Beasts/The Valhalla

The Beasts of Valhalla by George C. Chesbro, is one of the best books ever written in the mystery genre. Basically, all of GCC's books are excellent, but this one is the best! Eerily prophetic, and timely, this book is proto x-files all the way. A must read! Also checkout "Shadow of a Broken Man." Another great novel.

This is perhaps my favorite work of fiction ever. Chesbro is very good at writing an entertaining story and cleverly weaving in social commentary. Beyond that the stories are original, even this book which was inspired by The Lord of the Rings trilogy is completely beyond comparison. There is just nothing else like this book out there. If you have never read "A Mongo Mystery" before, start with this one.

This was the first Mongo novel I read. I picked a copy of it up at a used bookstore. They also had copies of City of Whispering Stone and An Affair of Sorcerers. I bought them all and decided to read this one first. I literally read all night because I had to finish it. I had never read such a bizarre, yet captivating story. Needless to say, I was totally hooked on Mongo and read the other two books I had bought and went in search of the others. Much to my dismay, most were out of print, so I scoured every used bookstore I could find until I had every novel. I even grabbed a couple of the Chant novels and some of the other books by Mr. Chesbro.Of all the books, this continues to be my favorite and I've read it several times. Buy them all!

Here's a book that defies classification -- one of the most singular, entertaining novels you'll come across, concerning Mongo the dwarf detective and his hulking brother Garth. It begins a sequence of four novels that stands pretty much alone in mystery or SF, incredibly smart, stylish, weird, with characters you care deeply about undergoing the ultimate transformation, from man to animal to messiah. Read it, then try recommending it to your friends without sounding insane.

All of Chesbro's "Mongo" books have a quality that make them impossible to pigeonhole. This one combines all the characteristics that make the Mongo books so engrossing and irresistible. The matter-of-fact dialog between Mongo and his brother Garth, about the most outrageous situations, made me laugh out loud. There's a bad guy who has a vision of how to save the world through reverse genetic engineering. Many of the story ideas have shown up in other media AFTER this book, including Star Trek: the Next Generation, Jurrassic Park, and X-Files. Treat yourself and read this book.