Review of P.A. Douglas’s “Killer Koala Bears From Another Dimension”

Killer Koala Bears From Another Dimension is a throwback to the days of classic monster movies.  When teenagers Tim and Joana do a little experimenting with a few strange rocks in a farmer’s field, the results are far from what they expected.

Tim just wants to escape his small, backwoods town and go someplace, anyplace, else.  Joana, along for the ride but not very thrilled with her goth boyfriend and his timewasting experiment, is just as surprised as he is when dimensional rifts start showing up around town and strange humanoid shapes step out, loaded for bear (pardon the pun) and armed to the teeth with spears and knives.  But whatever illusions they have that this is all just some bad dream changes when everyone around them ends up getting gutted and dined upon by the fury interlopers from another dimension.

Yep, the author went there.  I have to believe he sat down one night and thought about what creature on earth is probably the most cuddly, cute, and adorable and dared himself to turned them into human flesh craving lunatics.  Next thing you know, he’ll be writing about zombie-Teletubbies or vampire puppies.

Don’t get me wrong.  As outrageous the idea that the nemesis of the Tim, Joana, and Frank (another desperate survivor) being humanoid shaped, spear-wielding koala bears, the author does a good job of filling these ravenous creatures with plenty of menace.  These bears have teeth.  Sure, the whole concept seems a bit silly, and most of the characters in the book are a bit taken aback by the idea of giant fuzzy bears coming through dimensional rifts ready to maim everything in sight, but the story is a fun, interesting race against time for the survivors.  All they can do is to try and figure out a way out of this hell scape filled with deadly ursine enemies before the whole town is massacred.

Overall the story goes down pretty smooth.  I perhaps grew a little weary of Joana’s repeated interludes of idle lines of thought that seemed to distract from the story a bit, and the ending seemed to shift gears a little bit surprisingly with the final reveal, but nothing was too out of phase with the rest of this blood-saturated adventure into teddy bear nightmares.

This is a fun one.  Goofy and gruesome at the same time…I doubt I’ll ever look at a koala bears the same again.

Killer Koala Bears From Another Dimension can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0987476556/ref=cm_cr_thx_view