'Throwback' – Guy N. Smith (New English Library)

When I was moving stuff around the other day, I came across a small pile of books that I'd completely forgotten about, and with good reason. It's a pile of books that I'd finished but never got round to posting reviews. And you know what it's like... Why would you concentrate on the pile of books that you've finished when there are loads of other piles of books still to read? Which reminds me, I really need to drag all those books out from under the bed... That's a story for another time though.

Closer examination of this teeny tiny pile reminded me that one of my New Year's Resolutions was to read some more Guy N. Smith books that weren't about giant crabs, see what else he'd come up with in his time. So here we are with 'Throwback', one of those titles that should leave you in no doubt as to what this book is about. This will be a shorter post than normal, partly because it's been ages since I read 'Throwback' but mostly because... well, you'll see.

The screams of the crowd, panicking, clawing, trampling, filled her ears.

A searing jumble of images swam before her: flashing emergency lights, spattered blood, ripped, discarded clothing.

Then reflected in the plate glass, she saw herself; skin now reddened, blotched, scabbed; eyes deep sunk, red-rimmed pinpoints of terror; hair coarsened matted, facial hair darkening her once smooth skin. Even her features were changing, thick lips drawn back from yellowed teeth, nose splayed, black nostrilled.
Terrified, she looked around her. Bawling, mauling men, women and children were mutating back to primitives. The age of the throwback had come, horrible and sudden, out of a clear blue sky.

Up until now, I've been used to seeing Guy N. Smith as a 'big creature' horror writer with occasional bursts of horror along the lines of 'humanity messing with the planet' and getting what they deserve'. Is 'ecological horror' a thing? It should be, that's what Smith wrote. 'Throwback' is something entirely different from either of these strands of horror and I have to say that it made for a refreshing change. How well does Smith handle it? Not badly but I think it suffers from the fact that there isn't an awful lot to write about here... Let me try and explain.

I loved the start of the book where the reader is thrown straight into the thick of a nationwide panic as something is causing people to regress both physically and mentally. It's chaos out there and Smith really captures the air of panic and everything that means. No-one knows why this has happened (suggestions are left unresolved), only that it is happening and it's literally kill or be killed. What a great way to open a novel; action, terror and a quick introduction to what the book is about, seen through the eyes of Jackie Quinn who is so deep into the change that she can't even remember her own name to start off with.

While all this is happening, Jackie's husband (Jon) and his mistress (Sylvia) are holed up at his place, safe from whatever is happening. Again, this is a great way of having more than one viewpoint on the apocalypse. Smith shows us life as a 'Throwback' (more on that in a bit) but we also get to see things from the side of the 'uninfected', which is more of a 'survive in a harsh new world that you're not prepared for' sub-plot. This throws us some tasty moments of terror where it becomes clear that the 'Throwbacks' and the 'uninfected' cannot live together; the moment where Jon meets his neighbour is as creepy as hell and the fact that animals can be affected makes stepping outside the house particularly dangerous. We also get a dose of 'governments are evil aren't they?' with a particularly nasty scientist experimenting on the Throwbacks, partly because of saving humanity but I suspect mostly because he enjoys it. So a little bit of body horror as well then.

There seems to be a little bit of horror for most tastes then and it's a bit of a shame that this is all about the uninfected while the 'Throwback passages' aren't like this at all. You'd have thought that there was an opportunity here to really explore what humanity is capable of when the trappings of civilisation disappear but what we get instead feels more like an examination of how the ancestors of Stone Age people may have lived. Don't get me wrong, it's quite interesting to follow but it feels like a break from the horror experienced by the uninfected and so a chance missed rather than taken. If we look at it from a 'clash of cultures' viewpoint, it's actually handled very well but that's not what you'd expect from a slice of Guy N. Smith pulp horror so... I don't know, maybe I'm doing the book a disservice but these slower moments really messed with the momentum generated by the rest of the book.

The ending is bleak but strangely hopeful at the same time, almost like the book isn't sure about what note to end on (which isn't a great sign). Having said that though, maybe some good can come out of something catastrophic after all.

'Throwback' moves in fits and starts then but when it's good, it's really good. You just might end up skimming some of the slower moments though...