Author: Charles L. Grant
Publisher: Harper Collins, 1994, 288 pages
The X-Files TV show came on the air in 1993. Everything about it is amazing, and your counter-argument is invalid.
I recently found four The X-Files novels at a library book sale and was so excited to see what adventures awaited. I decided to start with the first novel published, which is Goblins from 1994.
People are being killed in a small town outside Fort Dix, New Jersey. Found with their throats slit, there are no witnesses and local police are flummoxed. One of the deceased is the nephew of a U.S. senator who calls on the FBI to find the murderer. Who else is better suited to solve the inexplicable than Fox Mulder? Mulder and partner Dana Scully are sent, along with two other FBI agents (which for some reason I really didn’t understand), to the scene and do what they do best.
Once in the quaint town of Marville, the team visits the local police and the various murder scenes. Interviews lead to the local “crazy lady,” who believes invisible goblins are the answer to who’s doing all the murdering, and, of course, she’s the only one who can see them.
The police don’t have any clues. The locals are skeptical about “invisible” killer goblins running around. Of course, Mulder isn’t so quick to dismiss the idea.
There’s not a lot more to this story, actually. I was kind of disappointed. The main issue I had with this story was the willingness of Scully to “get on board” with Mulder’s theory about goblins and their existence. This is not true-to-character regarding what Scully would normally do so early in The X-Files canon, so it felt off balance. I see this same issue at times with Star Trek books. An author will take liberties with well-established characters, and it loses something of what we love about them. For example, Captain Picard would never say, “Let’s roll!” or, “You know it!” (then wink while giving you two finger guns with a “pow pow” motion). He says, “Engage!” or “Make it so.” The same kinds of liberties were taken with The X-Files Goblins, which rendered it feeling untrue to the nature of the franchise.
Overall, it’s a fun story. I didn’t hate it, but I did wish there were more to it than what I got. I didn’t get the payoff to the story I invested into. It just boiled down to a military experiment gone rogue. Perhaps the other books will be better.
