secret until the rash actions of one of their number
leads a journalist to a startling discovery. Although
the novel ends with the destruction of the colony,
there are some survivors who become the basis for
two inferior but still interesting sequels, Howling II
(1979) and Howling III(1985). In the first two, the
reporter is pursued by her now-infected husband
and his friends, and in the third, a werewolf child
is adopted by an unsuspecting normal family. The
first book was turned into an above-average horror
film in 1980. The five movie sequels bear no rela-
tion to the novels.
Brandner’s later novels vary considerably in
content and quality. Walkers(1980) is a rather pre-
dictable story of a woman brought back from the
dead after an accident who finds herself pursued by
spirits from the other side who want her to join
them. A demon in human form similarly pursues a
woman and her child in Hellborn(1981), but the su-
pernatural element is subordinated to what is essen-
tially a mystery story. After novelizing the remake of
Cat People(1982), Brandner wrote Quintana Roo
(1984), a jungle adventure story with supernatural
episodes.
The Brain Eaters(1985), a mix of horror and
science fiction, was Brandner’s best book since The
Howling. A new form of parasite begins to affect
human brains, driving their hosts into fits of vio-
lence. Although the story is very much in the vein
of Night of the Living Deadand its many imitations,
Brandner avoids most of the usual clichés and de-
livers a taut and exciting suspense novel. Many of
the same devices appear in Carrion (1986), in
which a fraudulent magician discovers that some
of his powers are real. He resurrects the dead but
without understanding the consequences, and they
wander around, deteriorating physically and men-
tally, until they become dangerous and repulsive.
Cameron’s Closet(1987) develops the childhood
fear of a monster in the closet in a somewhat pre-
dictable but nevertheless relentlessly suspenseful
fashion. An inferior but occasionally interesting
film followed.
Floater(1988) is a disappointing revenge story
involving astral projection, and Doomstalker(1989)
was only marginally more interesting, another story
of demonic retribution. Brandner’s most recent
horror novel, Rot(1999), measures up to his best
work, however. The protagonist is a woman
brought back from the dead to track down her at-
tackers, but she has to succeed before her decaying
body deteriorates. Brandner’s occasional short sto-
ries are generally minor, but “Julian’s Hand”
(1974), “Mark of the Loser” (1979), and “Old
Blood” (1993) are of interest.The Brave Little ToasterThomas M. Disch
(1981)
It is often forgotten that much of the fiction we
think of as classic children’s fantasy was actually
written as satire directed at least partly at adult au-
diences. Jonathan Swift’s GULLIVER’S TRAVELS
(1626) and ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1865) by
Lewis Carroll are the two most obvious examples.
Children could read them for their surface story,
while adults might chuckle at the exaggerated por-
trayals of events or even people from the contem-
porary world. One of the rare recent examples is
The Brave Little Toaster, originally published in a
collection of fantasy stories for adult readers, then
reprinted in 1986 in hardcover as a children’s book.
Talking animals have been a mainstay of chil-
dren’s fantasy ever since Aesop, but talking inani-
mate objects have rarely been more than minor
elements. Disch turned that completely around by
imbuing all of the electrical appliances in a vaca-
tion lodge with personalities. The various devices,
led by the toaster, are loyal to their young human
master, who has apparently abandoned them. They
set out on a quest to find him, convinced that he
would have returned had he been able and igno-
rant of the fact that people change much more
dramatically with the passage of time than do their
creations. They eventually rescue him and are re-
united in a surprisingly unsentimental but still
touching resolution. The surface story is clever and
amusing, and the underlying satire, which deals
with our interactions with the technological de-
vices we have created, is gentle. The story was
turned into an above-average animated film in
1987.
Disch added a sequel, The Brave Little Toaster
Goes to Mars(1988), in which a radio picks up a
distress call from the planet Mars. A particularly
ingenious piece of technology, built by Albert Ein-The Brave Little Toaster 35