You may recall the Green Lama from my first book review for Yorkton This Week a few months back.
The Green Lama was an American pulp magazine hero of the 1940s, and is now being put through new adventures by author Adam Garcia who penned that first review book ‘The Green Lama: Scions’.
Scions was a solid pulp offering, so when Garcia penned ‘Green Lama: Horror In Clay’, it was a natural to pick up.
This is a solid read which has action, as well as Lama and his patriots having to sleuth out some answers.
However, I will say the title, while catchy, is far too obvious to what the ‘horror’ in the story is.
As a reader of the genre, when everyone in a German consulate is horrifically murdered, the title simply foreshadows what did the killing too much.
I understand it would have been difficult to keep the secret too far into the tale, but there was no attempt at all.
It is a case where a good read was lessened by the chosen title.
Garcia said the story is one which has rolled around in his head for some time.
“I started working on what would become ‘Horror In Clay’ while I was still in college, long before I ever became associated with the Green Lama,” he said. “The central mystery of the golem was essentially there, but instead took place in modern day with the golem killing Nazi war criminals. But when I had the chance to write the Green Lama, I moved the story to the ‘30s, which transformed the story to one of revenge to one of desperation at stopping the inevitable, one that blurred the line between right and wrong.”
A core element is indeed the question of what is justified to prevent something horrible you believe is just around the corner, in this case the horrors Hitler’s Nazis would visit upon Jewish people in the Second World War?
It is a question far from black and white, and one where whichever answer you chose you are going to be left unsure you chose correctly.
Garcia said given the era of the Lama, war is something often in the shadows.
“The approach of World War is actually something that runs throughout the whole of my Green Lama tales,” he said. “Some stories will feature it more than others, but you can consider the threat of war as the underlying theme of these adventures.”
While a bit unsatisfied by the title, I am still a GL fan, and one of Garcia’s as well.
But I was curious where this book sits in the timeline of the Green Lama?
“‘Horror In Clay’ takes place a few months before “Green Lama: Scions’, which was recently published by Moonstone (reviewed previously), and ‘Green Lama: Case of the Final Column’, which I wrote as part of Altus Press’s reprints of the original Green Lama tales,” he said.
“It gets a bit more complicated when you start taking the original stories into account, which is why I put a timeline at the back of the book.
“I’d show you my detailed Green Lama spreadsheet that keeps track of everything, but… you don’t need that level of nerd.”
And as the author, Garcia added, “personally, Clay has a very special place in my heart as it was the first Lama story I ever wrote and the start of my writing career.”
And there will be more Green Lama.
“Pro Se Productions is currently putting out a series of my short stories as part of the ‘Single Shot’ line,” said Garcia. “Each story is meant to stand on its own, and will cover a number of genres and styles.
“In terms of the Lama, up next is ‘Green Lama: Unbound (hoping to review), coming February from Moonstone. It’s a full-length novel that resolves many of the plot points laid out in ‘Horror In Clay’ and ‘Scions’, and features Nazis and Cthulhu. You can’t go wrong.
“I also have a short story featuring the Lama in Moonstone’s Day of the Destroyers anthology.”
And there is still more.
“After that, Moonstone will be releasing ‘Green Lama: Crimson Circle’,” said Garcia. “I don’t want to give too much away, but after this story, nothing will be the same.
“Hopefully there will be a lot more Green Lama stories after that, because you can be damn sure I’m not done telling them.”
I look forward to them all, as a fan for the Green Lama.
As we await the new material, you can find ‘Horror In Clay’ at http://www.amazon.com/Green-Lama-Horror-Clay-ebook/dp/B00PQ2G2F4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=
