Adrian Collins's Blog, page 115
October 6, 2022
REVIEW: Redspace Rising by Brian Trent
Redspace Rising is Brian Trent’s intelligent, action-packed science fiction thriller set in a universe where human memory is a tangible commodity which can upend the permanence of death itself. From its well-developed cast of characters to its innovative worldbuilding and intriguing plot, Brian Trent has crafted an ingenious masterpiece of military sci-fi.
The novel takes place a few centuries in the future, after humanity has colonized extraterrestrial bodies across the solar system. Most of the plot takes place on Mars, the Martian moon Phobos, and the Jovian moon Ganymede.
As the novel opens, Harris Alexander Pope awakens from unconsciousness with memories of a previous life restored. Harris learns that he is a double agent, stripped of his true identity and living a lie for the past twenty years. Harris’s memory has been manipulated to make him a more convincing agent, but when his original memories are restored, he must deal with overlapping and often conflicting recollections from his double life. But he has little time to process this shocking revelation, since he is immediately sent on a mission to annihilate a rival military base on Phobos.
Redspace Rising expertly deals with issues of identity at both the personal and societal levels. Throughout the novel, the issue of personal identity is complicated by the ability to save and retrieve the entirety of a person’s memory. Hence, the death of a person’s physical body does not necessarily mean the death of the human being itself. The implanting of saved memory data into a new body is a type of rebirth through technology, usurping the finality of death. Hence, the concept of mortality bifurcates into two types of dying: the immediate death of the physical body and the more serious, permanent death of a person whose memories have not been saved.
Beyond its intriguing philosophical implications, the restoration of saved memories in new bodies also creates ample layers of complexity within the story. Brian Trent brilliantly mines these possibilities throughout Redspace Rising, leading to many unexpected plot twists.
Harris Pope is a great main character, serving as a savior but without the associated savior complex. He is a well-honed killing machine who struggles with his own authenticity and with finding sincerity in his relationships. Redspace Rising also features a multifaceted set of supporting characters, including three strong female characters in Natalia Argos, Umerah Javed, and Celeste Segarra. Another favorite character is the notorious fugitive Gethin Bryce, who has many secrets of his own.
Politics play a large role throughout Redspace Rising. Even after the citizens of Earth nearly annihilated themselves through nuclear Armageddon, they still haven’t learned the lesson of the dangers of nationalism. During the time of Redspace Rising, such nationalism occurs at the planetary scale.
Brian Trent is an outstanding writer and has mastered the art of crafting enthralling, sustained action sequences. From the opening pages through the end of the book, Redspace Rising is a nonstop thrill ride of sci-fi action. I especially enjoyed the range of technology employed throughout the fight scenes.
Redspace Rising is marketed as a sequel to Trent’s previous book, Ten Thousand Thunders, which features Gethin Bryce as an investigator for the InterPlanetary Council. Despite being a sequel, Redspace Rising can be treated as a standalone novel. Personally, I read Redspace Rising without any knowledge of Ten Thousand Thunders and had no problem getting introduced to the world, characters, and plot. I don’t feel like I missed anything by starting here with the sequel.
With its fast-paced action, double-crossing characters, and focus on personal identity and memory, Redspace Rising is like a literary sci-fi version of the Jason Bourne movie franchise, with Brian Trent serving as the virtuoso cameraman documenting the gripping adventures of our proficient but broken hero.
5/5
Read Redspace Rising by Brian TrentThe post REVIEW: Redspace Rising by Brian Trent appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
October 5, 2022
REVIEW: Anon by Andrew Niccol
Anon is a 2018 science fiction thriller by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Simone, The Host, In Time). Andrew Niccol really loves his science fiction movies that have high concepts and while I think The Host and In Time are two of the worst science fiction programs I’ve ever watched, I also think Gattaca and Simone are some of my all-time favorites. Anon is a bit grittier and more cyberpunk with its plot, which automatically puts it above many of the others.
The premise is in the future, everyone in the world has had cameras installed in their eyes. Either the eyes are artificial, or they’ve had nanotechnology upgraded to do it. Everyone’s lives have been put on eternal record and they can be accessed at will. It’s a bit similar to the premise of the Black Mirror episode “The Entire History of You.” Indeed, it’s arguably a little too similar but if you’re going to steal then steal from the best. Whereas “The Entire History of You” is about the applications of these cameras in personal relationships, Anon is a straightforward police procedural. Detective Sal Frieland (Clive Owen) has an incredibly boring job as their job is now rote with everyone’s memories accessible. This doesn’t decrease police corruption as the law is still subject to police whims as Sal lets a thief go just because he despises a snooty victim.
Sal is a classic depressed character as he broke up with his wife over his son dying in a car accident that resembles the opening of the video game Heavy Rain. Unlike “The Entire History of You”, this is probably not an inspiration but just a coincidence. He constantly goes over the memories of his dead son and sleepwalks through life. This is until he encounters a girl whose digital information is not available, an Anon (Amanda Seyfried).
Sal soon finds himself investigating multiple murders carried out by an unknown killer but believed to be by Anon. All of the victims are former lovers of her, both male and female, as well as clients. They have their eyes hacked, then, and are forced to watch from their killer’s perspective as he guns them down. Anon is a suspect not just because of her connection to the victims because she turns out to be a hacker who can erase as well as alter memories.
The plot almost immediately falls apart due to the bizarre and salacious way that the police try to trap Anon. This involves having Clive Owen buy a high-class hooker, sex scene onscreen, and ask to have the memory erased. Which, of course, leads to Anon striking up an affair with him. The plot makes no sense because at no point do they arrest the suspect in multiple murder or bring her in for interrogation. Why? Because we need to have Anon and Sal begin to have an affair.
It’s blindingly obvious that Anon is nothing more than a white-collar criminal from the beginning but none of the police ever entertain the possibility that she’s being stalked by someone obsessed with her, which is pretty obvious to anyone who has watched cop shows let alone presumably actually part of the police force. The movie seems to think we won’t figure this out ourselves and leaves the reveal much-much too late.
Despite this, I generally liked Anon as a film. While the investigation makes no sense and I’m not even covering the other plot holes like why the police don’t take Sal at his word that someone is messing with his sight, the scenes where his brain his hacked are genuinely terrifying. Clive is a veteran actor and manages to make the most of the weak material he’s given. Sal may be a somewhat archetypal character, but I felt his pain and found him to be charming.
Amanda Seyfried’s Anon is also a character that is written to be a kind of catnip for viewers who are fan of cyberpunk hackers, mysterious femme fatales, and rebellious antiheroes. So, understand that I am completely biased toward her. Much of the movie objectifies her but the character is aware of this and plays into it in an interesting way.
In conclusion, the movie is worth watching just for the science fiction elements and strong performances. Some people may not appreciate the romance between Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried given their twenty-year age difference but YMMV. I do think it’s a three-star film rather than four, though, and just barely because it’s my genre.
Watch Anon by Andrew NiccolThe post REVIEW: Anon by Andrew Niccol appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
REVIEW: House of the Dragon – Episode 7 ‘Driftmark’
This show just gets better and better. House of the Dragon E7 continues the near perfect first season as the prequel to Game of Thrones goes from strength to strength. The big players are pulled together for a funeral and the decision between the greens and blacks grow, much to the dismay of the ill King Viserys I. Old dragons and young children are drawn into the fight and sides are made clear by the end of the episode.
House of the Dragon E7 is what you want from a grimdark fantasy series. Moments of brief joy are dampened by despair as the Targaryen rule appears to crumble with two women who were once best friends, firmly standing opposite one another with a clear eye on ruling Westeros. A great dragon chooses a new rider, children fight and spill blood like the adults, and Prince Daemon watches it all with the smirk of a man who lives for chaos and thrives on seeing the growing madness around him. The Rogue Prince grows close once more to his niece, sharing a night with her on the coast as rumours of Rhaenyra’s bastard children grow louder and threaten to tear the King’s court apart. Alicent’s desperation for her children to take the throne is heightened with her father now once again the hand to the king and each side seems to be pulling people to their cause to prepare for what they know is a deadly war to come. The sick Viserys is the only thing holding it all apart and everyone can see that he is not long for this world.
House of the Dragon E7 has great characters, a great story, and is a near perfect episode. Sadly, it has one major flaw. The lighting. Too much of the episode was too dark for the audience to see what exactly was going on and the fact that the episode was directed by the same guy who directed the infamously dark The Long Night episode makes me feel as though this was a choice more than an error. Well, it was a poor one. In a world as beautiful as Westeros, its audience wants to see the detail that is evidence of the hard work so many people put into creating the sets and costumes. The darkness of the episode (literally, we’re grimdark fans, dark content is our thing) is the only thing that pulls this episode away from being one of the very best based on George RR Martin’s world. It’s a minor grumble, but as it is not the first time this has happened, it has to be mentioned.
House of the Dragon E7 is grimdark at its finest. The grudges and rivalries of the adults are passed onto their children and the cold war becomes hot and bloodier for it. The lines have been drawn and even the dragons are picking sides. The dance is about to begin and its time to see if this great series can stick the landing. I just hope we’ll be able to see it clearly.
The post REVIEW: House of the Dragon – Episode 7 ‘Driftmark’ appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
October 4, 2022
REVIEW: Silverweed Road by Simon Crook
Silverweed Road, the collection of short horror stories, is dark, unique, chilling, and very British. Silverweed Road, the road, is made up of around 40 mock-Tudor houses, is J-shaped, has a dead-end that leads to ominous woods, is full of peculiar characters, and strange happenings are a regular occurrence.
Short story horror anthologies aren’t typically my go-to reading fare yet something about Silverweed Road seemed to tick the boxes so it pole-vaulted to the top of my to-be-read list. It features 12 horror stories, each of which follows the occupants of one of the houses on the titular road. One of the stories will take about thirty minutes to read and they are self-contained whilst neatly relating back to elements of previous stories such as the crash site, foxes, the woods, jackdaws going “ack-ack” etc… By the time I was reading the last two stories, the importance of the slight crossing over, the strange happenings being significant to numerous neighbours, and the general creepy and supernatural nature of all the stories led to an exciting, surprisingly deep and fulfilling climax. Crook impressively merged these singular tales into a collection of cohesive stories, as unsettling and bizarre as Silverweed Road itself.
The stories are varied, some feature various horror tropes as homage, they are kooky, sometimes gritty, and they showcase slick humour with their overall weirdness and also with the character interactions. Off the top of my head, I could summarise some of the tales as 1) A Gardener vs. Some Birds, 2) A Darts Player Sells His Soul to a Devil, 3) The Abandoned House and What Leaves it Every Morning, 4) A Valuable Ring and a Haunting Hand, 5) Ashes of a Lost Love, 6) A Tree That Wants to Drink Wine, and 7) The Artist and the Swimming Pool. This would give potential readers an idea of what to expect, without really giving that much away.
Lots of bad things happen to the characters that we follow. So much so that, between stories, we are witness to short intermissions by Former Detective Chief Inspector Jim Heath of Kent Police. The ex-officer tries to make sense of the many disappearances, uncharacteristic murders, and unexplainable catastrophes. These were welcome breaks and they bring us back to how all the strange occurrences on Silverweed Road appeared to the general public. His blog entries were an extra layer to the narrative and it was interesting to see him feature in some of the stories, before his dismissal. Again, this was a neat crossing over.
I had a mostly positive time with Silverweed Road. After about the fifth story, which was about the time I started to understand that the stories were connected and the piecing together mattered, I found myself more engaged. They aren’t reported in chronological order. So, when characters we’re familiar with pop up to argue with a neighbour, even though in their story they either died or were placed in a psychiatric ward, it doesn’t appear jarring, in fact, it seems to fit with the weirdness and the humour of the novel and the road. At about the 9th story, I was feeling a bit fatigued with the read and that’s probably down to the fact that I raced through this novel in a week, and should perhaps have taken my time and savoured each entry. That being said, getting over that minor hump, the last two chapters were two of the best in the collection, wrapping events up nicely. The very strong finish brought my rating up to a 7/10 and I’m interested to see what Crook releases next.
I received a review copy of Silverweed Road in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Simon Crook and Harper Voyager.
Read Silverweed Road by Simon CrookThe post REVIEW: Silverweed Road by Simon Crook appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
October 3, 2022
An Interview with Jennifer Thorne
Today (Oct. 4, 2022) marks the publication of Jennifer Thorne’s highly acclaimed folk horror, Lute (read our review). The novel is set on the small British island of the same name, whose inhabitants experience tragedy-free lives even during a time of war. But the island’s blessings also require sacrifice: every seventh summer solstice the island claims the lives of seven people.
Lute is told from the perspective of Nina, a young American who marries into the aristocratic Treadway family, the long-time caretakers of the island who bear responsibility for ensuring the delicate balance between peace and sacrifice. Read our complete review of Lute here.
I recently had the pleasure of discussing with Jennifer Thorne about her newly published novel, her tips for young authors, and more.
[GdM] After publishing several highly rated young adult books as Jenn Marie Thorne, you’ve just made your debut on the horror scene with Lute, published by Tor Nightfire. Tell us about your journey as an author from YA to horror. How have your experiences as a YA author influenced your approach to horror?
[JT] I’m one of those writers who juggles dozens of totally disparate book ideas, so moving from YA romantic comedies into adult horror was not as jarring a transition as you might imagine! There’s an immediacy to YA that I think translates particularly well to writing horror—in both you’re depicting a scenario in which your protagonist is forced to step up and define or redefine themselves. The difference is that in horror, the stakes are life and death (or worse), whereas in YA it may just feel that way.
[GdM] The narrator of Lute is a young woman from Florida who has trouble assimilating on the isolated British island of Lute. As someone who has lived in both the United States and England, what advice do you have for overcoming the culture shock of moving to another country and making the most out of this experience?
[JT] I’ve been fortunate to fall straight into a wonderful community of friends here in my little rural town, but even five years into living here, there are moments of disorientation. They can be as small as everyone laughing about a comedian you’ve never heard of, but it feels like a little psychic hiccup, like the moment in a dream when you realize you have no idea what’s happening. Nina, Lute’s narrator has a tougher time than I’ve had because she doesn’t have as strong a sense of who she is and what she’s capable of by the time she arrives. I think those who adapt best are those who are grateful for the broadened life experience of living abroad, but who take it for what it is, rather than needing personal validation from how “well” they fit into a new community.
[GdM] Folk horror is a fascinating genre focusing on the dark and foreboding side of folklore. What was your inspiration for entering this genre and writing Lute?
[JT] I have always adored folklore. I think for some people, it fades with adulthood, but not me. When I go out to walk my dog, I stay on the lookout for green men and fairies and ghosts lurking in the background. On some level, I believe in it all—or at least, I’ve been unwilling to accept the version of reality that says all that exists is what we can immediately discern. When you’re someone who believes that anything might be possible, it becomes very easy to say “what if.” What if (real-life) Lundy were instead an island called Lute, where life is wonderful, but there’s a hefty price? And what if, unlike in many other folk horror stories, this dark tradition is ultimately an equitable and fair one?
[GdM] Lute is an example of a shared tragedy bringing a community together, but tragedies can also be politicized to create division. Obviously, we live in a world with many terrible tragedies. What lessons can we learn from Lute about how to come together during catastrophic times?
[JT] It’s close to impossible to get through life without facing tragedy—and it’s absolutely impossible to escape death—and yet people try like hell to pretend neither exists, to run from the reality of them. I think the communities that thrive and heal post-tragedy are the ones where everyone is willing to look fearlessly at what’s happened and move from there to providing help and comfort. The ones that fracture are the more cowardly ones, in which, in the face of tragedy or threat, people start looking out only for themselves and their immediate families, insulating themselves from death, which of course is ultimately futile. And if you think I’m talking about America here…um…I’ll leave that up to the reader.
[GdM] Lute has the feel of a modern classic. Who were some of your primary influences when writing Lute among both classic and modern authors?
[JT] Daphne du Maurier is a major touchpoint for me, although I only started reading her books (and from there, tearing through everything she’d ever written) after I’d already finished Lute. Her writing is not at all what I’d assumed! I’d pictured sort of florid, overwrought Gothic nonsense, I’m embarrassed to admit, and her work is almost the exact opposite. In terms of contemporary authors, I love Michelle Paver, Naomi Novik, Alma Katsu, Paul Tremblay, Catriona Ward.
[GdM] To quote our review of Lute, your prose is “elegant in its simplicity, embracing a quiet minimalism that only enhances its sense of horror.” Tell us about your writing process. Are you someone who goes through multiple rounds of edits until you find just the right choice of words?
[JT] So many rounds of edits! Actually, the word choice bit is one of the later edit rounds, and it’s my absolute favorite part of writing, apart from coming up with the story in the first place. Drafting is psychological torture. Large-scale revision feels like performing surgery on a loved one. But making the words sparkly…that’s the good stuff. That’s where the fun lives.
[GdM] What advice do you have for young authors who are just getting started?
[JT] My first piece of advice is to ignore all the advice you don’t like. All my author friends and I work completely differently and have had wildly divergent journeys to publication. That being said…I do have two suggestions. 1) Finish the book. 2) When you’ve finished the book, write another book. It seems simple, but I’ve seen so many writers languish after that first book, pinning all their hopes on this one idea and leaving none for the books to come. I wrote two novels before my first YA was published, and there have been several additional unpublished manuscripts along the way. I kept going. That’s why I’m still publishing today.
[GdM] What was the experience like publishing in a new genre? Were there any particular challenges that you had to overcome?
[JT] I had to get out of my own way at first. There’s always a little critical voice in one’s head, and while I’m generally good at telling it to shut the hell up, there were moments when it would pipe up with, “You can only write teenagers realistically.” I reminded this voice that I am, in fact, an adult mother of two small British children, and got back to work without any further concern for “voice.” Once I was over that hurdle, it was a pretty easy adjustment!
[GdM] What’s next for Jennifer Thorne? Any more horror novels in the works?
[JT] Next up is The Antiquity Affair, an Indiana Jonesesque historical adventure novel I’ve co-written with my dear friend, Lee Kelly, out next June. My next horror with Tor Nightfire is called Diavola—I’ve been describing it to friends as Fleabag in a haunted Italian villa. I’m not sure I’m going to let my parents read that one.
Read Lute by Jennifer ThorneThe post An Interview with Jennifer Thorne appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
October 2, 2022
REVIEW: The Wolftime by Gav Thorpe
In The Wolftime by Gav Thorpe we explore the struggles of the primaris space marines as they try to implant themselves into space marine chapters that have grown and changed for 10,000 years. It’s a book about the outsiders wanting to be insiders, and the insiders not understanding how they could ever be so. The Wolftime is a relatively standard 40K book, packed with action and awesomeness, wrapped around a core question the 40k community has been asking since the announcement of the primaris marines: “how are these primaris marines going to fit in with the lore of the established space marine chapters?” It’s a challenging question to respond to, but Thorpe does it really well.
The overarching story of the book is about the Indomitus crusade to recapture the half of the Imperium lost to the great warp storm that has split an empire of billions of worlds in half. With a great mass of orks assaulting the part of the sector the Space Wolves are responsible for defending, the mighty Roboute Guilliman seeks to re-establish contact with the Wolves, reinforce them with thousands of primaris space marines (remembering even the Wolves are unlikely to have more than a couple thousand space marines left, all told), and have them defend one of his crusade’s flanks while he charges off to reclaim the lost worlds of the Imperium. It’s far-reaching, broad, space military sci-fantasy, and it’s fucking awesome.
As always with 40K novels, everything is on the line in The Wolftime. If our heroes fail, all will fall, and our heroes sometimes do pretty shitty things to benefit the greater whole–which is why I love 40k fiction. Thorpe does an excellent job in staying true to why the absolutely obsessed 40k fanbase devour anything the Black Library publishes, while also doing well to continue the thematic pulling away of the Wolves from being roudy space vikings that Dan Abnett started in Prospero Burns, while also making sure the core purpose of the story drives the overarching narrative of the primaris space marines forward.
The one thing that bugged me in The Wolftime isn’t a problem with the writing or story. It’s not the author’s fault; it’s probably not even Black Library’s fault (probably). For Space Wolf fans, we know what The Wolftime means. We know who is supposed to be returning when it happens. And we know the stakes that are in play that would dictate that character returning. And I’d be lying if I said I did not pick up this book and ramp it straight to the top of the TBR because I thought the title meant that character returned. I’m going to save Space Wolf fans the heart break: He doesn’t.
The Wolftime by Gav Thorpe is full of action and characters fans of the setting will know and love. The pressure and risk is there, the desperation on full display, the awesome moments drop on you like bombs of awesomeness. Even better, the purpose of the book is clear and really well done. This is Thorpe at the top of his 40k game. Pick up this book; you’ll love it. Just don’t expect him to show up.
Read The Wolftime by Gav ThorpeThe post REVIEW: The Wolftime by Gav Thorpe appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
October 1, 2022
REVIEW: The Rings of Power- Episode Six
The Rings of Power E6 is the best episode so far from Amazon’s TV series based on Tolkien’s works. Finally, The Rings of Power delivers an episode with some action and answers, leaving its audience excited for what is to come. For too long the show has rested on the fact it is a stunningly shot series based on a much-loved world; now, it has delivered an episode that newcomers to Middle-earth and longtime fans can be proud of.
Adar and his army of orcs, or Uruk, attack the humans in the Southlands, looking for the magical, dark hilt found earlier in the season by Theo. The humans are outnumbered and out-skilled but the clever elf Arondir who, along with Galadriel, continues the Lord of the Rings tradition of elves getting all the cool things to do in battles. His romance with the human Bronwyn kicks up a notch in the episode as the danger she finds herself in defending her people’s village ramps up the tension in the episode. Meanwhile, the men of Numenor are racing towards the village to fight the orcs, giving the episode the feel of an echo of Helm’s Deep when a human force held off against a greater force before Gandalf and the riders of Rohan entered the fray. Whilst the episode feels like a retread of that battle, it is well done, with unexpected twists and turns to keep the excitement ramped up throughout. The Rings of Power E6 feels like the episode that closest resembles Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and that is no bad thing at all.
It is often difficult with prequels to surprise an audience. We know what happens to many of these characters but The Rings of Power E6 does a great job of surprising its audience and making us care about the journey. It plays with things that are familiar to fans of Lord of the Rings and the end of the episode had me on the edge of my seat eagerly waiting for the next episode to drop. Adar and Galadriel are two of the most fascinating characters in the series for different reasons and in this episode, further layers are added to their characters that add some depth to the show. One criticism of Tolkien’s work has always been in the depiction of race. Adar’s character, whilst true to the history and lore of Middle-earth and the world created by Tolkien, allows the audience to see the orcs as more than just mindless beasts who kill. Their history is a cruel and sad one, and Adar is able to shine a light on the relentless nature of the elves such as Galadriel who are almost fascist in the way they wish to wipe out a whole race. It has been interesting to see the way elves treat the other races with such arrogance and it leaves room for Galadriel to grow as the series continues and evolve into the character we see in Lord of the Rings. Little things like this are what make such adaptations stand out – instead of just rehashing what the audience has already seen or knows. It no longer feels like a show about good and evil and I know that fans of grimdark will be pleased with the areas soaked in grey morality.
Full of some of the best action seen in any fantasy TV series to date, The Rings of Power E6 finally quickens the pace and delivers an episode full of confidence and intrigue. It uses the history of Middle-earth wisely and the new characters created for the show are now a clear sign of strength showing that the showrunners are not just willing to rest on what the audience already knows. The show is taking risks and in The Rings of Power E6, those risks are starting to pay off. No sign of the rings just yet, but there is a power in this episode that cannot be denied. The most brutal, yet thoughtful episode yet. Brilliant.
Watch The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime.
The post REVIEW: The Rings of Power- Episode Six appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
REVIEW: The Spite House by Johnny Compton
Ghosts of the past haunt a family on the run in Johnny Compton’s extraordinary debut novel, The Spite House, a Black Southern Gothic horror set in modern-day Texas.
Spite houses are buildings constructed for the sole purpose of aggravating neighbors, for example, to obstruct their view or to create an eyesore adjoining their property. Spite houses are dotted across the United States, in many cases becoming tourist attractions due to their unusual designs, which are meant specifically for irritation rather than inhabitation.
In Johnny Compton’s novel, the titular structure is the Masson House, a menacing four-story home with a bizarre architectural design built adjacent to an orphanage in Degener, Texas. The Masson House practically seethes with spite and is believed to be one of the most haunted buildings in the state.
As the novel opens, an unemployed single father, Eric Ross, arrives in Degener with his two daughters, eighteen-year-old Dess and seven-year-old Stacy. The Ross family is living a peripatetic existence, hopping among seedy motels, on the run from a mysterious past.
Eric’s arrival in Degener presents him with a unique job opportunity: to become caretaker of the Masson House and record an objective account of its supposed paranormal activities. The generous pay for this work would create a financially secure future for his family, but is it worth the danger to him and his girls?
The setup for The Spite House mirrors that of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 classic, The Haunting of Hill House, which also features a main character investigating a notorious haunted home. Johnny Compton provides a modern update of the haunted house trope, while also mining new depths of horror beyond that of Jackson’s classic.
The supernatural elements in The Spite House reflect specters of the Civil War, pitting neighbor against neighbor on both national and local levels. The Masson House is the incarnation of spite itself, unable to contain the evil that constitutes its very existence. Its paranormal activity is accompanied by an unbearable, paralyzing coldness, plunging the nearby temperature close to absolute zero.
Johnny Compton builds layers of complexity throughout the first two-thirds of The Spite House and then expertly ties it all together in the final part of the book. The Spite House features several unexpected plot twists, including a major reveal that left me completely blindsided. I also found the modern setting to be a refreshing change from the usual Victorian or Edwardian settings of traditional Gothic horror.
Eric Ross is a highly compelling, multi-layered main character, a fundamentally good, hard-working father who cares deeply about his family and will risk his own safety to ensure their livelihoods. Johnny Compton did an excellent job balancing the mysteries of Eric’s past with his present-day efforts to secure a better future for his daughters.
I also enjoyed reading from the viewpoints of Dess and Stacy. However, I felt that too many chapters were told from the perspective of minor side characters, and the story would have been stronger if told exclusively from the viewpoint of the Ross family.
Overall, The Spite House is an exhilarating debut that will both warm your heart and leave you chilled to the bone. I look forward to reading more from Johnny Compton in the future.
4/5
Read The Spite House by Johnny ComptonThe post REVIEW: The Spite House by Johnny Compton appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
September 30, 2022
REVIEW: The Blueprint by Wesley Cross
The Blueprint by Wesley Cross is a cyberpunk political thriller and corporate conspiracy. The former is virtually unknown in the genre while the latter is usually, “guys bust in to steal stuff” not “a bunch of guys use illegal stock manipulation in order to facilitate a hostile takeover. Actually, no, they did that in Hardwired by Jon Walter Williams and that may be the only time in history that the heroes successfully beat the megacorporations in a way I completely believe.
The premise is that it is the near-future, maybe a couple of decades, with 9/11 as well as the 2008 Banking Crisis in recent memory. Corporations have become even more powerful and started using mercenary teams to eliminate competitors as well as intimidate businessmen into selling their property to those attempting to buy them out. The police have grown so jaded about the prospect that they don’t even respond to these sorts of calls.
Jason Hunt manages to barely survive an attempt on his his and wife’s life when she accepts a job offer from a cybernetics developer. This is only the start of his problems as they’re soon faced with a cancer scare, people determined to put him underground, and a potential coup happening in the United States government. The conspiracy webs are thickly woven throughout the story and I was reminded pleasantly of Tom Clancy without a cyberpunk sheen. Wesley Cross lacks the former’s excesses, though, like lecturing the reader and using ten words when one would suffice.
I really enjoyed the characters and watching them try to figure out how to deal with enemies who have billions of dollars and a bunch of surprisingly well-developed sociopaths on their payroll. This includes attempting to get their own resources and making contact with other people they think might be able to help. The technology level is established firmly here as well. It’s not a bunch of chrome cyborgs punching things but setting up that to occur in the future.
Despite its somewhat more grounded premise, I wouldn’t say this is a particularly “realistic” book. In addition to its fun action scenes, some of the events stretch reader credibility like the fact that anyone wouldn’t think Jason Hunt is a massive fraudster after his hostile takeover using computer hacker trickery. The thing is, “realism” is overrated and the story benefits strongly from the believability of the characters, which is more important. Besides, a lot more overt fraud has been gotten away with in RL.
Wesley Cross also notably eschews the usual moral ambiguity of the genre as his protagonists are very good and his antagonists are complete scum. A warning that a sexual assault is implied to happen in the book as part of the villain’s activities for those who are sensitive to said things. However, generally The Blueprint is an action and intrigue-filled thriller that will appeal to both fans of spy fiction as well as those who like near-future sci-fi.
I was well and truly engrossed by The Blueprint at the end and eager to pick up the next installment of the series. Cyberpunk is too often limited to street punks trying heists against megacorporations while this gives us an unusal hero in a white collar businessman as well as some ex-veterans. I think it adds a very different sort of feel and I could easily see this adapted to a regular network television show rather than streaming. The Blueprint is a great book and I think a good example of its genre.
Read The Blueprint by Wesley CrossThe post REVIEW: The Blueprint by Wesley Cross appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
September 29, 2022
REVIEW: Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell
Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell (pseudonym for Alexander Michael Stewart) is a collection of the first three short stories and first three novels featuring Commissar Ciaphas Cain as the main character. This collection was first published in 2007.
I must qualify that I am not an expert on Warhammer 40k. As such, this should be read as a review by someone who has a mild interest in this fictional universe.
The stories are presented as Cain’s memoirs, obviously written in first-person. To almost everyone else, Cain is a hero who is loyal, capable and, unlike some commissars, fair-minded and even caring. By Cain’s own admission, however, he is a coward who just wants to survive and will go to some lengths to avoid danger. And that includes not merely running from imminent danger but also scheming to avoid potentially unpleasant assignments.
Whilst Cain has a certain simplicity about him, Mitchell writes him with some complexity. Cain is basically a mix of the “accidental hero” and the “reluctant hero” who fulfills his duty in his own selfish but not entirely dishonorable way either by fluke and/or by manipulation. Although not the most original idea, the results are at times comical.
Cain is a morally grey character, at least that would register as such intellectually although it may not resonate emotionally. It’s unlikely a reader will “feel” that ambiguity like one might about Garak or Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.
Nonetheless, Cain is an interesting person and, more importantly, relatable and even likable. This is probably because just about anyone can relate to self-preservation. The author has constructed the pathos quite nicely as Cain has some sense of honor. It is not that he wants to maliciously hurt others, he just wants to cover himself which, up to a point, is fair enough. And although he constantly takes this self-centered approach, he still tries to strike a balance and not be too selfish.
Cain’s qualities or lack thereof are most apparent when dealing with recurring characters. One does not expect anyone to care much about strangers but how they treat those who are closer reveals what they truly are. Although Cain admits to using people and merely pretending to care, he actually does care and this is most apparent when he deals with his loyal aide Jurgen and Colonel Kasteen of the 597th, amongst a few others. The irony is that sometimes he realizes that doing the right thing actually benefits him in the long term anyway.
Cain rarely boasts in an overt manner or at least rarely mentions such occasions. He does, however, frequently admit to being a coward as well as to deliberately playing the false modesty card. Whether he realizes it or not, he sometimes is genuinely modest and not as cowardly as he thinks. Mitchell admits to some uncertainty about that in the Introduction:
Is he [Cain] really the cowardly scoundrel he paints himself to be, or far more courageous than he gives himself credit for? To be perfectly honest, I don’t really know, although I suspect a little of both; but that’s one of the real joys of a writer’s life.
Despite that, I think Mitchell does well by giving the audience varying cases, each with sufficient clarity as to what Cain is truly thinking to any reader who is half paying attention but without always being in your face.
At times, the text can use a little less “telling” but, as a memoir, there is the excuse to do so. Whether one considers Cain a reliable narrator is another question. These memoirs are a part of the “Cain archives” and the novels are prefaced by an inquisitor who informs the reader that the writings are placed under an “Inquisitorial seal” (as it obviously contains classified material) and are intended only for study. This, however, does not exclude the possibility that the text has been edited even if the said inquisitor explicitly states that she has merely broken the text into chapters to facilitate reading and her annotations are clearly marked.
To keep the story fresh and provide the bigger picture, the author breaks up Cain’s narration with the occasional snippet from a history book or memoir, frequently one written by the retired General Jenit Sulla. And as part of the joke, her writing is annoyingly bombastic. She was a young officer at the time of the novels who looked up to Cain. The commissar, however, does not like her much. I think the author can add more snippets from varying sources to improve storytelling and comedy.
As for the comedy, one could describe it as on the drier side of things. Since the author plays on the irony of the situation, it vaguely reminds me of Terry Pratchett’s work. The Discworld novels are obviously a different genre and Pratchett regularly employs wordplay, but he does play on the irony of the moment. His comedy is more profound as it is satire of how the world works or doesn’t work as well as commentary on the human condition.
Mitchell, on the other hand, takes a narrower approach; any commentary on humanity and society is made mostly through (the perspective of) Cain. More generally, it does parody itself up to a point and there are a few references to sci-fi films as well as a few jokes on theology. And, of course, some of the characters’ names are biblical and historical references. It’s not as if the stories are laugh-out-loud from start to finish nor are they intended to be, but they are amusing.
In terms of pacing, the author has a real gift for writing novels. Some writers break up their novels into chapters that are more-or-less equal in length. There is nothing wrong with that approach in itself but sometimes it can feel forced. Mitchell does not do that; whatever needs to be told is told, each chapter is as long as it needs to be even if it means some variation. He does well with providing just enough setup for subsequent chapters, thereby creating that tension that continues to captivate the audience. This is a real credit to his writing because the reader knows Cain will make it. The short stories, however, can improve in pacing as they take a little too long to build.
Below are brief descriptions of the works included in the collection in the order in which they are presented. It alternates between short story and novel as the short story serves as an introduction to the novel that directly follows.
Fight of Flight (2002)In his first assignment as commissar, Cain arrives in Desolatia IV, joining the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery. As the title suggests, it is during Cain’s attempt to avoid danger that he runs into more. It is also during this episode he meets Jurgen who becomes his loyal aide.
For the Emperor (2003)This novel is set approximately 13 years later, around 931, when Cain is assigned to the newly combined Valhallan regiment formed from the remaining 296th and 301st, subsequently designated the 597th. The plot follows the “Gravalax incident” in which Cain and the 597th deal with a backwater world with substantial Tau influence. Although the Tau are reasonable, a portion of the local population rebels in an organized fashion that hints at a conspiracy.
Echoes of the Tomb (2004)Set sometime after 928, Cain boards a ship that is supposed to rendezvous with the one that he is actually transferring to. The former is run by the Adeptus Mechanicus heading to the expedition on Interitus Prime. Cain is convinced to visit the planet while waiting for the rendezvous and… well, things can’t possibly go well with tech-priests turning things on.
Caves of Ice (2004)This novel is set in 932, just over one year after For the Emperor, when Cain and the 597th are assigned to protect a Promethium mine and refinery on the ice-world Simia Orichalcae from an Ork incursion. In order to avoid the main battle, Cain decides to secure the mines instead, being more comfortable in the tunnels. Of course, he runs into more trouble there.
The Beguiling (2003)This short story is set sometime after “Fight of Flight” but at least ten years before For the Emperor. Cain is assigned to Slawkenberg to deal with Chaos worshippers. In his boredom, he decides to go for a ride, hoping to check out “recreational possibilities of some of the nearby towns” under the guise of verifying intelligence. Not surprisingly, he gets shot at but then runs into some damsels in distress.
The Traitor’s Hand (2005)This novel is set in 937 when Cain and the 597th are sent to Adumbria as an advanced party to deal with a Chaos incursion. Unlike the previous stories, more imperial parties are involved (as well as elements of the planetary government) such as Lord General Zyvan, a spook, a navigator and another guard unit with their commissar. This gives the reader an opportunity to see at least a little of how Cain deals with internal politics.
The first short story and novel, “Fight of Flight” and For the Emperor, are probably the funniest. This is not because of its novelty value; whether intended or not, it is just written that way. As a matter of personal taste, I would like to see more comedy, particularly black comedy, across all the works.
As for action, these stories do not rely on constant cheap action. Since the viewpoint character is not a common soldier, a lot of the actions are numerically small in scale. These are not the type of stories where one is in the middle of armies clashing. But whatever the scale, there are enough action scenes. On balance, these stories are generally well-constructed in every respect, easy to read, amusing and satisfying.
Read Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium by Sandy MitchellThe post REVIEW: Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
