Читать книгу Deep RED - Paul Kane - Страница 8

I n t r o d u c t i o n

B a r b i eW i l d e

Fairy tales are curious things. I vividly remember my mother reading me ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and of course, the seminal ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ when I was young. How were tiny tots supposed to go to sleep after hearing about flame-roasted kiddies as a witch’s snack, or houses being violently destroyed by the single puff of a wolf’s breath, or even worse, yet another wolf slaughtering a granny then wearing her skin and clothes to fool a young girl so he can feast on her tender flesh? Such charming little stories to send children off to dreamland.

Violence flows like a scarlet, subterranean river through the heart of many iconic fairy tales, so perhaps these stories were meant to warn children that the world can be a terrifying and dangerous place. That mummy and daddy wouldn’t always be around to protect you. That shaping-shifting wolves and sweet little old ladies with unfortunate warts on their chins might actually want to devour you. The unrelenting grimness of Grimm’s fairy tales was cautionary at the very least, never mind the gruesomeness of the Jack the Giant Killer and Shockheaded Peter stories.

With bedtime fables like these, no wonder human beings are so fascinated by horror.Not only have we been indoctrinated from a very early age; thousands of years ago we were sitting around campfires, shivering in bearskins, scaring ourselves to smithereens by recounting fearsome fantasies and believing that a giant wolf consumed the moon every month. (There’s that ‘lupine’ motif again.) Today we read blood-curdling novels and go to horror movies, but the effect on our nervous systems is the same. It seems that it’s in our DNA to be thrilled and, at the same time, repelled by horror.

Throughout Paul Kane’s RED trilogy, I’ve been enthralled by Rachael Daniels’ story—our modern Red Riding Hood—as she flees not only from the real life horror of the average human lowlife lurking around council estates, but from something else that is shadowing her—a mysterious creature that is snuffling out the familiar scent of a nemesis from the distant past and who is eager to taste the blood that was denied to it all those centuries ago. And in Deep RED, it’s not only Rachael in danger, but her child as well—one that by all rights shouldn’t exist at all. And the human race isn’t doing so hot either.

From RED’s shocking first chapter through wicked twists and turns to the post-apocalyptic denouement of Deep RED, the saga will surprise, tantalize and beguile you.Kane’s tense, powerful and expressive prose conjures up unsettling images in your mind that you won’t be able to shake off for months. Deep RED is a gore-drenched, graphic tale populated with characters that you care about and empathize with, who are fighting an implacable and vicious ancient enemy. And in this reader’s humble opinion, RED, Blood RED and Deep RED are so imaginatively written that they would all make deliciously frightening horror movies.

—Barbie Wilde (actress: Hellbound: Hellraiser II, author: The Venus Complex, Voices of the Damned, and co-screenwriter & co-producer: Blue Eyes)