
June 3, 2024
Hutson Village #1
He spells his first name incorrectly and the book itself was pretty dire, it was a title starting with X which was part of a challenge at the time for me, anyway a below average yarn which wet for way too long for what it was.
He spells his first name incorrectly and the book itself was pretty dire, it was a title starting with X which was part of a challenge at the time for me, anyway a below average yarn which wet for way too long for what it was.
May 31, 2017
This novel is what it is. It's a three star novel. I like the novel. I can't say it was bad or good because it wasn't. It just... was.
This novel is a remake of a 50's/60's horror novel from the famous Hammer Films. The difference is that it's set on today standard instead of that era.
There are some interesting parts but they are not solid throughout the book. The characterization is only from our main character and the rest characters are cardboard without changes. The female characters are not interesting.
The interesting parts... the effects of that monstrosity on people, on women and their babies and the decision of abortion was well done. The ending and the way they deal with the monster was another good call.
My humble opinion is this. Hammer Films was/is an important filming industry. They are accountable for more than a hundred horror films with importants characters and actors. I really enjoy (even if today standarts outdated) those films. I really want them to achieve what they are after. To re-invent the market of horror.
But in this particular novel I won't advice to anyone. It's a quick read for a train travel throughout the english countryside where this book is set.
This novel is a remake of a 50's/60's horror novel from the famous Hammer Films. The difference is that it's set on today standard instead of that era.
There are some interesting parts but they are not solid throughout the book. The characterization is only from our main character and the rest characters are cardboard without changes. The female characters are not interesting.
The interesting parts... the effects of that monstrosity on people, on women and their babies and the decision of abortion was well done. The ending and the way they deal with the monster was another good call.
My humble opinion is this. Hammer Films was/is an important filming industry. They are accountable for more than a hundred horror films with importants characters and actors. I really enjoy (even if today standarts outdated) those films. I really want them to achieve what they are after. To re-invent the market of horror.
But in this particular novel I won't advice to anyone. It's a quick read for a train travel throughout the english countryside where this book is set.
August 8, 2014
Ahhh my old friend shaun hutson, this is how I feel about the author & his books. I never met him personally, yet his books are comfort reads. When i am stressed or feel like reading a horror novel, he is one author i go too. This book is a good example of why. A basic update of a hammer 50s film, with all hutsons quirky touchs & cynical views on life. Enjoyable if not inventive. I read it quickly which is a good sign to me.
My criticism is there was an unnessary racist comment about afghanistan people thrown in, calling them rag heads. I understand he was trying to show a real life view of soldiers, but i found it annoying. Not unless a similar racism comment was said in the movie, although i am not sure who it would of been directed too.
Apart from that i liked this book & would recommend it highly to horror fans no matter who they read !
My criticism is there was an unnessary racist comment about afghanistan people thrown in, calling them rag heads. I understand he was trying to show a real life view of soldiers, but i found it annoying. Not unless a similar racism comment was said in the movie, although i am not sure who it would of been directed too.
Apart from that i liked this book & would recommend it highly to horror fans no matter who they read !
January 4, 2013
My first Shaun Hutson book was ‘relics’ and I absolutely loved that for the sheer terror I felt as each character met their gory end. This however, felt a bit bland in comparrison. It is an adaptation from the fifties Hammer film, and although now set in the present day, the quiet village, the army base and a radioactive monster plot all seem a bit cliché. For me, this didn’t have a sufficient strangle-hold on my senses to consider it a page-turner. I’m a Shaun Hutson fan, but this cannot hold a candle to his past work.
August 12, 2016
I only picked this book up because I needed a title beginning with X for my collection.
It's actually really good fun, rattling along like an old-school horror (it is a re-imagining of a Hammer classic after all) and full of clichés like 'what the hell was that?!', but a good read while it lasts.
Recommending if you're after a nice bit of light reading.
It's actually really good fun, rattling along like an old-school horror (it is a re-imagining of a Hammer classic after all) and full of clichés like 'what the hell was that?!', but a good read while it lasts.
Recommending if you're after a nice bit of light reading.
December 23, 2015
Scientists investigate a series of mysterious deaths and illnesses.
The first hundred odd pages gripped me but then the plot moved firmly into “B Movie” mode. Some of the writing / characters were a bit weak / under-developed / dated.
The first hundred odd pages gripped me but then the plot moved firmly into “B Movie” mode. Some of the writing / characters were a bit weak / under-developed / dated.
August 12, 2012
Not the best Shaun Hutson and read a little like a B movie film script...which is what it was really!
September 8, 2012
Although I liked this book I did feel the ending was a bit of an anticlimax.
December 17, 2012
I love Shaun Hutson's books and I enjoyed this very much. The story was straight forward, but engrossing.
For anyone wanting to write horror they need to read Hutson.
For anyone wanting to write horror they need to read Hutson.
January 27, 2013
Was supposed to be reading another Philippa Gregory but ended up engrossed with another Hammer Horror.
May 25, 2015
a little dated and lots of loose ends but on bad for a try
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews