Savage Beasts Of The Arctic Circle: Eddie Generous
Reviewed By Steve Stred
I’ve been a fan of Eddie’s work for some time now, both with his own releases but also with Unnerving and Unnerving Magazine. I’ve read a number of his releases and his short story ‘Flying the Mercury‘ from his collection ‘Head-Broken and Heartbroken‘ is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. His sequel to ‘The Great God Pan‘ by Machen, called ‘Plantation Pan‘ was stunning.
Eddie also has another side though, his creature feature side. I have ‘Radio Run‘ and ‘Trouble at Camp Still Water‘ still to read, which I’m going to dive into shortly, but ‘Savage Beasts of the Arctic Circle‘ is my first foray into this side of his writing, and I must say, I had a blast.
Truth be told, when this first was announced, I wasn’t too interested. I read another book recently, set in the Antarctic, which started well but then fell off the map as things kept getting more and more absurd.
But for some reason, when this was recently offered up for Kendall Reviews, I decided to jump on it.
What I liked: This is a straight-up creature-feature. Set in a very small, and very remote mining town, high in the Canadian Arctic, we follow a small cast of characters as they get ready for the most exciting day of the year – the arrival of the miners. It’s not the outsiders they are excited for, no, it’s for the shipments of goods that come with them. Toys, clothes, movies, all the things they don’t have access to the rest of the year. Eddie though plays this story right. Other than one character who immigrated from Australia twenty years ago, the entire cast is made up of Indigenous people and better yet – there is no great white savior. Not once does a miner show up to save anyone which was a really nice change. Generous also makes sure to give the characters back story and real-world issues; one may be pregnant, now fearing a life trapped in the town. Another had left and found out the big city has some trappings she wasn’t prepared for, so she’s returned to make money and pay off her debts. It was great to see this happen, especially with such a short page count.
As for the creatures? They have a reason and cause for why they are there and how they became what they are now. It worked really well.
What I didn’t like: While I loved most of the book, I would’ve had this a 5 star read instead of a 4.5 star read if there hadn’t been so much time committed to a trio of characters on the outskirts of town. We get introduced to a woman who has died and her two young daughters. We keep coming back to them, when I felt most of what happens with them could’ve been condensed into one or two chapters. There is a reason for how it progresses, I just wished it was condensed a bit.
Why you should buy it: This was a really fun, single-sitting creature feature, which galloped along at a fantastic pace. Eddie delivered some incredibly gruesome deaths and the creatures are really well done. I’m kicking myself now that I still haven’t read his other two books, so I’ll be diving into those ASAP!
Savage Beasts Of The Arctic Circle
In the harsh environment of the Arctic Circle, two men are tasked with cleaning up the toxic residue from a mining operation, finding one of the access points broken open. They assume a break-in of little consequence, continuing into the mine they make a terrifying discovery – savage blood thirsty beasts that should not exist.
The tiny, isolated community of Jordan, Northwest Territories is in for a very rough night.
You can buy Savage Beasts Of The Arctic Circle from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Steve Stred
Steve Stred writes dark, bleak horror fiction.
Steve is the author of three novels, a number of novellas and four collections.
He is proud to work with the Ladies of Horror Fiction to facilitate the Annual LOHF Writers Grant.
Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.
Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
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