Lee Murphy, Where Legends Roam (Kodiak
Books, 2001)
Lee Murphy, Naitaka (Kodiak Books, 2002)
Cryptozoology, the search for and study of unknown animals, is a modern and constantly evolving science which frequently makes use of, and indeed crosses over into, folklore. Cryptozoologists search for cryptids such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, El Chupacabra and Megalodon, using clues from sources as diverse as ancient Native American legend and modern Webcam technology. They're an interesting breed, cryptozoologists, able to meld rational scientific analysis with an open-minded willingness to believe in and investigate circumstances which, to the layman, sound like the product of a few too many imbibed down at the local.
It should be no surprise, then, that there are hundreds of books on the subject of cryptozoology. Some are nonfiction, scholarly studies of case histories and inexplicable events. Some are entertaining fiction. Lee Murphy's books, Where Legends Roam and Naitaka, fall into the latter category. Well, at least one of them does.
Where Legends Roam is first in the Kodiak Books, named for the main character of both novels, George Kodiak. An action-hero type — part Native American, former anti-poaching agent with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, adept with a pack of playing cards which he uses as weapons, a la ninja throwing stars — in the first book, Kodiak is Indiana Jones as played by Steven Seagal.
Kodiak is hired by Emory Pittman, an obscenely rich freak who collects wild animals of every sort for his own amusement, to lead an expedition into the Pacific Northwest, ostensibly to prove the existence of Bigfoot. Kodiak believes that the Bigfoot population is actually a living population of Gigantopithecus, the largest of the prehistoric apes. Naturally, being a good guy, Kodiak agrees to go along with the motley crew of genuine crypto enthusiasts and Pittman's evil henchmen; of course, he's going along with the intention of preventing their ultimate aim of capturing a Bigfoot for Pittman's collection.
If by my tone thus far you've surmised that this is not a particularly good book, then you've been paying proper attention. On the plus side, Murphy has done his research, and there is quite a lot of fascinating and detailed expository discussion of cryptozoology in general and Bigfoot/Gigantopithecus in particular. As a crypto fan I found myself nodding approvingly time and again. Readers not familiar with cryptozoology would find this book entertaining, I think, if only for the educational value.
The writing, though, is fairly bad. There is next to no real character development: heroes and villains alike come across as flat as the pages themselves. The bad guys, both Pittman and his henchmen, are so disgustingly evil that they're simply unreal, and there's no particular impetus to root against them or for the hero. Murphy puts so much effort into proving that one character in particular is evil that the character — a wife-beating rapist, murderer, and criminal with a physical resemblance to a Neanderthal, who hawks and spits sputum in virtually every scene — is ridiculously cartoonish. Dialogue is stilted and cliched. Blood and gore abound, and overall, Where Legends Roam reads like a B-movie treatment scripted for Steven Seagal or Jean Claude Van Damme.
You could assume at this point that Lee Murphy has no future as a writer. Not so, dear reader, because he follows up his admittedly lame freshman effort with Naitaka, and from a discerning critic's perspective, all is now forgiven.
In Naitaka, Kodiak and a new group of campanions return to the hunt for cryptids, this time searching Canada's Lake Okanagan for Ogopogo. Ogopogo is a very real phenomenon, a cryptid which has been spotted in Okanagan since the First Nations were the only folk who lived on the land. Kodiak believes that Ogopogo is a Zeuglodon, or Basilosaurus — a huge prehistoric whale — and that a breeding population still exists in Canada's lakes, at least those lakes which are not landlocked. As in the first novel, there is a greedy entrepreneur out to capture the cryptid; this time an aquarium owner wanting to capture Ogopogo for his theme park. That's where the resemblence to the first novel ends, however, as Naitaka is both intricately plotted and believable, with a fleshed-out cast of complicated and human characters who drive the action in credible ways.
There are at least twice as many characters in Naitaka, and yet Murphy gives enough time to each to keep the reader interested in what happens to each one. The plot twists and turns, never going quite where you thought it would, maintaining a high level of excitement throughout. There are villians from Kodiak's past as well as new bad guys, all of whom are human enough to hate without deteriorating into silliness. There are constant questions in the reader's mind: is rich and debonaire celebrity scientist Jules Dover evil or good? What's Eric Hess really up to? Will Erika and her father really ever come to terms? Are the Basilosaurs innocent creatures or malevolent monsters? As with any good adventure novel, you can only find out by reading the whole riveting book — Murphy deftly drops red herrings here and there, steering the action and yet never telegraphing the outcome.
Naitaka makes use of rueful humor, and logical human reactions. Dialog is much, much better, carrying the story rather than impeding it. As with Where Legends Roam there is a more than satisfying amount of scientific explanation, correct and yet understandable to the uninitiated.
I'm not sure what happened with Where Legends Roam, but it's certainly no stretch to say that many now-respected writers have horrible early efforts lurking somewhere under the bed. I hope that Mr. Murphy will continue to write his uniquely themed novels. If he maintains the high quality found in Naitaka, he will prosper. While these two books are essentially self-published, I can certainly see a niche for Naitaka and novels like it in mainstream publishing. Even given a few minor rough spots, it is more interesting and certainly better written than much of the action/mystery genre, and certainly more educational. I look forward to more like it.
Lee Murphy plans a series of nine novels, including
books dealing with the Honey Island
Swamp Monster, the Loch Ness Monster, ghosts, UFO's, and Mokele Mbembe.
For more on the Kodiak novels, go to Kodiak
Books
To explore the world of cryptozoology, go to Cisco Serret's Cryptozoology.com
