I started the livetweet a long time ago (October 2017) and it took me way too long to finish (July 2019) and now I’m finally collating it here! And it’s very very long.
CW for blood, animal endangerment, rabies, bats, plane crash into the sea, period-typical racism
Note: I’ve never read the Black Stallion series. I may have read the first one? But I got outta the horse phase pretty quick. So, yeah
Yay, foreshadowing? ‘Like a a giant bat the transatlantic plane flew through the night…’
I suspect Mr. Farley was being paid by the letter, cuz this is pretty pulpy writing. Some plane that probably has somebody on it, one would assume, is struggling through a terrible storm. And it’s been hit by lightning? ‘It was bathed in a weird light & there seemed to be a ball of fire on its nose. Propellers became whirling wheels of green vapor. What seemed like huge balloons of red, blue & green exploded everywhere in the heavens’. This is a very weird storm, y’all.
So the plane is named Bermuda Atlantic Transport and it says BAT on the tail. Undoubtedly this is unrelated to anything.
The plane and the finally mentioned crew have made 126 trips across the South Atlantic. So y’know weird-ass storms are prob no biggie
Captain and copilot kvetch a bit. Copilot doesn’t like St Elmo’s Fire (the weirdness). Captain is more concerned about the storm.
Oh noes! This is an UNEXPECTED storm. Completely unpredicted! Weathermen usually aren’t THIS wrong! Captain’s gonna tell them off!
Okay, are we sure this is a horse book? Not a plane book? Cuz big drama of the cap & copilot fighting the storm. Are they gonna run outta gas? Are they lost? Copilot doesn’t know! Captain is worn out, but they’re still flying! Copilot calls for help.
Navigator is worried they’re lost and has never seen a storm come on like this. It’s like a plot contrivance! The radio has also failed & the company decided loran – long-range navigation equipment – was unnecessary. Navigator estimates where they are, but says nothing cuz it’s way off their scheduled course. Cap tells him to prep the passengers on what to expect. Navigator already talked to them. Some old guy has been freaked since they took off. Navigator gets up, but stops. ‘Guess we can’t do anything about the cargo’ Cap says they can’t do anything for 1600 lbs of horses. I have no idea how many horses that’d be. Anyway, there’s no life jackets for them. Nav agrees, and says a lot of people are gonna miss The Black, the most famous horse in the world.
The passenger cabin’s been mostly stripped to make room for 4 mares, 8 fillies, and the stallion. Alec tranquilized them earlier. Alec Ramsey’s the old man mentioned earlier. I think he’s the main human of the Black Stallion series? With him is a boy, Henry. Alec’s scared cuz he’s been ‘in a spot like this once before. I thought I’d forgotten it, but I haven’t’
I can only keep going a bit longer tonight. They expect me actually go to work in the morning, which is, frankly, unfair.
Navigator decides to breech protocol and tell Alec the truth of the situation. Alec guesses they’re gonna ditch. Nav tries to reassure him. They’re flying better! They should be over land by now! And if they do have to ditch, the rafts are fully loaded.
This doesn’t seem reassuring to me.
Okay, apparently I got confused. Alec is the kid. Henry (Dailey) is the old man that looks super afraid. Alec is better at hiding his fear. Alec must be the protagonist, because otherwise common sense would tell the Nav to talk to the adult. The wonderful logic of kid books. Anyway, Alec asks about the horses. Nav says all they can do is hope they have a chance to swim for it, then goes to talk to Henry.
Oh yay, we get (light) dialect as Alec flashes back to Henry’s speech before they took off. Lots of dropping of final letters so we know Henry is salt of the earth and reliable (and also scared of flying, but brave about it). But the kid that’s been in a plane crash before is FINE, at least enough to tell us all about the situation. And now he’s talking to the Black in ‘their secret language’. I got nothing. Oh, & the Black is so special he took two tranqs to settle down. Of course.
The secret language explained: the Black “was extremely sensitive to words & sounds, including clicking of the tongue & whistling.” Alec uses this and has “a secret book in which he kept the musical notes of their special language.” Horse people, is this as twee as it seems to me? I know horses are pretty smart. I’m guessing this is either unexceptional or utterly ridiculous.
Alec moons over the Black a bit in as erotic of language as you’d expect for a horse book. Not even kidding. You could replace body parts with penis and it’d work the same. “His giant body was tough yet satin-smooth. His strong legs were clean and bare of shipping bandages while bulging sinews stood out prominently beneath the skin.” Uh. Huh. Well, that’s one way to distract yourself, Alec.
We switch to the Black’s POV. He’s dreaming about running free. He hates being pampered. He’s all stallion – “strong, arrogant & cunning”. “He hated to be pampered, to be bathed & washed & wrapped in blankets while his hoofs were cleaned & trimmed. Much, much better for his hide to be washed cool by strong winds & rains & warmed by many suns & for his hoofs to be trimmed on flying rocks.” THIS IS WHY WE DON’T LET DOMESTICATED ANIMALS DECIDE THEIR LIVING CONDITIONS, BLACK. Again, I know next to nothing about horses, but I’m pretty sure “running fresh & free” involves lots of hoof damage, illness, and bruises
Back to Alec, has he looks over the other, nameless, horses, and the rest of the cargo. Everything seems fine. They’re descending and the wind seems lighter. On that happy note, I’m gonna quit for the night. Join me next time for hopefully some actual horse stuff.
Anybody want more of Black Stallion & Flame? We might even get to actually horse stuff. Well, tough. I’m doing it anyway.
When I stopped, we’d gotten lots of riveting description of a plane in a really bad storm. Yeah, not much happened, honestly.
Alec now describes the mare’s groom, because that’s totes what a kid is gonna do in the middle of a horrendous storm. Especially a kid that’s supposedly scared witless cuz he’s already gone through one plane crash. The groom’s odd-looking but excellent with the horses, but why lead off with that when we can talk about his looks & how scared he is instead? Groom is taking the mares as a gift to a young breeder, who Alec was excited to meet. Probably not foreshadowing, nosirree.
Back to actual plot, I guess? Navigator tells Henry and Alec to get out their life vests so he can instruct them. Henry kvetches. In the like 5 seconds since Navigator talked to him, the groom has fallen asleep. Alec is sure they’re pretty much outta gas. They put on their life vests and Alec worries about his horse. Nav says they have to keep the horses away from the life raft or they’ll puncture it. Nav tells them how to fill the life vests. Henry kvetches more. The plane starts swaying. Alec starts worrying. Henry thinks Alec will be okay when shit starts hitting the fan. And then the plane breaks free of the clouds and all they can see is the turbulent sea. They’re just about outta gas, so they get ready.
Alec reminisces about when he first met the Black & the horse pulled him to safety. Narrator brings up another gloomy possibility: “Alec took his eyes off his horse, never asking himself if, instead, his life with the Black was to end where it had begun.” Thanks Narrator. Go back to being invisible, you gloomy jerk.
Alec thinks about it all being up to luck. The engines sputter. The plane is guided only by flares on the water. Everybody seems to be ok, but the plane is sinking. They’ve got a minute to get out! Alec goes to free the horses, but somebody hits him across the jaw & knocks him out. Guess the horses’ll have to fend for themselves.
It’s dawn & apparently everybody’s drowned, cuz the narrator is rhapsodizing over the sea and a man-o-war bird. Oh, but there’s a blob of dye from one of the life vests. That has its straps untied. Yup. Everybody’s dead. Live tweet’s over, folks. The bird sees wreckage from the boat. Dude’s drawing out this ending, ain’t he? Aaaannnd then there’s a life raft bobbing in the distance. Drat.
Henry reassures Alec that the Black is probably fine. Cuz, y’know, horses can swim forever, right? And the poor picked-upon groom drowned. Cap tells Nav to can it, he already said that. Well, as you know Bob, the readers didn’t hear! Henry reassures Alec some more. All the horses got clear! One of them broke the line between the boat & raft. Copilot is sending out a SOS. Long as there’s somebody within a 100 miles, they’ll be fine. Nav & copilot alternate being gloomy gus.
The man-o-war bird investigates the swimming horses. The Black, naturally, is leading. Cuz alpha stallion, y’know. More slashiness between the Black and Alec. “He neighed repeatedly, looking for the one he loved, & swam on trying to find him.” The Black’s instinct tells him not to fight the currents & the bird isn’t a threat. The threat is BELOW. There’s a marlin, then a giant squid. Seriously? A giant squid? Would one even bother with the couple of bites on a horse? The man-o-war bird continues hovering over the horses, then flies away.
The horses keep swimming, until mid-afternoon they smell land. I buy this less than the giant squid. The horses swam for what? Six hours? And they have enough energy to watch birds catch fish as they drift past reefs. There’s a bare island and the Black watches the man-o-war bird land to join its wife and kid. The Black heads for the island.
To go with the freak storm, the island is weird. “There was nothing green or tropical about it, nothing luxurious or colorful. It rose out of the turquoise-blue waters w/ a bleakness that seemed to forbode evil & death to those who would attempt to approach it. From the sea it looked like a massive, egg-shaped boulder completely devoid of life, its sheer, base sides looming. The walls towered to a height of a 1000 or more ft, rounding off to form a dome-shaped top that gleamed in the setting sun.” Sounds nice.
And the horses have swam ALL DAY, but they carefully swim to avoid submerged coral that could break legs and hooves. Riiight. Because these are superhorses with the best stamina in the world. And the Black has perfect instincts to keep them safe.
Oh lord. The Black approaches the cliffs, getting swept along by the waves, but there’s a HOLE IN THE WALL just big enough to swim through! Look, I’m pretty sure there were better, less contrived ways of getting the horses to the frikking island, dude.
The cave has manure droppings in the sand. That’s both redundant and unhelpful. And, of course, the stream in the cave leads to a grassy valley that’s perfectly safe for the horses, at least with the Black standing vigil. The next morning they move on, for no apparent reason. The Black carefully leads them through a swamp. Other hoofprints! Which are surely not them walking in circles! The Black is so excited he runs off.
I am perhaps too cynical for this book.
But there’s a stand of sugar cane, then a huge valley. The Black screams that this is his land now! Except there’s a huge herd of horses and its stallion isn’t happy about the interloper! How is there a herd of wild, but perfect horses, not to mention all this vegetation on an isolated island with huge cliffs? A bird didn’t drop the frikking horses there, so?
And we get a map. I find its geology dubious.
We switch back to the humans in the lifeboat, because that’s totally why we’re reading a horse book. Alec stretches and rests to save energy. “Water was his most important need. With it alone he’d be able to live 10 days, maybe longer, because his will to live was very strong.” Y’know, I’m not sure ‘will to live’ is the only factor here, boyo, but good for you.
Blah blah blah. It’s hot, everybody is staying in the shade. They’re fishing at night with improvised gear and eating it raw. Captain is doing everything he can, even improvised a sea anchor. People would be looking, like he had done before. Copilot and Navigator are doing their jobs to get help. Navigator figures they’re approaching the island of Antago. Everybody is asleep while the Captain fishes when suddenly a shark appears! It charges the raft! Because it’s a shark. The captain finally wakes up the others. They all freak out for a while, then it leaves. The captain sets up a sail and the Navigator finally shares that they should be approaching land. They watch intently.
Honestly, this chapter is boring the heck outta me.
According to the Navigator, Antago ISN’T deserted. Which at least explains why there are horses and shit. If the horses are on Antago, which the map implied, but the island they approach has villages on the waterfront. The captain sails them in, thinking of his wife and four kids. Alec thinks about the Black. The next chapter is back to the horses, but I need a break. Until next time!
BTW, Farley seems to be using the Beach Boy method – there is no Antigo Island in the Caribbean, but there is one in Wisconsin. Unless he means Antigua, but that’s a much bigger island.
Right, so the we’ve had a water landing, a bird, and the Black displaying his magical powers to lead the mares to grass. We get more horse porn, now about the chestnut stallion standing up the Black. Five paragraphs worth of his beauty and strength. He’s the color of flame, has a small head, his eyes reveal that he’s a wild stallion, and he’s ‘the object of trembling reverence & awe’. by man or beast, never be ridden or put between shafts.’ Chickawow.
Who wants to place bets on somebody owning him by the end of the book?
Oh and he’s ‘considerate as well as intelligent’ as he nips his mares to get them away from Black and his mares. I’m not sure I’d call biting considerate, myself, but horses are weird. I’ve been told, although I’d need somebody like to confirm, that stallions are actually just around to be pretty. Apparently mares are in charge. Which surprises me not at all.
Anyway, back to the text. The stallion and Black stare each other down, which the red stallion has never seen before. Oh god. “Little did he know that the strange stallion was his equal in all things.” Translation: you’re very pretty but the series is called Black Stallion, so he gets to win.
Not sure if Black wants to fight him or f— him. “He began to breathe harder, his strong muscles bulging beneath his glossy satin coat.” GAH. The bloody man-o-war bird is back. Apparently it’s a voyeur. Black’s fury grows until he can’t contain it and rears and squeals, undoubtedly with a beautiful waterfall or sunset or both behind him. JUST KISS ALREADY. Black races toward the other stallion, his mares following. “As he approached the big herd, jubilation was evident in every movement.” Suddenly the orgy is cockblocked by a whistle from yet another stallion! Three-way??? In the herd there are a bunch of young stallions. This one “more than any of the others, coveted the position of supreme leader of the herd.” More horse porn. “He was milk-white in color” and “there were no cuts, bruises or tooth marks. Yet he was a veteran of more fights than any horse in the herd with the exception of the red stallion he expected one day to dethrone.” Suuuuurrre he is. And his mother never thinks about biting him either.
The white runs down to attack Black then comes down with cold feet. Or some sense anyway. Sense is overridden with teenage testosterone and he rears and squeals trying to intimidated the Black. Yeah, it doesn’t work. The white charges him and Black beats the shit outta him, even with his sore hoof. Black retreats, not ready to face the red stallion, what with his sore foot and all. But he yells so everybody knows he’s magnificent. He leads his mares back through the marsh and we go back to boring humans.
We get an overview of the bustle of the fictional Antago before settling on the police department. Alec & Henry chat with a cop. The cop thinks they should go back to the US with the plane crew. Alec wants to look for his horse, cuz otherwise he won’t be in more books.
There’s been a lone horse running on the beaches! It could be Black! Cuz it’s black! Obviously he’d be running alone, a guy needs alone time. Gotta get away from the nagging mares sometimes, am I right dudes? Alec insists he just needs to see this horse. “Just let me get one look. I’ll know… so will he.” Cuz they’re mentally linked of course. The cop agrees to drive them over there. It’s just sense to humor right Americans.
Alec’s been sick for 3 days, not cuz of the crash or the hit on the head or being in a lift raft. Oh no. ‘It was the thought of never seeing his horse again that so curled up his insides he couldn’t eat or drink. He had to get over it, he told himself, otherwise he’d be no good to himself or anyone else. He had to search for the Black without panic and with confidence that it was only a question of time before finding him.’ “I’ve got to say he’s alive over & over again & mean it every time. He’s out there somewhere” “If he was dead, I’d know it. I’d feel it every time my heart beats.” … “If I believe that, I’m all right…” Alec, sweetie. That isn’t how the world works, ok? Wanting it doesn’t make it real. Otherwise I’d have won the lottery by now.
Alec interrogates the cop about there being other islands around. The cop instead admires the scenery. They drive up and up until they reach an area too rugged for cultivation, near where the horse was seen. There’s a squalorous village and they go to ask the jabbering men. There’s a dead goat. There was a dead cow earlier. The cow died from paralytic rabies. They tie the goat to the side of the car to take to the nearby Experimental Stock Farm Station to test. They know what bit them too – a vampire bat! Everyone’s in danger! There are no sturdy buildings to protect the people or animals from such a fiend. And the Black was no better off!!! 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
Right, so last time we left, Alec, Henry, and a cop had discovered a dead goat with paralytic rabies. So, naturally, they tied it to the car… so they can take it to the Experimental Stock Farm Station. It’d been bitten by a VAMPIRE BAT. Now, last time I assumed they meant, like, there were multiple bats, but they’re making it sound like there’s just one. Which, y’know, is bad, but uh, maybe not to panic. I dunno. I am not a chiroptologist.
Anyway, they offroad down the beach but can’t help constantly glancing at ‘lifeless black goat’ tied to the fender. The cop is thinks the bat was transported from Trinidad in a fishing boat. Cuz bats love fishing, you know. Alec questions the cop calling it ‘the child of darkness’ and he explains that’s what they called it in Trinidad, where they took it for granted like rats. Alec says he saw lots of bats last night, but the cop says they have lots of fruit-eating and insectivore bats and even one that fishes with the pelicans. Um… really?
Ok, I sit corrected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_bulldog_bat Latin American and Caribbean bat that eats fish. No mention of it fishing with pelicans.
Anyway, according to the cop, vampire bats will attack any animals or fowl in fields or open stalls, and will go after people if it can’t get anything else. It probably got rabies by biting diseased livestock. And, yep, he thinks there’s only one, cuz there haven’t been many bites.
Alec is creeped out by the whole thing and Henry is disgusted that the cop is such an authority. Which, really, dude? He’s an authority figure on a small island. He needs to know shit. Also, he’s your source for infodumps, so shut up. Henry doesn’t like ANY bats, so the cop shares some fun facts, like that no other mammal can fly. I don’t know why Henry didn’t know that already, but this is pre-internet, so whatev. Also bats have been flying longer than we’ve been around, starting about 50 million years ago. Annnnddd supposedly their faces and ears look like humans. I don’t see it, but sure.
So they get to the Experimental Station where it becomes rapidly obvious that the lab is the hq of ‘the small man’ looking through a microscope. Seriously, we could use better descriptions. But this is the vet. And he’s found out where the bat sleeps. With the other bats.
I’m sure this’ll be fine.
Alec confuses the vet by bringing up the horse and he says he did see hoofprints. In front of the Bat Cave (not to be confused with the Batcave where Batman is). The vet thinks the horse might be using the same cave for shelter. Again, we know the Black Stallion is hanging out with a bunch of mares but nobody cares about THEM. Or notes that ‘hey, there are a fuckload of tracks, must be a bunch of horses!’ Because only the Black matters. Because his name is on the cover. Anyway, Henry is worried that the Black might have been bitten. The vet invites them to come along which they do reluctantly.
Imma go get a drink. Well, now that I’ve spilled vermouth all over the counter, I return with a cocktail in a mug because I’m classy af.
I kinda like the vet. He wants to catch the vampire bat alive, if possible. Apparently some islanders believe it’s a guardian spirit and anybody who kills one will get ill. This horrifies Alec. The vet says that blood is as natural to the bat as milk or coffee is to people, “so who are we to judge?” And the amount of blood loss isn’t serious, so it’s no biggie. Unless the bat is infected with something like rabies.
Next chapter: Bat Cave. The four hikers, the vet, Alec, Henry, and presumably the cop, who you’d think have other duties, enter the jungle. We get one of the rare descriptive paragraphs: “Alec was behind [the vet], even when they went splashing through a fast-flowing stream of jade-colored water. He jumped the water plants and hurried around a dark labyrinth of mangrove roots & giant fronds before entering the dark green wall of jungle again. Sandflies nipped his face & he brushed them off angrily. The jungle was broiling with heat & insects.”
They stop in a clearing and the vet opens up a coconut from a tree. The vet answers some questions. The vampire bat will for sure be in the cave because it likes crowds and has a strong homing instinct. Any bat lovers reading? Is it normal for multiple species of bats to nest together? It seems weird to me. The vet worked in Trinidad during one of the worst outbreaks of bat rabies, so that’s why he knows his shit. He explains echolocation and that ‘fighting among themselves accounts for more deaths than anything else.” Which could be bad, if the vampire bat gets involved.
Gonna be honest, this book is not nearly as weird as I was led to believe. I should’ve gone with the one with the aliens. Yeah, there’s a Black Stallion book with space aliens.
Anyway, they finally make it to Bat Cave after hiking through the jungle. The vet said it’s shorter, but wouldn’t it make more sense to take the easier, if longer, path? And they could look for horses on the way. But what do I know?
They stand before the entrance to Bat Cave, searching for hoofprints! Any outside had been washed away by the heavy rains, but just within… Yeah, they’re too small to be the Black’s. And, of course, the mares that are hanging with him only matter in his chapters so there’s someone to watch him be awesome and handsome.
Oh no! There’s a dead, black, horse inside. The vet easily finds the mark of the vampire. Alec and Henry are glad it’s not the Black, but Henry is pissed about a dead horse. Henry volunteers to go into the cave with the vet, but only if the vet shoots the bat instead of capturing it. Look, I know you’re pissed and stuff, but it’s gonna be hard to shoot a 1 ft long flying critter.
The cave must have been a mine because there’s an improvised ladder. Note that the book doesn’t say that, just calls it minelike, but where else would a ladder come from? The tunnel is filled with mud and as they go farther, in the light of his flashlight, Alec “saw a seething mass of centipedes & spiders on the walls while roaches & other bugs rubbed against each other on the ceiling.” Ok, bat caves are, like, not good if you don’t like bugs. As I recall, the floors are usually covered with fleas and other bugs who are all up in the bat guano. Which is EVERYWHERE. This book is severely understating things.
They enter a big chamber with a arched ceiling. This is apparently the only place the bats are. And it’s swarming with different species from mice-size to rabbit-size. They don’t react at all the light, which, again, from the videos I’ve seen, is bullshit. Like the bats are constantly twitching and grooming and doing other cute animal shit.
The vet doesn’t see the vampire bat and says “he has a peculiar gait of his own. You’ll see him run along the walls and try to hide.” They move on to the next chamber which appears to be full of fruit-eating bats. But wait! On a wall that’s “gray and green with age and fungus” a bat darts into a crevice. It’s the vampire. They put out their lights so he’ll come back out. It’s hot and smells and the squeaks of the bats make Alec nervous. Henry gets scared and turns on his light, which disturbs the one bat into dropping onto Henry’s head. He yells, understandably, and all the bats start flying. The vet is worried that the vampire bat left with the others, but they watch the crevice to be sure. “If he comes out, he’ll scramble sideways first, much like a crab.”
I kinda wish I knew how much of this was accurate. I’m on wikipedia. There are three species of vampire bat and the pic they have is a rather cute brown bat. Ok, the hairy-legged vampire bat has the cutest damn face and the white-winged vampire bat looks super soft and needs kisses. I guess the vet is correct about them having a peculiar gait. Unlike other bats, vampire bats “can walk, jump, and even run by using a unique, bounding gait”. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_bat
The bat in the book, must be the common vampire bat, cuz the other two species mostly feed on birds. Although the white-winged bat does like goats. Only 0.5% of bats have rabies and it does bad things to their ability to fly (citation needed). Running on the assumption that this is the common vampire bat. Oh, the white-winged vampire bat will roost with other species. And the only reports of them transmitting rabies is from Trinidad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-winged_vampire_bat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_vampire_bat In the West Indies, they’re only found in Trinidad (they’re more common other places) and will roost with other bats. And if they have rabies, they can’t fly. So, yeah, the book is somewhat accurate, except about the likelihood of the bat having rabies.
The vampire bat comes out of its crevice and Henry tells the vet to do something. He tries to catch it, but the bat is faster! The vet’ll shoot it tomorrow when it comes back. They go back to the station and leave around noon. Henry and Alec want to search nearby islands and cop tells them about an uninhabited one called Azul. Alec has “a strange feeling about that island” and they decide to hire a boat to go to it. I’m sure the strange feeling isn’t the plot poking them on at all. Henry asks the cop to recommend a boat. He points out the Night Owl. Alec doesn’t like the name, because bats are nocturnal. But maybe it’s a good omen, cuz owls eat bats? But what he doesn’t know DUN DUN DUN is that in the cabin of the Night Owl is the VAMPIRE BAT!
In the previous chapter Alec and the other humans had entered the cave full of bats, including one vampire bat. But none of that matters, because this is a horse chapter. The Black Stallion is annoyed because it’s been three days and his foot still hurts. Been there buddy.
But despite his foot, he’s diligently guarding his mares and reveling in the freedom of wild horses. But everything he is – and he’s the perfect horse – is because of men. Srsly, long paragraph about his breeding and the point is that he’s perfect in every way.
There are traces of other horses around, including stallion poo. He shows off for his herd. But he can smell the Red Stallion and Black is totes gonna steal his mares cuz he’s so much cooler dammit. (This is not how this works btw. The mares are in charge and put up with stallions cuz they’re pretty). He finally makes up his mind and drives his herd towards Red’s. His mares want to join the larger herd, but he keeps them away with kicking & biting. Red also shows off by making the young stallions herd everyone together. Seriously, no way the mares would stand for them “driving laggard colts into position, ramming into them at full speed and kicking” That’s gonna end up with a dead horse.
Black is undecided about whether he wants to attack, but finally drives his mares toward the big herd, whistling all the time. The young stallions and then Red go after them. And Black whistles, but not in challenge. He gallops past the herd into a narrow canyon, yelling for his boy. … I find this implausible, but I’m not a horse person and am, in fact, a giant cynic.
If you want to read stuff from an actual horse person Judith Tarr is doing a series at @tordotcom about breeds and sff equines https://tor.com/tag/sff-equines/
New chapter. We’re back to the people. Who are on a boat. Let’s be honest, how many kids skimmed past these sections because who cares about anything but the horses?
Alec and Henry are gazing toward Azul Island. According to the fisherman they can see about everything there is. Which, again, I find doubtful since there’s vegetation and stuff. Also, it’s almost nine miles of rock, according to the fisherman. Don’t know if that’s circumference or diameter, but I’d think more than enough to not be able to see everything from a boat. Henry points out a pier and the fisherman tells them about the horses, which are supposedly not there anymore. The story is the horses came with the Spaniards in 1699 when they used Antago as a supply base. The government removed the horses years ago. The fisherman insists the island is nothing but rock and sand and “only for the devil and his disciples”.
Alec goes below to get binoculars but lays down for a moment and isn’t sure if he’s dreaming that he heard a bat. But no, the vampire bat is hanging in the dark corner and Alec decides to kill it with a broom. This seems like a bad plan to me. The bat sees him and “from the tiny mouth came a low, rumbling snarl” Yeah, I bet this 1 foot bat can growl like a dog. Of course it can. Alec tries to whack it, but it flies directly at him, mouth wide open. Because why run when you can attack the thing 10x larger than you? It gets slightly hit, is fine, and flies around the room. Alec screams for help. The bat attacks him again and bites the broomstick, clinging to it and hissing. The bat ends up escaping and flying to Azul Island, this bringing out two plot lines together. They’re going to anchor off shore to sleep.
Another horse chapter. What do you want to bet it mixes inaccurate horse behavior and inaccurate bat behavior?
Okay, so apparently the Black Stallion can smell Alec even tho he’s miles away, on a boat and he’s standing at the end of the canyon, neighing. This is a very vocal horse. The sun goes down, he can no longer smell Alec, despite the boat being anchored. Black is pissed and eats angrily before thinking of his mares again. They’re gone, dude, you abandoned them because you have bad priorities.
Black heads back. Red is ready to fight. Nobody needs to sleep even tho it’s getting dark. The two “kings” are both beautiful and one of them will die in this fight (spoiler: it won’t be Black, the series isn’t over). They fight, circle, and size each other up, even tho the stars are coming out and horses are paranoid fragile animals who don’t want to break a leg. Then they both stop because there’s a weird smell (look, accurate horse behavior! Maybe!) and run towards the herd. The vampire bat has arrived and it immediately flies at the two stallions! Because that’s what a sickly rabid bat will do! Instead of not being able to fly and being miserable.
And the stallions try to bite it to kill it and all the horses are freaking out, because they instinctively know the bat means death, rather than freaking out because it’s something weird. And all the mares are constantly screaming because silly hysterical females. Both stallions are chasing the bat who is chasing the herd because this is the worst Benny Hill routine ever. The bat continues to chase the herd. Let me repeat it (because the book is being repetitive): The ONE-FOOT LONG SICK BAT is CHASING an entire HERD OF HORSES. And Black and Red are racing to kill the bat. In the dark. On rough ground.
One of the mares has fallen and the bat is circling her. The stallions jump and flail about trying to kill the bat. Finally it flies off. The two stallions must stand vigil all night. And the next chapter, which is a BAT chapter, will have to wait until next time.
Strap in, it’s sure to be bad. TW: there’s gonna be a lot of talk of blood it looks like.
So the vampire bat is hanging out at the cliff it escaped to at the end of the last chapter. The one where it was chasing a herd of horses and the two stallions were trying to bite it out of the sky. Nature designed excellently to only eat blood, with a small stomach and curved sharp teeth. So the author did SOME research. It watches the stallions, for it actually has “good if not excellent” vision. Normally its bite was harmless and painless, which, citation needed. I’ll believe not greatly harmful.
TW for rabies too
It’s been 31 days since the bat got rabies from cows, which is a weird vector, but okay, and it’s starting to show symptoms. Which include relaxing completely and stillness like its going to sleep (among other things), which, uh, really? Yeah, just checked wikipedia and neither of those symptoms are mentioned. And the incubation period is a few days, not a MONTH. But the virus makes him irritable enough to leave the crevice where he’s hiding. For a moment he has violent tremors, then flies at the cliff face, hurting himself. Poor dude is not doing well, but realistically he should be worse. Also, like dead by now.
So the two stallions are watching for the bat. “Like the vampire bat they were at home in the night.” Which I doubt. “Their eyes swept the darkness, but even more trustworthy were their nostrils and ears.” Which won’t prevent a broken leg when they step in a hole they can’t see. Most of the herd is awake and nervous as heck. The stallions are patrolling. As it gets overcast the mares calm down and start to eat. It rains for a bit. It’s just before daylight and the herd is falling asleep. One old mare lays down next to her sleeping colt. Incidentally I have no idea what’s the difference between a foal and a colt. Age? Sex? (I’m informed that it’s sex. foal = baby, colt = male)
Anyway, the bat sneaks downwind of the mare, cuz it’s really hungry. It can’t decide where to bite and the mare moves and finally the bat leaps onto her shoulder. The mare freaks out. It doesn’t seem like it bit her? The red stallion runs over, also screaming. Because these horses are just like 1960s horror movie actresses.
The red stallion tries to stomp the bat. The bat just wants to bite the stallion’s back “where he would hang on like a tick” Ew. The infection is making the bat frenzied and erratic. The stallion can’t catch him and stumbles, almost hitting his head before rolling to his side. Wanna place bets on whether he gets bit? Spoiler: nope. The bat grabs the stallion’s neck and hangs on as he rears and bucks and rolls. The bat is waiting for him to get exhausted before it bites. Which seems counter to it being driven and aggressive from the rabies, but what do I know?
The Black Stallion appears! “like a panther [he] struck from out of the night” He was waiting around for Red to try apparently. He grabs the bat by the wings and stomps it. This, uh, seems a bit anti-climatic and we’re only 76% through, so maybe Black has rabies now from biting it? I dunno. We’ll find out in the next chapter! Maybe!
The next chapter is an Alec chapter because apparently we’re supposed to care about these boring bipeds. Also it doubles the size of the book so the author makes more. And gives me things to snark at besides “uh, horses and bats and rabies don’t work like that”. Okay, deep breath. I can do it.
It’s night time. We’re on a boat. Alec is awake listening to Henry snore. The captain is walking around on deck because sleep is optional if you’re not a main character. It smells like salt, iodine, and fish because there’s a recently used net by his bunk. I’d think there’d be a better place for it. Alec wishes it smelled like hay, saddle soap, and leather. We GET IT. Your WHOLE LIFE is your horse.
It’s morning, there’s coffee and breakfast. Henry is excited about the coffee, which I swear is the most characterization anyone has gotten in this book. The island is very impressive in the morning light, but the skipper restates that the only habitable bit there. Which still doesn’t mesh with there having been a bunch of horses there years ago (they don’t know about the horses there now, remember). The captain doesn’t want to land because the vampire bat is there. And the bat is sick enough to attack during the day. Henry thinks if the Black was there he’d have shown up cuz he’d heard or smelled them.
Please tell me they’re not going to drag this out by going to other islands first until they’re sure the bat should be dead. They’re about to! Don’t do this to me! Then a man-o’-war bird flies out of its nest! Is this the same deus ex machina bird from the start of the book? Could be! It lead the Black there originally.
The fisherman points out it’s strange for that bird to be here because there’s no food. Henry thinks the bird is devilish looking and should be friends with the bat. Henry has terrible taste and apparently is only here to be disagreeable. (Note that I haven’t read any of the other Black Stallion books. Henry may be a nice guy in them, I dunno). Both Alec and the fisherman think it’s a beautiful bird, Alec because he’s the main character and so always right, the fisherman because he’s closer to nature or something, I dunno.
Oh god. Okay, so they start to set off but Alec tells them to wait BECAUSE HE THINKS HE RECOGNIZES THE BIRD. Main character status strikes again! The plot device, sorry, bird circles over the island, then rises into the sky and disappears. Alec wants to circle the island. Ok, fine Henry says. Alec has complete faith in the captain. Henry is nervous and trying to backseat drive. Because nobody in this book has more than 2 dimensions. Alec is watching intently for something that he doesn’t know. Because of feelings and the bird apparently signaling him. And the railroaded plot. The wind and waves makes the boat pitch. Henry is seasick. The captain is skillful. Alec doesn’t see anything.
But the wind carries exciting news to the Black Stallion! 82% through and another horse chapter. Shall I push on to the end?
At the moment Black and Red have an amicable pact. But it can’t last, because there can be only one (cue Highlander theme). Black nudges some colts back to their moms. Red only needs to whistle to keep discipline. Reminder that this is NOT how herds work. The mares are in charge and would’ve evicted these two jerks ages ago.
Black smells something! And moves away. He trumpets. Nobody else cares. He runs off, excited and certain of the way. Seriously he’s MILES away, through marsh and grassland and cliffs and shit, but he can smell Alec on a boat in the ocean? Right, so Black backtracks, following his footsteps through the marsh to the gorge, the wind in his face the whole time. The wind is apparently the dm and his railroaded plot. “Only when he reached the outer wall of the island did he come to a stop, a look of indecision in his eyes” Because “the wall rose almost a thousand feet, its summit touching the sky & its base split by many narrow crags and chasms.” Black gallops in front of the wall until he’s sweating a white lather. Then he gets smart and smells along the wall until he finds the opening he wants. He gets to the sea cave. The surge of water scares him, but he becomes frantic as the smell of Alec fades.
Do not tell me he’s going to swim out and get found. Can’t be, we’re only at 84%. He swims out but the boat is sailing away! It disappears and he lets the waves take him to shore, because he’s tired and disheartened. So now he’s on the beach and SAD. Next Time: More Improbable things happen! Probably!
Last time, the Black Stallion smelled Alec, who was on a boat, from the middle of the island, so abandoned his mares to run out of the sea cave and try to swim out. The boat was already sailing away. The Black was Very Sad. This is Chapter 17, The Quest Ends. Which would be nice because I’ve just ordered the next book to liveread.
They’ve finished circling the Island and Alec sees something on the spit of land that the captain wrongly insists is the only habitable part. Henry thinks it’s the bat. Because you can totally confuse a foot long bat with a full grown horse. Oh lordy. Henry’s thoughts: “Alec believed the Black was somewhere on shore and Alec was seldom wrong in the feelings he had about his horse.” Because Alec has protagonist superpowers. “Again Henry wondered, as he had so often during the many years of their friendship, just what there was between Alec & the Black. What was there about this boy that made an otherwise untameable stallion submit to him quietly & gently?” PROTAGONIST SUPERPOWERS.
Alec yells out and Henry can see the Black too and surprises himself by yelling too. Tangentially, is this Henry’s first viewpoint chapter? I don’t care enough to check. Right so, they land or dock or whatever at the pier and Alec and the Black run joyously to each other! Er, no, that wouldn’t be special enough. They walk to each other at a steady pace, then stand by each other and Black nuzzles Alec’s chest.
Oh bleep you, author. Henry notes that the Black is cut up on his neck and withers. Which is some part of the horse (not a horse person). “Must be from the coral rock” Then “Anywhere else an’ I’d say he’d been fighting another horse.” The captain agrees, because there aren’t any other horses. What about the ones that also got shipwrecked with the Black? Does NO ONE remember or care about them?! And, like, he’s been gone for awhile, but is well fed, did no one notice? And wouldn’t coral mostly cut up like his legs and stuff? I know, I know, too much logic.
The Black whinnies like he does for his mares. Henry and Alec agree that he must have been in the small canyon at the end of the spit and that it’s weird he didn’t smell them from there. They all get on the boat.
We switch to the red stallion! He knows where Black has gone, but is glad to have freedom and shows off for his herd. “He went faster and faster, a red comet gliding across the valley, still the king of an unfallen world!” Mixing metaphors there a little. The herd admires him and the young colts envy him and are glad they’ll “always be free!” And the mares the Black brought apparently don’t care that they’ll never again be groomed or get oats or other nice stuff.
The Black reminisces about his brief flirtation with wildness but nothing else is as important as Alec’s love. He watches the island as they sail away, then yells as if claiming the area. He picks up the faint smell of the red stallion (who, again, is in the middle of the island surrounded by rock) and calls out a challenge again. “Briefly, the Black had been the lord of the herd, protecting the mares masterfully, and he could have stayed with his harem…” Again, this is not how horses do things. The mares are in charge and the stallions are mostly eye candy. But “he had no impulse to return to the island” because he has his boy. And Alec sees the man-o-war bird (aka plot device) and wonders about it before deciding to keep quiet and enjoy being with his horse.
And the last 10% is the about the author and a preview of the next book, where the red stallion returns to race! Because some random feral is gonna hold up against a pampered, if formerly wild, Arabian. Oh, apparently Red, aka Flame, showed up in the fourth book. And 7th book. And 11th book, where aliens set up a race of the world’s fastest horses (… What?!). This is the 15th book. No idea why no one knows there are horses on Azul Island.
Apparently, according to wikipedia, it’s a secret that only a boy, Steve Duncan and his archaeologist friend know about. He appears to be Gary to Alec’s Ash. Or perhaps vice versa. Or who was the nice kid with the pikachu? Richie? But they’ve got a like miniseries. But that wraps up #theOneWithTheBats! Finally!
I may have to read more of these, because seriously wtf. And I need to find a list of the one’s Walter Farley’s son wrote and see how weird they get. Well one of them is called The Black Stallion and the Shape-shifter, so I’m gonna say very. Admittedly, you can’t keep writing the same horse book two dozen times. You gotta spice things up. That one’s about a kelpie. And The Black Stallion and the Lost City is in Greece and has flesh-eating mares. The shape-shifter was released in 2009. Nothing like milking it. The Greece one is 2011. None of the ones written by Steven Farley are on wikipedia. And the last two aren’t on the official fan website, apparently run by his brother. But NOW I’m done. Hope you enjoyed.
Enjoy this post? Support me on Patreon or Ko-fi
