CREATED BY

by Richard Christian Matheson

published by Bantam

ISBN-10: 0553566105

ISBN-13: 978-0553566109

 

reviewed by Adam Armstrong

04.20.2008

 

That apple fell off the tree and rolled down the hill.

Alan White has a killer idea for a new TV series. It has graphic sex, language, and violence. It’s the show that will make him rich and famous, and if he’s not too careful it’ll kill him. Soon after his show, The Mercenary, begins to swallow up all the ratings, all the people attached to the show get swallowed up in a string of violence and death. Alan tries to stop it before it gets to him, but can something be uncreated?

Richard Christian Matheson, son of famed horror/Sci-Fi writer Richard Matheson, made a thunderous debut with his collection Scars And Other Distinguishing Marks. I liked it so much that when I was in a used book store years ago and saw this book, I snatched it up and then avoided it. I decided to pick the book up and read it a few days ago after finishing everything else in the house. Overall it’s a good book, not great. Written in the early nineties the book is extremely dated now, where violence and sex run so rampant on TV that no one bats an eyelash any more. There’s not a likeable character in the book which makes it difficult to get too lost in. And a great majority of the time is spent beating up on how vapid Hollywood is, and how little anyone out there cares about anything other than making money. Matheson senior is known for is originality and not so much for his writing; his son is much better at the craft of writing but doesn’t hit on as many original ideas.

Better than I thought it would be, but nothing I’d want to read more than once: 3.5 out of 5

 

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