Dave Higgins's Blog, page 68

Citadel: The Concordant Sequence by Matthew S. Cox

Cox creates a tale as much by what he does not say as by what he does, creating a young adult post-apocalyptic adventure that offers more than enough complexity to engage more mature readers as well. For eleven-year-old Kiera Quinn, life is an endless chain of school days so indistinguishable she could swear she’s lived … Continue reading Citadel: The Concordant Sequence by Matthew S. Cox

Hack or Heirophant?

Happy Birthday to Lovecraft. To celebrate, have a rather fine short film that echoes “From Beyond” without pastiching it. I feel Lovecraft would approve. The steady build of nothing being inexplicable followed by a sharp rise to a reveal fits his common story shape. Found footage is the 21st Century’s version of a box of … Continue reading Hack or Heirophant?

Spirits of a Glitch by Stephanie Flint & Isaac Flint

The Flints mix telepathy with a tale of an innocent caught up in politics to provide a powerful depiction of post-human paranoia. This is the third volume in the Glitch trilogy. Spoilers off the port bow! Following his success at removing glitches from the Legion Spore, Tim Zatsev is tasked with doing the same for … Continue reading Spirits of a Glitch by Stephanie Flint & Isaac Flint

Witnessing Cthulhu

Today has been spent reviewing a draft contract, so haven’t had time to craft engaging thoughts. As compensation, here’s an amusing little film that’s tangentially related to my day: Advertisements

Angel Descended by Matthew S. Cox

ARC: No cover available at time of review. Cox seamlessly fuses nuanced cyberpunk with magic-in-all-but-name to produce a novel that is both a character-driven thriller and a dramatic spectacular. This novel concludes Cox’s The Awakened series. Risk of spoilers ahead. Despite his failure to recruit all the Awakened to his cause, Archon is close to … Continue reading Angel Descended by Matthew S. Cox

Engn by Simon Kewin

Echoing the social schisms of the Industrial Revolution without sacrificing pace or visceral threat, Kewin forges a steampunk thriller that connect with both the mind and the heart. For as long as anyone in the village can remember, the machine-city of Engn has taken children, no more than one per family, to feed its constant … Continue reading Engn by Simon Kewin

The Unfilmable

Vestron’s recent release of HP Lovecraft’s Dagon and Beyond Re-Animator on Blu-ray stimulated the ongoing debate over whether the Lovecraft community would ever see a big-budget direct adaptation of his work to film. I (appropriately for the topic perhaps) fear not; ironically, not because of his relative obscurity but because of his relative popularity. The … Continue reading The Unfilmable

The Gray Wolf of Chicago by Garret Schuelke

Schuelke fuses superheroic battles with urban deprivation to create a tale of a hero who isn’t heroic with powers that don’t elevate him above the powerless. This novelette is a prequel to the Godan arc from Whup Jamboree. Gareth Manion, an ordinary young man with unusual wolf-like abilities, left his eminently forgettable home town for … Continue reading The Gray Wolf of Chicago by Garret Schuelke

Black and Incoherent Allies

In “The Call of Cthulhu”, Lovecraft paints the cultists captured in the swamps beyond New Orléans as crazed degenerates, people who have abandoned reason. So, it’s possible to write off their claims that supernatural beings committed the murders of which they’re accused as either shared delusion or self-aggrandising lie. However, if otherworldly entities did perform … Continue reading Black and Incoherent Allies

Dead Man’s Number by Matthew S. Cox

ARC: No cover available at time of review. Cox combines the tropes of post-apocalyptic action stories with the fundamentals of human character and the realities of engineering to create a tale that will satisfy both those who love Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome and those who were constantly niggled by who was processing all the … Continue reading Dead Man’s Number by Matthew S. Cox