Review of “Terror in Big Bend” by Ethan Richards

​Score: 89/100 (8.9 out of 10)

Are you a fan of kaiju or prehistoric creatures?

Do you like films like Jurassic Park III and Jaws: The Revenge?
Do you enjoy giant monsters fighting each other?
Are you willing to put up with a little hokiness, cheesiness, unnecessary human side characters, and cringe-worthy dialogue and jokes?

Well, then, Terror in Big Bend by Ethan Richards may be right up your alley!

We'll just be blunt: this isn't the most refined or best written series.

To its defense, few of the Godzilla movies were very refined or well-written either.

Yes, every now and then you'd get a Godzilla (1954), Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974), or a Godzilla Minus One (2023); however, those high-quality works are far and in between. That's not why most people watch and get hooked on monster movies. They watch monster movies for the simple spectacle of seeing the monsters doing monster things: breaking stuff, breaking people, and breaking each other in a way that most people can't in their every day lives. It's cathartic, in a sense.

Terror in Big Bend isn't the kind of book that wins Pulitzer Prizes.
It also doesn't have the deepest, most emotionally-compelling and riveting characters either.

This isn't really a series for someone who wants to hyper-analyze, become emotionally-invested, and/or take everything seriously. This series featured Meth Gator for goodness sake.

You can't take these books seriously, and that's part of their charm and appeal.

Similar to an absurdist book like Club X: Zombie in the Fridge by S.P. Somtow or Quantum Consequence by Mike Murphey, Terror in Big Bend is better read if you turn off your brain a bit and just try to enjoy the guns, action, and coolness of the monsters.

In that sense, it's actually a bit like a typical, made-for-TV Syfy Channel flick, simply there to be fun, cool, and entertaining for the nerd folk and geekdom.

Terror in Big Bend revolves around a series of strange and terrifying events in Big Bend State Park, Texas, after the discovery of a prehistoric creature, a Gorgonopsian (often just called “the Gorgon”). This begins with the brutal death of a young runner, Enrique Esparza, who is killed by the creature. This leads to an investigation by Texas State Park Police Officer Jorge Mondragon, who seems to be the books main character (though we bizarrely forgot all about him after a while because he blends and blurs into the background of the narrative).

As Jorge delves deeper into the mystery, he uncovers evidence of drug cartel activity in the area, which adds another layer of danger to the situation. The story escalates when it becomes clear that the prehistoric beast is not just an isolated occurrence, and more sinister forces might be involved in its appearance.

Mondragon, a former member of the Texas Army National Guard, is soon fighting for his life, battling both the ferocious creature and human adversaries connected to the cartels. The remote, rugged terrain of Big Bend becomes a deadly playground where survival against overwhelming odds becomes the central focus. Throughout the book, suspense builds with intense action sequences, as characters face the terror of a revived prehistoric monster and the darker human motivations behind its return.

Jorge is joined by a rather forgettable group of specialists, experts, and misfits who are also determined to find and hunt the Gorgon. This includes members of the Dark Water team and a group that includes Felix American Pony, Gotham (Antonio Arzaga), Brody, Mustache (Everrett Pacheco), Tennyson, and other characters we pretty much forgot existed because of their genericness. They are pretty much the equivalent of NPCs or pawns on a chess board. You know that many of them aren't going to make it to the end of the game, and it really doesn't matter either way. None of these guys is particularly deep or memorable.

Honestly, Jorge himself is quite generic and forgettable.

However, the book does have a star: THE GORGON!
The Gorgon shines in that, rather than just being a mindless monster or a killing machine, he actually seems like a living, breathing, biological creature who is just trying to survive. If that means throwing his weight around and killing/eating a few people, then so be it. We eat fish, cows, and pigs, why can't the Gorgon eat a few humans? That doesn't make him evil. It just makes him hungry and resourceful.

Furthermore, the Gorgon isn't alone. We actually learn that the Gorgon actually has a mating partner and that these Gorgons are pretty much the last hope for their species—like two giant man-eating endangered pandas that somehow acquired a taste for human flesh.

The main (male) Gorgon also has some interesting moments and characteristics. Even though he looks like a reptile, he's often described as acting more like a big cat similar to a leopard or cougar. He exhibits cat-like behavior like randomly cat-napping and knocking things over.

In fact, one of the best moments in this book is actually when—in the middle of fighting one of the characters (Tennyson), who isn't doing much damage to it—the Gorgon actually falls asleep! It's somewhat humorous how Tennyson take offense to being ignored and not taken seriously by the creature.

What's even more humorous is that the Gorgon curls up into a ball while lying down similar to how a cat would.

The Gorgon also elicits human-like feelings and emotions, if even basic ones. For example, in another of the book's better scenes, he outright mourns the loss of his mate by howling and wailing. If anything, the Gorgon is the most compelling character in the book, both by default (being the main monster) and because he's the best written.

However, what elevates this book is the presence of a second major monster: the Titanoboa, a 40+ foot long, 2,500+ pound MONSTER—the biggest snake that ever lived.

What a formidable foe!

Similar to The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, the epic conclusion involves the main characters pitting these two monsters against each other.

And it's quite a fight! In fact, it's a fight that's so epic and long that it does a complete 180 and becomes drawn-out, tiresome, and jading. Hey, we love the Goku-Frieza Namek fight as much as anyone, but there was no good reason for this fight to take this long. There's such a thing as there being too much of a good thing. It becomes cloying and overstays its welcome after a while.

Really, the worst thing about this book are the cringe-worthy jokes and pop culture references. There are jokes and pop culture references about Jurassic Park, Breaking Bad, Demolition Man, and more. All of these references just seem forced and unnecessary. They often seem random and out of place.

Speaking of random and out of place, there's some really silly, random, out of place, cringy dialogue in here. Perhaps the worst of these is when Mustache goes down and we get this line:

“I… I really liked Mustache... He was the first guy to make me laugh”

This is followed by another character exclaiming, “Mustache was my friend! Are you insane?”

It's so... cartoonish and unnatural. It's hokey and cheesy. Maybe you'll like that stuff.

A “great Turkmenistan horse” just shows up in this book for... some reason. We love Turkmenistan being referenced, but... why? How does this fit into the story? Is it because Turkmenistan horses are prized and the Gorgon maybe be prized as one of the “exotics?” Guess that kinda makes sense.

There's also the line:

“There are dinosaurs out there!”

Yes, there are! And this is officially a script right out of a B-movie.

This book could really use some formatting and fleshing out. We'd personally love to see a more serious take on a monster story. Why? Well, when the tone of a story like this is more serious, the stakes also feel more real and compelling. We don't want to see characters die. We're afraid and in suspense at every turn of the page. However, this book as is—as silly, goofy, and random as it is—is too hard to take seriously. It's hard to care when certain characters die and drop like flies.

It's especially hard when we get likes like “Mustache was my friend!” and “He was the first guy to make me laugh” when one of these characters does die. Instead of being sad and emotionally riveted, we find ourselves laughing at cheesiness of these lines.

It's also strange and unnecessary how the Cartel is woven into this story. They kinda fill the archetype of the random aliens who appear in Godzilla films, brainwashing the creatures, then disappearing from the series never to be mentioned again.

All in all, though, there are still things to enjoy about this book, particularly the Gorgon and the Titanoboa.

Check it out on Amazon!