Book Review: 'Blood Knot' by Burt Cole
Reading old issues of Penthouse, Rolling Stone, and Playboy from the 1970s and 1980s exposes one to all manner of book reviews, and some of the titles featured in the reviews can be intriguing. Thus it was that I investigated 'Blood Knot' (197 pp.), which was published in hardback by St. Martin's Press in 1980. As best as I can tell, it never was issued in paperback.
'Burt Cole' is the pseudonym of the U.S. writer Thomas DIxon (b. 1930), who, from the late 1950s to the late 1980s, published a number of novels in the science fiction, melodrama, and thriller genres.
I will state at the outset that 'Blood Knot' is a proto-splatterpunk novel, published in the years before the genre formally existed.
The novel is set in the near future, i.e., the 1990s, in a United States gripped by civil war between the fascist federal government and the Marxist People's Republic. All manner of atrocities and abominations freely are committed by both sides. It is unclear who the victor will be, but the People's Freedom Army (PFA) controls the rural areas of the eastern half of the country, leaving the feds to hold the cities and towns. The PFA regularly mounts forays to harass federal positions, while the feds, for their part, look to intercept and destroy PFA sorties through the use of armored vehicles and heli-gunships.
'Blood Knot' follows the fates of two members of the PFA. One is Mano, who, at the start of the book, is idling in the PFA rear area in the New Jersey countryside, recuperating from a debilitating war wound. Mano is a conscientious soldier: under no illusions that the war is a noble thing, but convinced of the righteousness of the People's Republic.
The other main character in the book is Kindred, a middle-aged man of seemingly mild appearance and demeanor who trains the PFA recruits in hand-to-hand combat methods. Kindred's body count has earned him a healthy respect (even fear) among the members of the PFA. Author Cole informs the reader that Kindred is a psychopath, with no moral scruples; he will kill anyone who angers him, as casually as swatting a fly. A Deep and Abiding Question the novel laboriously raises, is whether a psychopath in the service of a people's revolution is morally justifiable. Is Kindred an asset, or a liability ?
Over the course of the novel the paths of the two men will meet, for Mano's dedication to the cause, and the welfare of his fellow PFA members, is in conflict with Kindred's fondness for mayhem.
'Blood Knot' has an interesting and offbeat premise. Its depictions of a USA engaged in a bleak, destructive war are effective. However, the novel has major weaknesses.
One is the prose, which is stilted. I encountered the following adverbs:
buttocky
ventriloquially
screechily
staggaredly
tickedly
jerkily
runnily (referring to a bowel movement - !)
I've read some pulp prose in my time, but never with this many clunkers crammed into less than 200 pages. I also came upon the words 'durbar' (an assembly held by South Asian royalty) and 'fugacious' (short-lived).
Along with the prose style, 'Blood Knot' has its problems with plotting and composition. The narrative abruptly switches in time and place, without much in the way of framing or transitional passages. This is confusing. Then there are the passages, some several pages in length, where Kindred lectures (in clinical detail) on protocols for killing people. Author Cole intends these passages to inform the reader as to how hardened Kindred is, but deploying more than one passage for this purpose is (pun intended) 'overkill.'
The final 20 pages of the novel are filled with splatterpunk scenes. While I can tolerate my share of splat, when presented with page after page of gore and grue (including detailed descriptions of edged weapons being inserted into bodies), I had little enthusiasm for finishing the book.
I am comfortable with giving 'Blood Knot' a score of One Star. Apparently Cole's 1989 novel, 'The Quick', which I have not read, is a reboot of 'Blood Knot,' with a hero named 'Shaman' who is a version of Kindred. I may or may not tackle 'The Quick;' anyone who has, is welcome to post a Comment here with their opinion.
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