Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 17

Review: The Happy Man by Eric C. Higgs [audiobook]

The Happy Man: A Tale of Horror

By Eric C. Higgs






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My original THE HAPPY MAN: A TALE OF HORROR audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

In the opening moments of Eric C. Higgs’s The Happy Man: A Tale of Horror, we learn of a murder – the Marsh family has been shot dead next door. We’re told this by Charles Ripley, whose first-person account gives us insight into the San Diego neighborhood he inhabits. The victims next door are not the only murders this neighborhood has seen recently, and Ripley recounts the events leading up to this penultimate act of violence. In fact, strange things have been brewing ever since the Marshes moved in…

Outside of his marriage, Ripley doesn’t have a lot of friends and few men he can connect with. He quickly bonds with the newly arrived Ruskin Marsh, and their wives form a fast friendship. As Ripley and Marsh become better acquainted with each other, Charles is introduced to a very rare work of writing from the sexual libertine Marquis de Sade. Entranced by Marsh’s own sexual exploits and lack of inhibitions, Ripley soon finds his own constraints diminishing and begins straying into extramarital affairs and, soon enough, darker exploits encouraged in de Sade’s writings.

Narrated by Matt Godfrey, The Happy Man is a slow-burn work of suburban horror that finely balances placidity with hair-raising, horrifying drama. This is a well-crafted work of psychosexual drama, and Godfrey’s reading of the material captures the feel of a neighborhood friend telling you a crazy story. At only a bit over 5 hours long, Godfrey keeps the narrative moving along nicely. Higgs, meanwhile, keeps the work grounded, and the moments of horror are never implausible or outlandish. Higgs earns each of his twists and turns by giving us believable characters and a pot-boiler narrative that slowly builds toward the inevitable.

Written in 1985, and recently reissued by Valancourt Books, The Happy Man taps into the anxiety of The Other with its themes of sexual promiscuity, casual drug use, fear of immigrants, and the rise of the Christian Right and their idea of what constitutes family values. While this latter is never overtly mentioned, given the period Higgs was writing in I can’t help but feel like much of this book is a response to the political climate surrounding it. Marsh is very much a hedonistic figure, the kind of guy Nancy Reagan would encourage you to Just Say No! to, and his arrival to this suburban neighborhood threatens to destroy everything his fellow yuppies hold dear, upsetting the balance of their perfectly coiffed all-American lifestyles. With its themes of racism and the sexual objectification of women, The Happy Man is very much a product of the 1980s, yet much of horrors its reacting to, and certainly expounding upon, still feel topical today. Higgs takes all the fears of 80s Evangelicalism and runs with them toward their worst-case finale – the destruction of families at the hands of an outsider. It’s telling, though, that while Mexican immigrants are often blamed for some of the seedier aspects of this white collar, upper-crust San Diego subdivision, the root cause of their problems lie much, much closer to home. Perhaps, in between the moments of eroticism and shocking violence, Higgs was trying to tell us something after all.



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Review: Forsaken (Unit 51 Book 2) by Michael McBride

Forsaken (A Unit 51 Novel)

By Michael McBride






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Genre absolutists will have a field day trying to classifying Forsaken, the second in Michael McBride's Unit 51 series. Like its Subhumanpredecessor, McBride seamlessly blends scientific thrills with plenty of action, globe-hopping adventure, and some moments of delicious horror, all of which add up to a gripping read that's difficult to adequately categorize.

Having spent the bulk of Subhuman slowly unravelling this series's premise with methodical deliberation and stage-setting for the books to follow, McBride drops readers straight into the deep-end in Forsaken. Six months after the startling discoveries beneath the Antarctic research base Atlantis, readers are reunited with the Unit 51 team as the book's core of researchers have returned to their research and explorations. Soon enough, each are drawn back into the thick of things as alien encounters in the Antarctic and the discovery of a buried Mexican temple point toward a common threat, as well as the emergence of a new enemy that may be pining for the end of the world.

It has been a while since I read Subhuman, so it took me a fair bit of time to reconnect with the women and men of Unit 51 and to try and remember who's who. McBride tosses in a lot of characters, a fair number of whom are disposable and make little more than a one-off appearance in order to be killed in various and interesting ways to help shuffle the plot along from point A to point B. This isn't a bad thing, in and of itself, but it does gives the primary members of Unit 51 a sense of imperviousness. While these characters constantly find themselves in peril and get all kinds of banged up along the way, I never really got the impression that they were in mortal danger simply because McBride reserves the bulk of Forsaken's grisly deaths for more minor, tertiary Redshirt characters. Character development is pretty thin and minuscule all around, a complaint I had regarding Subhuman as well, but one that is ultimately pretty low priority for me given how well everything else is done in these books. McBride keeps the pace amped up with kinetic fervor that I ultimately didn't much mind the disposable cardboard cutouts caught up in the mayhem. I was too busy flipping pages to find out what comes next and having myself a grand old time reading.

Despite my inability to connect with any of the characters, I found myself loving Forsaken simply because it's an incredible amount of fun. Fun goes a long way for me, and I can always count on McBride to deliver an entertaining read. Once he hits the halfway mark, Forsaken becomes an incredible actioneer, chockfull of adventure that carries the story along to the finish at a breathless, breakneck pace. The narrative hops between the various Unit 51 crew, ping-ponging between their ordeals in the Antarctic and the simultaneous, violent encounters in Mexico as the researchers explore the booby-trapped temple, and it's at this point that Forsaken becomes impossible to put down. This sucker is a roller-coaster, fueled on adrenaline and gunpowder, and with just as many turns and narrative wrinkles to jostle the car in a number of exciting ways.

Books like the Unit 51 series typically come in two flavors - dumb fun, like Matthew Reilly's Scarecrow books, or propulsive adventures wrapped around scientific plausibilities, like James Rollins's Sigma series. McBride falls in the latter category, exhibiting a rich scientific acumen, medical know-how, and plenty of attention to detail that gives both Unit 51 titles smarts to spare, as well as enough of a real-world pedigree to make the most speculative aspects of the plot wholly convincing.

I also like the fact that the Unit 51 series is shaping up to be a cohesive series. These aren't stand-alone adventures with all new stories for each installment. Unlike the Sigma series, Unit 51 is a legit, and massive, single story being told over multiple books in what I presume will be a trilogy. It's a safe bet a third Unit 51 title will be on the way, and I can guarantee I'll be reading it as soon as I can sink my claws into a copy.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the author.]



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Review: City of the Dead by Brian Keene [audiobook]

City of the Dead: Author's Preferred Edition

By Brian Keene






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My original City of the Dead: Author's Preferred Edition audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Set immediately following the final moments of Brian Keene’s Bram Stoker Award-winning The Rising, a small band of survivors manage to flee the zombie-infested suburbs of New Jersey. Their escape is not exactly scot-free, however, and Jim, Frankie, Martin, and Danny are hounded by a pursuing band of the undead who quite nearly finish them off. They’re rescued, though, and spirited away to Ramsey Tower, an impenetrable New York City skyscraper at the heart of the city where scores of survivors have found shelter and a chance at survival. Unfortunately for them, this rescue puts the survivors out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. Ramsey, an old, perverted, wealthy old tycoon with a reality TV show and dementia (hmmm…I wonder what other old, perverted, wealthy real estate tycoon with a crappy TV show and dementia Keene could have based Ramsey on?) will do anything to survive. Anything. And Ob, the undead leader of the zombie hordes, has set its eyes on Ramsey Tower and the death of everyone hiding within.

With the ground-rules of Keene’s zombie apocalypse well-established in The Rising, this Author’s Preferred Edition of City of the Dead ups the ante a fair deal and provides a wealth of gore, dismemberment, and mayhem. New York has become a necropolis, and in between all the flesh-chomping and headshots, Keene expounds on the goals of Ob and the demonic Siquissim. One of the things I’ve grown to appreciate about Keene’s The Rising series is the way the author infuses traditional zombie apocalypse tropes with a welcome dose of cosmic horror. Anybody looking for solid, edgy Romero-esque carnage will feel right at home with these two novels, and will likely appreciate the spark of originality Keene injects.

The Rising‘s narrator, Joe Hempel, returns to the microphone for City of the Dead to deliver a lively reading. Having narrated more than 150 books, Hempel has a comfortable, familiar reading style that makes for a companionable listen, one that’s smooth all the way through. His production skills are top-notch, as well, and you won’t find any blips or aberrations in the recording to yank you out of the story.

Readers who bemoaned the ending to The Rising can rest assured that Keene delivers a definitive finale to City of the Dead. Personally, I found the ending to The Rising to be very well-done, but I know there’s also a surprising number of readers out there who need every single thing spelled out for them and who are unable to infer details unless they’re beat over the head with them. Well, fear not – City of the Dead has an ending and nobody need fear the mistaken appearance of a cliffhanger!

City of the Dead takes all the best aspects of The Rising and plumbs its cosmic mythological depths a bit more. In some ways, it’s a nastier, darker, dirtier work than the prior story, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Ramsey in particular is a real piece of work, and Keene gives his living characters enough warmth and humanity to stab you in the heart when you least expect it. Thankfully, Keene softens some of the considerable tension and long, violent action set-pieces with moments of dark humor, usually thanks to a cat named God, as well as a few scenes of heartwarming familial repartee. City of the Dead is definitely worth a visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.



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Review: Breaking the World by Jerry Gordon

Breaking the World

By Jerry Gordon






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was twelve years old when the Waco siege was broadcast all over TV and David Koresh became a household name back in 1993. I wasn't much interested in the news or world affairs back then, but I remember seeing the burning Mount Carmel Center and the face of Koresh, a self-ascribed End Times prophet who, according to the FBI, was a gun runner operating a meth lab and holding the members of his cult hostage.

Much has been made in the intervening years as to the legitimacy of the government's claims in regards to Koresh's illicit activities within the compound (he may not have been an arms dealer, but he did have sexual relations with plenty of underage girls) and who initiated the violence that led to a 51-day siege that ended with Mount Carmel in flames and 80-some Branch Davidians dead, including Koresh.

Jerry Gordon drops readers right into the thick of the FBI's initial raid after an attempt to serve warrants is botched, as seen through the viewpoint of fifteen-year-old Cyrus. Cyrus and his friends are not believers, but jaded teenagers whose parents are fervent believers in Koresh's prophecies. According to Koresh, the Seven Seals are breaking. A meningitis outbreak across the Mexican border and the FBI siege are signs of the apocalypse, and Koresh has received word from God that this is it - the End of Days are upon them, and it begins right here and now at Mount Carmel.

At the center of Breaking the World is an intriguing question - what if Koresh was right? What if his apocalyptic prophecies were accurate and the portents surrounding Mount Caramel and the FBI siege signaled the breaking of the first two of the seven seals to unleash the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Through Cyrus, Gordon gives us a highly intriguing viewpoint on the Branch Davidians and on Koresh himself. While Koresh is certainly firm in his beliefs, the majority of the Davidians are confused and astonished that the FBI would attack them, questioning why tanks and attack helicopters are being unleashed upon a church. That Cyrus and his friends are not themselves believers provides plenty of meat for an interesting character arc for each, and they find their own beliefs challenged as the siege wears on and becomes unquestionably apocalyptic in its own right. Even through the first-person perspective of Cyrus alone, that Gordon still manages to give us enough growth and insight into Breaking the World's other major players is a great achievement, particularly in regards to Cyrus's relationship with Koresh. Koresh fancies himself as a father figure to the cult's children, and this generates a tense relationship between him and Cyrus that plays out in intriguing ways. Gordon constantly forces us to question Koresh's sincerity, establishing another bit of tension between his fictional narrative and what we know (or think we know) of this real-life drama.

If Breaking the World had solely been about life within the Branch Davidian compound during the FBI standoff, I would have been perfectly content with this book. Gordon, however, ups the ante considerable with a mid-game twist that is a serious game changer. I have little doubt that some readers may hate this particular aspect, but it's one that dropped my jaw all the way to the floor and took me completely off guard. What Gordon does here is ballsy, of the big brassy kind, and I have to applaud him. It's a move that I'm fairly certain will land Breaking the World as one of my best reads of 2018, and I'll be thinking about this work for a good long while.

Breaking the World is not 100% perfect as the narrative loses a bit of steam late in the book's second half while Gordon sets up some pieces for the inevitable sequel. I will say, though, that I am eagerly anticipating the follow-up and seeing what comes next. What Gordon does right, he does with incredible exception, and few books have jolted me or left me clamoring for a follow-up quite like this.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from Apex Book Company.]



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Review: Aliens: Dead Orbit by James Stokoe

Aliens: Dead Orbit

By James Stokoe






My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Given all the buzz that had surrounded its initial release, I was pretty jazzed to read Aliens: Dead Orbit, written and illustrated by James Stokoe. Unfortunately, this is a pretty disappointing exercise all around, and one that's utterly derivative of the source material it's licensed from.

Stokoe doesn't try to reinvent the wheel here, but nor does he try to do anything original or fresh. Dead Orbit is an utterly by-the-book Alien story that often times feels more like a game of swapsies. Trade in the Sulaco for a Weyland-Yutani space station with only six inhabitants responding to a passing ship's distress call, and you pretty well know where it's all headed from here. Our team of orbiters find three humans in cryo and, after nearly accidentally killing all of them in a coolant leak while reawakening them, transport the bodies back to their space station. It's all cut-and-paste Alien 101 stuff from there.

Besides being an Alien clone, Stokoe attempts to gives the story a bit of fresh polish by basing much of the story in flashback. This technique is a bit jolting and clumsily handled initially, with little in the way of segue to transition readers into what's happening, but as you grow accustomed to Stokoe's storytelling methods it does serve to keep reader's on their toes, oftentimes jarringly so. The grand finale gets a bit muddled and confusing, though, as you're dropped in and out dual climaxes in the story's recent past and lone survivor present. While it's not entirely disappointing, and Stokoe does create a few neat story beats, it's nothing that hasn't been done plenty of times before.

I also was not a fan of Stokoe's artwork, although plenty of other readers and reviewers seem to have found a lot to like on this front. I found it anime influences too garish and messy, with faces composed oddly enough to make many of the characters look unintentionally disfigured. I prefer a cleaner style, and Stokoe's lines just didn't work for me. His cover art for the individual four-issue run, however, did present some exciting concepts and beautiful artwork that I quite admired. He does do fine job in recreating the gritty industrial aspects of the Alien universe though, and while his artwork isn't pretty to look at it, it does lend a certain tension and unease to the proceedings.

Despite the critical raves surrounding Dead Orbit, it's ultimately not a work I would recommend. I just have too many reservations about the story, its execution, and presentation.



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Review: Apocalypse Nyx by Kameron Hurley

Apocalypse Nyx

By Kameron Hurley






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Apocalypse Nyx is exactly the kind of science fiction I like - it's dark, violent, and has, at its core, a deeply flawed heroine who is hard as steel and has whiskey running through her veins. Nyx is a gal that sees few problems that can't be solved with her scattergun, and is always a hairsbreadth away from cutting off all ties with those that work for her and, if she were a more emotionally accessible and less war-wounded woman, people she might even call friends if she were drunk enough. Nyx is rugged and mean, and this collection from Kameron Hurley serves as a wonderful introduction to the former assassin turned ultra-violent problem solver, particularly if, like me, you haven't read the Bel Dame Apocrypha series proper.

I believe most, if not all, of the stories collected within Apocalypse Nyx were initially written and published for Hurley's Patreon supporters prior to their publication by Tachyon in this single volume. Gathered here are five stories set within the original Bel Dame Apocrypha, but which do not require any prior reading. You might get more out of these stories, or welcome a reintroduction to Nyx and her world, if you've been following this character previously but it's also highly accessible to newcomers.

The world Hurley has created here is as intense as it is interesting. The alien desert world Nyx inhabits is caught up in perpetual war, and Nasheenians like her are drafted to fight against their rival, darker-skinned Chenjans. The ruling body is highly matriarchal, but also heavily influenced by Muslim doctrine, with daily routine calls for prayer and a plethora of masques. On the technology front, bugs are king. Society has adapted to and grown reliant on insect-based tech - beetles are ground up to power vehicles, and form a communications network based on pheromones and body colors. Even the bullet casings and walls are rooted in creative uses of various bug life.

Story-wise, Apocalypse Nyx has a welcoming stand-alone episodic structure to it (quick, somebody call Netflix!). Although the various jobs and missions Nyx and her crew take in order to stay solvent are unrelated, taken as a whole there is a decent, if minor, character arc at play binding these stories together. I suspect there's a deeper arc to Nyx across the main trilogy, but I also kind of suspect that Nyx may be too violent, introverted, alcoholic, and deeply set in her ways to grow too much. Besides, she's more interesting without the happily ever after, at least in this volume, and Nyx is the type of character that it's hard to even imagine a happy ending for anyway.

I've been wanting to read about Nyx for quite a long while now, but somehow never made room for her. I happy to have finally corrected that with Apocalypse Nyx, and I now feel a greater urgency in exploring the trilogy of novels focusing on her. After this book and Hurley's prior release, The Stars Are Legion, if I've learned anything it's that from here on out all new releases from Kameron Hurley are to automatically move to the top of my mountain of TBRs. Count me among the number of faithful converts, because I am officially a fan of Nyx. This lady is one serious bad-ass.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



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Review: They Feed by Jason Parent

They Feed

By Jason Parent






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


While I enjoy and appreciate the outdoors, I am not what one might consider an outdoor enthusiast. I've been camping exactly once. Well, technically twice if you count the first attempt that was aborted about an hour into arriving at the camp site in favor of getting a hotel room instead. I enjoy air conditioning, clean bathrooms, and showers that are neither filthy nor coin operated far too much to ever consider roughing it again for an extended period of time. And while my single experience with camping wasn't exactly as bad as I had imagined (we didn't get eaten by bears or slaughtered by a Predator), it's not something I'm in a hurry to ever do again. Books like Edward Lorn's Fairy Lights and Jason Parent's They Feed only serve to reinforce my non-camping attitude and help justify why I think this whole mode of vacationing really isn't much of a vacation at all.

Fresh out of prison after six years, Tyler returns to the Kansas campground that turned his life upside down and inside out. When he was sixteen, Tyler accidentally shot and killed another boy. Now out of lock-up, Tyler can't help but return to the murder site. Following him is the dead boy's sister, Dakota, who has reasons of her own for being in the park...reasons that get interrupted by a pair of campers who come under attack by a swarm of mysterious, bloodthirsty creatures. Trapped in a cabin and surrounded, Tyler and Dakota, and a handful of other visitors, must endure the invading monstrosities and survive the night.

They Feed is a pretty straightforward creature feature that blends together a few familiar horror tropes. You've got the cabin in the woods, a siege invasion, a cast of human characters with few reasons to trust one another, and a whole heaping mess of monsters. It feels a bit like a slasher flick crossbred with The Blob, or the season one episode of The X-Files, "Darkness Falls." All this works together to make a pretty damn good read.

Parent's creatures are an interesting creation, a leech-like horror that packs plenty of terror in its singular form, but that can also work together and coordinate its attacks. They're viciously violent, and Parent gives us a number of grotesque scenes that work wonderfully well to illustrate just how screwed all these campers, hikers, and visitors are.

Thankfully, They Feed also has a good number of interesting characters to keep us invested. One couple finds themselves lost in the woods, in addition to living in the midst of a perpetual marital spat, and a group of frat boys help create a few unexpected alliances between survivors, particularly Dakota and Tyler. United by death, Dakota and Tyler are certainly the most intriguing pair of characters here, and their relationship yo-yos through a number of ups and downs as they attempt to live through the night.

The creatures in They Feed sure are hungry, and you don't want to accidentally find yourself on the menu. Action-packed and delightfully gory, Jason Parent delivers a solid reminder to stay out of the woods.

[Note: I received an advance reader's copy of The Feed from Sinister Grin Press via Hook of a Book Media and Publicity.]



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Review: The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne

The Naturalist (The Naturalist Series)

By Andrew Mayne






My rating: 2 of 5 stars


If Dan Brown wrote a CBS-style crime thriller, it'd probably look a lot like Andrew Mayne's The Naturalist. It's big dumb fun, quickly paced, and routinely threatened this reader's willing suspension of disbelief with a number of inanities, ridiculousness, and just flat-out stupid plot points. The Naturalist is a highly readable work of fluffy entertainment, one that is strangely compelling but also not very good.

Professor Theo Cray is a bioinformatics researcher, and when one of his former students is found dead in the woods, he's the prime suspect until forensics lead authorities to believe she was mauled to death by a bear. Thanks to a case of mistaken identity, Cray is inadvertently given blood samples of the victim, which allows him to engage in some lone-hero forensic shenanigans that lead to the discovery that the bear hairs belong a tagged animal that died more than a year previously. Unable to let the case go, Cray uses his specialized knowledge in bioinformatics and learns of a number of missing women. Soon enough, he's on the trail of a serial killer who has somehow stayed off the grid for thirty years and may have killed hundreds and hundreds of women.

If none of the above gives you pause, The Naturalist might be right up your alley. In order to discuss why The Naturalist didn't work for me, though, I need to point to some specifics, some truly bugfuck, batshit moments of high implausibility that really had me scratching my head. As such, I'm issuing a big SPOILER WARNING from here on out. Consider yourself warned.

Throughout The Naturalist, Mayne spares hardly a single thriller trope to get from point A to point B. We have the lone wolf hero who police refuse to even listen to, let alone believe, and who are perfectly content to ignore the discovery of all these butchered women. There's a hooker with a heart of gold, and the small ex-Army waitress hottie who, despite Cray's social ineptitude and naivete, still wants to bang our mousy, intrepid researcher. At some point in these types of thrillers it's a sure beg that our lone wolf hero will eventually be targeted by police as Prime Suspect #1. Well, Mayne begins the freaking book with that tired old trope, and then pulls it out of his butt a few more time throughout for good measure.

Cray's doctorate and research has allowed him to learn a whole lot about a very small subject, leaving him oblivious to pretty much everything else. As he confesses a number of times, he doesn't know a lot about people. He can't read social cues, doesn't pick up on innuendo, and can't even decipher a text message from a hooker that reads "1004BJ". This cluelessness is, perhaps, meant to give Cray an easy pass by readers so that once he starts digging up dead bodies all across Montana and texting photos of the corpses to police, even going so far at one point as to load a murder victim into his SUV and dump the body off at the local police station, we're supposed to just accept this level of idiocy as par for the course.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get over these hurdles, even as I watched with stony bemusement as Cray half-asses his way into stealing evidence, snatching a corpse from the morgue, and destroying crime scenes one right after another. And despite his reputation for these shenanigans eventually preceding him everywhere he goes, the police response is typically a bemusement equal to my own. After dumping a corpse off at the police station, Cray merely has to give a statement and is allowed on his merry way to go pilfer another body.

The amount of WTFery is nested like Russian dolls throughout the entirety of The Naturalist, right down to its over-to-top, laugh out loud, implausible finale. Look, Cray is decidedly not a tough guy. He's a bookish nerd who gets beat up multiple times by various people, and Mayne still would have us believe that this guy is able to single-handedly take on an apex predator of a serial killer, a killer who has gone all Terminator in the book's final moments. Somehow, despite being shot three times and having previously been beaten unconscious and having his jaw fractured, Mayne still expects us to believe it's plausible that Cray would think, in all-caps, "I'M GOING TO TEAR THIS GUY APART!" and go all Wolverine beserker rage on a massive, bloodthirsty murderer.

Did I mention I found this book utterly ridiculous? Because I did.

That said, The Naturalist is stupidly entertaining but also perversely fascinating, and the scientific backbone Mayne weaves throughout is really interesting stuff. The research and thought processes that Cray brings to the table helps bring a measure of seriousness to an otherwise inanely written story, and Cray's eye for detail in the natural world is well done, lending a surprising amount of credibility to his field work. Unfortunately, when Cray isn't in the field and Mayne isn't focused on wowing us with science, the story takes some pretty steep nosedives.

Readers expecting a serial killer thriller in the vein of Silence of the Lambs would do well to look elsewhere. If you don't mind a silly, check your brain at the door, beach read that's more comic book adventure than serious, well-studied suspense, you might do all right with this one if you keep expectations firmly in check. The Naturalist is ultimately pretty stupid, but at least it's entertainingly so. I didn't much care for it in the end, but I at least got my $3 worth of entertainment, and Mayne keeps the pacing cranked up to a high page-turning level. I found myself wanting to know how things were going to shake out, and morbidly curious as to just how much sillier it could get.



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Ten Spring Reads To Watch For

Yeah, the shift toward warmer weather and cool evenings sipping beer after some grueling lawncare is great and all, but for me the best part of spring is the blossoming of new books. From the looks of things, there's a boatload of promising intrigue, blood-curdling chills, and action-packed adventures ahead. While it's a sure bet I have plenty of other books in my TBR and review pile, here's the Top 10 spring reads I am most looking forward to.

One Way by S.J. Morden

April 10, 2018 | Orbit

When the small crew of ex cons working on Mars start getting murdered, everyone is a suspect in this terrifying science fiction thriller from bona fide rocket scientist and award winning-author S. J. Morden.

It's the dawn of a new era - and we're ready to colonize Mars. But the company that's been contracted to construct a new Mars base, has made promises they can't fulfill and is desperate enough to cut corners. The first thing to go is the automation . . . the next thing they'll have to deal with is the eight astronauts they'll send to Mars, when there aren't supposed to be any at all.

Frank - father, architect, murderer - is recruited for the mission to Mars with the promise of a better life, along with seven of his most notorious fellow inmates. But as his crew sets to work on the red wasteland of Mars, the accidents mount up, and Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all. As the list of suspect grows shorter, it's up to Frank to uncover the terrible truth before it's too late.

Dr. S. J. Morden trained as a rocket scientist before becoming the author of razor-sharp, award-winning science fiction. Perfect for fans of Andy Weir's The Martian and Richard Morgan, One Way takes off like a rocket, pulling us along on a terrifying, epic ride with only one way out.

They Feed by Jason Parent

April 15, 2018 | Sinister Grin Press

The night uncovers all we wish not to see.

A troubled man enters a dusky park before sunset. A young woman follows, hidden in shadow. Both have returned to the park to take back something the past has stolen from them, to make right six long years of suffering, and to find justice or perhaps redemption—or maybe they'll settle for some old-fashioned revenge.

But something evil is alive and awake in those woods, creatures that care nothing for human motivations. They’re driven by their own insatiable need: a ravenous, bottomless hunger.

The campgrounds are full tonight, and the creatures are starving. Before the night is over, they will feed.

An unrelenting tale of terror from Jason Parent, acclaimed author of People of the Sun and What Hides Within.

Breaking the World by Jerry Gordon

April 17, 2018 | Apex Books

Cyrus doesn't believe in David's predictions, and he's not interested in being part of a cult. But after the sudden death of his brother, his parents split up and his mom drags him to Waco, Texas against his will. At least he's not alone. His friends, Marshal and Rachel, have equally sad stories that end with them being dumped at the Branch Davidian Church.

Together, they're the trinity of nonbelievers, atheist teens caught between a soon to be infamous cult leader, an erratic FBI, and an epidemic that may confirm the worst of the church's apocalyptic prophecies. With tanks surrounding the Branch Davidians and tear gas in the air, Cyrus and his friends know one thing for certain: They can't count on the adults to save them.

In his debut novel, Jerry Gordon takes readers deep inside the longest standoff in law enforcement history for an apocalyptic thriller that challenges the news media's reporting of the event, the wisdom of militarizing domestic law enforcement, and the blurry line between religion and cult.

The Atrocities by Jeremy C. Shipp

April 17, 2018 | Tor.com

Jeremy Shipp brings you THE ATROCITIES, a haunting gothic fantasy of a young ghost's education

When Isabella died, her parents were determined to ensure her education wouldn't suffer.

But Isabella's parents had not informed her new governess of Isabella's... condition, and when Ms Valdez arrives at the estate, having forced herself through a surreal nightmare maze of twisted human-like statues, she discovers that there is no girl to tutor.

Or is there...?

Forsaken (A Unit 51 Novel) by Michael McBride

April 24, 2018 | Pinnacle

IT HAS SURVIVED
At a research station in Antarctica, scientists discovered a strange and ancient organism. 
They thought they could study it, classify it, control it. They couldn’t.
 
IT HAS THRIVED
Six months ago, a secret paramilitary team called Unit 51 was sent to the station.
They thought the creature was dead, the nightmare was over. It wasn’t.
 
IT HAS EVOLVED
In a Mexican temple, archeologists uncover the remains of a half-human hybrid. They believe
it is related to the creature in Antarctica, a dark thing of legend that is still alive—and still evolving. They believe it needs a new host to feed, to mutate, to multiply. They’re right. And they’re next. And the human race might just be headed for extinction  . . .

Fury From the Tomb: The Institute for Singular Antiquities Book 1 by S.J. Morden

May 1, 2018 | Angry Robot Books

Mummies, grave-robbing ghouls, hopping vampires, and evil monks  beset a young archaeologist, in this fast-paced Indiana Jones-style adventure

Saqqara, Egypt, 1888, and in the booby-trapped tomb of an ancient sorcerer, Rom, a young Egyptologist, makes the discovery of a lifetime: five coffins and an eerie, oversized sarcophagus. But the expedition seems cursed, for after unearthing the mummies, all but Rom die horribly. He faithfully returns to America with his disturbing cargo, continuing by train to Los Angeles, home of his reclusive sponsor. When the train is hijacked by murderous banditos in the Arizona desert, who steal the mummies and flee over the border, Rom – with his benefactor’s rebellious daughter, an orphaned Chinese busboy, and a cold-blooded gunslinger – must ride into Mexico to bring the malevolent mummies back. If only mummies were their biggest problem…

Obscura by Joe Hart

May 8, 2018 | Thomas & Mercer

She’s felt it before... the fear of losing control. And it’s happening again.

In the near future, an aggressive and terrifying new form of dementia is affecting victims of all ages. The cause is unknown, and the symptoms are disturbing. Dr. Gillian Ryan is on the cutting edge of research and desperately determined to find a cure. She’s already lost her husband to the disease, and now her young daughter is slowly succumbing as well. After losing her funding, she is given the unique opportunity to expand her research. She will travel with a NASA team to a space station where the crew has been stricken with symptoms of a similar inexplicable psychosis—memory loss, trances, and violent, uncontrollable impulses.

Crippled by a secret addiction and suffering from creeping paranoia, Gillian finds her journey becoming a nightmare as unexplainable and violent events plague the mission. With her grip weakening on reality, she starts to doubt her own innocence. And she’s beginning to question so much more—like the true nature of the mission, the motivations of the crew, and every deadly new secret space has to offer.

Merging thrilling science-fiction adventure with mind-bending psychological suspense, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Joe Hart explores both the vast mysteries of outer space and the even darker unknown that lies within ourselves.

Hell Divers III: Deliverance by Nicholas Sansbury-Smith

May 15, 2018 | Blackstone Publishing

Left for dead on the nightmarish surface of the planet, Commander Michael Everhart and his team of Hell Divers barely escape with their lives aboard a new airship called Deliverance. After learning that Xavier “X” Rodriguez may still be alive, they mount a rescue mission for the long-lost hero.

In the skies, the Hive is falling apart, but Captain Jordan is more determined than ever to keep humanity in their outdated lifeboat. He will do whatever it takes to keep the ship in the air—even murder. But when he learns the Hell Divers he exiled have found Deliverance, he changes course for a new mission—find the divers, kill them, and make their new ship his own.

In the third installment of the USA Today bestselling Hell Divers series, Michael and his fellow divers fight across the mutated landscape in search of X. But what they find will change everything.

Blood Standard by Laird Barron

May 29, 2018 | G.P. Putnman's Sons

Award-winning author Laird Barron makes his crime fiction debut with a novel set in the underbelly of upstate New York that's as hardboiled and punchy as a swift right hook to the jaw--a classic noir for fans of James Ellroy and John D. Macdonald.

Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska--he's tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the moneymaking scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear. Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn't one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid.

The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly

June 12, 2018 | Atria/Emily Bestler Boks

From internationally bestselling author and “creative genius who has few equals in either horror fiction or the mystery genre” (New York Journal of Books) comes a gripping thriller starring Private Investigator Charlie Parker. When the body of a woman—who apparently died in childbirth—is discovered, Parker is hired to track down both her identity and her missing child.

In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the dead young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby.

Private detective Charlie Parker is hired by a lawyer to shadow the police investigation and find the infant but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in much more than a missing child…someone prepared to leave bodies in his wake.

And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring and a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman.

I'm also planning on digging into several titles that have been lingering in my review pile for quite a while, including the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Kill Creek by Scott Thomas. What's on your reading list for the next couple months ahead?

Interview: Chris Sorensen, author of The Nightmare Room

Chris Sorensen's debut horror novel, The Nightmare Room, released Jan. 25, 2018 in paperback and ebook, and has gone on to receive a number of positive reviews from readers and critics alike.

Chris Sorensen is an award-winning narrator of more than 200 audiobooks and author of the middle-grade book, The Mad Scientists of New Jersey. In January, he made his adult horror debut with the release of The Nightmare Room, book one of The Messy Man series. 

The Nightmare Room is one hell of a debut, too. Hunter Shea, author of Mail Order Massacres and a favorite of High Fever Books, said of The Nightmare Room, "This is one haunted house that had me running for the door! Blood frozen. Spine chilled. A must read." Shea is far from alone in this assessment, and since its release The Nightmare Room has racked up more than a score of highly positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and has earned its share of critical acclaim from sites like Horror After Dark and Horror Maiden's Book Reviews, as well as a 5-star review from this very site right here. If you haven't already read my thoughts on Sorensen's latest, go check it out!

Sorensen was kind enough to take some time out of his writing and narrating duties to briefly step into a different kind of nightmare room, speaking with High Fever Books about his latest release. 

Looking at your background, you’ve narrated a number of children’s and non-fiction titles, and previously published a middle-grade book, The Mad Scientists of New Jersey. Tell us a bit about your background with horror – what made you want to dive straight into the deep end with The Nightmare Room?

Horror is my first love. As a child, I would set my alarm for midnight and sneak out to the den to watch our local creature feature broadcast, Pyewacket Presents. I was a college faculty brat, so I had full access to the school’s library. I spent my summers poring over books about horror films, mythology and Bigfoot (books our public library didn’t have). I made zombie films with my friends and built haunted houses in my basement. So, I come by it naturally. I’ve written a number of horror screenplays (one currently in development) and have come to learn that the road between the page and the screen is very, very long. There’s an immediacy about self-publishing that’s very exciting to me. Plus, I get to have control over layout, cover and (when I finally find time for it) the audiobook. And why wouldn’t I dive into the deep end? That’s where the dark things lurk.

Pete Larson, the everyman caught up in the terrors of The Nightmare Room is an audiobook narrator. Clearly, you drew on a lot of personal experience in crafting this character’s profession. There’s also a deeply personal, heartbreaking loss fueling Pete and his wife. I apologize if this is too sensitive a topic, but did you also experience a similar tragedy that you drew upon? We horror authors have a tendency to bleed onto the page – how deep did you cut yourself?

The grief and loss are real while the actual situation is not. I started writing this story during a time when my wife and I were caring for an elderly relative of hers while at the same time shuttling back and forth to see my father, who was battling cancer. There was a period of weeks where death visited up close and personal—it permeated my life. Yeah…but rather than cutting, I think it was like letting certain feelings go. Honoring them and then moving on. Until the next book, at least.

The Nightmare Room is billed as the first book in The Messy Man series. Generally speaking, what’s your plan for this series moving ahead? What do readers have to look forward to and when can we expect book two?

Gearing up for my sophomore slump! No, I’m making a bit of a perspective shift in Book 2. Same storyline, different POV. Also, diving deeper into the heart of the mystery. Uncovering more answers, more questions, more ghosts. Looking at summer release of Book 2, The Hungry Ones, and shooting for a Halloween release of Book 3, The Messy Man.

The Larson's get some unexpected visitors after moving into their new home. Do you have any first-hand accounts of hauntings or encounters with the supernatural you’d like to share?

I thought I saw the ghost of a king when I was little. Told the neighborhood kids and got in trouble for scaring them. I once woke up behind myself (I guess I was the ghost). And in Colorado, my friends owned an 1890’s hospital that they turned into a hotel. Staying there one night (all alone in massive hotel – yeah, what was I thinking), I saw a shadow peer up at me over the end of the bed. That’s it. That’s all I got.

I would say that's more than enough! You’re a member of the Horror Writer’s Association, and you mentioned you have a horror screenplay currently in development. You also have a number of other screenplay and playwright credits to your name, works that are either firmly in the horror genre or at least horror-adjacent. Upon reading The Nightmare Room it was immediately apparent that you’re well-versed in the genre and you certainly know how to craft a good scare. What works of horror are your big touchstones and what’s influenced your work leading up to The Nightmare Room?

The Shining will always be the book I point to—the relationships, the danger, the amorphous quality to the evil. The audiobook version is quite good. Ray Bradbury’s work taught me that there could be poetry in the unusual. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a marvel. I love the old Universal monster movies, can’t pass up a B movie (some of my favs: Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, Blood on Satan’s Claw, Prophecy) and am an avid collector of books and videos on Bigfoot. Eager to find new influences in the wealth of today’s horror writers. Like you!

Flattery will get you everywhere, Chris! Thanks for that. :D Now, where can readers find out more about you and your work? Plug away!

The website is up: casorensenwrite.com.

Figure I’d better get Book 2 and a couple novellas under my belt before I start hitting people up for follows. (That doesn't mean you have to wait, though! You can follow Chris on Twitter right now. - Ed.) I'm itching to have more to plug! This has been a great way to start. So glad people are responding to my first book for adults. I have about thirty others lined up, tapping their feet, waiting for me to ‘get to it’. Once it’s ‘got’ I’ll let you know.

I do hope you'll keep me posted! I'll definitely be on the look out for The Hungry Ones this summer, and I suspect so will a number of other readers, as well. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I would like to give a special shout out to Hunter Shea who took the time to meet with me, offer up some contacts and give me my first review. He helped me make it real.

Hunter's a terrific guy! Chris, thank you so much for your time and agreeing to the interview. It's been a pleasure!

Thanks again for giving my ghosts a chance!

New York audiobook narrator Peter Larson and his wife Hannah head to his hometown of Maple City to help Peter's ailing father and to put a recent tragedy behind them. Though the small, Midwestern town seems the idyllic place to start afresh, Peter and Hannah will soon learn that evil currents flow beneath its surface.

They move into an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town—a house purchased by Peter's father at auction and kept secret until now—and start to settle into their new life.

But as Peter sets up his recording studio in a small basement room, disturbing things begin to occur—mysterious voices haunt audio tracks, malevolent shadows creep about the house. And when an insidious presence emerges from the woodwork, Peter must face old demons in order to save his family and himself.

Buy The Nightmare Room At Amazon