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Savage
Driving home one day from a conference, Daryl seeks a shortcut through a barren countryside. He chances upon a mysterious village whose residents seem rather odd. But they have something to show him - a creature so strange he can hardly believe it exists.
And that's only the beginning of Daryl's problems, as he seeks to escape something far worse than he can ever imagine.
Something utterly horrific and extremely savage.
And that's only the beginning of Daryl's problems, as he seeks to escape something far worse than he can ever imagine.
Something utterly horrific and extremely savage.
148 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 10, 2014
A stodgy academic runs out of gas in a secluded English town, a town devoid of joy and dedicated to discipline. When the townsfolk ask him to treat an undisciplined man whom they say murdered four men, Daryl's life takes a dark turn...
I got this from Darkfuse via Netgalley.
I didn't really know what to think about this DarkFuse novella. It seems to be a story about the dangers of conformity and discipline gone wrong. Daryl lives a rational, disciplined lifestyle and ends up in a secluded village where the people make him look like John Belushi by comparison. But then reality seems to be breaking down at the village and things get really strange.
It was a creepy story but I'm not exactly sure what happened. I've had a great experience with DarkFuse so far but they can't all be home runs, I guess. Two out of five stars.
I got this from Darkfuse via Netgalley.
I didn't really know what to think about this DarkFuse novella. It seems to be a story about the dangers of conformity and discipline gone wrong. Daryl lives a rational, disciplined lifestyle and ends up in a secluded village where the people make him look like John Belushi by comparison. But then reality seems to be breaking down at the village and things get really strange.
It was a creepy story but I'm not exactly sure what happened. I've had a great experience with DarkFuse so far but they can't all be home runs, I guess. Two out of five stars.
February 6, 2017
When reading about the Author Gary Fry, we are told that he has a PHD in Psychology and that he lives around the corner from where Bram Stoker wrote “Dracula”. Now what does this have to do with Mr. Fry’s 2014 book from DarkFuse titled “Savage” ? Both of those things actually.
As the story opens Daryl is driving home from Durham (England) along a congested freeway through the Yorkshire countryside that has come to a near stop. Daryl has just been to a conference where he gave a presentation on the psychology of human interaction, that is where the Psychology background for Mr. Fry crops up.
Not wishing to be part of the traffic jam Daryl takes the first available exit off of the freeway, following his GPS and proceeds to enter the twilight zone.
Everything Daryl knows and believes comes into question in this novella concerning one man’s belief system. Mr. Fry does a really good job in creating a scenario that stays true to itself while still asking relevant questions about what one knows, what one thinks that they know, and what really is.
This mini-hardcover is copy 41 of 100 signed and numbered copies signed by Gary Fry.
As the story opens Daryl is driving home from Durham (England) along a congested freeway through the Yorkshire countryside that has come to a near stop. Daryl has just been to a conference where he gave a presentation on the psychology of human interaction, that is where the Psychology background for Mr. Fry crops up.
Not wishing to be part of the traffic jam Daryl takes the first available exit off of the freeway, following his GPS and proceeds to enter the twilight zone.
Everything Daryl knows and believes comes into question in this novella concerning one man’s belief system. Mr. Fry does a really good job in creating a scenario that stays true to itself while still asking relevant questions about what one knows, what one thinks that they know, and what really is.
This mini-hardcover is copy 41 of 100 signed and numbered copies signed by Gary Fry.
May 17, 2014
2.5 stars.
This story had some great atmosphere in terms of a "Victorian-type" village where everything from the vegetation to the rocks, and animals/humans had something about them that was just "off". Gary Fry did a good job conveying that sense; unfortunately, his main character did very little to make the reader sympathize with him. A rigid, self-absorbed academic with no flexibility in his own life--I just couldn't quite identify with him enough to make the story work for me. The scientific terminology was overused, in my opinion, and took away some of surreal elements that had initially captured my attention--it made the novella sound almost like a textbook in several locations.
I believe that the idea behind was to lead Daryl to loosen up his own lifestyle, and yet the ending didn't quite seem to satisfy that for me. I've enjoyed a lot of work from Gary Fry, but this was not one of my personal favorites.
This story had some great atmosphere in terms of a "Victorian-type" village where everything from the vegetation to the rocks, and animals/humans had something about them that was just "off". Gary Fry did a good job conveying that sense; unfortunately, his main character did very little to make the reader sympathize with him. A rigid, self-absorbed academic with no flexibility in his own life--I just couldn't quite identify with him enough to make the story work for me. The scientific terminology was overused, in my opinion, and took away some of surreal elements that had initially captured my attention--it made the novella sound almost like a textbook in several locations.
I believe that the idea behind was to lead Daryl to loosen up his own lifestyle, and yet the ending didn't quite seem to satisfy that for me. I've enjoyed a lot of work from Gary Fry, but this was not one of my personal favorites.
May 23, 2014
I am always happy when my new Darkfuse books arrive—I really feel that my membership has been money well spent. This one wasn’t a favorite, but with such different types of works and so many different writers, you can’t expect every reader to like every book.
I am a big fan of Gary Fry and in the internal psychological perspective that he brings to his characters. I think that he went just a bit too far in this one. Rather than simply putting his main character on the couch and letting us watch him process his thoughts, Fry actually makes a psychologist the main character; and the worst kind---one of those people that became psychologists in order to understand and perhaps “cure” themselves. It was just a bit much as the story, which started out a really promising wrong turn/creepy town situation, started to seem like a class. I also felt that the storyline itself was an attempt to teach a lesson and was rather heavy handed with the use of symbolism.
I wholeheartedly recommend him as an author and would encourage anyone interested in good dark fiction to read Fry’s Emergence, Lurker, or House of Canted Steps---all of which are excellent.
I am a big fan of Gary Fry and in the internal psychological perspective that he brings to his characters. I think that he went just a bit too far in this one. Rather than simply putting his main character on the couch and letting us watch him process his thoughts, Fry actually makes a psychologist the main character; and the worst kind---one of those people that became psychologists in order to understand and perhaps “cure” themselves. It was just a bit much as the story, which started out a really promising wrong turn/creepy town situation, started to seem like a class. I also felt that the storyline itself was an attempt to teach a lesson and was rather heavy handed with the use of symbolism.
I wholeheartedly recommend him as an author and would encourage anyone interested in good dark fiction to read Fry’s Emergence, Lurker, or House of Canted Steps---all of which are excellent.
February 6, 2016
The folks over at Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing are known for taking daring leaps and, as a result, publishing some great books. Of the things I’ve read by them, not one is like anything I’ve ever read. I mean that in the best of ways. They’re willing to take risks and publish material that a publisher with smaller testicles would shy away from and everything they publish pushes the envelope of literary spec/horror fiction.
But enough about them. I want to talk about this periodical that they publish, well, periodically. I stole a copy of DARK MOON DIGEST #22 while Max Booth III was sleeping off a drunk, and I’m not ashamed. There are some great fucking stories in this thing by John Foster, Benoit Lelievre, Patrick Lacey, and a whole passel of others. There’s also a great essay by Jay Wilburn and an excerpt from Vincenzo Bilof’s THE VIOLATORS that you probably shouldn’t read unless you’re really fucking twisted (self plug: got a review of that book coming in February).
For $2.99 you’re basically getting a 120 page anthology of fiction and non-fiction from some of the best authors in the business. If you aren’t reading DARK MOON DIGEST, you should be.
But enough about them. I want to talk about this periodical that they publish, well, periodically. I stole a copy of DARK MOON DIGEST #22 while Max Booth III was sleeping off a drunk, and I’m not ashamed. There are some great fucking stories in this thing by John Foster, Benoit Lelievre, Patrick Lacey, and a whole passel of others. There’s also a great essay by Jay Wilburn and an excerpt from Vincenzo Bilof’s THE VIOLATORS that you probably shouldn’t read unless you’re really fucking twisted (self plug: got a review of that book coming in February).
For $2.99 you’re basically getting a 120 page anthology of fiction and non-fiction from some of the best authors in the business. If you aren’t reading DARK MOON DIGEST, you should be.
April 3, 2018
Daryl is travelling home from a work conference and decides to take a shortcut, he soon finds himself at a village with some very strange residents.
I'm not really sure what this story was about, it started with the focus on the creepy village and residents and then moved onto a captured 'monster' story and then serial killer, I just don't know what the focus was supposed to be.
The book also felt very long, overly wordy and the psychological analysis of everything, although keeping with the protagonists character, just slowed the read down to a snails pace. Daryl's character is well written and you certainly grasp how rigid and disciplined he is but it hardly makes for exciting reading.
There may be those that love this type of read but I'm afraid it's not for me.
August 6, 2016
This one was just ok for me. Honestly, there wasn’t a whole lot going on, or rather, there was a lot that was going on, it just didn’t really go anywhere. Of course, I could just be confused, but this one seemed like a good idea that never got realized and the characters never had a chance to get fleshed out. Too bad too, because the premise had possibilities. Just ok. 2 Stars.
May 17, 2014
This was just an okay story by Gary. It starts out with the main character Daryl on the way home to his girlfriend Frederique and gets caught in a traffic jam. He decides to take a alternate route. With the rain pouring on a unknown road he runs out of gas. He starts walking down the lane and comes to this village. He is cold and becomes light headed so he decides to go into this pub called The Tempered Wolf. While in the pub a young girl comes up to him and asks him if he is one of The Undisciplined. I'll stop here, don't want to say to much. In this story Gary does create this eerie atmosphere. Savage had the making of a good story but fell short. I liked the first half of the story, the setup. Then the story seemed to fall apart. When I finished, it felt like something was missing. I gave Savage 2 1/2 stars.
May 15, 2014
I had previously read Conjure House by Gary Fry and was quite taken in with his writing so I had some rather high hopes for this novella. Unfortunately, those hopes were extinguished rather quickly. The story itself was creepy enough, but I felt as though I were missing something when I finished the last page. It felt very much like a Twilight Zone episode and it certainly gave me something to mull over. Daryl is a stuffy professor who takes a shorter route home following an academic conference only to find himself in the midst of very oddly "disciplined" village. The concept of the "disciplined" and the "undisciplined" was intriguing but not enough to "wow" me as a reader. At times the story read like a psychology textbook which is what ultimately turned me off. Overall, the story has potential but it just wasn't for me. THREE stars
March 2, 2016
So maybe I'm having a stupid day, entirely possible as these occur regularly, but I just didn't get this novella. It was well written, had a good idea for a plot but for some reason it just didn't work for me.
The main character Daryl is entirely impossible to relate to, which in some books is necessary but where this falls down in Savage is the fact that he's so completely boring! Mind numbingly boring. Now I do get what the author was trying to do in terms of comparison of Daryl character with the villagers, however any comparison was lost due to the uninteresting babbling of Daryl.
I was genuinely glad this was a short novella. 3 out of 10 or 2 stars.
The main character Daryl is entirely impossible to relate to, which in some books is necessary but where this falls down in Savage is the fact that he's so completely boring! Mind numbingly boring. Now I do get what the author was trying to do in terms of comparison of Daryl character with the villagers, however any comparison was lost due to the uninteresting babbling of Daryl.
I was genuinely glad this was a short novella. 3 out of 10 or 2 stars.
May 17, 2014
The fact that the story is about a boring academic is fitting but that didn't make the book easy to read. The book didn't flow well and the author seemed more interested in showing off his his language skills than his storytelling abilities. I rounded up from 1.5 stars.
May 18, 2014
The name Daryl has two possible derivations - from Middle English, meaning a place of wild animals, or Old French meaning "little darling" thereby pretty much covering both extremes of human behaviour. The 1985 science fiction film D.A.R.Y.L. featured as its eponymous hero a boy whose brain is a computer housed in a human body. Little wonder then that Gary Fry has chosen the name for the main character in his new novella Savage from DarkFuse which provides another blend of psychology and horror which is fast becoming the author's trademark.
(Of course, it may be that he's just a fan of Hall & Oates but as a theory I have to say that I can't go for that).
Savage finds the aforementioned Daryl - a cognitive scientist - in an isolated part of the Yorkshire countryside, seeking petrol for his car which is running low on his journey home from a conference in Durham. He stumbles into an area where the landscape seems too clean and precise, too ordered to be entirely natural and, within it, a village whose inhabitants reflect that unnaturalness, staid and formal - a group who make Presbyterians hedonistic by comparison. An encounter with a young woman provides some enlightenment when she asks whether he is one of the undisciplined...
Savage explores similar themes to Gary's novel Severed - the conflict between the extremes of human nature and behaviour. Are we animals kept in check by a sophisticated computer or is the programming of that computer flawed thus leading to indiscipline? There's much imagery employed here to reinforce the arguments, the disciplined world all hard angles and precision whilst the "savage" components are - well, I won't spoil it here but suffice to say the embodiment of the darker side of human nature is not something you would want to bump into on a dark night. There's even a self-referential sacrificial squirrel - which is possibly the most surreal sentence I've ever written.
There's a lot going on here, issues of perception are also raised and how context and environment play a significant role in how "others" are perceived but this actually leads to my only criticism of Savage - that it's really too short to do justice to the themes being explored. The reduced word count has given it a feel of being crammed in, magnifying the contrived feel to the narrative. A higher word count would have given the ideas more room for manoeuvre, space to breathe and allowed more subtlety.
A minor criticism however, as with all of Gary's other works Savage will stimulate the intellect whilst at the same time providing an entertaining read. It's available from DarkFuse in June. Not buying it would be a significant error of judgement...
(Of course, it may be that he's just a fan of Hall & Oates but as a theory I have to say that I can't go for that).
Savage finds the aforementioned Daryl - a cognitive scientist - in an isolated part of the Yorkshire countryside, seeking petrol for his car which is running low on his journey home from a conference in Durham. He stumbles into an area where the landscape seems too clean and precise, too ordered to be entirely natural and, within it, a village whose inhabitants reflect that unnaturalness, staid and formal - a group who make Presbyterians hedonistic by comparison. An encounter with a young woman provides some enlightenment when she asks whether he is one of the undisciplined...
Savage explores similar themes to Gary's novel Severed - the conflict between the extremes of human nature and behaviour. Are we animals kept in check by a sophisticated computer or is the programming of that computer flawed thus leading to indiscipline? There's much imagery employed here to reinforce the arguments, the disciplined world all hard angles and precision whilst the "savage" components are - well, I won't spoil it here but suffice to say the embodiment of the darker side of human nature is not something you would want to bump into on a dark night. There's even a self-referential sacrificial squirrel - which is possibly the most surreal sentence I've ever written.
There's a lot going on here, issues of perception are also raised and how context and environment play a significant role in how "others" are perceived but this actually leads to my only criticism of Savage - that it's really too short to do justice to the themes being explored. The reduced word count has given it a feel of being crammed in, magnifying the contrived feel to the narrative. A higher word count would have given the ideas more room for manoeuvre, space to breathe and allowed more subtlety.
A minor criticism however, as with all of Gary's other works Savage will stimulate the intellect whilst at the same time providing an entertaining read. It's available from DarkFuse in June. Not buying it would be a significant error of judgement...
June 12, 2014
Gary Fry is one of the more interesting new horror writers to grace the literary scene. While his stories have the expected creepy and dark going-ons, he seems to be more interested in exploring the psychological aspects of the protagonists in his tales. In Savage, another book in the Darkfuse novella series, we have a stodgy professor who is obsessed with his work to the point of neglecting himself and the people around him. He buries himself in a sense of eliteness and the delusion of being "disciplined" That word crops up a lot in this story as well does the theme of the futility of feeling in control. He becomes lost and out of gas in an unknown area and stumbles onto a small village. The environment and the village is one of the best things in this book. It has an eeriness is quite unusual for even this type of work. The way Fry describes the natural surroundings is fascinating . For lack of a better description. Think Colour Out of Space as designed by Picasso. The villagers are of course strange but it is the professor that captures the reader's attention. Fry had a similar emotionally stunted and selfish professor type in his novel Severed. Yet the professor in Savage appears to be even more out of tune with his life. This becomes important as he is asked to "fix" one of the villagers and instead is thrown into a struggle of life and death.
It is a story with a lot of promise but once we learn about what or whom he is asked to help, it begins to become less focused. It turns into part creepy horror fantasy and part murder mystery. It doesn't feel right even if Fry's writing is so good you have to keep reading to find out what happens. The author shrouds the village and its residents in an endless mystery and I wanted a bit more resolution. The turn near the end when the professor leaves the village didn't quite work for me. And I am not sure what our selfish professor got out of it except confused. It started out as an exciting tale of mysterious happenings and ended with a whimper.
Yet I liked the novel in the sense that, through the beginning and middle, the author grabbed me up in that sense of wonder and dread that horror stories should. Fry is a author of horror that is not afraid to be different and I do like the care he puts into his protagonists. While this may not be his best work, it is still a work of a promising writer.
It is a story with a lot of promise but once we learn about what or whom he is asked to help, it begins to become less focused. It turns into part creepy horror fantasy and part murder mystery. It doesn't feel right even if Fry's writing is so good you have to keep reading to find out what happens. The author shrouds the village and its residents in an endless mystery and I wanted a bit more resolution. The turn near the end when the professor leaves the village didn't quite work for me. And I am not sure what our selfish professor got out of it except confused. It started out as an exciting tale of mysterious happenings and ended with a whimper.
Yet I liked the novel in the sense that, through the beginning and middle, the author grabbed me up in that sense of wonder and dread that horror stories should. Fry is a author of horror that is not afraid to be different and I do like the care he puts into his protagonists. While this may not be his best work, it is still a work of a promising writer.
April 20, 2014
Short enough for a quick read, long enough to fully savor the dark atmosphere, Savage by Gary Fry feels heavy and ominous as a straight-laced academic obsessed with order, discipline and propriety finds himself stranded in a village where the residents are like two-dimensional humans, striving for order and consistency in their plain vanilla lives. As an outsider, Daryl raises suspicion and mistrust until he responds to a young girl by rationally unraveling what she is looking for in life, or so he thinks. Is it possible the stuffy Daryl is too radical and undisciplined for these townsfolk?
Trapped amidst a ‘twilight zone’ of conformity, Daryl’s life may be in danger, unless he can escape with help from an unlikely source. Has Daryl been given an extreme mega dose of what he thought was his ideal life? Has his opinion been changed forever? Is the chaotic imperfections of the world around him looking better?
Author Gary Fry uses his unique perspective of writing and turns a human flaw into a tale of terror while making a statement on life. By depending on more narration than dialogue, the tension and suspense are ratcheted up several notches as the feeling of seeing everything through a veil or dark mist lends to the eerie world he has created. What can I say, I like his edgy style!
I received an ARC edition from DarkFuse in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: June 10, 2014
Publisher: DarkFuse
ISBN: 9781940544380
Genre: Horror - Adult
Number of Pages: 148
Amazon
Trapped amidst a ‘twilight zone’ of conformity, Daryl’s life may be in danger, unless he can escape with help from an unlikely source. Has Daryl been given an extreme mega dose of what he thought was his ideal life? Has his opinion been changed forever? Is the chaotic imperfections of the world around him looking better?
Author Gary Fry uses his unique perspective of writing and turns a human flaw into a tale of terror while making a statement on life. By depending on more narration than dialogue, the tension and suspense are ratcheted up several notches as the feeling of seeing everything through a veil or dark mist lends to the eerie world he has created. What can I say, I like his edgy style!
I received an ARC edition from DarkFuse in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: June 10, 2014
Publisher: DarkFuse
ISBN: 9781940544380
Genre: Horror - Adult
Number of Pages: 148
Amazon
March 13, 2015
Savage is the latest work of speculative fiction author Gary Fry. The story involves a young academic whose specialty is cognitive psychology. Daryl is driving home from a professional conference when his car runs out of fuel. He had taken an alternative route to avoid a major traffic jam which means he runs out of gas on a rural road well off the beaten path with no cell phone service. After leaving his car to search for help, he spots a small village in the distance and heads in that direction. He discovers that all is not right in this town. What he had hoped would save him turns into a living nightmare.
I enjoy the work of Gary Fry, and while this is not one his best (those honors in my opinion go to Lurker and Menace), Savage casts an eerie spell. The developing story is unusual, and I was driven by a constant sense of “what the heck is going on here”. Just when I thought I had a sense of the plot, the author pulled the rug out from under me.
This is not a dialog-rich novella. The third person point of view is from Daryl, and he thinks and makes observations like a smug university faculty. There are themes of social conformity, rigidity, human flexibility, and openness to new experiences. You don’t have to access these underlying messages to enjoy the plot, although I found them clever additions. I noticed some reviewers did not like the “heady” narrative, but to me this made perfect sense given the character. Similarly, the narrative is ambiguous relative to the explanation of events. Fry leaves you suspended in a world of uncertainty. Again, fine with me because the story stayed with me as I wrestled with the outcome.
I enjoy the work of Gary Fry, and while this is not one his best (those honors in my opinion go to Lurker and Menace), Savage casts an eerie spell. The developing story is unusual, and I was driven by a constant sense of “what the heck is going on here”. Just when I thought I had a sense of the plot, the author pulled the rug out from under me.
This is not a dialog-rich novella. The third person point of view is from Daryl, and he thinks and makes observations like a smug university faculty. There are themes of social conformity, rigidity, human flexibility, and openness to new experiences. You don’t have to access these underlying messages to enjoy the plot, although I found them clever additions. I noticed some reviewers did not like the “heady” narrative, but to me this made perfect sense given the character. Similarly, the narrative is ambiguous relative to the explanation of events. Fry leaves you suspended in a world of uncertainty. Again, fine with me because the story stayed with me as I wrestled with the outcome.
August 3, 2014
I had high hopes for this given the way it started out. It could have been considered somewhat cliche in terms of setup, but I love classic horror, so I was OK with that. Gary started to set up a really creepy atmosphere and it seemed like it was about to head in a very original direction, but then it started to go very heavy on the psychoanalysis, to the point of losing the story. I don't mind stories that delve into the psyche, but the story still needs to remain at the forefront, whereas here, I agree with another reviewer that it almost started to sound like a textbook in places. The "point" was spelled out and nearly belabored, rather than leaving it to the reader to figure it out.
I usually love Gary's writing style, because he has an extensive vocabulary, and typically writes very lyrical prose, but large portions of this started to feel overwritten, where the same could have been said with fewer words, without it suffering any in elegance.
I still firmly believe that when Gary puts it all together, he's going to knock one out of the park, because he can do atmosphere, he's very creative, and he writes beautiful prose. Unfortunately, this one wasn't that book.
I usually love Gary's writing style, because he has an extensive vocabulary, and typically writes very lyrical prose, but large portions of this started to feel overwritten, where the same could have been said with fewer words, without it suffering any in elegance.
I still firmly believe that when Gary puts it all together, he's going to knock one out of the park, because he can do atmosphere, he's very creative, and he writes beautiful prose. Unfortunately, this one wasn't that book.
April 9, 2014
ARC for review.
A revisitation of the "I'm just going to take this shortcut" horror story. Fry does a good job with creating a sense of dread and a dark atmosphere which is vital to success in these types of stories, but I'm not sure I had the best sense of what Fry was trying to say, and the ending was abrupt, and a bit off. So, high on mood, a bit short on plot - Fry's a good writer and I would definitely look for more.
A revisitation of the "I'm just going to take this shortcut" horror story. Fry does a good job with creating a sense of dread and a dark atmosphere which is vital to success in these types of stories, but I'm not sure I had the best sense of what Fry was trying to say, and the ending was abrupt, and a bit off. So, high on mood, a bit short on plot - Fry's a good writer and I would definitely look for more.
November 19, 2020
This was not a very enjoyable book. It wasn't horrible but it is also not something that I would recommend.
Daryl is driving home from a conference. He's looking forward to returning home and spending some time at home without his girlfriend, just being alone. Traffic gets bad so Daryl takes a shortcut instead. Being a horror novel, he has no choice but to run out of gas while being lost and only a small mysterious village in sight. The rest doesn't really matter because whatever you imagine will probably be better.
The setup to the story was pretty decent; a bit cliché but at the same time, I was involved. The main character was too stodgy and not very relatable; however, I was along for the ride. Once he reached the village though, I very quickly lost all interest. The story in general struck me as being a "write by the numbers", don't do anything too risqué, overly academic, "look how smart I am" type of story. The main character spouts his personal psychology theory which came across more as the author trying to prove his theory than an integral part of the story. To tell the truth, I'm losing all interest in even thinking about and discussing the story. 2.5 stars that I'll round up to 3.
Daryl is driving home from a conference. He's looking forward to returning home and spending some time at home without his girlfriend, just being alone. Traffic gets bad so Daryl takes a shortcut instead. Being a horror novel, he has no choice but to run out of gas while being lost and only a small mysterious village in sight. The rest doesn't really matter because whatever you imagine will probably be better.
The setup to the story was pretty decent; a bit cliché but at the same time, I was involved. The main character was too stodgy and not very relatable; however, I was along for the ride. Once he reached the village though, I very quickly lost all interest. The story in general struck me as being a "write by the numbers", don't do anything too risqué, overly academic, "look how smart I am" type of story. The main character spouts his personal psychology theory which came across more as the author trying to prove his theory than an integral part of the story. To tell the truth, I'm losing all interest in even thinking about and discussing the story. 2.5 stars that I'll round up to 3.
April 10, 2014
(This review can be found on my blog The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl).
When I read the blurb for this novella, I was a little bit interested especially when it came to the mysterious village. The whole creature thing isn't usually what I read when it comes to the horror genre, but as this was a short read, I thought I'd give it a try. However, it wasn't something I can say I enjoyed.
I don't really like or dislike the title. It's a bit plain and boring, and I don't really see what it has to do with the book unless it pertains to what the villagers call the undisciplined. No mention of the word savage was ever used.
The cover of this book reminds me of a book from the time of Alfred Hitchcock. I believe that the cover does suit the book.
The world building starts off being believable. It was quite easy to picture a man driving along a country road, his car dying, and then he mysteriously gets transported to a strange village. However, the author starts talking about angles and shapes, and I just found myself being really confused. I wouldn't say this made the world building any less believable but just confusing, at least for me.
I thought the pacing to be a bit too slow for my liking. There's not really any action until almost the very end of the book. Luckily this book is short or else I would've quit reading it before I was finished.
The plot is interesting enough. A man's car breaks down just outside some strange village. The man goes into the village and notices how perfectly angular the people and the landscape is. The villagers start talking about the undisciplined. The man ends up getting locked up but manages to escape. However, he runs into something a lot worse than the strange villagers. So yes, the plot line was interesting enough, but I just felt it was executed a bit poorly. I felt as if the ending didn't tie in with the whole book. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say that if the author was going for that ending, maybe he should've rethought about whether or not to have a mysterious village in the book as the village and the ending don't really mesh well.
I did like Daryl. He seemed like your everyday, normal working man. However, I think he was a bit too intellectual for me to fully relate to. As for the villagers, I can't really comment on them because I felt like there wasn't enough back story on the village and its people to fully form an opinion. I would've liked more back story on the village, and I feel that with more back story, the book would've been less confusing and more interesting.
There wasn't much dialogue in the book which I found disappointing. It seemed like all that was in the book was adjectives and too much description for my liking. Not only that, but I felt that the words used were too intellectual for a common reader such as myself. A lot of the time I didn't even know what the words meant, and this lead to a lot of confusion and lack of interest for me. It's just too wordy of a book if that makes sense. There are a few swear words and a tiny bit of violence. There is also a little bit of sexual references but only in one or two scenes, and it's not very graphic.
Overall, Savage by Gary Fry has a promising story line, but with all the big words, too much description and not enough dialogue, it just falls flat. It doesn't help that the mysterious village has no back story and that the ending doesn't really mesh with the rest of the story.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend this book unless you know words that aren't used in every day conversations or if you're an English major. I'd say this book is written for those 18+.
I'd give Savage by Gary Fry a 2 out of 5.
(I received a free ecopy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley for an honest and unbiased review).
When I read the blurb for this novella, I was a little bit interested especially when it came to the mysterious village. The whole creature thing isn't usually what I read when it comes to the horror genre, but as this was a short read, I thought I'd give it a try. However, it wasn't something I can say I enjoyed.
I don't really like or dislike the title. It's a bit plain and boring, and I don't really see what it has to do with the book unless it pertains to what the villagers call the undisciplined. No mention of the word savage was ever used.
The cover of this book reminds me of a book from the time of Alfred Hitchcock. I believe that the cover does suit the book.
The world building starts off being believable. It was quite easy to picture a man driving along a country road, his car dying, and then he mysteriously gets transported to a strange village. However, the author starts talking about angles and shapes, and I just found myself being really confused. I wouldn't say this made the world building any less believable but just confusing, at least for me.
I thought the pacing to be a bit too slow for my liking. There's not really any action until almost the very end of the book. Luckily this book is short or else I would've quit reading it before I was finished.
The plot is interesting enough. A man's car breaks down just outside some strange village. The man goes into the village and notices how perfectly angular the people and the landscape is. The villagers start talking about the undisciplined. The man ends up getting locked up but manages to escape. However, he runs into something a lot worse than the strange villagers. So yes, the plot line was interesting enough, but I just felt it was executed a bit poorly. I felt as if the ending didn't tie in with the whole book. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say that if the author was going for that ending, maybe he should've rethought about whether or not to have a mysterious village in the book as the village and the ending don't really mesh well.
I did like Daryl. He seemed like your everyday, normal working man. However, I think he was a bit too intellectual for me to fully relate to. As for the villagers, I can't really comment on them because I felt like there wasn't enough back story on the village and its people to fully form an opinion. I would've liked more back story on the village, and I feel that with more back story, the book would've been less confusing and more interesting.
There wasn't much dialogue in the book which I found disappointing. It seemed like all that was in the book was adjectives and too much description for my liking. Not only that, but I felt that the words used were too intellectual for a common reader such as myself. A lot of the time I didn't even know what the words meant, and this lead to a lot of confusion and lack of interest for me. It's just too wordy of a book if that makes sense. There are a few swear words and a tiny bit of violence. There is also a little bit of sexual references but only in one or two scenes, and it's not very graphic.
Overall, Savage by Gary Fry has a promising story line, but with all the big words, too much description and not enough dialogue, it just falls flat. It doesn't help that the mysterious village has no back story and that the ending doesn't really mesh with the rest of the story.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend this book unless you know words that aren't used in every day conversations or if you're an English major. I'd say this book is written for those 18+.
I'd give Savage by Gary Fry a 2 out of 5.
(I received a free ecopy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley for an honest and unbiased review).
August 3, 2014
(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)
Driving home from a conference, Daryl develops car trouble and seeks help at the nearest town where nothing is quite what it seems. The villagers talk about the "undisciplined" - a way of describing outsiders and take Daryl (who is a scientist) to see the "monster in the basement." From here, things get weird and Daryl does his best to escape...to find something much, much worse.
This was a strange story and one that I can't say I enjoyed - don't get me wrong, the premise was good and the "monster" was well thought out. The residents of the small town were interesting enough to want to see what they were hiding but the downsides far outweighed the good work the author had started.
The downsides? Well, there were two in particular. Firstly, "The Village of the Damned"-style location. A small town, odd residents, big secret. It gets a little predictable for the first quarter of the book as you know right away that something bad is going to happen. Secondly, while I appreciate the authors knowledge of the subject, filling half the book with scientific theories about people and the way they think and act is frustrating and I really could have done without that.
Overall, an interesting premise and "monster" but just lacking in the finesse that would have made this a really good story.
Paul
ARH
Driving home from a conference, Daryl develops car trouble and seeks help at the nearest town where nothing is quite what it seems. The villagers talk about the "undisciplined" - a way of describing outsiders and take Daryl (who is a scientist) to see the "monster in the basement." From here, things get weird and Daryl does his best to escape...to find something much, much worse.
This was a strange story and one that I can't say I enjoyed - don't get me wrong, the premise was good and the "monster" was well thought out. The residents of the small town were interesting enough to want to see what they were hiding but the downsides far outweighed the good work the author had started.
The downsides? Well, there were two in particular. Firstly, "The Village of the Damned"-style location. A small town, odd residents, big secret. It gets a little predictable for the first quarter of the book as you know right away that something bad is going to happen. Secondly, while I appreciate the authors knowledge of the subject, filling half the book with scientific theories about people and the way they think and act is frustrating and I really could have done without that.
Overall, an interesting premise and "monster" but just lacking in the finesse that would have made this a really good story.
Paul
ARH
June 7, 2014
Review copy
Whenever a character in a dark fiction story decides to get off the main road, for any reason, you know something bad is going to happen. For Daryl, it results in the failure of his GPS, his running out of fuel, his cell phone not getting a signal, and then stumbling upon a very strange village where everyone is disciplined. If you're undisciplined it makes you an outsider and suspect for anything untoward that may have happened in town, like murder.
Daryl is an academic, coming from a conference, and the first person narrative of the story is presented in the way such a person might speak. Frankly, it drove me to distraction. I found myself hoping Daryl would come to a bad end, just to get him to shut up.
I was a bit disappointed in Savage, it's a part of the Darkfuse novella series and I've enjoyed nearly everything I've read from them and although this is the first story I've read by Gary Fry, I've heard very good things about his writing.
If you want to try Savage for yourself, it will be available for the Kindle through Amazon.com on June 10, 2014. Plus, if you are a member of Amazon Prime, you can read it for FREE through the Kindle Owner's Lending Library.
Whenever a character in a dark fiction story decides to get off the main road, for any reason, you know something bad is going to happen. For Daryl, it results in the failure of his GPS, his running out of fuel, his cell phone not getting a signal, and then stumbling upon a very strange village where everyone is disciplined. If you're undisciplined it makes you an outsider and suspect for anything untoward that may have happened in town, like murder.
Daryl is an academic, coming from a conference, and the first person narrative of the story is presented in the way such a person might speak. Frankly, it drove me to distraction. I found myself hoping Daryl would come to a bad end, just to get him to shut up.
I was a bit disappointed in Savage, it's a part of the Darkfuse novella series and I've enjoyed nearly everything I've read from them and although this is the first story I've read by Gary Fry, I've heard very good things about his writing.
If you want to try Savage for yourself, it will be available for the Kindle through Amazon.com on June 10, 2014. Plus, if you are a member of Amazon Prime, you can read it for FREE through the Kindle Owner's Lending Library.
June 10, 2014
Book Review originally published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/reviews/...
Savage was a little ‘meh’. I’ve read several of Gary Fry’s novellas before, but this novella…it felt off. Not at lot happened, and the narrative moved slowly – too slow. The things that happened just seemed to go nowhere. Several plot points led to nothing, characters were introduced seemingly without reason.
The plot starts with the main character taking a detour home. He ends up in a strange village, where nothing is as it seems. He walks into a pub to ask for directions, and a young girl walks up to him, and starts asking him strange questions, including if he’s one of the Undisciplined. Then Daryl, the main character, gets dragged along into one of the town’s mysteries.
The book is heavy on atmosphere, but unfortunately, not so heavy on plot. The plot goes nowhere, it drags on, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But hey, maybe I just didn’t get it. It’s entirely possible – I felt lost while reading, as if I’d missed some major plot point.
Either way, this book was a bit of a dissapointment. I’d expected more. The writing was all right though.
Savage was a little ‘meh’. I’ve read several of Gary Fry’s novellas before, but this novella…it felt off. Not at lot happened, and the narrative moved slowly – too slow. The things that happened just seemed to go nowhere. Several plot points led to nothing, characters were introduced seemingly without reason.
The plot starts with the main character taking a detour home. He ends up in a strange village, where nothing is as it seems. He walks into a pub to ask for directions, and a young girl walks up to him, and starts asking him strange questions, including if he’s one of the Undisciplined. Then Daryl, the main character, gets dragged along into one of the town’s mysteries.
The book is heavy on atmosphere, but unfortunately, not so heavy on plot. The plot goes nowhere, it drags on, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But hey, maybe I just didn’t get it. It’s entirely possible – I felt lost while reading, as if I’d missed some major plot point.
Either way, this book was a bit of a dissapointment. I’d expected more. The writing was all right though.
August 24, 2014
This is the story of Daryl. He is a cognitive scientist, and has been to a conference. His girlfriend is expecting him back but he decides to go for a drive instead. He runs out of petrol and his car comes to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Spotting a village not too far in the distance he decides to walk there and see if he can get some petrol. Once he arrives however, his real problems start....
I enjoyed this. Yes it was full of big words (that I may have had to use a dictionary for!) but I think that was deliberate to represent the rigidity and inflexibility of the lead character. The book itself was almost a lesson in the extremes of human nature, of discipline and indiscipline. The ending was nice, with lessons learned and Daryl going forward as a far more relaxed individual. A good story that I read in 2 sittings.
I enjoyed this. Yes it was full of big words (that I may have had to use a dictionary for!) but I think that was deliberate to represent the rigidity and inflexibility of the lead character. The book itself was almost a lesson in the extremes of human nature, of discipline and indiscipline. The ending was nice, with lessons learned and Daryl going forward as a far more relaxed individual. A good story that I read in 2 sittings.
May 16, 2014
I've read and enjoyed Gary Fry before and this was a well written novella, but something was missing here. Daryl, a professor returning home from a conference, decides to take a short cut and stumbles upon a village of sorts. This village is somehow cut off from the rest of society and it's inhabitants have adopted a "disciplined" lifestyle where any semblance of unconformity is viewed as "undisciplined" and must be dealt with. And Daryl is a very orderly and disciplined person himself. But even he sees how creepy this setup is and he just wants some help in getting home.
There's some nice areas and ideas to investigate in this book, but it just seemed a bit rushed.
There's some nice areas and ideas to investigate in this book, but it just seemed a bit rushed.
May 18, 2014
Savage by Gary Fry starts off great. Terrific atmosphere, protagonist running out of gas and finding himself in a strange village, strong sense of dread and creepy-weird villagers. This is a perfect recipe for a great horror novella you would think. However, somewhere along the way I zoned out and it was very difficult for me to find my way back. To read the review in its entirety please go to my blog: http://mybookhabit.com/savage-by-gary...
April 14, 2014
A different type of horror novella but a good one
For a complete review, please go to http://www.examiner.com/review/savage... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
For a complete review, please go to http://www.examiner.com/review/savage... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
May 16, 2014
Interesting story of a short cut gone wrong.
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