'Baal' – Robert McCammon (Pocket Books)

The last time I saw a copy of 'Baal' would have been just over fifteen years ago when I worked as a cleaner in a psychiatric hospital. I wasn't the best cleaner that hospital had ever had, especially not when I came across 'Baal' and spent most of that particular week reading when I should have been cleaning...

Never saw another copy after that, not until the other day when I was browsing eBay (trying to find alternatives to Guy N. Smith) and came across 'Baal' at a price that I could afford. It was the work of but a few moments to buy the book and the work of about a day to read it and see whether it was the book that I remember reading all those years ago.

'Baal' isn't a bad book but it's not the best of McCammon's work that I've read, not by a long way...

From the seething cauldron of the Middle East, his followers burst forth in unholy fury...

He is the foul seed of evil, the dark prophet who sees what is – and creates what always will be. Across the earth, he spreads his fiendish blasphemy, unleashes his holocaust, proclaims himself messiah. But he is Baal, the prince of demons. Fear him, he will never be destroyed...

Before I talk about what I thought of 'Baal', I ought to mention that the book opens with a pretty brutal rape scene at the end of the first chapter. If this is something that could act as a trigger for you then 'Baal' is not the book for you. Anyway, it's up to you.

And back to the book.

For me, 'Baal' was a real shot in the arm to begin with. There's a dark energy to the prose that makes the story almost crackle and tear along as Baal grows up and comes into his power. McCammon is not one to shy away from really going deep down into what evil can be and he approaches Baal's early years with that in mind. It can be a difficult read at times, especially in the orphanage, but the power behind the prose totally had me hooked and there was a real sense that the novel was building up to a finale that would be awesome.

And then Baal grew up and the story slowed right down. I mean, right down.

I don't know if it's the 'point of view' switch to another character (an old man who's a bit slower on his feet) or McCammon's seeming decision to put the plot on the back burner and concentrate on showing his reader, in some detail, just how vicious and blood thirsty people can be, basically loads of graphic scenes that don't do much at all for the story but do look the part, that kills the momentum of the story. What I do know is that momentum bleeds away very quickly and what we're left with is a story that plods along amiably when before, it snarled.

The momentum went and with it, any sense of urgency. When that went, I found it very hard to be scared like I was at the beginning which was a real shame as those opening chapters promised an awful lot of scares. The ending attempts to make up for this by delivering a final battle between good and evil, personified , but the preceding trek through the Arctic wilderness killed that as well. What was interesting though was wondering whether a single line at the end of the book was meant to set up any sequels. I suspect it wasn't but it could have been and it was certainly worth considering where the story could have gone next.

'Baal' is a tale of two halves and if it had stuck with what made the first half of the book so compelling then it would have easily been up there as one of my favourite McCammon stories ('They Thirst', by the way). As it is though, 'Baal' is a fun read but not an essential one; more a lesson in why you should always pace yourself...