Orgy Of The Blood Parasites, a novel by Jack Yeovil.
A university campus is affected when animal rights terrorists raid an experimental lab and release an intelligent virus that causes hideous mutations. The evil corporation sponsoring the research sends in a psychopathic SWAT team to deal with the situation. Lots of sex and violence ensue. - Kim Newman fansite
That paragraph there tells you pretty much all you need to know about Orgy Of The Blood Parasites. It's 224 pages long, it's out of print and it has the sort of title that either grabs your attention or makes you roll your eyes and flip past to something more worthwhile.
I'm the first type. When I first picked up Orgy Of The Blood Parasites I was a student, living in Scarborough and hunting through the paperback novels at the library for Dr Who books I'd not yet read. I had yet to discover Poppy Z Brite, Clive Barker or Magnus Mills, and the glorious b-movie title burst out of the rotating wire rack and grabbed my attention immediately. Who could resist such a title? I checked it out of the library, took it back to my freezing student hovel and read it. That was at least a decade ago, and I've never seen the book since.
"She slammed her arm, and the thing on it,
against the wall. The rabbit screeched and burst. There
was a mess, and Cazie was spattered from head to foot."
Back to now: 2007, nearly 2008. My tastes have refined a little, though I still have a spot for cheesy horror fun, hence the settling down for an afternoon watching David Cronenberg's Shivers. Shivers, one of Cronenberg's early works, features a rather sterile apartment block in which a parasitic/symbiotic (the distinction is gaily smeared as the film progresses) organism spreads rapidly between the inhabitants of the building. Erotomania, violence and Cronenberg's trademark visceral horror ensue. But, and this is the interesting bit, the whole Shivers project (itself originally released as They Came From Within) was, right back in the beginning stages, going to be called Orgy Of The Blood Parasites. (Screen notes are available on the DVD if you're interested in more back story.)
"He gripped the arms of the chair as he came again. A
jet of come came out of his dick like toothpaste vigorously
squeezed from a tube. He beat his own record
and splattered the far wall."
I'm pretty sure Jack Yeovil knew. The opening quote in the book, actually, is by David Cronenberg, discussing how the AIDS virus is progressing from the point of view of a virus. I checked - you see, the whole incident triggered a bit of nostalgia, and after a bit of a search I came up with a copy of Orgy Of The Blood Parasites for the princely sum of £1.00 at the Salvation Army thrift shop in Fakenham. Co-incidence is a wonderful thing, and considering that I've not seen a copy for a decade it's rather wonderful to suddenly have things fall into place. I wish everything did.
"He was practically out of this redbrick hellhole.
But it was not over yet, not by a very, very considerable
length of calcium carbonate."
Surprisingly, the book is really well-written. Mr Yeovil is nothing more than a pseudonym for Kim Newman, and you get the impression that Mr Newman uses Yeovil for less serious projects, the way some of us on e2 use a secondary account to try out the weird stuff. It reads like a b-movie tribute: the link to Shivers is clear - intelligent parasitic organism transmuting flesh left, right and centre, forcing individuals into a new, mutated lifestyle. It's one of Cronenberg's favourite themes, and it works perfectly in this book. Oh - and Twenty-eight Days Later? Well, the book predates the film, of course, but the plot has so many similarities. More similarities, but the other way round, are to be drawn between George Romero's films - The Crazies in particular.
"Her new boyfriend was called Michael, and he was
awfully nice. He had the buds of horns on his forehead and his
limbs were short and strong. They were compatible. She would
never have to push him through a floor."
Used copies are thirty-eight dollars on Amazon, or five pounds on their UK counterpart. eBay can't tell me when the last copy was sold on the site, it's so long ago. If you want a copy, it looks like charity shops are the only reasonable way to go. Do you want a copy? Probably not. But you never know - it has a lot going for it... it's good prose, and it's good horror. It's a miniature tribute to Shivers and Videodrome, The Crazies and Night Of The Living Dead. It's short - why do so many horror writers nowadays think anything under 900 pages just isn't worth writing? It's got a wicked sense of fun, and far too much sex. What more could you want? (What's that? To see the cover... well, there's a version here. It's just what you'd expect...)
Sources:
Quotes taken from the novel
Amazon
eBay
Shivers DVD
Johnny Alucard's Kim Newman fansite | 
