Subject: Dark Review 2 -- Darkman #2: The Price of Fear

From: [email-masked] (Raymond Tate)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 06:55:50 GMT

A Dark Review #2
Darkman#2: The Price of Fear

Review
by
Raymond Tate

He is without a face through through the use of synthetic skin
substantial only in the dark; he can don many faces.  He can feel no
physical injury, but emotional pain swirls like fog around him.  He is
gifted with a brilliant mind and cursed with a white hot temper
bequeathing to him inhuman strength.  He was Peyton Westlake.  He is
Darkman.

Darkman is a character who will last.  Created by Sam & Ivan Raimi,
Chuck Pfarer and Daniel & Joshua Goldin, Darkman is the Spider for the
nineties.  Credit must also be given to Randall Boyll.  As far as I
know, Boyll came out of nowhere.  He novelised the Darkman movie and
has written the first in the Darkman novel series.  Boyll's writing
style is relaxed.  His dialogue is crisp, and you don't feel as though
you're reading a novel; reading Darkman is rather like listening to a
campfire story.  That's a heck of a lot to even expect from a
best-selling author.  Boyll's third foray into Darkman's world is
Darkman #2:  The Price of Fear.  Rife with action, intelligence and
humor, it's easily as good as the first in the series.

Re-joining the cast is Julie Hastings.  Julie was Peyton's fiancee
before his brutal attempted murder.  Boyll's characterization of Julie
gives her a lot of life.  She's lawyer, but she's not one of those
stuffy L.A. LAW sharks.  She's a farm girl who has simple tastes.
Darkman's hilarious inner voice returns.  I think it's the voice of
Richard Wentworth.  Insufferable ass, John McCoy cameos.  Apparently,
every good-looking woman in Darkman's city has had to put up with
McCoy.  Sadly missing is Penny Larsen and rabid D.A. Jane Kozinski, but
I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them.

No spoilers this time.  The Price of Fear is a clever horror novel, but
there's an equally clever mystery within these pulpy pages, and there a
numerous scenes that left a smile on my face.  Usually, horror novels
leave a sour taste in my mouth.  Darkman #3:  Gods of Hell has been
announced for September.

			"Stryker and his goons were about to
			 meet some very surprising new people."
			"And all of them were named Darkman."
				--Chapter 15:page 105

%A Randall Boyll
%T Darkman #2: The Price of Fear
%I Pocket Books: Simon & Schuster Inc.
%C New York
%D June 1994
%G 0-671-79434-5
%O paperback; USA $4.95
%S Darkman
%V 2

Apologies in advance for grammatical, syntax or informational errors.
Information errors will be corrected next review.