Pandora's Game
by
Christopher Andrews

Fine Line, September 2001, 226 pp.
ISBN: 0-9713553-1-2

Genre: Horror
Subgenre: Supernatural / Gothic
Reviewed: 10/25/2001

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

Interview with a Vampire...

"You said that you can smell a werewolf in either form. So, your senses are that acute?"

"My senses are very acute, though Sean's olfactory is second to none."

"What about other vampires? Can you smell them?"

"When it comes to other vampires, it is not so much a question of smell. The proximity of another vampire triggers what you might call a sixth sense. For instance, if a vampire were anywhere in this apartment complex, I would..."

His voice trailed away as his attention shifted. Maybe his olfactory wasn't as powerful or sensitive as Sean's but he could not help but notice the change in the air. As he concentrated, he immediately identified the familiar "wet dog" scent, and located its source. His eyes focused past Alex and onto Mark, whose back was to them. "Sean?"

Alex whipped around, more shaken than he had been the entire evening. Mark stood facing the bookshelf, his respiration heavy through his nose as every breath drew swift and deep..."

"Sean?"

Mark turned slowly, his movement sluggish as one deep in hypnosis. His eyes finally met Alistaire's.

"Sorry to interrupt, Alistaire," he said with a thick Irish dialect, "but I need ye on the home front. We've got a situation with Trey."

"Understood. Alex, please excuse us."

And with that, like a lightning strike from above, I was back. I shook my head, disoriented by the sudden transition. I was completely out of hypnosis, though drained as before. I could detect no trace of Alistaire.

"Neil?" Mark muttered, his hand heavy on the bookcase for support, the foreign accent gone from his speech. "What the hell was that?"

"Mark? Neil?" Alex stammered, his head pivoted back and forth between us as though he were watching a highspeed tennis match. "What the f___ is going on here?!"

That's what I wanted to know.

Synopsis

One day, while hanging out in Neil's room, Mark discovers Neil's old comics. Being an artist, Mark laughingly suggests that they work on a comic together. Thus, The Triumvirate is born staring three unlikely supernatural heroes; Trey Mathews - the Zombie, Sean Mallory - the Werewolf, and Alistaire Bachman - the Vampire. Neil, while taking a Sociology class, reads that hypnotism can help bring out the creative side of the subconscious. Mark soon hypnotizes Neil so that he will now think that he is Alistaire.

Mark then proceeds to interview Alistaire about his past and present, gathering data for the comic book. Later, Neil invites another friend, Alex, to come over and witness the transition. But something goes wrong when Mark is taken over by Sean, and Mark wasn't even hypnotized.

As time goes by, both Neil and Mark find it easier and easier to slip into their new personas whether it be at parties, or just hanging out with a few friends. But when people start showing up dead, with their body shredded, as if by an animal, Neil begins to suspect that their grand little experiment may have somehow gone awry.

Pandora's Game is an interesting story about two young men who start a game that quickly turns into reality. They believe that they are just acting as characters that Neil created for his comic book. But were these characters really invented by Neil, or are they real? The story flips back and forth in two different realities; one in Oklahoma with Neil and Mark, and the other taking place over a five hundred year period dealing with when Alistaire first became a vampire, the first turning of Sean into a werewolf, how Trey became a zombie, and the present with all of them teamed up together.

Christopher Andrews bends reality with this gothic tale of hypnotism and the macabre. And the question he asks us is: Can the hypnotic arts create a personality that is so strong that it will squash the weaker personality into nonexistence? You will have to read this one to find out.

Review

Right from the get-go, I found myself enjoying this story. The theme of this book intrigued me and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I did enjoy both the werewolf and the vampire characters, but was slightly disappointed with the lack of presence of the zombie in the story. Trey really wasn't in the story very much. Of course, he is a zombie and is kind of brain-dead, so that might have something to do with it.

I only had one other small problem. Once, when Neil was "with" a girl, he bit her on the neck so hard that he punctured her skin with his canines. Was this an attempt to show the reader that the realities were mixing and Alistaire was crossing over a little? If so, I had a problem with this logic. Since Alistaire is different from all other vampires in that he is a Christian, and he has never in his five hundred years drank the blood of a live victim, why was Neil doing this? Alistaire would never have done it. I still don't know. But the story is well-told and moved along at a good pace.

The characters are appealing and the concept is absorbing. There are more than a few errors either in spelling or punctuation, but don't let that dissuade you from reading this story. Pandora's Game is well worth the time spent. There is also a 27 page sneak preview for Paranormals in the back of the book.

I rated this book a 7 out of 10.