Biofire

by Ray Garton

What would you do if the person you loved could kill you with an accidental thought?

459 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Ray Garton is the author of several books, including horror novels such as LIVE GIRLS (which has a movie in the works), CRUCIFAX, E4 AUTUMN, and THE FOLKS; thrillers like TRADE SECRETS and SHACKLED; and numerous short stories and novellas. He's also written a number of movie and television tie-ins for young readers. He lives with his wife, Dawn, in California.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ray Garton’s novel Biofire: Author’s Preferred Edition is a blend of thriller, bio-thriller, horror, and science fiction. Genre-bending books can be really fun, and I enjoyed this one. It’s a re-issue; apparently the author considered updating it to the modern day but ultimately decided not to. Somehow the intro part explaining this devolved into a weird rant against cell phones, but hey.

Emma Shaw seems to have it all: she’s wealthy, she’s married to an incredibly handsome and charismatic man–Landon Shaw–and she’s beautiful. Unfortunately, Landon is also incredibly manipulative and abusive. He runs OdysseyCorp Lab, a business supposedly devoted to curing all the diseases of the world. Very few people know about the real business of OdysseyCorp: building bio-weapons. Emma has taken Leo, one of Landon’s “shadow clients” (the clients who buy those bio-weapons), as a lover, and hopes to use him to kill Landon. Meanwhile, Neil McNolte, a coke addict and journalist, owes a ton of money to a loan shark, and his means of paying it back went up in smoke. McNolte ends up at a mission on South Street, where Willy, Mama Charity, and P.W. do their best to help him out. Eventually Emma and McNolte meet up with each other and do their best to save their own butts–with some help from P.W. and his buddies.

Landon is completely evil, yet somehow stops short of being cartoonish. He has absolutely no care about anyone except himself. He’s brutal. There are two creepy stalker characters–one scientist who obsesses over Emma, and the scientist’s assistant who obsesses over him. The latter seems legitimately mentally ill, and of course is the one who devolves into violence despite the fact that in reality the mentally ill are more likely to be victims rather than instigators of violence. (There are some stereotypes that really hurt people, and this is one of them, so I’m not fond of it.) There are a lot of characters in here, and they’re all fairly interesting. P.W. is one of my favorites–he seems to have a devil-may-care attitude, but he’s been through some things that have left a really dark mark on him.

The bio-thriller part comes in when Emma becomes the subject of a brutal experiment. She learns to kill animals (and later people) with her mind. Part of the procedure involves brain surgery and part involves a synthetic virus, and the virus mutates to interesting effect.

A lot happens over the course of the book. It’s slow at first as we see McNolte’s slide into coke addiction. It’s extremely well-conveyed, but it goes on for quite a while in a level of detail I’m not convinced we needed. The events of the book happen over the course of a year or so, which is unusual for thrillers. Once past McNolte’s origins, the pace picks up nicely and keeps up. Overall I definitely enjoyed this book.

Content note: drug use, animal death, slurs, some torture


Original review posted on my blog: https://www.errantdreams.com/2021/05/...

[Robert Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel first appeared in print more than twenty years ago, as a 1998 limited edition from Cemetery Dance Publications. This edition represents its first reappearance in that time, unaltered except for "some tightening and polishing," as the author says in his introduction. In that way, it stands as a sort of literary time capsule and, for many of us, a welcome return to a time that wasn't necessarily better than the present (as the novel itself will certainly demonstrate) but at least a bit more understandable than present-day life. Or perhaps the late '90s were just as crazy as the present but most of us didn't notice it, and that might be the scariest thought of all. And it's a thought you'll return to regularly as you read the novel, because though it certainly contains some of the calling cards of the decade in which it was written, the story itself seems like a fairly timeless one.

The author points out in his introduction to this edition that one of the things that makes this book a nightmare for the marketing people is that it seems to cross all the lines between genres. Is it a horror novel? Not really, though it is horrific. Science fiction? The mad scientists included in the story would suggest so, but that really doesn't seem to fit. It also has elements of noir, crime, thriller, romance, action, espionage, and just about every other genre you can think of. It's not just the marketing folks who might be thrown by all that. Readers who start the story expecting one kind of novel could easily be caught unaware by the elements of the other genres. Ray Garton is probably best known for his work in the horror genre (though he's done plenty of other work as well). Readers expecting one of his horror novels will be forgiven for some confusion as they try to make sense of where this novel is going. However, they should all stick around because it will lead them through a remarkably entertaining and often thought-provoking story.

Though very much worth reading, the novel is not entirely without flaws. The number of coincidental connections between otherwise unrelated characters occasionally strains the willing suspension of disbelief (though fortunately without ever breaking it entirely), and the reader is left with some burning questions about a couple of the characters. A few typographical irregularities also crept through the editing process, though not to the point that they'd distract any but the most editorially-obsessive of readers.

Despite these couple of minor complaints, I'm happy to say this is an excellent novel, very much worth reading. It's certainly not Garton's best work, but when it comes to his books, even the ones that fall short of being the "best" are still incredibly good and well worth your time and money.

[DJMikeG · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent thriller novel with a twisty, turny plot. Garton's characterizations are brilliant and he could teach Quentin Tarantino a thing or two about revenge (which is saying something.) Highly recommended.