Bats

I have to thank Kensington books for making William Johnstone's Bats available to me in galley format...the fact that I got a comped copy didn't influence me at all, but I have to say: I LOVED IT.

I love the "nature runs amok" genre, and one of my favorite movies is the eco-horror film from 1972, Frogs.  I also enjoyed the (no relation) 1999 Lou Diamond Phillips movie Bats.  So when I saw a listing for the e-release of William Johnstone's 1993 book Bats, I knew I had to read it.

It's crazy.  Johnny McManly lives alone in his compound in Lousiana, hiding from the world and kill squads after being a black ops superninja.  Then the bats show up. 

Giant bats. Smart giant bats. Smart giant mutant bats. 
A bat scientist shows up.  She's woman enough for Johnny, and he's man enough for her, in a totally g-rated sort of way.

The bats can handle sunlight. And are rabid. 
Then the Satanists show up. They aren't too smart so they let one of the bats bite them. Because Hail Satan. Rabies. Not Zombies, but rabid, bitey Satanists.

...and then there's a wild boar. A newly rabid wild boar.

Things just get crazier and crazier, in an awesome Saturday afternoon way.

The media shows up.  Johnstone gripes way too much about the liberal media, making his newspeople whiney enough that you're glad when the bats kill them.  But then, you know they're going to die because it's just that kind of book.

Because it's in football country, we get a nice chapter of Friday Night Lights go to Hell bats attack.

But Johnny McManly stops them with the power of his American testosterone.

The author is just to the left of Tim LaHaye. Not surprising given the inherent conservative nature of his usual genre, the western.

Deus Ex Machina ending, but otherwise a serviceable by the numbers nature gone amok story. Recommended.