It's time to get on the ball with yet another GB-Like. And I think it's time to talk about Spinetinglers. What about Spinetinglers, you (probably don't) ask? Why Spinetinglers is a children's horror series written by the wonderfully named M.T. Coffin. Thing is, there is no M.T. Coffin! That's right, it's another series of books with ghostwriters all going under the M.T. Coffin name. So let's see what they have to offer in this outing. Because we're talking the evils of video games this time. Not just any games but virtual reality? Will this be a wonderful stroll through a virtual wonderland, or was Jamiroquai right in calling it virtual insanity? Let's get behind the Blood Red Eightball.
So, interesting anecdote here. When looking for images of this cover online, I couldn't find anything that would work as a high enough resolution for the above banner. So the image above you is one I uploaded myself. And you may have already guessed it, but yep. Tim Jacobus did cover work for this series too. He didn't saddle himself with just Stine which was probably the smartest move. He didn't do all the covers for Spinetinglers though. And what we get is fine. Not the most dynamic cover he's done, but works fine. Decent shocked kid reaction, albeit more bewildered looking than shocked. I like the concept of the giant pool table with the giant eight ball behind him. The bloodshot eyeball with the eight on it. Creepy enough. But, look kid. I've played enough Mario 64. Just run around the ball in a circle and it'll disappear. Threat resolved.
Anyway, the Vertigo isn't even on shelves yet, but Craig's neighbor, Mr. Blitz (or Dr. Blitz because he's like a scientist. Working on the console and its games for a company named Coyote Enterprises. Craig heads home to play his favorite game on the Vertigo, Anthrax Bomber. Look, it's mid 90s, that title would totally fly then. He also gets to take the Vertigo home because why keep a powerful prototype game console with, you know, the owner? Also, the Vertigo is a black and green PlayStation, which even Craig mentions would look like a PS1 knockoff. As he enters his house, Craig notices a package on the doorstep with something called [Title of the book]. Craig wonders why his mom would want anything called that. Maybe it's to help after the divorce a while back? He tries to play Anthrax Bomber, but the game won't work, so he checks the package and inside is a game called Blood Red Eightball. Holy crap, this predates Sonic.Exe.
After testing to see if the TV was broke (which includes checking the channels and seeing one out of fifty Oprahs), Craig puts in Blood Red Eightball and a powerful flash emits from the TV. When he awakens, he's in what appears to be on a gigantic pool table. So realistic he can feel the green felt beneath him. Suddenly the balls fall to the table, causing earthquake tremors, then a loud crack as the balls go rolling on the table with Craig having to dodge them all. He ends up falling off the table and landing on a pile of leaves. As he recovers, he notices he's not in his house. He doesn't even seem to be in reality anymore. He appears to be in a weird video game world.
He heads to Mr. Blitz's house, which is now a giant castle with a moat and everything. As he arrives however, he sees a giant blood red eightball rolling down a hill and in his direction. He ends up back on the table, but now needs to find out what to do to win this game. As the pool balls clack again, Craig dodges them and makes it to the blood red eightball which is indeed a red eyeball with an 8 on it. Red of the blood coloration. Craig thinks to touch it even though all video game logic would suggest not to touch an enemy. But when he does, he gets a shock and blown to the far back end of the table.
So now Craig begins to suspect that the way to defeat the eightball is to sink it into one of the pockets. Or if that'll do anything and he'll end up dead or the game goes to a new level. He just opts to jump in one of the pockets to go back to the street again, but the hole disappears. The eightball rolls at him when suddenly his mom wakes him up. Craig returns back at home and tells his mom about the video game, to which she rightly asks why Mr. Blitz would leave it there and that maybe Craig should have waited for his permission to play the game at all. And honestly, Mrs. Henderson seems kind of a logical parent who isn't just dissuading everything Craig says. My god, the ultimate NON-GOOSEBUMPS PARENT? No, it's too early, she'll only break my heart.
Craig peels potatoes as they prepare dinner and asks his mom about Mr. Blitz. If he's a good game creator, to which she thinks he's pretty eccentric. She also mentions that Blitz once had some sort of government job before being a game creator. He asks if it was possible he could make a game so powerful it creates a weird alternate reality, which confuses her before she talks about while Blitz comes up with the games it's actually a team of hundreds who work and develop it. Jeez, I thought I was going in with a weird book about video games, fearing it was going to be "video game bad" and yet this whole book so far has been nothing but praise for the medium. She does condemn Anthrax Bomber since, being a nurse, joking about anthrax is not cool in her eyes. Craig then ruins the moment by mentioning his dad, which upsets her. And they hug it out. If this stays the course, I have to talk about this dynamic in the conclusion because holy crap why was this not the norm?
After Craig finishes his homework he tries to show his mother the Blood Red Eightball game, but when he turns it on, all Mrs. Henderson sees is a regular pool video game. This confuses Craig, who starts to think maybe he imagined everything. They watch an espionage movie and Craig dreams about it. It ultimately ends up with him at McDonald's and Mr. Blitz as the clerk who asks if he got the game yet before Craig wakes up. He heads out of his room only to suddenly be back on the pool table. Now stuck here again, he begins to think about the game more. If it works like actual pool, then the key to winning would be to get the eight ball in last. So if the Blood Red Eightball gets in before any others, it would be game over. But he takes the time to touch the eightball again. No shock, but the ball didn't like that and it grows even bigger.
The ball gets knocked by the cueball and starts rolling as Craig runs into a pocket and falls in with the eightball following. He then ends up in a giant bowl of mashed potatoes. I guess because he peeled potatoes for dinner? He swims as best he can in the giant bowl when suddenly the eightball shows up and falls on him again, causing him to once again wake up. His mom saying that he must have went downstairs as the TV was still on. He goes to talk with Mr. Blitz, but he isn't home. He then calls Coyote Enterprises only to learn that 1. The Vertigo and Anthrax Bomber are stolen property, and 2. Dr. Blitz was terminated from his job a while ago and he's dangerous. The Vertigo and Anthrax Bomber are also not being produced, despite Craig enjoying them for being a great game system. When the man on the other end asks his name, Craig hangs up.
Despite, you know, Mr. Blitz possibly being dangerous, Craig thinks that Coyote wants the Vertigo destroyed because Mr. Blitz might be taking it to a different company. Sure, yeah, that's the ticket. He talks about the game with some other kids at school, Billy Bozzone, Sue McGuiness, Lisa Green, Kevin Karn and Dante Laterri. So, despite having a prototype that nobody should definitely know about, Craig can't control himself and brings up everything. Sue, who thinks video games are dumb and that Craig is full of it, decides to go see for herself, as does Billy. He discusses with Craig what could be the way to beat the game, and if perhaps the pockets of the table have keys. He also mentions Skeleton Warriors for Sega Saturn? Okay, if this book mentions Mr. Bones I may have to lay down.
They head to Craig's to play the game, but suddenly Billy and Sue disappear with the screen saying "game over" and the front door being locked. No sign of either of them in the house. After a quick scare thinking a beachball is the blood red eightball, Craig checks the package the game arrived in and finds a note saying that Mr. Blitz went to Hawaii and left the package at Craig's to watch after, also that the game is unfinished. He gets frustrated and throws the cartridge at the coffee table, destroying the last picture he and his mom took with his dad. As he remembers how it was one of his last best days, he slips back into the void and back onto the pool table.
He jumps into a pocket and ends up in a strange, metallic area filled with giant presents. After he opens one, he finds a trike he had when he was younger. And the eightball again. He hears his mother's voice and wakes up in the attic. She doesn't believe him entirely about the whole other world thing, but does notice Billy and Sue are missing. Craig looks around for a bit and we get a little moment where his mom freaks out because he put a half-eaten apple in the freezer. They then talk to Billy's mother who hasn't seen him. Craig tries to explain but his mother doesn't believe him because Goosebu-GOD DAMMIT WE WERE SO CLOSE!!! Like, I get it. Nothing Craig has said has happened and she saw the normal version of the game but come on, man. One book where the parent doesn't do this, please.
She apologizes for blowing up at him later, but still doesn't get why he would have brought up a virtual pool table game. Craig claims maybe it's amnesia, which is a thing I didn't get into yet but he's been throwing that idea around too. That the experiences with the game have some sort of amnesia effect causing him to forget things. She leaves with Mrs. Bozzone to look for Billy while Craig decides that this is it. He's getting his answer once and for all. He enters the game in Mr. Blitz's castle, finds a golden room with tiny golden marbles including an eight ball.
He finds the trike from earlier and drives off with the eight ball following. He then ends up on some girders before crossing a river. All while he sees his teacher turn into blue Jell-o. He then swings on cables until eventually making it on the chair overlooking the table. This climax feels haphazard as heck, but it's at least interesting, I'll give it that. Sure enough, Craig sees Billy and Sue on the table. He frees them and they notice a bullseye on the table. They head to it and return back to reality. They ponder what happened, but Craig says it's best not to tell anyone about a virtual video game pool world. They won't believe them anyway.
Later that night, Craig gets a call from Mr. Blitz who says that he hoped Craig didn't play Blood Red Eightball. He mentions that it's very important and is going to change the world. He mentions that government agents might show up at his place to get the Vertigo and Anthrax Bomber, but Craig needs to keep Blood Red Eightball safe for now. After the call, Craig begins to realize that maybe Mr. Blitz isn't in Hawaii. And maybe he'll run into him again in the video game world.
So, for our first Spinetinglers, this one was okay. Ghostwriter this time was Jim DeFelice, who I'm guessing is the same Jim DeFelice known for writing a ton of war and counter-terrorism books. Most notably co-writing American Sniper and Chris Kyle: The Man Behind the Legend. So, I guess with so many of these types of books, Anthrax Bomber makes a hell of a lot more sense now. But for this take on kids horror, it's not half bad. I'll give him credit for all of the video game references and shout outs. Even some bizarre stuff like Cutthroat Island and Skeleton Warriors. He references the freaking SEGA CHANNEL! Like I'm certain he'd have thrown a 32X reference in if he could. So, for a book that focuses a lot on video games, at least it feels like a book that gets video games.
Craig is an okay protagonist. Nothing outwardly amazing, but the book tries to put in slow pieces of his fears and frustrations through the game. Specifically life after his parents divorced. I wish the book had more of a chance to really act on this. Once the chaotic finale happens, we lose a chance to really get into that. Billy and Sue mostly exist to disappear and be saved. Mr. Blitz is an interesting character we don't get much of, but with everything that goes down it's easy to look at him as a credible threat. And Mrs. Henderson, aside from going down the classic route, might be in the upper echelon of parents in these books. She has a good rapport with Craig, the two get along well and she tries to be supportive of his interests including playing the video games with him at times. She gets to be witty, understanding, fun to be around. She is such a breath of fresh air... at least until the fart hits at the end of the book.
I like the concept of the virtual world. I don't get how the eight ball really plays into all of this, feeling more like a gimmick than anything. It could have been anything with a similar concept and nothing would really change. But it's still effective in being a unique setting. As are the strange other areas Craig ends up in. The book never feels too much like strong horror, which is a determent, but what it lacks in scares, it does make up in some wild ideas and moments. Also, I'll say it again, I love Craig's relationship with his mom. So many of these books treat the parents as either less than caring, quick to dismiss their kids, quick to call them crazy or even mock them. You don't get that here and it so totally helps this book not feel like a slog, which at 151 pages, it very well could have been.
So yeah. Caught me off guard, this one. I do think it is a bit overlong, but does use its page length well enough to never feel too dull. Has a decent mystery that I do wish was resolved better. And for a book I worried was going to slag video games, it turned out to be rather respectful in how it looks at the medium. Also feels like a product that far predates the "cursed video game" creepypasta concept. So kudos to Spinetinglers. We'll definitely be coming back soon. Blood Red Eightball gets an A-.
IT WAS ACCEPTABLE IN THE 90S: Sega Saturn, Nintendo "Ultra" 64, Atari, Doom, Donkey Kong
Cutthroat Island, Myst, John Madden Football, Sony Playstation, Oprah Winfrey, The Beatles, Baltimore Orioles, McDonald's, Chicken McNuggets, Skeleton Warriors, Cal Ripken Drinkware, Sega Channel
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.