Talk us through it
Ex-priest, or should that be religious person as his church is never defined, Matthew Kindling isn't exactly living the good life. You could say he's down and out with the only work available being a brickie's labourer. Matthew confronted the ultimate evil in his past and this surprisingly, as opposed to Father Karris in The Exorcist, drove him from religon. Unfinished business there, and oh brother will that ever come home to roost. Aboard the space station Freedom things are starting to go a little surrealistic on the eight member crew; a cryogenics expierament is going horrible wrong and the station appears to be under assualt from poltergeists. On the outback station Rhianna, that would be farm for our non-Aussie readers, the ghostly return of a dead daughter spells a spiral into horror for the Littlewood family. Something is stirring in G. M. Hague's first published novel, can it be stopped? Review"It's unfinished business, Matthew." - Stewart Andrews.I took the unprecedented step of dropping this novel on a couple of other people to get their views before sitting down to write this review. Ghost Beyond Earth, sorry folks but that's a dumb title, is one of those books you finish and then wonder if it was worth the time spent in country. Don't get me wrong it's an easy read, Hague's style is similar to Stephen King's prose thankfully however without the product placement, but at six hundred pages the final thirty or so seem somewhat confused and not a good payback for time invested. I had a similar feeling when I finished the last paragraph of The Shinning to be honest and am left wondering if a better Editor might have helped produce a classic Australian chiller here. As an example of the poor Editing Hague's tome suffers through I would point constant reader to page 42 of the Pan first edition: "Four gleaming steal 'coffins' lined each side of the module. Although they weren't the traditional coffin shape or adorned as such, their square, six-foot-long configuration suggested nothing else. Only six were occupied."
That wasn't so much a pin dropping moment as a "sledge hammer hitting a concrete floor after being thrown from a third story window" moment.Come on this is a basic mistake that a half decent Editor who hadn't spent the morning on a champagne binge should have caught. It stuck out like dog's balls to be honest and is so jarring that the reader is immediately launched out of the book. Basic proof reading, has the concept died in the face of Microsoft spell checker and post MTV attention spans? I didn't blame the Author for this and other moments of insanity, hell at six hundred pages any manuscript is going to have one or two issues. I get enough issues in a couple of thousand words to be honest. But enough about me and moving along to the next issue. Author Hague makes the basic mistake of lining up the horror cliches without realising his Audience is apt to be well versed in the traditions of horror cinema, and if we are really lucky horror writing. Two examples should suffice: "He bent forward, grasping the weed between his fingers to pull it loose. Another hand burst from the pebbling on the grave and gripped Kindling's wrist". Page 78. Brian De Palma, taking time out of his Hitchcock homages, hit audiences with this image back in 1976 as he rounded out his screen adaptation of Carrie with a final shock scene. "Ellen's clothes and other possessions were now also flying madly about the room, careering off the walls, floor and ceiling like trapped insects trying to escape. The room was being wrecked. Even the bed was ponderously lifting itself from the floor and falling back with a slow, steady rhythm". Page 202. Two for the price of one there, and if you thought Poltergiest (1982) and The Exorcist (1973) then you get a big shiney red balloon. In between the greatest hits of horror, thankfully we are spared a chainsaw weilding Sawyer family member, Hague does construct a novel fill of ideas, style, and you would have to say class. Ghost Beyond Earth is one of those novels that throws it's net wide with seemingly unrelated ideas and themes, before dragging it all back in and tying it up nicely. There might be the odd loose end showing, what was with the books at the end of the novel, but overall you are not left with a "what ever happened to that character" feeling that some Authors drop on you. As stated a better Editor would have worked wonders here. If you are after a novel that manages to combine demonic possession, poltergeist activity, Government conspiracy, and heck space stations then you have come to the right place. Hague manages to include all that in his first published novel and doesn't drop the ball in doing so. There's a couple of weak points to Ghost Beyond Earth, outlined above, but not enough to stop you enjoying the novel overall. I would suit up and see what's beyond the atmosphere in G. M. Hague's debut novel. [Editor's note:It would appear that Ghost Beyond Earth is currently out of print. For those wanting to source a copy then check eBay Australia, you should be in luck if you check regularly.]
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... Worth your time to hunt out a copy though it's definitely early novel material.
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