It is not as good as Cold Moon or Gilded Needles but it is still very good. Quite slashery, in a 70s fun way. Weird, there is gore and unexplicable escalations of horribleness and I'm not minding it at all.
I think this might be because all the scenes blend perfectly together in his books. I never feel like the gore is unessecary or misplaced in any of the scenes.
Thanks for the insights, Tigus. I'm not sure I'd keep reading The Amulet if the writing wasn't as good as it is. I certainly would not have picked it if it weren't by this author.
As far as the sory and motivation of the plot goes, I still much prefer Cold Moon, but it is almost a totally different kind of horror because this one here, The Amulet, seems at its heart a very basic pulp novel ... except that it was written by an author who pushed and surpassed the limited expectations that come with the label of pulp horror.
The amulet is evil without bias...but the originator of the evil in Pine Cone is the one character who set the amulet in motion (or maybe the one she might be trying to protect? avenge? ... idk ... I need to see how this ends first. So, is the amulet really the focus or should that fall on the one character's (or maybe the other one's that I'm not naming for spoilers) motivations?
Dean Howell's mother on the other hand ... holy crap.
As far as the sory and motivation of the plot goes, I still much prefer Cold Moon, but it is almost a totally different kind of horror because this one here, The Amulet, seems at its heart a very basic pulp novel ... except that it was written by an author who pushed and surpassed the limited expectations that come with the label of pulp horror.
The amulet is evil without bias...but the originator of the evil in Pine Cone is the one character who set the amulet in motion (or maybe the one she might be trying to protect? avenge? ... idk ... I need to see how this ends first. So, is the amulet really the focus or should that fall on the one character's (or maybe the other one's that I'm not naming for spoilers) motivations?
We'll see. I can't wait to see how this ends.