Christopher Pike: The next Candace Sams?

When I was a teenager, Christopher Pike was one of those authors that I read semi-religiously. Between him & R.L. Stein, I managed to cut my teeth on books that ultimately set me up to love the urban fantasy & horror genre at large.

So imagine my dismay when I discover that someone uncovered that Pike's been attacking reviewers on amazon who point out that he hasn't been doing proper research. He's been going by the name of 'Michael Brite', although he later outed himself in a discussion thread for one of his own books. (Other people were quick to point this out in various places as well.) On an interesting side note, "Brite" originally had posted two five star reviews for... you guessed it, two of Christopher Pike's books.

The first known incident was over a review where the amazon reviewer pointed out several inaccuracies in the books, some of which she found quite offensive. She'd ended the review with a rather snarky comment about how she'd like to drop Pike in the fictional Turkey he'd created so he could get his hands removed. It wasn't meant as a threat & from the earlier comments it seems that it was more used to point out the inaccuracies Pike had put into the novel. His response? He called it a threat & labeled the reviewer as a crazy girl.

The second known incident was over a review where the reader stated she couldn't see a blond haired, blue eyed girl living in India 5000 years ago. "Brite" replied that Aryans invaded India back then, getting a little snotty with her. Unfortunately for Pike, other amazonians ultimately pointed out that the Aryans that invaded India did not resemble the Aryans he was describing in his book.

And that's not all- apparently Pike has been calling in his buddies, one of which had been confirmed to be his illustrator. The other is believed to either be another a sockpuppet of Pike's or be the president of a Christopher Pike fanclub. Both of course, have written glowing reviews for Pike.

Now other sites such as bookfails on lj & Dear Author have already commented on this, but I couldn't help but make my own blog about it. It just really breaks my heart to see that one of my favorite authors from my youth could be well... a jerk.

It's been theorized that this isn't Pike, but an overzealous fan posting claiming to be him or someone doing it for the lulz. Please let that be true. I really don't want one of my favorite authors from my childhood to be like this. I've already lost other authors that way, only one of them being someone I'd read from a young age. Please don't be Pike.