The sound is driving them mad. The silence is even worse.
Dan Howarth writes with a specific kind of fury. It is the sound of a steamroller on asphalt, relentless and flattening. For fans of horror fiction, being caught beneath it is a privilege. His latest novella, Drone, proves he is a master of rural horror, taking the quiet dread of a remote island and turning it into a high-strung potboiler.
Drone by Dan Howarth Review: Rural Horror at Its Most Relentless
Grumblesome. That’s the kind of writer Dan Howarth is becoming. He writes like a steamroller rolls, and it’s the delight of the horror fan to be the pulpy residue he leaves behind. Because what these aren’t are the grumblings of an old man with a chip on his shoulder; they’re worries as fresh and hot as blood spewing from a carotid artery, and before all else, the emotion and atmosphere are what matter here.
This time, the worries focalise on the life of Gallagher, a wearied farmer on a remote island. Prime horror country, of course. In the same way that Ramsey Campbell has an innate capacity to bring out the urban horrors, Howarth is innately able to bring out the rural horrors. Any fans of 1966’s ISLAND OF TERROR shall no doubt be happy to see him treading the remote setting with equal poise and turning it into the same kind of high-strung potboiler which the genre thrives in.
But of course the strange life of Gallagher is only one part of the puzzle, since just as the weird mutations afflicting the animal-life is – the result of which will go down in literature history as the most excruciatingly disgusting instance of a cow being milked (though, I admit, I haven’t researched this).
The greatest and most piercing piece of the puzzle is the droning noise interrupting the island’s idyllic pastures and inspiring the villagers to turn furious and violent. You almost get tinnitus just reading about it. Shall we just say then that things do not go smoothly from hereon in? As the various elements slowly slot into place, the novella’s events begin to happen at a sadistically breakneck pace; the anticipation of waiting for the true menace is a large part of what keeps your attention span as long as the story demands, and the result knives into you without compunction.
Despite these familiar evils and characters almost ripe for the horror genre, it doesn’t feel horror by normal means, and in no way is this a pedestrian take on the concept. Howarth dives towards the horrible before the horror, taking whatever path is required to get to the darkest, angriest conclusion; if the supernatural or the macabre or the weird need be embraced en route, then so be it.
For anyone bereft of dysfunction and nihilism in your life, there’s also a plethora of unlikeable and generally grumpy characters for your delectation, none of whom are onerous; in fact, the sense of chronic savagery they inject into almost every interaction works well and their dynamics remains compelling throughout. From Gallagher to his fellow farmers to the local doctor to even the livestock, the portrait painted here is one of rural aggression, however it has to be commended for the few cliches it does employ never feeling cheap or monotone.
Like with nearly all of Howarth’s stories, I doubt you’ll finish this book itching to visit the places he describes. Were it made into a film, it’d be bitingly cold, disarmingly British, the colour scheme would be the charmingly charmless beige of the early 70s, with hints of bodily fluid. He’s essentially writing the anti-TripAdvisor. But despite the bleakness and the remoteness and the heat of his anger, Howarth creates characters whose every actions are deeply human, believable exactly because they’re flawed – and more importantly, his stories and their furious commentaries are ones you can neither ignore nor put down.
Drone by Dan Howarth
ONCE YOU HEAR IT…
Gallagher’s life on the island should be idyllic. Yet his scenic, remote farm turns a meagre profit and provides little distraction from his vices.
When a strange noise infects the island’s inhabitants, Gallagher’s rural life is infiltrated by tension and unease. His neighbours become unpredictable and dangerous, threatening the fabric of island life beyond anything Gallagher has ever known.
As the community descends into fear and violence, Gallagher finds a way to silence the sound, but is this slice of peace worth the terrible cost?
Praise for Drone
What 28 Days Later did for London, Drone does for the rural north. Rooted in working-class poverty and the deep-seated antagonisms of farming communities, it’s fast-paced, brutal and scary as hell. Yet another reminder that Dan Howarth is a rising star to watch.
Dan Coxon – World Fantasy Award winning editor and author of Come Sing for the Harrowing
Dan Howarth goes from strength to strength with each new book, and this is a superb work of anxiety-inducing horror. Possibly Howarth’s most tense story to date – medical anxiety, bubbling fury, and subtle socio-political commentary that will drop your jaw and keep it on the floor. Simply fantastic!
Kayleigh Dobbs – author of The End and owner of Happy Goat Horror
The subtle, subjective apocalypse of Drone is an eerily plausible nightmare that lingered in my mind and left my ears ringing.
Tim Major – British Fantasy Award-winning author of Hope Island
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