Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 24
September 5, 2017
Review: School's Out by Brian Keene
School's Out
By Brian Keene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the afterword, author Brian Keene shares a story about driving his son to school and engaging in a conversation about how the boy will always have to go to school. His son refutes the claim, telling Keene that he won't have to go to school after the apocalypse. The idea stuck, and Brian picked his kid's brain for more details, embarking on a collaboration with his nine-year-old that resulted in School's Out, a small, fun bit of middle-grade horror fiction.
School's Out is geared toward a younger audience (the sentences are short, and the prose is kept pretty simple), although it does have decidedly dark, adult themes running through its core. Eight-year-old Alan is stuck in the confines of his home after his father dies from an apocalyptic virus ravaging the country. We're spared the worst of the devastation given the narrow premise and Alan's innocence, but there's enough inferences made to let the horror's hit home. The more immediate threat, though, is Alan's dead father and the boy's close and uncomfortable encounter with human mortality. Because this is aimed at younger audiences, Keene spares us the gross details, but the less-is-more approach lets adult imaginations run rampant and invokes more than a few moments of uncomfortable squirms.
Parents will want to read School's Out before exposing their children to it and determine if their kids are mature enough for the story and its themes. The good news is, it's a fine enough read for adult audiences looking for an hour's entertainment.
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Review: Subhuman (Unit 51, #1) by Michael McBride
Subhuman (A Unit 51 Novel)
By Michael McBride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After misshapen skulls, all bearing the same deformity and chromosomal irregularities, are discovered in various locations across the globe, a group of disparate researchers are whisked away to a secret research base in the Antarctic where an even more chilling discovery has been made - one that could redefine what we knew about humanity's origin.
I've only read a few previous titles by Michael McBride, and while each were terrific and exciting in their own way, they did little to prepare me for the scope and scientific depth of Subhuman. I have no idea what McBride's background is like, if he's an active scientific researcher or an armchair enthusiast, or just somebody who is able to distill a heck of a lot of information into a cogent story, but it's clear that a heck of a lot of research on a wide range of issues went into this book. I'm used to McBride's thrilling creature feature horror novellas, like the two Snowblind books, so it was really cool to see him stretch out and get comfortable with material more in the vein of Michael Crichton and James Rollins.
While the attention to science, both weird and otherwise, gets high marks, the characters suffer a bit in comparison. For such a large cast, we hardly get to know anybody over the course of 400-some pages beyond their names and affiliations. We have Roche, a former NSA decryption analyst turned UFO hunter; Jade, a war crimes investigator; Kelly, the seismologist; and Richards, the dude funding the whole excavation and fueled by a UFO sighting in his youth. A few other names are bandied about, but they get even less attention than the primaries. Each of the co-leads get a few nice moments to shine, but I never really found a reason to latch onto them.
Despite the shallow characterizations, there's plenty else happening to keep one's attention. I'm a sucker for horror stories that utilize weather extremes (one of the reasons Snowblind caught my eye, in fact), and the colder the better. Subhuman definitely brings the chills, along with a nifty sense of discovery that culminates in an Alien-like bloodbath that left me grinning. The story is a bit of a slow burn while the stage gets set and all the various pieces of scientific anomalies are put into place, but it's all oh so very worthwhile. For the last 100 pages or so, McBride sets the climax to roller-coaster speed, and things get freaking intense fast!
Subhuman marks the debut of McBride's Unit 51 series, and I'm more than ready for book two. Fans of Rollins's Sigma series (or lapsed fan like me looking for something fresh) would do well to check out this title ASAP.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the author in exchange for an honest review.]
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August 29, 2017
Listen to MASS HYSTERIA - If You're Brave Enough! Plus a few other updates...
On August 15, Mass Hysteria was released in paperback and ebook. Now, it's available in audiobook for your gruesome listening pleasure! Narrated by Joe Hempel, Mass Hysteria can be bought at Audible and iTunes right now! Here's the gist on my crazy, not for the faint of heart horror story:
IT CAME FROM SPACE...Something virulent. Something evil. Something new. And it is infecting the town of Falls Breath.
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.
...AND IT IS SPREADING.Soon, the city will find itself in the grips of mass hysteria.
To survive, humanity will have to fight tooth and nail.
This edition includes a bonus short story, Consumption!
Buy Mass Hysteriaebook:Audiobook:
All editions of Mass Hysteria contain the bonus short story Consumption. Consumption has been available a solo ebook for quite a while now, and that, too, now has a Joe Hempel narrated audiobook companion!
You Are
Reclusive chef Heinrich Schauer has invited six guests to a blind twelve-course tasting menu.
What You EatWhile snow blankets the isolated Swiss valley surrounding his estate, the guests feast eagerly, challenging one another to guess at the secret tastes plated before them.
This Meat Is MurderAs they eat, each guest is overtaken by carnal appetites, unaware of their host’s savage plans...or of the creature lurking below.One thing is clear: There is more on the menu than any of them have bargained for.
Buy ConsumptioneBook:Audiobook:
Over on Patreon, I have posted this month's Book of the Month Club title. If you haven't checked out Revolver previously, this one's a doozy! Given the on-going state of political affairs here in the US, aka The Great American Garbage Fire, I suppose in these post-Trump months Revolver could be considered Resistance Fiction or anti-fascist sci-fi. I've written and spoken about this story elsewhere, but one post that gets into the heart of this story and what went into drafting it can be found over at Grim Reader Reviews.
Every month I post one of my stories for Patreon supporters to download for $1, so if you're looking for a quick, cheap, and easy way to catch up on my work, that's the place to do it. Patreon supporters have even gotten advanced copies of work before their released elsewhere, such as Mass Hysteria, as well as shorter works like Black Site and Preservation. Go check it out!
August 28, 2017
Review: Enemy of the State (Mitch Rapp, #16) by Kyle Mills
Enemy of the State (A Mitch Rapp Novel)
$17.39
By Vince Flynn, Kyle Mills
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Despite the title, Enemy of the State actually has nothing to do with Donald Trump and is, in fact, the sixteenth Mitch Rapp novel. (But god, what a Rapp novel that would be if our titular all-American hero were tasked with taking down a traitorous president wedged deeply in the pocket of Russian tyrants!)
This time around, Rapp is on a mission to exact vengeance against a Saudi Royal funding ISIS to carry out attacks on US soil. In the aftermath of 9/11 the American government turned a blind-eye to Saudi involvement in order to protect our oil interests in that region and play it safe politically, and helped to cover-up said Saudi involvement in the name of "national security." Saudi Arabia and its royal family got a sweet deal and a glaringly huge free pass after funding 15 of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers to carry out the largest terror attack ever perpetrated in an American city. After a Saudi prince is caught delivering a briefcase full of cash to an ISIS operative, Rapp is tasked with uncovering this terrorist network and destroying it. Because of the political BS and shenanigans of past presidencies, though, the stakes are higher than ever. The US cannot launch a direct attack against Saudia Arabia or its people with government resources, and must maintain plausible deniability. Therefore Rapp must quit the CIA in order to launch his counteroffensive and risk becoming...an Enemy of the State.
Plot-wise, I dug the story of this book quite a bit. Ignoring Saudi involvement in 9/11 was one of the biggest failings in our response to the attack, in my opinion, and it's pretty cool to see Kyle Mills use that topic as fodder for a new Mitch Rapp adventure. I also liked the Dirty Half-Dozen aspect behind Rapp's ad hoc team of assassins - it's pretty cool seeing Rapp having to work and strategize on his own without the support of the CIA and his usual team, and there's enough wrinkles along the way to keep one's interest.
For me, though, the best part is seeing Mills continue to humanize Mitch Rapp. After the death of his wife so many books previously, I felt that original series author and creator Vince Flynn was progressively making Rapp into more of a caricature than a character, a sort of Jack Bauer parody with the asocial sociopathic sadism cranked up to 11. Since taking over the series following Flynn's death to cancer, Mills has been slowly shading in Rapp's personality and bringing him closer to humanity than he's been in a very long time. While Rapp is every bit the rugged, no-nonsense assassin of the past, he's also becoming a bit more wry and willing to crack a joke. He's not exactly Charmin soft, but the way Mills has been working the character through his grief and confronting his inner demons has been perfect. Here, we get to see Rapp making some strides towards fatherhood as his relationship with Claudia Gould and her daughter, Anna, continues to deepen, and some of it's quite nice. I'm looking forward to seeing how Rapp and the people in his orbit continue to grow under Mills's stewardship.
And, of course, plenty more terrorist killing. Cause, damn, there's some good ones in here!
[Note: I received an advanced reader's copy of this title from the publisher as a member of their Mitch Rapp Ambassador program.]
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August 18, 2017
Review: Money Back Guarantee (Mail Order Massacres) by Hunter Shea
Money Back Guarantee (Mail Order Massacres)
By Hunter Shea
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hunter Shea bring his Mail Order Massacres novella trilogy to a close in Money Back Guarantee (or does he?!). In the first book, Shea treated us to mutant sea creatures running amok in a placid suburban town, and then showed us a little bit too much through the lenses of X-Ray specs. In this final installment, the comic book mail order centerpiece is a nuclear submarine. Unlike the prior installments, though, the mail order item is not the central figure for frights but is rather a gateway to the corporation behind it all.
After Dwight convinces his mother to order him a $5 nuclear sub from the back of a Spider-Man comic, he is thrilled to receive a three-foot long cardboard box shaped like a submersible. Dwight's new toy, however, is not waterproof and after the thing disintegrates, his mother, Rosemary, is set on getting her $5 back from the company, who promises a money back guarantee. The only problem is, AdventureCo doesn't seem to exist - and the deeper Rosemary digs, the more dangerous her pursuit grows. Soon, she begins to receive strange and threatening phone-calls in the middle of the night. Mysterious packages show up on her doorstep. She's being watched. And then... well, you'll just have to read it to find out.
One of the best parts of this series has been seeing Hunter Shea take the core premise of mail order junk and build various horror tropes around it. The first book was a ridiculous and fun bit of creature feature mayhem. The second, if it were to be filmed, would be a Harryhausen-like special effects romp. Money Back Guarantee is a slower work of psychological suspense, one that builds to an action-packed finale. It's short (possibly shorter than the other two, but I'd have to check), but that works entirely in its favor here. This one's fast-moving and gripping, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how it would resolve.
Personally, I love the hell out of the concept behind this series, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more in this vein. If Shea's willing to write more of these fun, quirky novellas, I will happily read them, money back guarantee or not!
[Note: I received an advance copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
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August 17, 2017
Review: Savage Woods by Mary SanGiovanni
Savage Woods
$11.38
By Mary SanGiovanni
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
After reading Chills last year, my first Mary SanGiovanni book, the author immediately shot to my must-read list and I’d been patiently waiting for her next release since finishing that prior story. Chills was a great introduction to Mary’s work, so I dove right into Savage Woods at the first opportunity.
Unfortunately, Savage Woods didn’t entirely work for me – mostly due to personal hurdles, rather than the author’s work. As much as I love horror and this genre’s tropes, I’m not real big on the fantasy genre. Although Mary draws on Native American folklore for the crux of her narrative, the execution was a little too lite-fantasy for me.
In the woods of Nilhollow, deep in the Pine Barrens, an ancient evil is beginning to awaken. The wood sprites are panicking and going insane, which means it’s a pretty crappy time to get lost in the woods. Or, as is the case with Julia Russo, have her car run off the road by her crazy ex-boyfriend stalker and chased into the woods by the axe-wielding maniac.
There’s some cool stuff happening within these pages. I loved an early depiction of a prisoner’s breakdown and the ensuing fallout as he confesses to a New Jersey patrolman the nature of these woods and what’s lurking within. There’s also a nice heaping of gore and violence, and the shifty nature of the Nilhollow woods and its promise of madness is conceptually cool and well executed.
So what’s my problem? Well – and again, it’s a Me issue all the way – I couldn’t help but find the threats in the wood a little bit corny. Again, I’m not a big fan of the fantasy genre, and the use of tree monsters as the primary evil reminded me too much of psychotic Ents and Groots gone wrong (and mind you, I love me some Groot, but it’s an odd mental image to be carrying around with this book’s particular tone). Had the threat been something along the lines of spores, for instance, I think I would have been more drawn in.
This mental obstacle was one I brought to the table, and it was, unfortunately, one that I could not quite get over. Even in spite of this, there’s a good deal to enjoy here; I just wasn’t able to sink into this book as deeply as I wanted due to my own inability to suitably suspend disbelief with these particular horrors.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.]
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August 15, 2017
MASS HYSTERIA Has Been Unleashed!
Today's the day! Mass Hysteria is officially available and on sale everywhere. The eBook costs only $3.99, and the paperback retails for $14.99 but has been discounted pretty nicely at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If anybody would like a signed/personalized copy of the paperback, I have some available through my store here.
The eBook edition of Mass Hysteria can be found at the following:
The audiobook is currently in production and should be along soon!
Here's the synopsis:
IT CAME FROM SPACE...Something virulent. Something evil. Something new. And it is infecting the town of Falls Breath.
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.
...AND IT IS SPREADING.Soon, the city will find itself in the grips of mass hysteria.
To survive, humanity will have to fight tooth and nail.
Early reaction to the book has been very kind so far, and I've seen a handful of positive reviews crop over the last few days leading into the release. Here's what readers have been saying:
"Fun, horrible fun, from start to finish." - Horror Novel Reviews
"It's fast paced, action-packed, and bloody. Really, almost everything a horror gore-hound could want. ... Undeniably talented, Michael Patrick Hicks shows evidence of a rather deliciously depraved mind..." - SciFi & Scary
"Mass Hysteria is a hell of a brutal, end of the world free for all. A terrifying vision of a future gone mad with bloodlust, Mass Hysteria will haunt your nightmares." - Hunter Shea, author of Just Add Water and We Are Always Watching
"Mass Hysteria was a brutal horror novel, which reminded me of the horror being written in the late 70's and, (all of the), 80's. Books like James Herbert's The Rats or Guy N. Smith's The Night of the Crabs. There are a lot of similarities to those classics here-the fast paced action going from scene to scene-with many gory deaths and other sick events. In fact, I think Mass Hysteria beats out those books in its sheer horrific brutality." - Char's Horror Corner
"I'm telling you now, this book isn't for readers with weak stomachs. It is brutal in all the right ways." - Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews
Curtis Freeman at Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews invited me to do a guest post on his site to help kick off the release of Mass Hysteria. So, I'm over there talking a bit about some of the best fictional animal attacks put to print and film, and how a couple of them helped to inspire Mass Hysteria. Check it out!
And over at The Grim Reader, I'm talking about Creating Mass Hysteria. Head on over there to get the skinny on some of the influences that helped inspire my latest horror novel, and
This past weekend, I chatted with Preston Leigh, host of The Leighendarium podcast, and his interview with me should be available for download on Wednesday. Recording this interview was a lot of fun for me, and hopefully that comes through in the podcast. We discussed my debut novel, Convergence, as well as Revolver and Mass Hysteria. And I did a live reading from the new book for his listeners! Like I said, lots of fun.
Speaking of Revolver, I did a little bit of redesign on the interior formatting for that short story, along with some updates for Black Site, Let Go, and Consumption. These short stories are only 99c each, so if you haven't checked the out before now is the perfect time! Each one has been reformatted and given a little bit of a new look with updated chapter headings and title pages, with all of them rebranded to fall in line with my launch of High Fever Books.
High Fever Books is a brand new publishing initiative that I've started, and will be the brand unifying my horror and dark fiction works going forward. Mass Hysteria is the first book in what I hope to be a long line of HFB titles to come. Look for the next all-new High Fever Books release to launch later this year or early 2018.
In the meantime, go pick up a copy of Mass Hysteria at your favorite eBook etailer! Happy reading!
Purchase Mass Hysteria
August 9, 2017
Mass Hysteria Unboxing
The print copies have arrived! In this video, I'm showing off the world's very first copies of my latest novel, which includes a bonus short story, Consumption.
I'll be selling signed copies of the paperback, and if you're interested there's one of two ways to score a copy.
The first way is to order a copy right here via Patreon by selecting the $25 reward tier. You can always change your level of support to a lower price tier later.
The second way is to head over to the Store page on my website and order through there: http://www.michaelpatrickhicks.com/store/
Technically, there is a third option, but there's no guarantee of getting it signed. Here's the skinny on that. You can order a nicely discounted copy of the paperback from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and if you spot me at ConFusion in January 2018 I will be more than happy to sign a copy for you there. I'm planning on attending ConFusion 2018, but until I'm actually there I have to consider it a tentative arrangement. January is a bit of a ways off, and my wife and I will be contending with a newborn and a two-year old, plus whatever fun new germs the older boy brings home from daycare for us to enjoy. And January in Michigan can be...well, let's just say strange. I recall wearing a t-shirt to last year's ConFusion because it was unseasonably warm. Usually we're at least ankle deep in snow. So, weather, health, and a general level of sustainable craziness permitting, I should be there, but cannot make any guarantees. Which is, again, why this potential third option is a bit shaky.
And you know what? There's an even shakier, entirely odds dependent fourth option! I'm doing a Goodreads Giveaway of one signed copy to a random lucky winner. You can try your luck on Goodreads now!
In the meantime, check out the video! If you dig it, give it a thumbs up on YouTube and feel to share it however and where ever you see fit. Enjoy!
August 8, 2017
Review: Bone White by Ronald Malfi
Bone White
$10.20
By Ronald Malfi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In an Alaskan diner, Joe Mallory steps inside from the wilderness and sits down for a cup of hot cocoa before confessing to a string of grisly serial murders he has committed over the last several years. A few thousand miles away, Paul hears news of the savagery and suspects his twin brother, who went missing in Alaska the prior year, is among the victims. While Paul makes his way to the far north, lead investigator Jill Ryerson begins to make some startling discoveries about the killer and his crimes.
Bone White is a slow-burn horror thriller, and one that is highly effective. Ronald Malfi balances Paul's search for answers and the investigation into Mallory's crimes against a sense of creeping, supernatural dread with an expert's finesse. This book brought me a few chills, some as cold as an Alaskan winter, and the creep factor on this sucker is high throughout. Malfi nails the dark atmosphere and tone of the book right from page one, weaving in a wonderful bit of mythology into the novel's core that deliciously infects and complicates the proceedings.
The story within Bone White is deftly plotted, and there's a reason for everything's occurrence. Even the nature of Paul and Daniel's twinness, which I initially took for a sort of aloof bit of humor given the townsfolk's reactions toward Paul, has a much more sinister nature in relation to the plot, which in turn leads to why those townsfolk react in said manner. There's an ouroboros-like relationship between the characters and the story, with one leading to the other and back again. It's just brilliantly done.
Equally smart is the subdued approach to horror that Malfi takes. Nothing is overstated or overdone, as the author tackles the scares with pared down minimalism that ends up being creepy as all get out. There's a few particular scenes I want to talk about, but won't because they could give away too much. I'll just say that one instance late in the book involving a kid wearing an animal mask was perhaps the most wickedly effective scene in the novel, thanks to Malfi's skill at building tension while setting the stage and slowly unraveling the story for us.
Bone White is the first Ronald Malfi book I've read, and I can promise you right now it won't be the last.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
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August 2, 2017
Review: Megalodon In Paradise by Hunter Shea
Megalodon In Paradise
By Hunter Shea
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hunter Shea is a bit of an old reliable when it comes to fixing up some fun, good ol' fashioned horror fixes. Megalodon In Paradise is no different, and if this beach read doesn't make you want to kick back in the shade with an ice cold Corona, I don't know what will.
So, here's the skinny. Ollie is a regular old nobody - so much of a nobody, in fact, that his corporate job was saved from layoffs mostly because none of his superiors even remembered him. He's kept a low-profile, with much of his life revolving around movies, reminiscing about his college glory days with his buddies, and playing the lottery nightly. Eventually, his gambling pays off and he strikes it rich. Super rich. Like, mega rich. Rich enough to buy his own private island, reunite with his college buddies, and build each of them their own home on the island where they can all escape into the lap of luxury together and never work another day in their life.
You know what they say about if it sounds too good to be true, right?
Well, this island has a bit of a secret history... and a rather large problem resting near the bottom of the ocean, which Ollie and his friends accidentally awaken.
Shea takes the simple concept of a shark story and manages to complicate it a bit further, throwing in a handful of other threats aside from the titular, and very bloodthirsty, megalodon. It's not particularly groundbreaking, but (as I've come to expect from Shea's work) it is a heck of a lot of fun and has enough action to keep the pages turning. If you didn't get your fill during this year's recently wrapped Shark Week, Megalodon In Paradise should help smooth you over while you hit up the beach and enjoy a cold one. Jimmy Buffett tunes are entirely optional, of course.
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