Blackbone

by George E. Simpson, Neal R. Burger

All the security on Earth couldn't keep evil from entering Blackbone prison. But could anything keep it from breaking out?Ringed by gun towers an barbed wire, isolated by thousand miles of friged Montana wilderness, the prison on Blackbone Mountain was one of the best kept secrets of WWII...a maximum security camp where German POWs shivered under the eyes of bored American guards-and waited.Some waited for the war to end.Some yearned for an impossible Nazi victory.But one waited for teh sonsummation of an evil older than this war or any other..for a reign of slaughter that would never end, no matter ho many died in screaming terror...for a power no prison could no longer contain-not even Blackbone.

384 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

US author, film scriptwriter and sound effects editor who worked with Universal Studios for several years. With Neal R Burger (1931-2005) he wrote three sf novels, all with a strong espionage-thriller flavour.

Ghostboat (1976) centres on the submarine USS Candlefish, believed lost during World War Two, which reappears in modern times minus her crew. The solution of this mystery involves an uneasy mix of Timeslip and supernatural elements, leading to a grim but predictable resolution. Thin Air (1978) is based on the supposed 1943 "Philadelphia Experiment" attempt to render a US warship invisible (see Invisibility); decades later, the protagonist's investigation uncovers secret ongoing Matter Transmission experiments that began during the war years.

Fair Warning (1980) is an Alternate History tale involving efforts by US General George Marshall and US Secretary of State Henry Stimson (without President Harry Truman's knowledge) to avoid the use of the atomic bomb against Japan by convincing them to surrender; Josef Stalin becomes involved in an effort to steal the weapon for the USSR. Together,

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good old school book. Nothing amazing.

[Christopher Hivner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rolf Kirst, a German submariner, is the only survivor of his sunken U-boat. He bobs in the cold water of the Atlantic Ocean searching for a way to survive. Debris from a boat Kirst's crew had sunk moments before the U-boat was hit, floated by. Luckily for him one of the pieces was a crate. He pries off the lid, cleans out its contents and climbs in. He finds a silver flask in the crate and gulps down the contents and immediately something strange begins to happen to him. In New York, Loring Holloway, a museum curator, finds out the ship carrying ancient artifacts from Babylon, has sunk. Fear grips her as she knew exactly what was in the flask, because she had recovered it from a dig years earlier. Rolf Kirst is at a POW camp in Montana at the base of Blackbone Mountain. His strange behavior does not endear him to his fellow prisoners. Their dislike soon turns to hatred and fear as men begin dying and Kirst is at the center of it all. Loring Holloway follows Kirst to the POW camp to confirm her worst fears, that she has unleashed an ancient being whose only desire is to kill and destroy and if she can't find a way to stop it, the entire world is at risk.

Blackbone is a well written suspenseful horror/thriller that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. The story is well laid out. The WWII backdrop adds an interesting dimension to the horror aspect of it. The descriptive scenes with the demon are handled very well, especially how the soldier Rolf Kirst feels with it inside of him. The characters are well drawn with the possible exception of Loring Holloway where a little more detail could have been provided but not knowing a lot about her didn't effect the story in any way.