Created By

by Richard Christian Matheson

Writer Alan White creates a hit series for television called The Mercenary, featuring unheard of levels of violence and sex, but when a killer begins to imitate events on the show, the real terror begins. Reprint.

Genres: Horror

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Richard Christian Matheson, the son of author Richard Matheson, writes horror short stories, novels, and screenplays.

Reviews

[Mike Kazmierczak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matheson does a superb job of pulling readers in to the world of Alan White, a writer in Hollywood who comes up with a huge money making series. The story invokes the world of screenplays and TV series with each chapter name: "character motivation", "backstory", "flashback". Plus the entire story is hard hitting and a fast read. Very enjoyable!

The plot almost mimics Stephen King's THE DARK HALF but varies enough so that they are not the same. Sort of like zombie stories must have zombies but aren't the same. Additionally the final result is nothing at all like King's story. Now there were a few parts that stretched the imagination, mostly the amount of stuff that was allowed on network TV. Granted more and more has gotten by the FCC and the censors but they still wouldn't have allowed as much as what is done here. A minor point maybe but still something to acknowledge. Overall everything was excellent and this is not a book to miss!

Quick note: my review is from when I finished the book back in 2001. I'm now posting this in 2019. TV has changed so much in the last nearly 20 years. I am very interested in re-reading this book to see how "hard hitting" it is by today's standards. I'm expecting not very. My only task now is finding my copy of the book or simply buy the ebook. Another thing that wasn't around nearly 20 years ago.

[Rick Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a treat. He even matched his father, and in some ways, exceeded, with his style of writing. Harsh, visceral, and a real page turner. My favorite character in here is Jordan. I bellowed with laughter with the quips that that character came up with. A novel that is a treasure to read.

[Jocelyne March-Clapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome story!!

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I confess I liked it less and less as it went along; I could sleep nights giving this 2 stars, even.

BUT: it had a hold of me pretty good for a while there. Alan, looking to create a hit TV show that will make him rich and famous comes up with The Mercenary. He and The Mercenary become the Flavour of the Year...but the flavour is blood. The gory scenes are sudden, and quick; jump cuts to fatal slashes, bone crunches - character alive and healthy when a paragraph reunites us with them, screaming out their last moments by end of that paragraph or next. This actually highlights a problem I have: the author loves the version of jump scares in a book, but needs to work on building-up of suspense. Maybe this a splatterpunk thing, and not just this author - gore has no time for tension. The bigger issue, also related, is that I went through the slaughter of a lot of characters I never really connected to or cared about anyway; I get that we are hip-deep in the shallow types of Hollywood, and "no one cares about anyone here, except numero uno", I even get that's part of the point, but this is a row of plastic ducks at a shooting gallery. And I would say, the problem of not caring about anyone in the book extends to our main character, Alan. He's a guy in a Horror novel who unleashes a monster and suffers for it, but somehow I never really worried about how he would come out of it. I did realize it was best not to be someone who ever pissed him off, or denied him something he wanted, but as I intimated, side characters likely headed for a gruesome death barely showed up to be established as potential victims before the potential got realized.

Basically, the more this book came to remind me of The Dark Half, by Stephen King - one of the few King books that turned me right off - the less happy I got. Of stuff in the same ballpark, I'd recommend Christine by King, or just say "skip everything I've mentioned so far, and seek out The Pet, by Charles L. Grant.

A couple other withdrawal effects to deal with:

The author's style: Hmmmm. Well, I never like a wooden style and always appreciate an author trying for something unique...but I would say this is a "he's grabbing at every fancy phrase he can polish up and adding to the chain of precious slick word rainbows" example. I sometimes felt I needed an interpreter...preferably some kind of Raymond-Chandler-Bing-based AI that had its programming corrupted by an oblique-analogy/super-reach-lateral-thinking virus called SliCkryptic. Some Tornado In A Can turns of phrase, that's for sure.

The ending melted to mush and totally detached me from any concern for Alan. I got the point written in the mush, but yeah, just a strange splat of an ending.

Finally, this reaction may be hard to explain, but...okay, I know we live in a world where people often shit in their own yard, burn their own bridges, whine about the life they chose for twenty or thirty years, play James Bond and then spit on the experience that launched or made their career...all that. But still. Richard Christian Matheson really promoted himself as a successful Hollywood writer and creator in this book; I mean the mini-bio, but also the introductory comments to the novel including thanking various TV and movie producers, talents etc.... And then, the crux of this Horror novel is how shallow, disloyal, ruthless, sneaky, two-faced, and outright cruel everyone is in "the business". In other words, Richard Christian Matheson, while celebrating and glorying in his Hollywood success, trashes the people and the environment that he is a part of. Just so we're clear: my negative reaction when people do this is "Okay, so, as you call this horrid crap out and expose it...am I to take it you're the ONE guy who isn't so bad in all of this, and it's everyone else in the hell-terrarium - in this case Hollywood -who is awful? But not you?". It's like when Samuel L. Jackson is ripping into Thomas Jane's supposed lowlife character in the movie Deep Blue Sea, and Thomas Jane stops him short with "So you're the first rich guy who's squeaky clean...?". Criticizing the crowd you've joined as if you are not in that crowd is a tricky thing.

Anyway, that complaint is not directly related to the contents of Created By...I just found it a little bit...off-putting. Primarily, the book does work as somewhat trashy, face-punching Horror that is slicker and shallower than all the blood and body fluids it paints the floors with.

[Edward Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who would have known a writer who penned screenplays for early 80’s television shows like The Incredible Hulk, Knight Rider, B.J. and the Bear, and Three’s Company could spin out one of the best novels I’ve read this year. A young screenplay writer, Alan White creates a television series that tops the ratings. The show exudes state of the art death and dazzle, full frontal nudity and geysers of blood. Alan’s made it, enjoying success beyond his wildest dreams. But then terribly strange things begin to happen. The morning headlines start to read like grisly reruns of his action hit series. And then plots which Alan White hasn’t written or spoken of yet begin to blood-blossom into reality. The main action anti hero that White has created takes on a dastardly life of his own outside of television. Matheson has talent and I'm surprised it's taken me this long to discover him.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1994. Matheson spares no one his cynicism or obvious disdain feor the television industry. Mathesin wrote many stories for for television and he slso wrote The Incredible Shrinking Man which was one of the seminal films of my youth.

[Guillaume · Rating 2 out of 5]

L'idée est intéressante (un scénariste crée son monstre), mais le style un peu forcé, et c'est au final assez fastidieux.

[Madeleine R Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a biting and sardonic book, bristling with dark humor and witty dialogue. RC is kind of a contemporary Oscar Wilde who wrote "The Picture of Dorian Gray," about a man split in two, the struggle he undergoes. It also puts me in mind of W.W. Jacobs who wrote "The Monkey's Paw.", the theme of which is "Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it." RC's expose' of the Hollywood underbelly is a wildly dark comedy, rich with caustic characters and reflections of his own personal battles against the established parasitic production hiarchy. It is a damning hit squad of rich literary skills taking powerful aim at the hypocritical and heartless gangsters who rise to the top and exert control over all others. It digs into the very nature of television creativity using its background to explore the vile and violent core of humanity.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A screenwriter hits the jackpot when his violent TV show gets huge ratings, but the star starts becoming too much like the brutal character he plays, dot dot dot.

[Ch J Loveall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too out-of-date references.