Saurian

by William Schoell

It appeared mysteriously, at night, and destroyed the town with amazing swiftness. Houses were flattened, the bodies of men, women, and children were crushed and mangled, hundreds were missing, vanished without a trace. No one knew what had happened or why. Years later, the sole survivor of the holocaust, Tom Bartlett, began to suffer blinding visions -- visions of a huge creature unparallelled in size, intelligence, and evil. He was frightened, but something was calling him back to the ruins of his boyhood home. He was the only man alive who had even guessed at the creature's existence, and he knew he must find it before it struck again. What he didn't know was that while he was searching for the beast, it was searching for him ...

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Aliens

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

WILLIAM SCHOELL was born in Manhattan where he resides. He is the author of over thirty-five books in various genres, including celebrity biographies (some written with co-author Lawrence J. Quirk); horror-suspense novels; biographies of such people as Edgar Allan Poe and Giuseppe Verdi for young people; and books on the performing arts and pop culture. He has been a radio producer and talk show host, worked for Columbia pictures, and is a blogger, playwright, and activist.

Reviews

[Warren Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those horror fans not wanting a deeper analysis of "Saurian" other than whether I think it is worth your while or not, I caution you to read no further than this paragraph as I will be diving in a bit deep later on. Suffice it to say, I liked this 80's paperback from hell by William Schoell much more than I thought I would. On the surface, it is an entertaining giant sea monster story with enough creature carnage to satisfy your craving for horror pulp goodness. But it is clear Schoell was intending the book to be much more than that, and it is. The only problem is that the author is a bit heavy-handed in his execution, making the novel preachy at times like a Chris Chibnall Doctor Who episode.

SPOILER ALERT: "Saurian" is really a beachfront retelling of the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde story, and as such, the main theme concerns addiction. The entire first part of the book concerns our protagonist as a young boy and how his life had been impacted by his father's alcoholism. We then follow him as an adult restauranteur living in Miami, and all the people he encounters with drinking problems in his career. In the background, we are introduced to a Trump-like real estate mogul who has inherited the alien ability to transform into a kaiju-sized sea creature when he is hungry. He knows it is a "sin" to eat his own kind, but he can't seem to help himself, and he keeps heading to the beach to make his incredible change into his monster suit in order to feed on unsuspecting seafarers and coastal dwellers. Almost everyone in this story has a problem with self-control of some sort.

Now this seems like an interesting idea, and it is. I thought the overall execution was rather well done. The characters are all interesting and fairly well developed. The monster action is classic. It is also fairly well paced, but the book loses a star because it pauses the action one-too-many times to preach to us about addiction. And after a while, I wasn't clear what message the author wanted us to take home...

It seems the author had conflicting sentiments about alcohol use. When he is officially pontificating on his blatant theme of addiction, it is pretty clear he is cautioning people on the dangers of alcohol, but yet he has his main character kicking martinis and greyhounds back in every scene where he is the slightest bit uncomfortable. The author excuses this by saying that despite the protagonist's genetic propensity for alcoholism, he can control his use. Though for a guy who can "control it," he sure seems to be guzzling cocktails almost every time we see him. The sad part is that the author does not seem to be aware of this contradiction. In fact, the author really seems to be saying that addiction is not a disease but a moral failing. The alien in the story chooses to give in to his craving to eat human flesh because he is EVIL. The protagonist's father behaves the way he does because he is "no good."

Take for example this rant from the protagonist about his father:

"Other men drank, drank real bad, and they still never laid a finger on their families. He didn’t think his father had any disease. What he had was a festering hatred of himself and of his family, a self-contempt that governed his every action, a complete and total lack of self-discipline or manly restraint."

Or this frustrated rambling:

"All this talk of disease and heredity and all that shit and those silly people going to AA meetings and telling themselves that it’s not their fault ’cause they’re just sick. Sick, my eye. Bunch of losers. Damn drunks. And they never shut up about it once they’ve reformed.”

Now remember, all this is said by a character drinking whiskey sours like a fish out of water gulping for oxygen. So I thought the author was trying to illustrate the insidiousness of alcoholism--despite his strong aversion to booze, the main character justifies his own use until he too is out of control. But unfortunately, I am not sure that's the message. Rather, it seems we are supposed to excuse the protagonist's use because, at heart, HE is not an asshole. Only bad people choose to ruin their lives by letting themselves get addicted.

Granted, this was written in the 1980s when we still had a lot to learn about the neurology of addiction (and we still do). The idea had not fully been developed that our higher executive functions are hijacked by the more unconscious primitive connections in an addicted subcortical brain. However, it seems that without realizing it, Schoell was alluding to this possibility through the allegorical transformation from a man to a beast. Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the alien villain is no longer in control of himself when he is in saurian form--his higher brain functions containing free will guided by empathy and forethought are shut off and his actions are purely controlled by the more primitive structures of hunger and aggression. Take away those higher functions of that big wiggly gray brain of ours, and our central nervous system looks and functions no different than the brains of reptiles and fish. Hence, it is fitting that the alien's "Mr. Hyde" form is an aquatic dinosaur.

Schoell clearly experienced addiction in some form first-hand, and is able to capture the behavior perfectly on paper--the sneaking of drinks, the continued use despite horrible consequences and better judgement, the impact of use on family. Very well done.

Now, I've seen some thoughts from my Goodreads friends stating that this book does not take itself seriously. As you can see from my examples, it certainly does. Though there are some ridiculously cheesy moments of camp, as well as some clunky usage of deus-ex-machina, the book never seems to completely cross into parody or tongue-in-cheek self-awareness.

Overall, I would say this is a very pleasant surprise. Though I can't say it breaks any new ground, I felt this was a very thoughtful read and a satisfying creature feature. Thanks to Cemetery Dance for reprinting this classic from the heyday of mass market horrors. If you are a horror fan, especially of 80s paperback originals, you must add this to your list.

SCORE: Three and a half gargantosauruses.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun creature feature by Schoell set on the East Coast of Florida, albeit one with a rather meandering plot. Tom Barlett features as the main protagonist-- the sole survivor of an oceanside disaster as a kid, he now runs a restaurant in Miami. You know this is going to be pretty over the top from the prologue, which features aliens stranded on Earth 64 million years ago with the ability to shapeshift into huge dinosaurs. Who could have guessed (mild spoiler) that one alien would live in Florida in the 20th century and become the state's leading real estate developer, assuming 'Saurian' form to destroy beach front property and then a human one to buy the land on the cheap! While this some does possess some Lovecraftian shades, it is pretty unique. 3 Saurian stars!!

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

When giant shapeshifting dinosaur monsters get sick of sucking in their guts and decide to let go and let it all hang out, people die.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good grief Charlie Brown, what can I say about this...? It is an eighties horror novel, so I didn't exactly go into it with high expectations, but......

...have you ever watched a kid's improv show? You know, the ones where 3 kids are given a subject and have to take turns acting out a scene on the spot with no plot or script? Well, this is kind of like that.

Only it's meant to be horror, not comedy.

What I was expecting.
Giant SEA MONSTER wrecks hell on seaside community. MC somehow saves the day.

What I got.
Giant sea booger-lizard who turns out to be an alien life-form trapped on earth millennia ago turns itself at will into human who turns back into booger-lizard to destroy seaside communities to then build condominiums to make lots of money and has a back lump that exposes its true form but said lump can be hidden from hookers by......wait for it......Dimming the lights(!!!!!!!) or wearing a heavy woolen suit jacket on a summer night(!!!!!) and chomps up a few people but then gets tired and has to go back to human form, but that's o.k. because SUDDENLY he has telekinetic/pyrokinetic powers and he heats up the pub where the MCs gone for a vodka after watching the other pub destroyed by GIANT SEA BOOGER-LIZARD and kills a few people with a TELEKINETIC WALL OF SLIME then suddenly freezes a couple of them with his new freezer abilities but it's all o.k. because MC now does a MacGyver and jumps on lizard booger's back and "tried to ride it as if it were a bucking bronco", mind you, this is AFTER he's been knocked unconscious and had a few shots of tequila (or were they bloody mary's?) but sea booger bucks him off and runs away but that's o.k. because now minor character's daughter with large frog-like eyes turns out to be telepathic AND another descendant of alien race.....

....and I could tell you the ending here but, you know, no spoilers.

And I haven't even got to the female character's inability to remember the name Gargantosaurus "Gargantowhatsiz" but can whip up a Molotov cocktail in the kitchen while seabooger is crushing her loungeroom wall ("Her apartment was a mess." Are you fucking kidding me????) but she still notices the "monstrous appendage" between his legs.

I'm not kidding, you can't make this stuff up!

I need one of those tequilas, or a bloody mary, or a lie down.

[Lizz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

And I am never let down by William Schoell. He’s never formulaic, throws convention to the wind and always delivers the strangeness. This book is about a giant creature, but not in any way you would think. Unpredictable and weird, I don’t think you’d be let down trying this one. Perfect for the summer.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very silly, yet very entertaining and fun monster, creature on the loose book. Just like most of these kind of books, you have to suspend your belief. With this one though, you might as well throw it right out the window. The premise is so ridiculous that it's pretty funny. Just picture a man who transforms into a HUGH monster that in 1957 destroyed a whole community by stomping on it Godzilla style. he eats the people too. No one sees it. A boy is the only survivor, but still, no one close by hears a loud thump? The way it's told is what makes it worth while. It never gets overly serious to make a total joke of itself.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1957, the seaside row of shacks and stilt-housing known as Beachside, Florida was wiped off the map. Over one hundred men, women, and children lost their lives that night as the community was flattened and destroyed by what authorities could only assume was a freak act of nature, a hurricane or typhoon which swept through the community and obliterated everything in its path. But one survivor, Tommy Bartlett, was witness to the truth. The destruction of Beachside was perpetrated by no storm or tidal wave -- Beachside was destroyed by a monstrosity which crawled out of the ocean. He watched it flatten his house. He watched it eat his daddy. And he never forgot the strange, almost human eyes upon its face.

Now, thirty years later, Tom Bartlett is all grown up. A moderately wealthy entrepreneur, co-owner of an upscale restaurant, with a pretty woman at his side, he's long since suppressed the nightmare which wiped out his childhood home and family. But something keeps gnawing at Tom's memories, forcing him to remember things he'd just as soon forget. The beast which obliterated Beachside has returned. At first, it's ships at sea suffering the cruel fate. But as the creature becomes more brazen, land-based attacks escalate. More people are dying. Tom feels himself being pulled back to 1957, back to Beachside, back to face the terror which is slowly unravelling what's left of his sanity. But how can he possibly hope to destroy a creature millions of years old, a creature larger than the biggest dinosaur to ever walk the Earth, a creature which is, even now, hunting him to finish what it started three decades earlier?

* * * * *

OK, confession time: I'm a huge sucker for 80's and 90's creature feature horror books. Blame my early childhood fascination with the likes of King Kong and Godzilla, but give me some monstrosity walking the earth, popping people like candy corn and reducing whole city blocks to cinderblocks and splinters, and you have my total attention. I've read plenty of animal attack books over the years, but I've never read anything as brazenly throw-shit-at-the-wall-and-watch-it-all-stick as Saurian.

In Peter Benchley's Jaws, the killer is a simple Great White Shark. In Steve Alten's The Meg, it's a living anachronism in the form of a Megalodon, which makes a Great White look like a yappy terrier. In Leigh Clark's Carnivore, the rampaging monster is a genuine (if radiation-mutated) Tyrannosaurus Rex. William Schoell looked at all of those and scoffed. "Why," Schoell must have wondered, "should I make the villain of my story a simple sea-going monstrosity when, and hear me out here, I could make it a Donald Trump analog who, in addition to being an amoral real estate mogul, is also a millions-of-years-old alien shape-shifting dinosaur/mammalian hybrid which can only be defeated by psychic-battlefucking another of its own kind?"

I'm not making any of that up. That is literally the plot of Saurian, and if you have a problem with that, lose my number, because weirdness of this caliber is the primary reason I read horror. Maybe if Catcher in the Rye featured more rampaging shape-shifting alien/dinosaur hybrids instead of dorks bitching to hookers about phonies, it wouldn't be the bane of high school English classes everywhere.

Saurian is 365 pages of people flying off the handle entirely at random, zero character development, ridiculous assertions piled upon even more ridiculous assertions, digressions about the lack of cleanliness in homes, and vapid morons being stomped and eaten. It is only a novel by virtue of the fact it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Secondary and tertiary characters are birthed and discarded like cheese wrappers. Despite weighing over 200 tons and being the size of a small building, somehow there are never any witnesses to the creature's attacks, even when it beaches itself and rampages across Miami, hunting for our protagonist. The ending is as bonkers as you're imagining from my explanation of how the creature can be defeated. A lesser author would look at the manuscript vomited forth from his typewriter and considered a change of careers, but William Schoell leaned into that shit like he was doing the Smooth Criminal tilt and dared his publisher to reject this idea. His publisher was Leisure which, in the 80's, was barely a tier above Zebra as far as fucks they gave about the books they barfed onto store shelves, so there was zero chance of that happening.

Schoell knows jack-all about character development, but he can bodyslam letters into grammatically-correct sentences 97% of the time, and that's all you need for this kind of sub-basement level, Z-grade entertainment. You could write a better horror novel than Saurian. I could write a better horror novel than Saurian. But neither of us could have written Saurian, because it simply would not have occurred to us that we could write Saurian. William Schoell exists solely to remind us that no one can do what he did, and Saurian is his crown jewel in the morass of zero-fucks-given creature features of the era. It is worth precisely as many stars as you feel it warrants after reading this review, and where you fall on that scale will determine whether you've just added every book of his to your To-Be-Read pile, or contemplated deleting your Goodreads account for the betterment of humanity.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than I expected. The cheesy, gory creature feature goodness the cover and description indicate is all there. It has no shortage of giant monsters stomping the shit out of stuff. It's also a story of coming to terms with the past and the personal darkness each of us has (most prominently addiction here - Thomas' addiction to consuming alcohol and the monster's addiction to consuming people, ha!)

I really like the characters and the compassionate way Schoell wrote both the people and the monster, painting the proceedings in shades of gray rather than taking the easy way.

The structure is cool, too. 100 pages for the past, then the rest set in the present (okay, late eighties), with a couple of extended flashbacks to flesh out certain characters.

It seems William Schoell isn't writing fiction anymore, but at least he's got a handful of novels besides this one to check out.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story begins about 64,000,000 years ago, when shape-shifting alien lifeforms lived amongst the dinosaurs on earth taking on gargantuan saurian form. Whatever it was that obliterated the dinosaurs also destroyed the aliens' ability to change shape, leaving them to evolve as they were. What happened to these alien lifeforms? Thomas Bartlett will soon find out. Something terrible happened when he was a young boy, something he had blocked from his memory until thirty years later when strange things started happening. I really liked this book. Reading it was like watching a B horror movie with lots of blood and gore. I highly recommend it. I had never heard of William Schoell before. I will read more of his work for sure.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a monster!

No, it's a alien!

No, it's a dinosaur!

No - it's a shapeshifting alien monster dinosaur which can morph from humanoid form to large reptile in a matter of moments! Logic be damned! This is Saurian by William Schoell...

Published during the golden (if I can call it that) era of mass market horror paperbacks in the 1980's, Saurian takes the creature feature sub genre to the extreme, with Schoell throwing every bat sh!t crazy idea he can think of at the wall to see if it sticks and by the looks of it, said wall ended up pretty damn poop-smeared once all's said and done.

Tom, the sole survivor of a 'natural disaster' (if an alien monster dinosaur attack can be considered a natural disaster), has minimal to no recollection of the extinction level event which crippled his childhood beachside slum. As an adult he knows something wasn't right about the terrifying event, his nightmares are proof of that! Glimpses of a large predatory eye, sharp teeth and a massive bulk which darkened the sky haunt his nightly slumber. There's just got to be more to the story...and there is.

Enter the society of crazy people who believe in these alien beings. Together with Tom, they hatch a plan to unveil the shapeshifter to the world to prove they've been right all along!

You really need to suspend your sense of reality with this one. Morphing aside, the fact that the authorities or anyone for that matter doesn't cotton on the strange happenings is a but of a stretch but then again, these books are meant to be read with plausibility in mind.

Overall, Saurian is a fun creature feature which doesn't take itself seriously. I'd recommended picking this one up if you come across it in the wild.

This review also appears on my site: https://justaguywholikes2read.blogspo...

[DJMikeG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, extremely schlocky 80s horror novel. Some very interesting and original ideas balance out the cheesiness. Schoell is a good writer, so he's able to transcend the schlock a bit even while he lays it on thick. Were-dinosaur, I repeat, Were-dinosaur. If that sounds like something you'd like, this book is for you.

[Jon Von · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one a couple years ago and enjoyed it. It's silly but not afraid to get a little nuts. Pretty sure it's really about alcoholism.

[BookzBookzBookz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saurian was interesting enough but it really made me frown most of the way through reading. The story is about a create, with god-like tendencies. It cares for nothing but itself.

After losing his family and town to a creature up from the depths of a nearby lake, he’s tried to forget but a series of fantastical attacks brings his past into his present.

What I liked about this book was the night of the initial attack. It was mystical in that something so big, with an impossible sense of intelligence could clear a humongous path of destruction. What I didn’t like was how this thing repeatedly took people, ate people and so much more, but not one time was it recorded. No one, half the time even saw it!! How is that?

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the very beginning, Saurian distinguishs itself as a very different kind of horror novel. The premise begins with a young boy growing up in a Florida oceanfront town. The innocence of youth is lost quickly when a monster unlike anything ever imagined destroys everything he knows. The remainder of the book follows him in adulthood and the repressed memories of this incident slowly surfacing. He discovers that not only did this really happen, but that others have experienced this horror and it still exists today. The beginning of this book has some extremely creepy moments. It slows down near the end but the character development is good enough that you'll want to follow it through to the end. This title is out of print but can probably be found used in many outlets. It is the first I have read by Schoell but will look for other titles in this genre in the future. (originally posted on Amazon.com)

[Joe The Destroyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read books that jump the shark, but I'd say this one jumps the entire aquarium. What begins as a solid kaiju story eventually becomes an exercise in plot vomit, steering away from its kaiju storyline and going into general cryptozoology, aliens, and even magic. Some of the characters are engaging, but many of them feel more like they fill a void. Not a recommended read.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was basically about how this comic addicted little boy, who grew up with a drunken abusive father and working mother,went from living a miserable life to a complete mind boggling nightmare. Running away from whatever killed the whole slum of where he once lived, the little boy grew up and soon learned that whatever it was that destroyed his home and murdered many lives(parents included), will have to find courage to kill it before it strikes again.

Honestly, I thought this book was an interesting book. IT got me thinking about how nature itself can last over a milenium and still exist and stir up trouble for the future. Again almost all the books I read gets me thinking about life and whatever I may come across. We just need to prepare for the impossible.

[Diana Welsch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I helped someone on Goodreads identify this book from a memory they had of reading it.

Their memory was basically, "A man can turn into a giant sea monster and he wrecks buildings and stuff." I was like, "OK! OK, premise! You twisted my arm. I'll read it." And I did. And sadly, their memory was better than the actual book.

This could have been good but it simply was not. Poor characterization, lame plot, horrible descriptions, lazy wrap-up.

I was hoping this book would remind me that sometimes it's OK to waste your time on trash, but it didn't.

[Runder · Rating 4 out of 5]

found this book in the vehicle we used for a long trip for a working tour I was assigned. Since I was out of a book, I started it and finished it within the tour. I have to say, this was 28 years ago and I still remember that this was a pretty good book.

[Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I wanted. Lots of fun. Big sea monsters gobbling people up. But the plot also explores sadness, loneliness, and addiction. I want more stuff just like this.

[Natalie Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining!!!

[Lucía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buena historia y con muchísima profundidad. Pensé que iba a ser uno de esos libros de terror con historias superficiales pero esta de verdad nos muestra qué está pasando y cuáles son en las motivaciones de todos los personajes.

[Lasse Pedersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Creds for original ridicules premise, but did not enjoy this one.

It was a struggle getting trough the first 95 pages about the protagonists childhood.

It got a bit better afterwards. The book occasionaly drew me in, but then dived into crap i didnt care about. Not a recommended read.

[Nc Hegarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic Paperback from Hell. This book delves into some pretty deep emotional content for a story about a shape shifting alien/giant sea monster. I enjoyed this a lot!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising insights about abuse, alcohol, and class from a pulp horror novel about were-dinosaurs.

[Kelsi - Slime and Slashers · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded down for GR. Not your typical animal attack / creature feature book!

[Giallo Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The evil kaiju actually being a capitalist businessman checks out.

[Jam Sinclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story - 4 stars. Exactly what you'd expect from an 80's monster horror. Quick and easy to read.

Amount of annoying grammatical errors - 2 stars.

[Ryan Engorged · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird take on your classic creature feature! Very enjoyable, however. Would've liked more alien backstory, and more description of Franklina's beast. The ending felt kind of rushed to me; I felt like there was a ton of battle build up for barely a Kindle page of ending. One second I was hyped about this epic final battle and the next, I realized the book had ended. That's okay though, would definitely re-read!