Comments
Much better than Wold's next effort, "Below
the Threshold". The storyline is interesting if somewhat bogged
down at times in technicalities and scientific
detail, and his original characters are fairly well developed. Chris
Farber even puts in an appearance!
Major Plot Points
Memorable Moments
p.70 Durk describes his experiment in
crivit-baiting to Professor Barnes
"Just a minute," Barnes said. He got
up from his desk, went around to the door, looked out into the hall,
and then closed it carefully. "Sit down," he said, all trace of
condescension gone. "What happened to the goat?"
Durk sat on the edge of the chair. "You
see those movies about submarines? How they come along under
the water, and all you see is a wake moving toward the enemy ship?
Well it was just like that, only it was coming
through the sand."
"What was?"
"I don't know. But it came awfully quickly.
And when it got to the goat, two big snaky arms came up out of the
sand and grabbed the goat and dragged it down."
pp. 108-109 Durk experiences the crivits
first-hand
His concern with the immediate and practical
consequences of this invasion so occupied him that he was halfway
back to his tractor before he became aware of the sound that had begun
when he'd turned away from the source of the burrows. Something
like cement sliding down a cement truck's chute, something like the
movement of rocks under water, it had grown steadily louder until at
last it penetrated his consciousness. He froze for a moment,
listening.
And even as he did so he knew he should be
running instead. Though he'd never heard a sound exactly like
that before, he knew without doubt what it was - a crivit coming through
the soil.
... He took a step, then saw, two rows
over, the tops of bean plants just fifty feet away rise up a few inches.
A few seconds later and the next row did a similar lift.
And then he saw it - a mound in the soil moving
toward him at a rate that seemed phenomenal. He made a small
sound in his throat, remembered once seeing a cotton rat standing frozen
as a blacksnake approached, and then he broke, turned, and ran across
the field, trampling rows of beans as he crossed them. He couldn't
help himself, he had to look over his shoulder, and the moving mound,
with loose dirt flying into the air, was right behind him, not ten
feet back. He put his head down and ran as hard as he could.
The Back of the Book ...
The Beast is Loose ...
A new alien plot has been hatched - as vicious
and inhuman as the Visitors themselves. In the Piedmont
Mountain region of North Carolina their top
biologists, led by the coldly brutal Visitor Leon, are breeding
crivits - a new life form of great power,
appetite, and ferocity, which burrows in the sand and waits to pounce,
destroy, and devour. The Visitor plan
is to turn them loose in great numbers up and down the eastern beach
coasts - where they can disrupt communications
and kill thousands of people.
Scientists Mark Casey, with the aid of some
resistance-inspired students, has uncovered the scheme but cannot
locate the secret breeding grounds.
For that he needs the help of the locals - who distrust him and his fellow
outsiders almost as much as the deadly Visitors!
Purchasing Information
All of the "V" novels are currently
out of print. However, you can often find used copies at reasonable
prices
at the Advanced
Book Exchange.
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