Spectros #2: Hunt the Beast Down by Logan Winters (Paul Lederer)

-

Spectros #2: Hunt the Beast Down (1981) by Logan Winters (Paul Lederer)

Hunt the Beast Down is the second book in the Spectros series, focusing on a master magician in the old west. Over the course of the series, the aged Spectros is continually chasing down the evil Blackshuster, a rival wizard who has kept our main character’s lifelong love, Kristin, in suspended animation in a crystal coffin for decades. 

In this addition to the series, Spectros has tracked Blackshuster to the Oregon coast. Here the evil magician plans to loot a shipwreck, hoping to obtain the silver he needs to maintain Kristin’s comatose state. Spectros arrives with his cohorts—dashingly handsome gunslinger Ray Featherskill, the ageless Moor, Inkada, and Montak, a mute hulking giant. Mixed into all of this is a female ranch owner being forced off her land in order for our villain and his entourage to have unfettered access to the shipwreck.  

Our heroes decide to help this lovely lady, not realizing that her plight ties directly in to their hunt for Blackshuster. The highlight of the book comes when Spectros uses his wizardry to transform into the legendary master gunfighter Kid Soledad, a character that seems to ride right out of an RKO Radio Saturday matinee serial. It all culminates in a battle between Spectros, in the form of Kid Soledad, and Blackshuster, who transforms into—wait for it—Bigfoot! 

This is a wild and fanciful ride with one foot firmly planted in the cinematic West of Saturday serials from the 40s and the other foot in the fantasy realm. In that respect it qualifies as Weird West, but in an overall fairly tame environment.

Review by Steve Carroll

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants (2023) Edited by Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle

-
Image
Through the tireless efforts of pulp-renaissance men Robert Deis   and Wyatt Doyle, the world is once again a brighter place for those with a predilection   toward the Men’s Adventure Magazines   (MAMs) of a bygone era. The duo’s ability   to mine the depths of the MAM archives to pull together these themed editions   is unparalleled and the riches of their efforts is a gift to those like myself,   who generally missed out on these magazines in their original incarnation. The hook this time around is an entire edition built around   stories that are much more clearly fictional with supernatural overtones. This   makes it similar in some respects to the authors’ earlier   Cryptozoology Anthology . Whereas much of the popular MAM stories at   least dipped a toe into the real world, albeit it in greatly exaggerated tales   of manly men and their adventures, often while at   war, this collection revels   in tales of sci-fi and...
Read more

The Horror! The Horror! Diving into the Folk Horror Sub-Genre

-
Image
The following column was originally printed in Justin Marriott's Paperback Fanatic 47, which was published in July of 2023. You can buy a copy of it  here. There is something inherently unsettling about being in deeply rural locations where we, considering ourselves as enlightened and educated intellectuals, find ourselves confronted with beliefs and superstitions that seem backward and downright uninformed to our modern sensibilities. It can sometimes be as simple as walking into a gas station in the middle of nowhere and suddenly feeling like we’ve stepped into another era of history and speaking to a representative of the local citizenry feels like navigating a wide gulf of both colloquial language and seemingly alien culture. It leaves us feeling decidedly ‘off’ and somehow inadequate. This discomfort lies at the heart of folk horror. Though the term ‘folk horror’ didn’t enter into the modern vernacular until...
Read more

The Paperback Kung Fu Phenomenon Part 1 – The 1970s!

-
Image
The following column was originally printed in Justin Marriott's  Paperback Fanatic 46 , which was published in January of 2023. You can buy a copy of it  here . While   the martial arts have been a deeply ingrained part of various Asian cultures   and their literature for centuries, their influence in western culture was   a   direct result of military exposure to Eastern fighting forms during World War   II in both China and Japan and later during the Korean War. Servicemen   brought   an interest in these esoteric fighting styles back home with them and soon   their influence found its way into the collective psyche. Shortly   thereafter,   the Hong Kong movie scene exploded in the late 60s and spilled over into the   rest of the world in the early 70s. Suddenly Kung Fu was   everywhere from the suburban   neighborhood cinema to TV screens, comic books, and even Top 40 commercial pop   radio ( Everybody w...
Read more