Blood Crazy: Aten Present (Blood Crazy: Book 3) - Simon Clark

In the spirit of Nick Aten, the protagonist from the first Blood Crazy book who is back again for the third (and final?) installment of the series and isn't afraid to make a pun, mix a metaphor or state the obvious, Blood Crazy: Aten Present starts out in an explosive fashion as Nick meets up with Jack Ranzic from Book Two: Aten in Absentia. It's an appropriate way for the leads of the first two books to meet up and Nick's forthrightness and down-to-earth qualities are appreciated, but otherwise neither of the two young survivors of the crisis that has overwhelmed the planet are in a better place by the time they unite in the third book in the series. Well, the Creosotes weren't going to disappear overnight, were they?

Creosotes is the name that the groups of young survivors have given to adults over age of 19 who three years ago all turned overnight into shambling bloodthirsty monsters. It's a constant struggle for survival and despite some theories about the nature and origin of the affliction, there hasn't been much good news and the situation shows no signs of improving. Maybe not improving, but there have been subtle changes noted in the behaviour of the Creosotes. Whether this is a good thing or potentially worse is yet to be determined, but it could easily go either way. On the one hand you have Myra, who seems to have evolved beyond the 'monster' Creosote phase, but on the other hand there is a worrying development involving what become known as Creosote necklaces.

At the start of the Book 3 however, things are definitely not looking promising. Just still being alive this far is a good as it gets for Nick, Jack and Tasmin and Myra, but the horror of what they are living with is all too apparent. As Nick observes with characteristic directness at the end of one chapter early in his narration, “a lot of stuff was going to happen in the coming hours. Most of it violent. And bloody.” Clark certainly depicts the gravity of the situation in all its messy, gory detail. It's quite disgusting ...and I mean that in the most complementary horror novel sense of the word. It's been bad enough up to now, but could the Creosotes possibly get even more monstrous than before? Oh, yes.

Where Clark is successful in this account is - as I observed about the first book - in the down-to-earth relatability of Nick Aten and indeed several of the other characters on his team. They might be faced with an impossible fantasy-horror situation, but they react the way regular people would; sometimes heroically and sometimes doing stupid things influenced by factors such as love for those close to them and mistrust of others. They can be both self-centred and empathetic. They don't trade witticisms and sit around developing clever insights and theories, but often run more on gut instinct. There is little time to have the luxury of examining or conducting academic studies about what is going on while sailing down a river filled with rotting exploding corpses and no real idea about how to deal with the even greater challenges that still lie ahead.

Inevitably there are changes in tone and character since the first part of the Blood Crazy series was written almost 30 years ago. Not the essential tone, no - it's consistent in that respect - but Clark smooths out some of wrinkles of the more conventional elements of the original book, such as the idea of Nick Aten being “the one”, the person who is destined to be an unlikely messianic saviour. That is replaced by an idea built around the more interesting ancient Greek etymology of his name - not just the fact that it rhymes with 'satan' - which perhaps suggests the idea was always there. Nick still has a pivotal role to play to ensure the survival of his friends and community, but his importance now is more down to his nature and practical experience than something divinely ordained. It's his strength of character and quick thinking that count, making him someone people can instinctively trust and look to for solutions. He still needs a shake from the Dionysian Tug Slatter to remind him now and again though. 

The initial theory behind what has caused the change in behaviour of adults still holds currency, but it's also developed further and is less theoretical. Again, Aten needs reminding of the need to follow through on such essential matters by Martin Del-Coffey, the other competing Apollonian voice of his conscience. There may be a sense that this is a case of dog-eat-dog world where you do unto others before they do unto you, but the understanding of behaviours and human nature expressed by these varying viewpoints shows that the author takes a more balanced and nuanced perspective on the situation - without neglecting the sheer visceral horror of it all.

Whether you agree with the Nietzschean philosophy and Freudean analysis or not, it is an extreme situation that Clark presents and the mind is a fragile thing. A switch can flick under pressure at any time in an individual, so imagine it happening to adult society as a whole. Well, you don't have to imagine it, Simon Clark does that for you and he does it very well indeed. There are no neat or easy answers presented in Blood Crazy 3: Aten Present, but there are a lot of interesting ideas to consider and a lot of shocks and thrills along the way.

Reading notes: Blood Crazy: Aten Present, Book 3 of the Blood Crazy series by Simon Clark is published by Darkness Visible Publishing. My thanks to the publisher for a preview ePub copy of the book, which is now available in paperback and in eBook editions.