It’s probably going to be quite painful to write a review of Richard Laymon’s The Glory Bus, since I hear it’s the last of his posthumous manuscripts that will be published. Needless to say, after his sad and untimely death, it has been a real treat to see a steady stream of his works still reaching the bookstores, but the supply was always going to be finite. Since I have read all the other Richard Laymon novels, one day soon it will be time to start re-reading them!
It’s fitting that this last novel should be classic Laymon, who comes up with a story as gory as it is original, as shocking as it is twisted, as interesting as it is bizarre! The action involves two separate groups of characters who gravitate towards their inexorable impact in the second half of the novel, and in typical Laymon fashion these characters are as interesting and captivating as they are hateful and mean. Take Boots, one of Laymon’s most bizarre and shocking female characters, the indisputable bad boy Duke (of all he surveys, or so he believes), and the hapless college boy Norman, hoodwinked into a nightmare journey and companionship that could happen to anyone when they just stop off for gas and jerky one day. Seriously, it could. Laymon’s style has never been to dwell on the nicer side of human nature, and in his horror novels even the heroes and heroines often have a thoroughly nasty side – it’s just that the villains are every so slightly nastier! We do have heroes in this novel, but heroes who are completely bizarre, although our heroine Pamela soon finds her lot thrown in with them for better or worse.
As gory as any Laymon novel, The Glory Bus has it’s moments of shock horror, putrefying dead bodies, caved in skulls, shootings, knifings, beatings and the constant threats of such. It also has Laymon’s dark humour underpinning the text throughout; these characters might be hateful bastards, but they’re kind of funny in their own twisted way – Laymon even manages to make the carnage seem funny at times, almost like real life, where certain events are so terrible, you have to laugh to deal with them, or you just can’t stop the hysterics.
The Glory Bus, or Gory Bus, then, is a fast-paced thrillfest of shock and horror with captivatingly nasty characters and good guys with their own morbid twists and secrets. Classic Laymon, as I said, The Glory Bus ends the flow of posthumous manuscripts on a glorious note. Rest in Peace (or Pieces!), Richard, and thanks for all the thrills 
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I don’t know what can be said about Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code that hasn’t been said already. Since it’s the bestselling thriller of all time, or at least billed as such, chances are you’ve probably read it, or at least have a copy waiting to be read. If not, I suggest you buy it now, as like it’s predecessor Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code is a fast-paced page turner that keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat (or bed, or beach, or wherever you happen to read it!). A mixture of Art History, Detective Story, code breaking and religion, The Da Vinci Code once again features Robert Langdon in his unlikely role of Harvard Professor and unwilling James Bond! I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code for a second time over the last few days.
Well, this is going to be one of my shorter reviews, since this book needs little introduction. However, I must say quickly how dismayed I am by the current court case, where the author Dan Brown has been taken to court by two other authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, claiming that Brown stole ideas from their book, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. Leigh and Baigent are suing Brown and publisher Random House for breach of copyright. I sincerely hope they don’t win, because if they do it will lead to authors spending more time in court than doing what they do best, writing novels. If these guys win, imagine how many scientific text authors may crawl from the woodwork and claim Michael Crichton stole their idea, or how about if someone does a new biography on Dickens – will previous biographers be able to sue because the same ground is being covered? Perhaps this is just a case of sour grapes – the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail are certain not to have made a fortune with their historical theories, and so perhaps resent the clever way in which Brown has turned The Da Vinci Code into a publishing phenomenon through the ingenuity of his imagination and skill of his writing. Who knows. I’m just glad they didn’t have copyright in Shakespeare’s day, since he based pretty much all of his works on stories and plays previously written by others – he just did them a lot better! Imagine a world without imagination, where authors must spend years making sure that nobody else has ever even thought about the ideas in their synopsis – it will be a world, I’m afraid, without great novels such as The Da Vinci Code, so I dearly hope Brown and Random House pull off a victory!
The judge was this week given some reading time to read both books, why not decide for yourself and purchase them both today for some great holiday or weekend reading!
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Angels and Demons, like it’s sequel The Da Vinci Code, would seem to be an unlikely bestseller. A mix of academic detective story, gory thriller, science fiction and religious epiphany would not appear to be the most likely of combinations, but Dan Brown pulls off a literary miracle by adding the secret ingredient of Robert Langdon – the James Bond of Academe! This Harvard Professor, an expert in his chosen field of religious symbology, exudes the charisma and machismo of any self respecting international man of mystery, grappling with Hassassins, dodging death at every turn, pulling off the miraculous superhero escapes we would expect from 007 himself. Angels and Demons, like its sequel, could easily be dismissed as 600 pages of pure hokum, but there is in the ingenuity of the plot and the mingling of elements a resonance that gives the book a certain originality. Those who dismiss religion itself would do well to recognise the power that religious symbology and iconography have over everyday life, and the more secular may find themselves siding with the Illuminati anti-heroes of the book!
As a thriller, Angels and Demons is fast-paced and cinematically written – from the first page there is rarely a still moment, and dialogue is often on the move as this novel, whose entire 600 pages cover a time period of only 24 hours. With enough action scenes to fill a Hollywood movie, even the deciphering of an ancient religious symbol takes on a definite edge as the tension mounts and gives non scholarly readers a vicarious taste of the thrill of academic research and discovery in extremis!
The action of The Da Vinci Code occurs not long after the end of Angels and Demons, and like many I read The Da Vinci Code first. Now, however, I have the opportunity to re-read The Da Vinci Code with further insights, and eagerly await the release of The Da Vinci Code movie in May 2006!
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