Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Vanguard Press
Manufacturer: Vanguard Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 348
Printing Date: May 27, 2008
Publishing house: Vanguard Press
Sale Popularity Level: 476968
Studio: Vanguard Press
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Product Description:
David Morrell’s Creepers was a publishing event in 2005, a powerful, edgy, dark thriller by a master of the genre. A New York Times bestseller, it won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award and earned numerous critical raves. Scavenger, Morrell’s latest novel, takes us in a harrowing new direction-a desperate high-tech scavenger hunt for a 100-year-old time capsule. Frank Balenger, the resolute but damaged hero of Creepers, now finds himself trapped in a nightmarish game of fear and death. To save himself and the woman he loves, he must play by the rules of a god-like Game Master with an obsession for unearthing the past. But sometimes the past is buried for a reason. Scavenger is a brilliant and frightening hunter-hunted tale that layers modern technology over the dusty artifacts of earlier times. The result is a surreal palimpsest, one that contains the secret of survival for Balenger and a handful of unwilling players who race against the game’s clock to solve the puzzle of the time capsule, only to discover that time is the true scavenger. Morrell’s trademark action sequences are embedded with fascinating historical clues that make Scavenger a thrill-a-minute page-turner as well as a mesmerizing literary experience.
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Rated by buyers 
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"Creepers", while not perfect, was an interesting and suspenseful enough story to interest me in the follow-up. Not having flogged his characters enough in the very first book, the author sends Frank and Amanda out with a new group of supporting characters which is also gradually reduced as the novel progresses.
Some of the historical sidebars were interesting, but the novel gets too bogged down in video games and current technology for it to stand the test of time like I hear some of Morrell's earlier works do. Given the heartfelt recommendations for some of the older novels, I think I'll be trying them next.
Rated by buyers 
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SCAVENGER, the follow-up to David Morrell's Stoker-award winning novel CREEPERS, is an example of a sequel no one demanded, except maybe the Author's accountant.
CREEPERS protagonist Frank Balenger returns, with dead-wife-proxy Amanda in tow, as they're drugged, kidnapped, and seperated, forced by the mysterious "Game Master" to engage in a scavenger hunt for the fabled "Sepulcher of Worldly Desires", a mythical time capsule that may be more than anyone involved is prepared for.....
Morrell is a talented Author, without a doubt......But this is a novel that just cries out "WHY?" Aside from trying to cash in on the popularity of CREEPERS (Which was itself a very uneven book....), there seems to be no point to this book. Morrell vacillates between time capsule history/lore and a weird tangent on video games, as the Game Master sets Amanda and Frank up as his avatars, flesh-and-blood video-game characters, forcing them to fight their way through wave after wave of obstacles, on their way to solving the riddle of the Sepulcher, and a confrontation with the game's Boss character, the Game Master himself......While the ultimate secret of the Sepulcher of Worldly Desires is a surprise, and a creepy one at that, it was too little, too late, and the novel ultimately collapses under the weight of the mythology Morrell has created. Here's hoping Morrell moves on to greener pastures with his subsequent novel, and leaves the boring Frank Balenger to enjoy retirement.
Rated by buyers 
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Video games are a major industry today. Well, that's a bit of an understatement when it comes right down to it. When you're talking multiple billions in dollars spent on games and machines, that's not a major player... that's a major power.
And with the games comes the problem of addiction, obesity, poor grades, you name it. Although there are many casual gamers, such as myself, who know when to shut the machines down and do housework, go outside, hang with the family, etc.
But, what happens when the game is all consuming? What if the game is more real to the player than reality?
I'd say time to check said player into an insane asylum.
This brings us to the novel Scavenger, written by David Morrell.
As usual, I will not disclose anything about the novel that you couldn't get from reading the back cover. I hate to spoil things for potential readers.
The story is a scavenger hunt, one to find a one hundred year old time capsule. The prize for winning, freedom, the penalty for failure - death.
It is a hunt, interwoven with historical fact - and I assume fiction, while the players, all of them unwilling, are armed with the latest in high tech gadgets to help them succeed in the hunt.
Overall the novel was difficult to put down. I really enjoyed it, and it was something fresh and new for me to read. I've never read a David Morrell novel before, and after reading this one, I have to say that I'll be picking up his earlier works.
Too many times in the past the characters in a novel are dull and / or cliché. Yes, some of the characters in this book were cliché, and I've seen similar characters in other media, but what sets this book apart from the rest is the fact that these characters are also flawed and damaged.
It makes them all that much more believable.
Then there is the way the author wrote the novel. It was part history lesson, mainly in regards to time capsules buried all over the globe, part game, and part mystery.
I certainly do appreciate the fact that Mr. Morrell took the time to do his research in regards to video games, although there was at least one point that he brought up that I could argue with him, about the number of players. But it's a moot point, and doesn't detract from the overall novel at all.
Although there are readers who might find it a bit confusing, the novel switches points of view constantly, almost right up to the end of the novel. It's really two parallel stories, one for Frank, and one for the woman he loves Amanda.
The novel gives the reader the point of view for both characters at the same time so that the reader knows exactly what is happening, how the events affect the two characters, and what really is at stake.
Some people like this form of story telling, as it keeps the reader up to speed, others don't, as it takes away some of the mystery as to what's happening.
I'm one of the former readers.
The novel is suspenseful, and it rarely lets the tension down for even a couple of pages. It's a real page turner and keeps building up to an explosive climax.
Believe it or not, I would recommend letting teenagers read this book, especially those who happen to be addicted to games. One, it'll get them away from the X-box or what have you and get them doing something far more useful with their time, and two, it'll open their eyes to what can happen if you let games run your life.
4 out of 5
Rated by buyers -
I respect much of the work of the author but really, this book can only have been written to fulfill a publisher's contractual demand. To say that this book is superficial speaks too highly for it. While others may applaud (why I don't know) Scavanger doesn't even rate an "airplane read". Save your money. Take a nap. Unlike another review here I don't even suggest you check it out of the library. You will still have wasted far too many hours.
Rated by buyers -
David Morrell is a solid writer of suspenseful thrillers. I thoroughly enjoyed "Creepers" which introduced Frank Balenger and Amanda Evert as major characters. They are back in "Scavenger", now living together and jointly trying to heal the psychic and physical wounds suffered in their adventure in the Paragon Hotel in "Creepers".
They become separated by a master manipulator, the Game Master, who wants them as players in both a "game" and a scavenger hunt for a lost time capsule, the Sepulcher of Worldly Desires. Amanda finds herself with four strangers who are collectively forced to follow clues in a search for the lost time capsule using high tech equipment as part of a scavenger hunt with a forty hour time limit and death or freedom as the reward.
Meanwhile Frank awakens at the Paragon Hotel and with the assistance of detective Ortega, begins the painful tasks of discovering what has happened and to track down Amanda. He also must follow clues that will ultimately (hopefully) lead him to Amanda and her crew in the search for the time capsule.
The Game Master is a devious manipulative evil genius who is not as fully realized a charcter as he could have been. He does pull myriad puppet strings that control the lives of Frank and Amanda and her companions as they move closer and closer to their goal. The twin searches, Frank's and Amanda's, are well played against the ticking clock. Death, gruesome discoveries, and duplicity are all additional elements of their quest. As might be assumed, nothing is necessarily what it seems to be and everything is potentially a death trap--this gives much of the needed suspense to "Scavenger" and gives both Frank and Amanda the opportunity to display their analytic talents.
I enjoyed this book enough to recommend it to others, particularly to readers of "creepers". I felt the pacing was uneven at times, sometimes due to the flashing back and forth between the two separate searches. However, the last 100 pages are a hell-bent-for-leather e-ticket ride to a somewhat predictable ending. I also felt the characterizations were relative shallow; thankfully, Frank and Amanda were well fleshed out in "Creepers" because I didn't feel a lot of new depth in this follow-up novel.
As usual, Morrell has researched his topics. There is considerable narrative on the history and nature of time capsules as well as considerable narrative on the history and development of video games. I recommend this 3.5 star effort to any interested reader.
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