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Amazon Review
The man who gave an entire generation sleepless nights with his invention of horror icon Freddy Krueger and gave the well-worn Slasher flick a hip, 90s spin with Sream, has made his first foray into novels. His fans may be very surprised at the apparent lack of visceral shocks (eg cleaver-attractant teens etc.), leaving the conventional ones back at the studio in favour of more zeitgeist-led fears such as medical technology gone awry and a vast, terrifying government conspiracy. Both of those revolve around a well-portrayed love story. The cliché potential should be high but Craven manages to avoid the most obvious ones, possibly because he practically invented most of them. Dr Peter Jance is an aged scientist working on a top-secret research project in New Mexico (The "Society"), the end product of which could provide the US with military invulnerability. However, the project's success is threatened by Jance's terminal cancer. So, with duty placed firmly before morality, his comrades arrange for the kidnap of banker Hans Brinkman, whose DNA is an exact match for Jance's. After a complicated operation, a rejuvenated Janice can resume his work, much to the dismay and confusion of his wife and Brinkman's mistress, Elizabeth. Success? Well, nearly until Jance's mind and Brinkman's body start to play tricks on each other. The good news is that Craven is indeed a writer of skill, efficiently weaving intrigue, strong characters and an interesting degree of science. While the set up is nothing revelatory or new, Craven displays strong inventiveness despite predictability: "they'll deep freeze world-heroes, hold them for 50 years until history has a chance to evaluate them--discard the ones who don't stand the test and clone the rest." Horror fans may take some convincing but Fountain Society is a fine debut, imbued with his distinct ability to frighten, its dark possibilities effectively replace the cleaver. --Danny Graydon
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