Adrian Collins's Blog, page 197

REVIEW: The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

The Devil All the Time is a harrowing southern gothic-like novel that borders on straight-up horror. Written in 2011 by Donald Ray Pollock, this novel came to my attention due to the impending Netflix movie starring Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson. The movie looks dark as all get out and I had hopes that the book would be even darker. Thankfully for me and all fans of grisly, disgusting, and horrifying stories, this book should scratch all morbid itches you may have.

Now, while I would consider The Devil All the Time to be in the southern gothic wheelhouse, I will add the preamble that it doesn’t take place in the south. Rather, most of it takes place in either rural Ohio or rural West Virginia. Yet, the hallmarks of the subgenre are all there; deeply flawed characters, extreme poverty, run-down small towns, eccentric characters, etc. Yet, since it doesn’t technically take place in the southern United States, I suppose it should be called rural gothic instead (although that doesn’t have as much of a ring to it, in my opinion).

The Devil All the Time is a book made up of several vignettes that seem tangentially related at first but, at about two-thirds of the way through, connect and pay off in a big way. Being the dark and tragic tale it is with many southern gothic sentiments, comparisons to Cormac McCarthy abound. In fact, some are well warranted: the sparse prose and the suffocatingly violent and dark tone are present in both. Despite those similarities, it diverges enough in a way that tells a fantastic, twisted story that feels original.

The only downfall when compared to McCarthy is the lack of beautiful lines. The Devil All the Time is a plainly written novel with simple descriptions and the occasional simile. I have a love of complex and beautiful lines (I’m looking at you Blood Meridian), the plain manner in which Pollock’s story is presented makes sense and is even endearing, in a way/

The main players in The Devil All the Time are Arvin, a young man who’s the only real semblance of a protagonist. The story follows Arvin the most consistently, from youth to young adulthood, and from tragedy to tragedy. He’s a rural hero archetype; charming, kind of quiet, likes to work with his hands, and not afraid to use violence when necessary. Yet, throughout the story the perspective shifts to several others; from Carl the cigar-smoking snuff photographer who murders hitchhikers with his wife Sandy, to Roy, a preacher-turned-murderer-turned-carnival act, to the crooked ex-alcoholic Sheriff Bodecker.

Each one of the interconnected stories deals with an isolated theme on its own; a husband’s love for his wife, a man’s belief in the power of God, a communities capacity to trust those in power. Yet, it’s not the themes themselves which have been overdone time and time again but, rather, the delivery. In almost every theme that is presented, it is promptly subverted, often in terrible and maudlin ways.

This story is dark and brutal and I loved (and hated) every moment I spent in Ohio, West Virginia, and beyond. The Devil All the Time earns a bloody and well-earned 5 stars.

Read The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

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REVIEW: The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

The Boys is a hefty series written by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Ennis, of Preacher fame, “blows the bloody doors off” of the Superhero genre. The Boys is not your tidy and inoffensive Superman type story. Instead, this is a bloody, gory, disgusting, and brutal take on superheroes as a genre set in a modern world. It would have to be harsh if you think about the corruption of absolute power. A superhero is probably not a sane person, and given a skewed lens of the world filtered through a life without limits, I can see them acting…badly. Although not all people are bad, as we see in the story, enough of them are that you will need a group like The Boys to attempt to keep them in check. The Boys are so harsh that it is almost repulsive, but in typical Ennis style, the reader can not turn away.

“Remember the seven Ps.

Seven what?

Proper preparation and planning… Prevent piss-poor performance.”

The superheroes in this story are called The Seven, which is a nod to the Justice League, and are your basic despotic, raping, and pillaging psycho and sociopaths. They kill for the fun of it, lord over humans, live to the excess, and are generally horrible but powerful human beings. In turn, the book explores governments’ and by extension societies’ responses to the superheroes with a band of misfit black ops soldiers of varying degrees of sociopathic and homicidal tendencies sent in to fight them. They, too, are incredibly screwed up but in exciting and equally terrifying ways. Their sole purpose is to keep the “supes” in check. In the center of all, this is a sweet and goofy love story. No, really, I am serious. Ennis makes it work, and it is awesome.

The overarching plot follows The Boys through a series of screwed up interactions with superheroes. The Boys “manage, police, and sometimes liquidate Vought-American’s superhumans,” so that is what they do. They attempt to keep the supes in check, things go awry, there is much sex and death, people die in awful ways, and there is always another superhero to stop. Neither side can claim the moral high ground. Wee Hughie is the main character that the narrative focuses on. At one time, Hughie was just a regular bloke, his story is wrought with sadness. Hughie was in a relationship with the love of his life. His girlfriend stepped off the curb in a wonderful romantic comedy moment and was summarily destroyed in an explosion of gore and viscera. All while holding Wee Hughie’s hands. No one could be quite right in the head after that.

“There’d be no point trynna blackmail a bloke everyone already knows is a cunt, would there?”

Through the series, we learn the backstory about why The Boys are the way they are, and why each of them has a reason to hate supes. Each of them has a good cause and a solid backstory. By the end of the series, we have a much richer picture of The Boys and some closure to the story. It would be exhausting if the writing and art weren’t so good.

Additionally, Ennis modeled the character “Wee” Hughie as a mirror image of the actor Simon Pegg. It is a great fan nod. Some find it distracting to read about “Wee” Hughie walking into an orgy, but my sophomoric sense of humor found it utterly hilarious. The 13-year-old in me is doing double fist pumps and giggling.

“You know you can be a real bitch sometimes.”

The art is a very “Marvel comic” style, purposely drawn to convey the superhero motif. The supes and their world are drawn and colored to emphasize the superhero world’s grandness and gaudiness. Versus The Boys, who are dark and melancholic.

Typical of Garth Ennis’s style, the writing is large, precise, and excessive. If you are familiar with Preacher, you will be familiar with his style. The Boys is a challenging series. It is full of sex and violence to the extremes. If this bothers you, maybe look for something from a different author. But for me, this severity and excessiveness are part of its charm. Superheroes are maniacs at their core. This book acts on the extremes of superheroes with extreme characters in retaliation. Who else could keep superheroes in check than people with nothing to lose except their own moral code?

Read The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

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REVIEW: Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike

J. Zachary Pike’s Orconomics on the surface, looks like your typical fantasy story. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. The thing is five pages into the book; you know that you are entirely wrong. There is nothing standard about this exciting, hilarious story told from the multiple points of view of the “heroes.” But at its heart, Orconomics is a scathing and effective satire. It is capitalism and the dangers of, set in a magical world.

I did not see that coming.

The plot of the story, as mentioned before, is about a group of reluctant heroes. They are gathered together to go on a quest looking for treasure and finding lost relics. There are quite a few different political and economic plays by various groups around this quest. Things are not what they seem. At times the plot was a bit hard to follow, but as the story reaches its conclusions, everything becomes clear.

“Ye must be Angusss,” said Gorm, stamping up to the bar. “Anguss,” corrected the serpentine barkeep, polishing a glass. “The middle ‘s’ is silent.”

The questing party, professional heroes down on their luck, are being supported by a local religious community and a cadre of investors who invest in quests in exchange for a portion of the loot. This usually comes from non papered characters or shadowkin that are seen as fodder and regularly killed and hunted to increase hero rankings. Their only mistake is that they are a nuisance to humans and possibly have pillagable loot. The higher ranking the hero is, the better the quests. It sounds like a very familiar scenario, that of Hollywood movies. Movies get made with a well-known actor; interested parties then fund the film in exchange for a portion of the generated revenue. The actor and their following is a commoditized asset that rises and falls based on the actor’s successes and failures. Orconomics is more cutthroat in the successes and failures, literally, but the economic system is the same.

This book’s satire takes on some pretty hard-hitting ideas. Firstly, we have the whole questing system. It treats the heroes as commodities bought and sold, as I said earlier—a very Hollywood idea. Orconomics also touches on the toll of drug addiction, specifically opioid or pain killer addiction, which is rampant in cities across the world. One of the main characters, who once was a huge and well-known adventurer, had too many injuries requiring healing potions. Eventually, the healing potions become what she lived for, and addiction occurred. She then became a shell of her former self, always looking for a reason to get high. The author addresses this in a scene talking about people out on the street, cutting themselves so that they need to use a healing potion.

“Marketing is its own kind of magic, is it not?” said Zurthraka. “An illusion that men pay to be fooled by.”

Pike also touches on class system dynamics; market commoditized objects such as magic swords, religious zealotry, and the business of making money from it, and lax laws for weapon ownership. A stand-in for lax laws around gun ownership. You will read this thinking that Pike is brilliant as hell, and be a little sad that our world is so near in line with the one in Orconomics.

Firstly, the main character is a dwarf named Gorm Ingerson. Much of the story is told from his perspective. He is a tenth level hero, who, twenty years ago, “supposedly” made the mistake of running to save himself when most of his party perished. He was left shammed while another party member who stayed to fight became one of the land’s best-known heroes. The rest of the hero party is full of misfits. They all have a reason to be there and are hoping for another shot. This leads to a sense of urgency in the questing; they all need to succeed in this quest.

Because each party member has a distinct voice written well by Pike, the dynamics of interpersonal relationships between the questers and character development truly come through. We are told very early what each of the characters are facing and working with. One is a drug addict who is addicted to healing potions and alcohol. Gorm, as I mentioned earlier, is fighting his past. Another is a very skilled mage that is not useful in a fight. At the same time, the other mage is an excellent brawler but has no finely honed skills. Another is a shadowkin just trying to survive. The shadowkin’s, a goblin, and his relationship with Gorm are the book’s best parts. Best and certainly funniest. I laughed for a good two minutes after reading how Gorm found out how to say the goblin’s name. Finally, we have one who rarely speaks, and another running from a mobster—all work to play off each other and develop as characters.

“I prefer to quit while I’m ahead,” Heraldin explained. “Ye’ve a funny definition of ‘ahead,’” said Gorm. “I prefer to define words in ways that suit me,” said Heraldin.”

Man, this is a great book. And, five minutes into reading it, I understood all the love for it. It was the SPFBO4 winner, and now I can see why. The relationships, the story, and the allegory to everyday economics are so cleverly done that they might go under people’s radar. I didn’t figure out half of them until I sat down to write this review. It all started to come together, and I realized how creative Pike is. The book was funny, and heartfelt which, in the face of some pretty hard plot ideas, is important and kept the tone light. Had he not done that, this book might be too depressing to read. But, as it stands, it is a perfect balance. I am a fan of this book, obviously, and will be jumping into the next book, Son of a Liche, as soon as possible.

It is a worth it read, so check it out.

Read Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike

 

 

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REVIEW: Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Golden Son is the second book in Pierce Brown’s magnificent Red Rising series. In a rarity for a book series, it’s better than book 1, and seeing as how I gave Red Rising a 5/5, that leaves me in a rather awkward scoring position.

Following on on after Red Rising, Darrow has passed his trials and is on to the next phase of his life as he integrates into his new Scarred Gold society, one far more dangerous than any environment he’s ever known. Golden Son begins with Darrow’s battle ground being of politics and leverage, one he can’t physically fight his way through. But one he must fight either way, if he is to ever pull Red out of the mines. He must also be wary of his own changes–Gold society and growing friendships with his Gold followers is beginning to change Darrow’s perspective.

“I am a child of hell, and I have spent too long in their heaven.”

However, things have changed for the Sons of Ares, and therefore for Darrow. He is being pushed into more danger than ever before by people he is now questioning if he can trust.

From a story perspective, Golden Son is just utterly magnificent. There is so much to get you teeth into, and Brown rarely gives you even a moment to breathe. You’re either worrying about who Darrow can trust, tearing through the atmosphere in one of the best SF battles I’ve ever read, waiting for Mustang or Roque to rip your heart out of your chest, or picking your jaw up off the floor after a big twist or reveal. Golden Son is non-stop, and it’s absolutely magnificent for it.

And we do have to talk about that battle. To keep this review spoiler free, I’m going to leave out the context, but I will say that fans of the battles portrayed in 40k books (eg. the Istvaan V dropsite massacre or the siege of Vervunhive) will be absolutely blown away by Brown’s ability to write personal in-close action, immense sweeping scale, and claustrophobic fear in a way that I think would eclipse most authors in the Black Library stable. He is a genius.

Brown’s ability to make you care about and love these predominantly Gold characters–a species of humanity we start out hating in Red Rising–is enviable. Mustang, Roque, Sevro, Tactus … I could go on and on, but every characters just hits that sweet spot where no matter who they are you know what they’re about and you care what happens to them. For me, the only character with more than a couple of pages of screen time that I thought felt a little two dimensional was the Sovereign (and honestly, I am nit-picking here), but hey, sometimes a book just needs a driven, vicious, irredeemable bastard.

Once again, Tim Gerard Reynolds brings Darrow and The Society to life through his magnificent narration. Reynolds has completely turned my reading world upside down with his performances–I’ve gone from not really being able to get in to audio books to laying on the couch like a zombie watching the clouds drift by as I listen to Golden Son.

Golden Son is a book / audio book that I will be recommending to literally anybody who will listen. It is magnificently written and narrated, builds on Red Rising in a way that in recent memory I think only Nicholas Eames’ Bloody Rose has managed as well, and gives readers so much of what they want. The politics, the war, the inner struggles, the class struggles, and watching people you love get wrenched about with their friendships torn and mended and stretched beyond what they can take just … just makes my reader soul happy in a way not many books can. Golden Son is the perfect sequel and is just bloody good science fiction. 5.5/5

Read Golden Son by Pierce Brown

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Get some grimdark spirit in your Dungeons and Dragons game

Hello, my name is Fabienne, and I am a Dungeon Master. Or a Dungeon Mistress, as the case may be. Don’t worry, nothing sexual, we are talking about Dungeons and Dragons, the pen and paper tabletop

roleplaying game. Today I am here to talk to you about how you can get some of that grimdark spirit from your favourite books by authors such as Joe Abercrombie, Brian Naslund or Matthew Ward into your own

campaigns without having to leave your living room!

Swing the weather wand

Sorry to break it to you, but sunshine ain’t going to cut it. It’s hard to project dark and gloomy when the sun is out, the weather is pleasant, and your characters don’t have to face any environmental obstacles. Miserable weather will lead to miserable characters and a tense party. And ultimately, that is what you want for your perfect grimdark campaign. Make your world foggy, wet, or brutally, relentlessly hot with no shade to be found. Just like us dwellers of the British Isles, your characters will be beaten down and hopeless. Not only that, but use the landscape of the world to your advantage. Make it hard for the characters to find shelter, expose them to the elements and make their lives miserable on campaign.

Introduce an element of madness

D&D fifth edition has a wonderful mechanic element of madness. Well, wonderful for the DM, less so for the players. Figure out a way to have external factors induce levels of madness in the characters and you are in for a slew of curses and chaos. The early levels are temporary, but as they stack up, they become permanent, which can lead to interesting scenarios. For example, back when I was a player, one of my characters ended up with a level three madness condition, which is permanent and rolled out on a table, which made her crave alcohol to feel sane. Problem was, the party was stuck in an underground cave system with nothing alcoholic anywhere to be found. If that’s not Grimdark I don’t know what is.

Legal Obligations

In the middle of the game, change the basic rules of life in whatever realm you are setting your game in. Have a coup happening, have a tyrant change legislation, or invent some other reason why the stakes are

changing. For any reason of your choosing, without knowledge of your players or their characters, the legal situation has changed utterly. Their behaviour is now no longer acceptable, and they keep doing things wrong and don’t know why. They are suddenly morally reprehensible to the rest of the land and no longer considered adventurers to be admired and helped. This allows you as the DM to introduce all kinds of shenanigans and obstacles for them and forces your players to come up with very creative solutions to get out of these problems. And really, that is exactly what would happen to a set of adventurers in a Grimdark novel!

Let there be dragons

It wouldn’t be Dungeons and Dragons if I wouldn’t suggest introducing some of the titular creatures. A fully grown dragon is overpowered for most parties if the goal is to slay it, so have it wreak havoc and scare

your characters into submission. It should be much more fun to force them to come up with tricks and creative solutions to trap or defeat a dragon, or even to spot and identify it rather than make them fight and kill it – or use it as a tool for a TPK (total party kill), the most grimdark of all endings…

Character Death

I know it’s hard to hurt your player’s characters. I know it’s tempting to fudge rolls so enemies don’t hit characters that are already on the verge of dying. But in a Grimdark world, hope is hard to come by and people die unexpectedly. If your characters are not actually at risk of permanent death, you risk lowering the stakes for your players, which leads to a loss of tension in the game, and thus a boring campaign. But if they are aware that they could die at any moment, they will be paying much more attention, and play every session in fear for their character’s lives, ensuring that the Grimdark spirit remains fully present.

Get started on your grimdark Dungeons and Dragons campaign

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REVIEW: Spear of the Emperor by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

I’m used to Aaron Dembski-Bowden being the guy that Black Library call in when they need to make a bad guy seem compelling or to mess with our heads with daemonic or alien insanity but in Spear of the Emperor we’re very much on the side of the good guys*.

* Of course in 40k, the concept of ‘good’ is a rather subjective thing.

Amadeus Kais Incarius of the Mentor Legion is sent across the Great Rift to see if any of the three chapters dedicated to protecting the Elaira’s Veil region have survived the Noctis Aeterna. He finds the situation is a dire one and endures suspicion, setbacks and betrayal en route to becoming the titular Spear of the Emperor.

All of this is told from the viewpoint of his helot – think a mixture of armourer, squire and valet – Anuradha, relayed as memoirs from decades afterwards. This gives a far more human view on the doings of superhuman warriors and we feel genuine peril for Anuradha on several occasions. While you might think the memoir aspect removes that possibility, the prose is powerful enough that you forget and enter into the crisis of the moment.

While Spear of the Emperor is mostly about the good guys, there is plenty of opportunity for Dembski-Bowden to indulge his taste and affinity for the chaotic otherness as traitor marines and voidborn horrors and portrayed in vile, delightful detail. This eye for detail shines through in the rest of the story though, as we see the culture that spawned the Spears of the Emperor and feel their despair at their long, losing vigil from amongst the mouldering bones of a crypt.

Naturally, Anuradha is the most well formed character in Spear of the Emperor and her journey from starving orphan at the bottom of the ladder of an Imperial world to loyal helot is played out throughout the book. Her fellow helots are well realised and fleshed out so we care about their ultimate fates and Amadeus is presented more fully than any Astartes without their own point of view chapter that I can recall.

The core theme of Spear of the Emperor is about loyalty and betrayal, both on a personal level and in a wider galactic sense. I can’t reveal the various ways this is portrayed as to do so risks spoiling the book. Nonetheless, trust me when I say that the way that Anuradha and Amadeus pull through, finding new kin and purpose on the dark side of the rift in the face of multiple betrayals is quite lovely, in the most grimdark way imaginable.

Overall, I found Spear of the Emperor to be an engaging and characterful read, shedding light on a literally darkened part of the 40k universe and really playing up to the best parts of the setting, blurring the lines between good and bad, testing loyalties and throwing betrayal from the place you’d least expect it.

As ever from Dembski-Bowden, Spear of the Emperor is an excellent read, but might be lost on anyone not familiar with the 40k canon.

Four stars.

Read Spear of the Emperor by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

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REVIEW: Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work by Guy Haley

When Games Workshop rebooted the Warhammer 40k setting, introduced a whole new kind of Space Marine and casually advanced the timeframe by a few centuries when it had sat at 999.M41 for the best part of 30 years, a lot of the in-universe credit went to Archmagos Belisarius Cawl. As such, I was very interested to read Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work as it’s nice to get into the head of such an important figure in one of my favourite universes.

While I originally expected Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work to deal with the creation of the Primaris, this is only touched upon briefly as instead the story concentrates on Cawl’s investigation of the Pharos beacon on the world of Sotha, a world with significant historical importance both in the distant past and more recently.

It soon becomes clear that the Pharos’ abilities are powered by blackstone and it is also causing time slips where Belisarius Cawl and others experience past memories, in between combatting mutual distrust and a variety of alien menaces.

It’s these time slips that unveil the most compelling parts of the lore, as Cawl’s recollections of his own millenia long existence offer some depth and context to this most enigmatic character.

However, the time slips make the narrative a little hard to hold on to and that got a tad wearing as I worked through The Great Work.

Even though there are attempts to make supporting characters like Felix and Thracian more than props, the only character I even remotely cared about was Cawl and even then it was because he was such an egotistical prick. I can imagine him being played with gusto by Russell Crowe, chewing up scenery and being nasty to all the interns.

The final set piece of Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work in naturally inside the Pharos itself – I won’t divulge who it’s with, although 40k lore nerds will likely guess long before the reveal – and it’s very cinematic, but the final gambit where the solution is resolved via Deus Ex Cawl feels a little too cheap and obvious.

All in all, I enjoyed Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work but far more for it’s little teases about the wider Warhammer 40k narrative and a tiny glimpse into Cawl’s backstory than because it’s an especially awesome book in itself.

In many ways, Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work feels less than the sum of its parts. We’ve got Space Marines, multiple alien menaces, revelations from before the dawn of the Imperium, an explanation for why a relatively new key character is so enigmatic and fractured and for some reason, I didn’t care. I know that Guy Haley can write excellent stories in this universe but this felt just a little bit like a Michael Bay movie. It feels like we teetered from cool set piece to set piece with an ultimately unlikeable, if charismatic lead character the only thing holding it together.

Fun, but for 40k completists and lore nerds only.

Three stars.

Read Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work by Guy Haley

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Dune trailer gives a glimpse into the future

The trailer for Denis Villieneuve’s long awaited movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic Dune has finally dropped and it’s packed with tantalising moments.

Dune has been adapted before, with the 1984 David Lynch movie and 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries. However, as the first major studio movie adaptation in 36 years, with a celebrated director and all star cast featuring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaacs, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, this is easily the most anticipated science fiction movie not associated with Star Wars in a long time.

It’s worth noting that this film, unlike the 1984 adaptation is only going to cover the first half of the book, with a proposed sequel to finish the story. This may go some way to addressing the criticisms of that film’s incomprehensibility and echoes Ridley Scott’s assessment when doing a treatment for the 1984 version that it should be shot as two films.

The trailer concentrates on Paul (Chalamet) with glimpses of his beloved Chani (Zendaya) seen mostly in precognition. The theme of being aware of the future is backed up by the warnings of Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) who tests Paul and warns that his family will lose everything. The contrasting dream of love and warnings of imminent doom set the stage nicely for both the trailer and the film.

A rousing version of Pink Floyd’s Eclipse underpins the rest of the trailer as we get tantalising shots of our cast in action, amidst scenes of fire, violence and desperate flight.

It might be beautiful, but this is not a forgiving fantasy world.

I have to note that the visual direction and worldbuilding seems to be absolutely spot on, from the contrasting visual style of the Atreides and Harkonnens, to the architecture of Caladan and Arrakis, the scale of the Heighliner starships, the realisation of the ornithopter aircraft and presentation of the knife fights and shields.

It’s so very, very beautiful and it really feels like the Dune which played inside my head reading the book.

The trailer closes with the thing we’ve all been waiting for, as Chalamet speaks the memorable warning against fear, we get a good look at the Shai-Hulud, the sandworm of Dune.

He’s a big lad. I suspect we’ll see more of them.

Most worries as a long-term fan of Dune are placated by this being the first of a two-parter and the prominence of Idaho, lack of Alia or the Emperor making perfect sense in that context, while views of the Navigators and more baroque elements of the universe can wait.

Other pedantic complaints like a lack of Fremen still-suit discipline and Paul’s fight with Jamis appearing to take place in the open rather than underground can be put down to cinematic need. Gotta see those actors’ faces when we can’t read their thoughts.

It remains to be seen how the movie handles the long term criticism of the book’s ‘white saviour narrative’ and presentation of desert peoples versus being a criticism of imperialism, colonialism and exploitation. With two of the three named Fremen characters being played by actors of at least partial African descent and Villeneuve’s deft hand (not least in his 2010 film Incendies), I have faith that it won’t suffer the fate of so many big budget films and gloss over such narrative concerns.

All in all, as a devotee of the book and most of the prior adaptations, Dune looks great and I can’t wait.

Dune is set to be released on 17-19th December worldwide and on 26th December in Australia.

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REVIEW: The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton

Graham Masterson offers his own unique take on haunted-house horror in The House of a Hundred Whispers.

Taking place in the aftermath of their father’s violent death, the Russell siblings and their spouses gather at the family home, Allhallows Hall, to make post-mortem arrangements as well as bear witness to the obligatory reading of the will. Grievances, old and new, threaten to boil over before disaster strikes, when five-year-old Timmy Russell goes missing from the Hall, without a trace. Timmy’s father, Rob, must enlist the aid of his family and resolve the dark secrets of the ancient mansion if they are to have any hope of finding the young boy before it’s too late.

Masterson duly mixes in elements somewhat uncommon to the subgenre, making for an original telling rather than a tired trope rehash, and furthermore provides sufficient twists and turns to keep the reader guessing up to a thrilling – albeit somewhat contrived – conclusion (more on that shortly). The prose is quite competent, with visuals vividly yet succinctly described, dialogue thoroughly believable, and the setting very well realized.

To specify regarding the aforementioned conclusion (while attempting to remain spoiler-free), I will say only that that I did not find the mythology behind the supernatural elements well-integrated enough to avoid feeling of contrivance, nor the foreshadowing adequate to curtail a modest deus ex machina from diminishing an otherwise entertaining climax. Both issues might have been resolved with a leaner and more focused narrative, though it should be noted that, at times, the relatively wide net of plot threads cast by Masterson worked in his favour by misleading the reader’s assumptions.

Characterization was strong in some cases, with much of the supporting cast really coming to life despite mostly being painted in broad strokes; that in itself, a small triumph of storytelling. However, I specifically found protagonist Rob Russell to be alarmingly detached: while he does worry for his son, he never seems truly afraid, nor even particularly awed, by terrifying supernatural events. The conspicuous absence of emotional response hindered my empathetic connection to the character, lamentably resulting in deflating the tension thus utterly negating, for me at least, the fear-factor.

I do also feel compelled to note that I was disappointed by Masterson’s handling of female characters, who are primarily portrayed as ineffective bystanders. The lone exception to this is quickly nullified, sexualized, and – at risk of revealing a minor spoiler – requiring subsequent rescue by her male counterparts. Through the lens of my own inherent gender bias, I might not have noticed this regrettable feature were it not for a revealing display wherein Rob (in the absence of other capable men on-scene) earnestly states to four female characters that he appears to be the only one competent to save the day. Yikes. To be clear, this scene is apparently meant to play as a showcase for a character rising to a challenge, not in parody of (or even commentary on) masculinity or ego.

Despite its flaws, I did still feel that The House of a Hundred Whispers was a story worth following through to its conclusion, if for nothing else than to discover the secrets of the tantalizing mysteries laid out in the proficiently written opening chapters. However, for those seeking a truly terrifying tale with a strong connection to the lead character, or those turned off by poor female representation in their reading material, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

Read The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton

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REVIEW: Mark of Faith by Rachel Harrison

The Sisters of Battle have been getting some much deserved attention from both Games Workshop and Black Library of late and in Mark of Faith, Rachel Harrison does a really good job of personifying their distinctiveness in a universe all too often shown through the eyes of Space Marines.

My usual disclaimer for Black Library books comes in here; if you’re not familiar with the Warhammer 40,000 universe and for this book specifically, the up to date setting, then this book might be a tad confusing as it assumes a lot of prior familiarity going in.

Our main character is Sister Evangeline who somehow survives a massacre on Ophelia VII when the Great Rift opens and awakens marked with the Emperor’s Aquilla. Promoted and literally marked for greatness and wracked with guilt and self-doubt, she is charged to find a lost artifact, taking the survivors of her order with her.

Across the galaxy, Inquisitor Ravara also seeks the artifact, believing it to be the conduit to heal the Great Rift, but also for more personal reasons.

Together, they must travel across the Great Rift to fulfil both of their destinies, though warp storms, daemons and heretic astartes stand in their way.

Evangeline is the most fully formed character in Mark of Faith and her piety, bravery and humility shine through. She is placed under incredible pressure and when it would have been easy for her to be too good, too noblebright her doubt acts as a check on the sheer weight of her heroic narrative.

She’s balanced by Ravara, our other point of view character. Ravara is Machiavellian and manipulative. Her aims are mostly good but her methods are dubious and it’s an ever present concern as to whether she will aid or betray Evangeline, knowingly or not.

The prose in Mark of Faith is delightful, making full use of the close first person viewpoint to show the depths of each woman’s thoughts and their very different motivations. It also has the advantage of keeping the reader in the dark, so we share Evangelina and Ravara’s confusion and desperation.

Little touches such as the description of fighting a demon and Evangeline actually singing hymns to the Emperor add so much character and no small amount of horror to Mark of Faith as well.

My one criticism of Mark of Faith is that the main antagonist is largely absent from the story and this makes the final conflict one which feels a tad underwhelming. Of course, the point is that Evangeline and Ravara’s real conflict was within themselves, but a villain who is fully revealed in the last fifth of a book always feels like a speedbump rather than a wall our protagonists may not successfully cross.

Overall, Mark of Faith is a worthy addition to the Black Library, adding depth and character to the Sisters of Battle and some much needed diversity to the setting. Rachel Harrison has crafted compelling characters and evocative settings that should appeal to anyone who’s a fan of the Sororitas, strong, complex female characters and doing battle with eldritch evil from beyond time & space.

Four stars.

Read Mark of Faith by Rachel Harrison

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