Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 18

Review: Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Damien Angelica Walters has been on my radar for a while now, ever since the release of her novel Paper Tigers back in 2016. I have that book on my Kindle, although Cry Your Way Home is the first of her work I've actually managed to read thus far. Thankfully, this short story collection is a solid introduction to her skill and range as a storyteller.

Cry Your Way Home collects seventeen of stories that run the gamut from fairy tale to Lovecraftian horror, from psychological thriller to comic book-styled escapades. The majority of these dark works focus on women, predominately as teenagers and young adults, and their relationships, family lives, and places in society, all of which are often upended by the common events of life itself, before being further wrinkled by the intrusion of the supernatural and paranormal. Stories of loss bleed their way into Twilight Zone-esque ghost stories or, as is the case with "The Floating Girls: A Documentary", inexplicable cases of disappearance.

Loss provides one of the major themes across a number of these works, but I found the real spine of the work to be one of transformation. We have adolescent girls on the cusp of their adulthood as women, figures who become monsters, who disappear into others, who are forced into the spotlight and demanded they adapt or perish, and who must assume new roles in order to survive. Tucked in alongside these issues of transformation are questions of identity - who are you once you've been stripped of friends, family, memory, your job, or even life itself? In some instances, the answers are straight-forward; in others, the answers, and perhaps even the right questions, are more nebulous and deeper than the occasional vignette can provide. In these latter, it's up to the reader to provide an outcome and discover meaning, to do a good part of the heavy lifting. This is certainly no bad thing in my accounting.

While Cry Your Way Home presents a generous sample of Walters' capabilities, it also leaves me certain that I now must get to Paper Tigers sooner rather than later. I'm eager to explore more of Walters's works and see what other dark explorations she can lead me toward.

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



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Review: Primitive by J.F. Gonzalez

Primitive

By J. F. Gonzalez






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After being introduced to J.F. Gonzalez's work during the summer of 2017 with the Clickers trilogy (quartet, if you include Clickers vs. Zombies, which I haven't read yet), I knew this would be an author I'd be returning to. When Brian Keene, friend to and occasional co-author with Mr. Gonzalez, announced Primitive would be the first selection in The Horror Show with Brian Keene 2018 Book Club, kicking off the New Year with an author whose backlist I'm intent on catching up on seemed like a no-brainer.

After humanity becomes infected with a virus that resets the evolutionary clock, a small band of survivors find themselves fighting for their lives against primitive savages. All across the world, modern-day humans are reduced to Neanderthal-like states. Those that have miraculously avoided infection and the subsequent transformation are enemy number one, and so David, his wife and daughter, and a small handful of others, are mercilessly hunted. Alongside the rise of these infected Primitives comes something much darker, something much older, something far more apocalyptic...

Primitive takes the post-apocalyptic genre and turns it sideways, injecting it with a solid backbone of survival horror. Gonzalez kicks his story off in grand fashion, pushing the pedal to the metal right from the get-go, only rarely pausing to deliver moments of exposition or explanation in between rapid-fire gunfights and large fits of violence.

This is a straight-forward, all the way through book of action and man-vs-monster mayhem, with a few Big Ideas tossed in along the way. While Gonzalez avoids the scientific nitty-gritty of bioengineered viruses and infections, there is plenty of nifty speculations on the religious and occult rituals of ancient man and their myths, and why supporting evidence of such practices is quite limited in the archeological record. I don't expect a lot of anthropological diversions in my horror fiction, but when they do come along I will happily and greedily suck them up. Here, Gonzalez makes some grand, and grandly satisfying, speculations in service to the story. It's in these extrapolations on ancient man and mythology where Primitive really raises the bar and becomes something special, inserting a welcome dose of originality into a familiar, well-trod genre.

Any criticisms I have with this book are small and involve a few moments of repetition. There's a few instances where characters repeat themselves, inner thoughts are pondered then immediately and sometimes clumsily voiced, and similar bits of exposition are relayed multiple times over the course a few chapters. It's certainly nothing severe enough to be a deal breaker for me, and the story is galvanizing enough to propel me through such moments with little fuss. Besides which, these small issues are meager in comparison to the things Gonzalez does so damn well, which is crafting compulsively page-turning pulp. It's hard for me have too many quibbles in the midst of so much sheer fun, and entertainment-wise this was a perfect diversion.



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BROKEN SHELLS Cover Reveal!

Have you ever received one of those Money Carlo games in the mail? It's a Match-and-Win scam that desperate car dealerships use to lure people into the showroom in order to sell them a new vehicle. You get the ticket, see that you won some cash, and call the dealership to get your winnings. They tell you to come on in and they'll verify the ticket, and that's when they grab you by the neck and sink their teeth in.

Early in the summer of 2016, I received a Money Carlo ticket in the mail. I was a big winner, too! Money was scarce, the wife and I were tightening our belts, and just for a brief moment, I saw a small flicker of light at the promise of easy money. And then I realized how stupid that was, that there's no such thing as easy money, and that this was a scam. This mental process took all of one second, maybe two, but by then the gears were already turning. My mind was already going What If? 

What if a down on their luck guy got this ticket right when they needed it? What if the promise of easy money was too good to ignore? And even believing -- knowing -- it was a scam, they went to the car dealership anyway? What was the worst that could happen? 

The ideas began churning, and that June I set about writing the first draft of a subterranean horror novella that would eventually become Broken Shells. You could even say it was inspired by a true story! 

Here's the official synopsis:

Antoine DeWitt is a man down on his luck. Broke and recently fired, he knows the winning Money Carlo ticket that has landed in his mailbox from a car dealership is nothing more than a scam. The promise of five thousand dollars, though, is too tantalizing to ignore.

Jon Dangle is a keeper of secrets, many of which are buried deep beneath his dealership. He works hard to keep them hidden, but occasionally sacrifices are required, sacrifices who are penniless, desperate, and who will not be missed. Sacrifices exactly like DeWitt.

When Antoine steps foot on Dangle's car lot, it is with the hope of easy money. Instead, he finds himself trapped in a deep, dark hole, buried alive. If he is going to survive the nightmare ahead of him, if he has any chance of seeing his wife and child again, Antoine will have to do more than merely hope. He will have to fight his way back to the surface, and pray that Jon Dangle's secrets do not kill him first.

I certainly don't want to spoil anymore of this book here, so that's enough yammering from me. Let's check out the cover design Kealan Patrick Burke created!

Kealan's awesome isn't he? I highly encourage you to check out his work. The dude's an artist on two fronts - in addition to being a Bram Stoker Award winning horror author, he's also a hell of a cover designer as evidenced above. Check out his author website and his designer page for Elderlemon Design. Kealan also did the cover design for my recently released horror novel, Mass Hysteria, which was recently selected by Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews as one of the best horror novels of 2017!

Broken Shells comes out February 6 in paperback and eBook. Purchase links for the eBook will be along shortly, but the paperback can be pre-ordered right now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

High Fever Books Needs Your Support!

In this week's Letters From the Labyrinth, Brian Keene echoed a thought similar to one I've had about the migration away from social media and back toward blogs, websites, and newsletters.

In my opinion, Facebook is getting pretty damn exhausting and obnoxious, and that's on top of hiding Pages updates from the majority of its audience unless we pay to boost posts. Twitter is too content to be a safe space for Nazis and a wasteland for trolls. Given these issues, I'm planning on making a concerted effort to move away from these services over 2018 and focus more on my own dedicated platforms. If you're one of my regular readers (or hell, even if you're not, and maybe especially if you're not and I need to convert you!), I'd like you to know where I'll be and the best places you can go to for updates and information.

Even though the homepage of this very blog has links to my Facebook author page and my Twitter account, the very best place to go, first and foremost, is right here: http://michaelpatrickhicks.com. This is where I blog and post book reviews, and it's also where the majority of news on my upcoming releases will break to the general public first. Please bookmark this site and visit it regularly. The blog in particular is often updated at least once a week with fresh book reviews, which might help you discover lots of other new authors to enjoy. I'm planning/hoping to utilize the blog for more content throughout 2018, stuff outside of simply providing book reviews, so keep an eye out!

Over the course of 2017, I've added and updated a Store to my website, giving readers the chance to buy directly from me instead of through third-party vendors like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Here, you can buy signed paperback editions of my print releases. I recently made another update in order to make digital bundling a possibility, so you can buy the paperback and get a complimentary copy of either the MOBI or EPUB file, depending on your specification, to load onto your eReader and keep the print copy nice and pristine.

If you're looking for a more dedicated platform to receive regular updates, plus exclusive content, and one that helps supports my platform as an author, please consider joining me on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/michaelpatrickhicks. For as little as $1 per month, you can help feed and clothe this author and his family, and help ensure that I'll be able to continue releasing quality books and stories. You'll also be able to help me build up a community of dedicated fans to interact with and maybe make some new friends!

If you just want to receive periodic updates on new releases, sales, and the occasional book recommendation, consider subscribing to the High Fever Books newsletter at http://bit.ly/1H8slIg. You'll even get a free copy of my zombie short story, Let Go, just for signing up!

To stay updated on new releases, give me a Follow on Amazon (http://amzn.to/2EnB7YA) and on BookBub (https://www.bookbub.com/profile/michael-patrick-hicks).

These are some of the best and most immediate ways you can keep up with me and stay connected depending on the level of connectivity you wish to maintain. Personally, I'd love to see you tracking me at all of these above-mentioned sites. But, let's be realistic.

With a number of small press publishers having closed their doors in 2017, and the effects of the recently-passed tax bill still largely unknown, authors are going to need your support in 2018. I am going to need your support in 2018, and in ways that go beyond simply buying my books. While that is most certainly appreciated, and one of the best and most direct ways to show your support, please consider leaving reviews of my stories (good or bad, it doesn't matter; just be honest!). If you like my stuff, tell a friend. If you hate my stuff, tell an enemy. If you run a blog and want review copies, tell me. Post about it, tweet about it, Instagram and tag it. Whatever you can do, however you can do it, it will be not just appreciated but needed in the days and months ahead. I'm not asking you to become a crazy evangelical going door-to-door peddling my books to the unwary and uninitiated...but I'm also not going to stop you! You do you!

Whatever comes in the New Year, I hope we find some way to stay connected. I'll keep writing as long as you keep reading. And for all that you've done for me thus far, thank you. I started down this authorial road in 2014, and my ambitions and goals have only gotten larger with each passing year. For all my readers out there, that's on you. I want to do more and be bigger and better at all this writing and publishing stuff because you have shown me it is possible and that what I am doing is indeed worthwhile. Thank you, each and every one of you. Now, let's see what else we can do in the years ahead.

Happy New Year!

Review: The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris [Audiobook]

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

By Lindsey Fitzharris






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My original The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Whether or not you immediately recognize the name, Joseph Lister’s scientific crusade as a surgeon against infectious diseases has made him, quite literally, a household name. You may even have at least one of the antiseptic remedies his work helped to popularize in your bathroom medicine cabinet, in the form of Listerine mouthwash. Oral antiseptics are just one of the products made possible thanks to Lister’s rigorous studies, and modern medicine as a whole forever owes a large debt to this surgeon’s work.

Let’s take a step back to the Victoria era and imagine the conditions of your average hospital, as explored by Lindsey Fitzharris. The corridors reek of urine and feces, on top of the stench of rotting, infected wounds. You’ve broken your leg, a condition that will likely result in the amputation of that limb once infection sets in. Your surgeon is covered in the blood and guts of his previous patients, his surgical tools still clotted with the meat and gore from the last operation. There’s no morphine, no sterilization, and you’re wide awake, biting down on a stick of wood most likely, as your leg is quickly cut away, dirty hands working fast to tie off the veins and arteries before you bleed out. You survive the operation, but whether or not you live long enough to make it out of that diseased hospital and a bed that may not only be home to an infestation of bacteria, but fungus as well – that’s strictly left to chance. Maybe you’ll live, maybe you won’t.

Medically, we’ve come a long, long way since the operating theaters of Joseph Lister’s early career, and this is due in no small part to the accomplishments and perseverance of Lister himself. Obsessed with discovering ways to control inflammation of wounds, Lister began experimenting with various compounds and solutions to ensure his patients survived their operations. At a time when the majority of the medical community refused to accept the premise that microscopic organisms were infecting their patients, Lister embraced the idea of germ theory and began concocting ways to counteract the septic conditions that claimed so many lives.

Fitzharris takes us on a journey of Lister’s life and work, examining the various influences of the men and women surrounding the young Quaker who would forever change the art of medicine. Like Lister, Fitzharris isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, and this particular narrative isn’t for the squeamish. While it’s not a consistently graphic and gore-filled work, Fitzharris pulls no punches in the book’s opening, where she graphically details the work, and the working conditions, of Victorian surgeons and life in that era. Other moments allow Fitzharris to display a keen wit, as in one particular anecdote about The Big Stink that might have listeners turning their nose up. Fans of Mary Roach’s Stiff should feel right at home with the topics and tone presented here, and even if The Butchering Art isn’t as consistently engaging as Roach’s earlier work it is still a compelling, highly interesting work in its own right.

British actor Ralph Lister delivers an engaging narration, and one that, to this American’s ears, made the story all that more immersive and authentic thanks to his accent. Lister displays a nice array of accents and voices as he briefly tackles the reading of correspondences to Joseph and news articles of the time, taking us from London, Edinburgh, and eventually the US. I did not hear any flaws in the production quality, and the narration itself is top-notch, making this another win for Audible Studios.

Lindsey Fitzharris presents a compelling account of a very important moment in medical history, providing just enough gory detail to keep me hooked. The next time I find myself in a clean, sanitary hospital stocked with a ready supply of painkillers, I’ll think twice before complaining and offer many a thank you to the spirit of Joseph Lister.



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2017 Year In Writing Review

2017. Jesus, this fucking year. What a mess. It felt about fifteen times longer than it actually was, thanks to the constant barrage of Trump and having to regularly and routinely call our lawmakers to plead with them not to kill us or destroy our Internet or ruin our finances. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. And then Patreon recently tried to fuck over both creators and supporters in new and exciting ways, and just before Christmas because fuck you, that's why, ho ho ho!, sparking a massive outcry that prompted them to thankfully reverse course and keep the status quo. Things seem to have stabilized with Patreon, and now that they are back in my good graces if you would like to check out what I have to offer over there and maybe lend your support, click here! I'll be releasing an exclusive short story available only on Patreon for $1 this weekend, so sign up now.

Mostly 2017 has just been exhausting, with a significant ramp up with so many different things competing for our attention, time, and money. I spent an awful lot of this past year feeling like I was not accomplishing as much as I should, particularly as our second child came at the end of October and threw all my plans into a tailspin. I had goals for this year. So many goals! And a lot of them fell by the wayside. I definitely was not as productive as I should have been, and was certainly not as productive as I had wanted to be. Mentally, this took a pretty big toll on me, and I've been struggling to correct course and try to get more done. 

In February, I began writing a trilogy of historical horror novellas, each of them about 30,000 words each. I was able to motor through the first one fairly well, and the second installment proved to be a bit of a challenge. But this third book? Holy shit, this third book has been like pulling teeth out of a kicking and screaming baby covered in olive oil. I've had to fight for every word. And it's not just all because of the story itself. A lot of it is because of my own personal time deficits, along with learning how to cope with various life stressors. 

I spent a lot of 2017 feeling tense. My wife and I brought our second child into the world, which is awesome, and he's a terrific little baby. Granted, I could do without the perpetual exhaustion from sleep deprivation as the little one wakes up with poopy diapers and an empty belly. And then there's the overly large fear factor of having an insane man as my president, one who is constantly on Twitter stirring up shit and actively trying to provoke wars when he's not actively trying to turn Americans against one another and dismantle our government from the inside, or proving to the whole fucking world over and over again what a fucking incompetent and crazy moron he is, and nominating ghost hunters who write pro-KKK blogs to lifetime federal judicial appointments. Months before my son was born, Neo-Nazis started marching openly, hate crimes rose to serious levels, and Trump was babbling about launching nuclear missiles and insulting our allies. Thankfully as we work our way through the holidays, he's mired his craziness to merely ranting about how climate change can't possibly be real because it's cold outside in New York in December, and attacking the United States Postal Service. Really. I can't help but feel this is maybe a bit of a stressful period in history to bring a brand new baby into the world. My stress levels have been super high, and I was pretty high strung and anxious for the bulk of this year. The antidepressant I had been on for the last few years just wasn't cutting it anymore, and my doctor and I decided to go with a stronger medication. It's helped some, but I'm still feeling the effects of this fucking year.

Even though I didn't accomplish as much as I had wanted to, I somehow still got some shit done. While there's been a whole lot of a bad stuff to measure 2017 by, there's also been some good stuff, and it's important not to forget that! Both professionally and personally, there are a few things I am immensely proud of, and I'd be remiss not to (finally) highlight those!

Over the last few years I'd been fortunate enough to have been invited to contribute to a few anthologies, which meant I had a backlog of a handful of short stories to publish. Toward the end of April, I published Preservation: A DRMR Short Story, and Black Site in May. Last month, I released the last of this bunch with The Marque, which means any outstanding old material I had in the trunk is now out in the world.

In August, I released my novel, Mass Hysteria, in print, ebook, and audiobook (wonderfully narrated by Joe Hempel!). I knew going in that this release would likely have a pretty small audience, given its splatterpunk horror genre, and its taboo story elements. While horror is typically known for its sometimes ruthless confrontations of societal issues, there are still certain taboo subjects, such as the murder of animals and children, both of which feature prominently in Mass Hysteria. (I got to speak about taboos in horror during my first-ever appearance as a panelist at the Howell Comic Con with the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers in October, which was super cool.) 

I was absolutely delighted, and more than a little surprised, to see Mass Hysteria make a couple Best of the Year lists from a few bloggers. Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews selected Mass Hysteria as one of 2017's best, and Brian's Book Blog named it one of the year's best post-apocalyptic audiobooks. I'm happy to report that many of those who have taken a risk on this particular novel have enjoyed it, which certainly makes me happy. Those who have taken the time to write reviews for the book on Amazon, Goodreads, and Audible have been overwhelmingly kind and generous, which is also gratifying. This novel was a bit of a risk for me (or it at least felt risky to me), and it's nice to see there's been some rewards to go with it.

Mass Hysteria has also been nominated for Best Horror Novel of 2017 in the 20th Annual Preditors & Editors™ Readers' Poll. If you dug Mass Hysteria, please take a moment to vote in the P&E Poll.

I've also been thrilled to see Revolver getting a fair bit of attention this year, as well. I suppose it's appropriate given the state of the US at the moment that this particular dystopian, anti-fascist story would be gaining some traction again, two years after it's original publication in the No Way Home anthology. Reviewer Adrian Shotbolt gave Revolver an honorable mention in his Best Of picks over at Grim Reader Reviews (and check out his original review here). And Author Kyle Warner (Rakasa, Death's Good Intentions) named Revolver one of his Favorite Reads of 2017, placing my story alongside Stephen King and Kealan Patrick Burke, two of my own personal favorite authors. High honors, indeed! 

2017 still has a couple days left in it, as does the Smashwords End of Year sale, but the plug will be pulled on both soon! If you're looking for some steeply discounted or free reads of mine, head over to Smashwords. You can get short stories, like Revolver, for free, or check out the DRMR duology of Convergence and Emergence for $1 each. Even recent titles, like Mass Hysteria, are marked down to give you the most risk-free reads of the year. Check it out!

Hopefully once 2017's life support shuts down, we can burn its corpse and salt its ashes before tossing it to the wind. Hopefully 2018 will treat all of us better. In the meantime, I'm going to keep plugging away at Historical Horror Novella #3 and focus on my plans for next year. I've got some pretty big plans for 2018 and into 2019, and I'll be talking about those soon over on Patreon. 

See you next year!

Carried to Earth in a freak meteor shower, an alien virus has infected the animals. Pets and wildlife have turned rabid, attacking without warning. Dogs and cats terrorize their owners, while deer and wolves from the neighboring woods hunt in packs, stalking and killing their human prey without mercy.

As the town comes under siege, Lauren searches for her boyfriend, while her policeman father fights to restore some semblance of order against a threat unlike anything he has seen before. The Natural Order has been upended completely, and nowhere is safe.

Soon, the city will find itself in the grips of... Mass Hysteria!

Out Now!

Review: The Terminal by Amber Fallon

The Terminal

By Amber Fallon






My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Dirk and his boyfriend Dylan are heading home for the Christmas holiday when their travel plans are interrupted by an alien attack on O'Hare. Meteors crash down, exploding airplanes on the runway and pulverizing the terminal, only to reveal a handful of muscular, extraterrestrial Schwarzenegger-like killers. Before the TSA can cop a quick feel of the would-be travelers, heads are flying, literally, as the passengers find themselves under siege. Separated from Dylan in the attack, Dirk is forced to fend for himself and repeatedly test his own wits in a nightmarish life-or-death struggle.

The Terminal is a welcome dose of pulpy fun, and the pacing is pretty rapid-fire straight from the get-go. There are no chapters and only one scene break in its 112 pages -- this novella is designed to be read in a single sitting, with the reader catapulted head over heels straight through the mayhem. This works, for the most part, and by not giving the reader time to pause to collect themselves, they're not afforded a chance to recognize the inherit silliness and some of the bumpier aspects of the plot straight away. This book is a race from beginning to end, the kind you strap yourself in for and enjoy. But, once the ride is over you start to notice some of the more dissatisfying aspects.

Although Dirk isn't the most likable protagonist with his instant hate toward several of his fellow holiday travelers (granted, I'm sure we've all been there, though, so that's at least realistic) and constant pop culture references (when the action gets going, he imagines himself being like John McClane, and the aliens rip out human spines like they're performing a Mortal Kombat fatality), he's fairly sympathetic and thrust into a situation way over his head. He's also a bit of a nincompoop, with zero knowledge of guns (apparently his video game tastes never stretched toward Call of Duty) and little in the way of survival skills. While he comes across as a bit too much of a blank slate at times, he does develop some nice, if often short-lived, relationships with the few survivors he encounters.

Frankly, I could have done with more human elements throughout. Even with the mass casualties resulting from this very random alien incursion, O'Hare felt oddly desolate. While Dirk does stumble across a handful of survivors, I couldn't help but feel like there should have been more signs of life, or at least more glimpses of ill-fated travelers. Maybe Dirk just has some exceptionally narrow tunnel vision, a prognosis that certainly feels in tune with the man. When he does have reason to connect to one of the survivors, a military man recently returned home from war in the Middle East, we're robbed of the emotional and possibly physical payoffs the story had been nurturing. The built-in conflict between these two characters should have given The Terminal are more propulsive finale, but instead we're rushed through an ending and a sudden finish to the book.

The Terminal has its weaknesses, but it also has its strength. Amber Fallon writes some good gory material here, and the book's premise is wonderful. In some ways, this novella reminded me a fair amount of Dawn of the Dead. Swap out a mall for an airport, trade in the zombies for aliens, and take a bit of inspiration from another Christmas classic, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and you've got yourself an exciting bit of action-horror.

This work left me wanting more, and in this case I consider that a positive sign. While not all of the elements gel perfectly, I would definitely take another trip through these terminals should Fallon ever write an expanded version or offer a follow-up or companion novel. The Terminal is not a bad first publication from Amber Fallon, and it certainly shows enough signs of promise that I'll be checking out more of her work in the future. In fact, I've already got her sophomore effort, The Warblers, loaded up on my Kindle.



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Review: Welcome to Paradise by Glenn Rolfe

Welcome to Paradise: A Short Story of Brutal Love

By Glenn Rolfe






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Readers looking for some Christmas cheer free of saccharine sweetness or holiday frivolity might want to give this one a go. WELCOME TO PARADISE is a XXX-Mas treat chock full of sex and violence stretching across its brief page count.

Originally published in Dec. 2016 for The Gal in the Blue Mask blog, Rolfe gives his story the stand-alone treatment with this new digital edition. Right from the outset, Rolfe gets his groove on with some wonderful descriptions to set the scene, giving us a brightly vivid and crystal-clear image of Veronica, a punk rock femme fatale, and her killing jar of a room at The Lucky Lounge motel.

Veronica is in New Jersey to celebrate Christmas the best way she knows how - enjoy the snow, pick up a dude, and then fuck and kill the ever loving shit out of him. Ho ho ho!

WELCOME TO PARADISE is a fun and nasty read, and a rapid fire shot of alt-seasons greetings.

[Note: I received a review copy of this story direct from the author.]



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Review: Tom Clancy Commander In Chief by Mark Greaney

Tom Clancy Commander in Chief (A Jack Ryan Novel)

By Mark Greaney






My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Long-time fans of Tom Clancy will, by now, have a good idea of what to expect with this Jack Ryan doorstopper. The Russian president, Valeri Volodin, is concocting a get rich quick scheme that will put the world on notice as he covertly manipulates the globe's oil supply and prices. Naturally Ryan, former CIA analyst turned President of the United States, knows what's up and attempts to use his powers as leader of the free world to stop the former Soviet KGB agent from upending the whole planet. Mark Greaney takes this plot and complicates it six ways to Sunday with a dozen subplots and twice as many characters, setting the men of The Campus (and, sadly, it is largely still a boy's club with nary a strong woman in sight...) toward their targets all around the world and hitting a broad macro view of what a modern war with Russia would look like. There's secret agents, assassin siblings, money laundering, kidnapping, diplomacy and, when that fails, warfare by land, sea, and air.

The strange part is, for all that appears to be going on, this book often feels like nothing is happening for long stretches. Commander-in-Chief is a slog to read. Although I continue to be an advocate for Greaney's work in this particular franchise, this entry is the weakest of the bunch. So much of the page count is spent building toward the inevitable war everybody knows is coming, but by the time the war actually rolls around in the book's climax it's nothing terribly grand. A fair amount of hay is made over an advanced Russian sub armed with nukes staking out the American coastline, only to disappear from both US tracking satellite's and the novel's narrative. The kidnapping subplot drags on for longer than it should, and then gets resolved in a single page. Despite some solid action scenes and accounts of thrilling military heroics, the various subplots lose their steam fast and fizzle out in a number of unsatisfying ways.

I am still curious to see where these characters are heading, particularly John Clark, knowing that Greaney's tenure with the Tom Clancy brand has since passed (I'm a few years late and a handful of books behind with the Jack Ryan Universe). Clark, now pushing 70, is clearly ready for retirement if this book is any indication. One thing that made me smile, though, was Clark, during a morning shooting range training, thinking about how reasonable people can cope with disagreement. I couldn't help but think of Mitch Rapp, the assassin hero of Vince Flynn's series, who damn near has an apoplectic fit anytime somebody disagrees with him and threatens to murder everyone for not drinking his Kool-Aid. I like the Rapp series, mind you, but it's nice to see trained killers like Clark actually behaving and thinking like professional adults rather than bratty children with guns. It's this kind of characterization of our nation's government workers and servicemen that has always put Clancy at the forefront, in my mind.



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Review: Fury of the Orcas by Hunter Shea

Fury Of The Orcas

By Hunter Shea






My rating: 4 of 5 stars


All across the world, killer whales are suddenly going berserk. In marine parks and aquariums, orcas are leaping out their pools and tearing apart their trainers. In the Atlantic, pods are attacking ships with cunning, predatory ruthlessness. Orca trainers Chet and Rosario (who are also romantically involved) are thrust into the middle of it all, and are bound and determined to get to the bottom of why these orcas are freaking out in such meticulous and coordinated ways.

Their race against time takes them on a globe-hopping whirlwind of violence peppered with a heady dose of conspiracy. Hunter Shea packs in a fair deal of plot points in only 150 pages, taking a bonkers idea and complicating it even further with some X-Files-like shenanigans. As with his previous sea-terror novel, Megalodon In Paradise, Shea ties in some of these elements with his ghost shark novel, They Rise. I still haven't read They Rise, but the gist of it is laid out well enough here that newcomers shouldn't feel too lost in the weeds.

As is typical of Shea, the horror elements are well done and frenetically paced. When it comes to high-octane, pulp-styled, B-rated creature features, few do it as consistently well as Hunter Shea. You can count on this author to deliver whacky stories rife with mayhem and loads of fun. For pure entertainment value, Shea's a tough one to beat. Now that I've sank my teeth into a couple of his Severed Press aquatic horror themed books, and with They Rise moving up the Kindle docket a few more notches, I'm digging this unofficial series that particular book kicked off. And given how Fury of the Orcas ends, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for at least one more wonderfully cataclysmic entry.



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