Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 30
March 9, 2017
Review: Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Agents of Dreamland
$7.68
By Caitlín R. Kiernan
Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Agents of Dreamland, a Lovecraft-fueled novella from Caitlin R. Kiernan, is a trippy, non-linear story that has a bit of an X-Files vibe about it. From a mythos standpoint, Kiernan explores the apocalyptic fate of mankind following first contact with the Fungi from Yuggoth and the investigation of a secret government agency in the years prior.
This is a short, but dense, narrative, and Kiernan hops around from one time period to the next. There are a lot of awesome ideas crammed into this novella, from the mystery of those briefly lost hours when the New Horizon's satellite went dark just before reaching Pluto, to the investigation of a small group of murdered cultists and the strange, fungal infection that has seized their bodies. For the most part, though, the focus is on present-day (well, July 2015 to be exact), but Kiernan plays fast and loose with the timeline, presenting information in non-linear dollops.
At its core, Agents of Dreamland is more concerned with ideas and possibilities than it is in presenting a straightforward narrative with resolution. This is more like a slice of life vignette set against the backdrop of Lovecraft's cosmic horror, and the story itself demands plenty of thought well after the last page turns shut. Kiernan gives us a set of intriguing characters placed in a dynamic world, with several book's worth of possibilities encircling each of them. And I hope to sweet, dear Cthulhu that she'll write those books!
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
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March 7, 2017
Review: Becoming by Glenn Rolfe
Becoming
By Glenn Rolfe
Becoming by Glenn Rolfe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There's something in the water, deep within the lake, at ol' Avalon, ME. Children are disappearing, and people are acting funny - and by acting funny, I mean their eyes are glowing with a green bio luminescence bright enough to light up a room. Friends and neighbors are not just changing...they are becoming.
In this novel's opening pages, before the story even begins, in the Praise for the Author section, a few of the blurbs struck me for what is certainly an apt description of Glenn Rolfe's talents and of this book in particular. Both Richard Chizmar and Adam Cesare make use of the word "throwback" in describing Rolfe's werewolf novel, Blood and Rain, with both likening Rolfe's writings to the horror stylings of paperback originals from 20 or 30 years ago.
It's an apt assessment, I think, and Becoming certainly has an old-school flavor to it. This is a work that wears it influences proudly, and you can tell Rolfe consumed a steady diet of horror works like Stephen King's Tommyknockers (a work that Rolfe cheekily gives a meta nod toward with a character reading the book on her Kindle while the plot unfolds) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
While clearly influenced, Becoming never struck me as being overly reverential to either of those works. Rolfe hits a comfortable stride early on in this book, and while the supernatural goings-on are a nifty device, it's the characters that are really worthwhile. He hits some important notes with the decidedly less than idyllic relationship between Clint Truman and his father, as well as the father-daughter relationship between Bret and teenage Michelle Cote. Family plays a vital role in underpinning Becoming's thematic nature and the character's longing for stability in their interpersonal relationships. It's good stuff!
Michelle, one of the central leads with a few personal stakes in the story, makes for a solid, youthful heroine. She's got some real grit, and it's impossible not to root for her, particularly as she asks herself What Would Veronica Mars Do?.
Becoming is a swift read, and has a few good scares and gore. I would have liked to know more about Jade Lake and the evil lurking there, but Rolfe opts to keep things mysterious and that's OK, too, because he succeeds in delivering a really good, small-town creature feature.
[Also included in Becoming is Rolfe's previously-published novella, [book:Boom Town|23715851], which I've read and reviewed previously.]
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March 6, 2017
Read an eBook Week - Smashwords Sale!
I was reminded this morning that Smashwords is having its Winter 2017 sale, and my titles are heavily discounted for Read an eBook Week until March 11.
You can find both DRMR novels, Convergence and Emergence, over there for only $1 each. My short stories, Revolver, Consumption, and Let Go are all completely free.
This is a site-wide sale, and lots of other books are on sale as well. I bought nine books from Necro Publications myself, and scored several of them for dirt cheap and a few that were totally free.
You can find the whole listing of titles on sale here, and filter to your heart's content or browse away. Final prices are reflected on each individual title's product page, so be sure to click through the links to see the savings.
You shouldn't need it, but the coupon codes are the two DRMR books are RAE75. The short stories can be obtained for free using code SFREE.
Again, this sale is for this week only, March 5 - 11, 2017.
March 4, 2017
Review: 13 Views of the Suicide Woods by Bracken MacLeod
Thirteen Views of the Suicide Woods
$12.18
By Bracken MacLeod
13 Views of the Suicide Woods by Bracken MacLeod
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was a fan of Bracken MacLeod's recent novel, Stranded, so my interest was piqued considerably when his short story collection 13 Views of the Suicide Woods was announced.
At times, 13 Views feels a bit unbalanced due to MacLeod's growth and maturation as an author. The stories, many of them previously published and a few that are seeing print for the first time here, go back to 2011. The title story was first published by Shock Totem in 2014, and sets a high water mark for the stories that follow. Not all of these stories reach the heights of success MacLeod demonstrates in this opening volley, but there are certainly some strong works of dark fiction, and even a few that are markedly superior in my estimation.
I'm not going to dwell on the stories that I did not enjoy. Instead, I'll point out some of my favorites here:
The Texas Chainsaw Breakfast Club or I Don't Like Mondays wears its inspiration right on its sleeve. A group of students with disparate backgrounds (a la The Breakfast Club's band of misfits) have been kidnapped by a killer, one of them run through a meat hook and hanging from the basement rafters, and it's up to the Final Girl to save them. It's a short story with a good dose of style and makes for an effective mash-up between two iconic movies that pretty well defined a generation of cinephiles.
Some Other Time involves a woman discovering her boyfriend cheating on her on the dance floor of a club. She meets an intriguing stranger and... I won't say anything further, because, as with Blood of the Vine so much of this story rides on the excellent reveal.
Other stories, like In The Bones, take more of a dark fiction/crime approach, while Sky Burial plays with some Western revenge tropes. Both are wonderfully drawn stories, and like the above-named shorts, showcase MacLeod's talent for creating strong characters in a short amount of time. The best examples of these talents, though, comes in the collection's final story, Reminisce, about a homeless veteran with a big heart, who attempts to help a family who lost their child. There's a twist of course, and MacLeod proves over the course of these seventeen short stories that he's more than adept at completely upending a story with some unique, batshit crazy revelations.
On balance, 13 Views of the Suicide Woods is a pretty strong collection. There are a few weak links here and there (as is the case with virtually any collection or anthology), but the good stories herein are really, really good, and more than make it worth the price of admission.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, ChiZine Press.]
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February 27, 2017
Review: We Are Always Watching by Hunter Shea
We Are Always Watching
By Hunter Shea
We Are Always Watching by Hunter Shea
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
After a string of successful outings involving wildly fun cryptid horror, Hunter Shea turns toward darker subjects in his latest, We Are Always Watching.
Life for the Ridley family isn't easy. Matt, the patriarch of the family, was involved in a severe car accident that left him with brain damage and a crippling case of vertigo. Debi, his wife, has been forced to change careers, just as their money has run out, forcing them to replant their familial roots to the home Matt grew up in...and escaped. Their son West hates leaving behind his New York stomping grounds, but is thrilled to live in what his grandfather promises is a haunted house. Fourteen-year-old West is a horror aficionado, and once relocated to a Pennsylvania farm out in the sticks of Buttermilk Creek he spends most of his time in the cornfields, reading Brian Keene, Jack Ketchum, and a slew of other modern-day fright masters.
Not all is peachy, though. Strange notes begin appearing randomly around the house - including one on the ceiling above West's bedroom, which gravely intones WE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING.
Shea ditches the high-octane action thrills of his recent books for a slow-burn potboiler, one whose horror staples shift and mutate over the course of the novel. There's plenty of secret history buried in Buttermilk Creek, and damn is it some good stuff. Shea ratchets up the suspense and intrigue roller-coaster style, and once the story - and the Ridley family - have hit their breaking point, it's all out captivating crazy for the last third or so.
I've been a fan of Shea's books for a short while now, but this one is easily his best in my estimation. He digs a bit deeper here to generate some old-school chills, crafting a group of characters we get to know intimately. I became so attached to West that I wish I could have spent longer with him in the aftermath of the story's climax, which hurtles along at such breakneck pace that the book's end came too soon for me. I would not have minded another chapter or two, but this is by no means a deal breaker. Hunter Shea is at the top of his game with this one, and over the last couple years he's become an author that I'll certainly always be watching.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, Sinister Grin Press, via Hook of a Book Media and Publicity.]
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February 23, 2017
It's My Third Year As An Author! What The Hell?!
In a rare turn of events, Facebook proved useful for something by dredging up a memory of a post I put up three years ago. The original post, from Feb. 23, 2014, was to celebrate the release of my debut novel, Convergence (which, ahem, you can find at various ebook retailers and in paperback).
I've been thinking a bit about my writing career of late, where it's been and where it's going, and what's in store for both myself and my readers over the course of 2017. For three years now, I've been plugging away at this whole writing thing, this business of being an author, and it's been a surprising ride.
I've made friends with a number of writers over the last few years, which have helped open a number of doors for me professionally, and readers, which has been personally rewarding. This has led to a wonderful base of support in various corners, as well as invitations to appear in various anthologies (in fact, just yesterday I had to make the unfortunate decision to turn down an appearance in a charity anthology due to my current workload), and even a chance to dabble in another author's world. A few years ago, Nicholas Sansbury Smith read Convergence and offered me a blurb. You'll see it at those various retailers, but I certainly don't mind posting it here as well:
"From the opening page of Convergence I was hooked. The dystopian world building is well done and the descriptions are vivid. The technology is imaginary and different...great characters and plenty of suspense/action." - Nicholas Sansbury Smith, author of Extinction Horizon and the Orbs series
Late last year, Nick partnered with Amazon to launch the Kindle Worlds platform for his best-selling series, The Extinction Cycle. Nick invited a handful of authors to contribute to the launch, including me. The invitation came at a bit of an awkward time for me, but also at a point where I absolutely welcomed a distraction.
My mother passed away in July, and I was dealing with the very long first day of the funeral viewing. Emotionally, I was wrecked, and Nick was one of the first people to reach out a few days prior when my wife made the announcement on my behalf. I was surprised, but also delighted, when a few days later he asked me if had heard of Kindle Worlds and broke down the news for me, and asked if I had a story. I didn't then, but the more I thought about it, the more an idea began to take shape. It grew and all of a sudden I had Extinction Cycle: From the Ashes, my Detroit Zombie military action book. (Oddly enough, around the time of my mother's death, I was also reading an advanced copy of Nick's then-forthcoming novel, Hell Divers. I don't know if Nick realized just how much a part of my life he was at that particular moment in time, but the dude was a much needed bit of support and entertainment.) From the Ashes came out a few months ago, in October, and has been selling pretty consistently since then - good news for both myself and Nick!
REVELATION 1:4
When I started on this path back in 2014 -- well, even that's not quite accurate. The path itself began way back when I was in high school in the late 90s and into my early college years. I wrote three full-length novels, which will never see the light of day. My first published work was Catechism, a short story that appeared in a long-since out of print issue of Revelation from Fourth Horseman Press in 2004. Good luck finding a copy of that!
Cut to nearly a decade later, to what I consider the official start of things with the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2013 contest. I submitted Convergence on a lark, along with 10,000 other entrants, fully expecting to get axed immediately. Instead, I made it to the quarter finals and was one of the final 100 authors for the science fiction category (by this, 9,500 other books had been removed from the competition overall). In addition to some early support from readers and Amazon editors, I was among the few to earn an awesome review from Publisher's Weekly, which still makes me giddy to this day.
"[A] smart splice of espionage and science fiction. ... frighteningly realistic. Well-drawn characters, excellent pacing, and constant surprises make this a great cautionary tale about technology and its abuses." - Publisher's Weekly
The Breakthrough Novel Award Contest gave me the encouragement I needed to pursue a path as an independent author-publisher. I joined KBoards to seek out some knowledge on how to launch my book and read up on things at Joe Konrath's blog. I found other authors to follow along the way, like Chuck Wendig, who routinely writes about writing and publishing and always has sage advice wrapped up in all kinds of swearing and odd-ball tangents. While on KBoards, I began chatting with another indie sci-fi author who was also preparing to launch his first novel. Lucas Bale released his first book in the Beyond the Wall series with The Heretic in June 2014, just a few months after I dropped Convergence. (He's now co-writing some books with Matthew Mather, by the way, so go check out their Nomad series!) We became friendly with a few other writers over there and banded together to release our first anthology, No Way Home.
We had been paying attention to what Samuel Peralta was achieving with his line of The Future Chronicles anthologies, and we wanted in on the action. We were hungry! We were also fans of what Samuel was doing, and I had hoped to one day to appear in a FC anthology myself. To me, that would have been the mark that indicated I had really made it.
Well, I got an invite in 2015, after the release of Emergence, the sequel to Convergence. I wrote a stand-alone DRMR short story for Samuel's The Cyborg Chronicles, which came out in late December 2015. A few weeks before that book's release, Lucas and our merry band of crazed, cutthroat, mercenary author-publishers put together a second anthology, Crime and Punishment, to celebrate the success of No Way Home.
Obviously, Convergence has been very good to me from a creative stand-point. Things have changed a bit over the last several years, though. I've changed, both as a writer and as a person. In the various interviews I've done over the last few years for podcasting authors like Hank Garner and Nadine Matheson, I've named Stephen King as a tremendous influence. King and Tom Clancy were the giant staples in my early reading years. They were the two authors that made me a reader, and opened the door for me a bit to explore other writers in their spheres and genres. I found Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, Preston & Child, James Rollins, Barry Eisler, Richard K. Morgan, and so, so many others. But, really, it all started with Stephen King and his little, itsy-bitsy novel, IT. King was always at the top for me. I was writing science fiction, mostly, but I had ambitions to write some horror (in fact, "Catechism" was my first apocalyptic horror story).
Consumption was recently reprinted in Daniel Arthur Smith's Tales from the Canyons of the Damned, No. 10.
After I finished Convergence, I needed a break from sci-fi. I'd lived with that book for several years, and I was yearning to do something different. Inspiration strikes in the oddest places, you know? One night my wife and I were watching Chopped, and the basket ingredient included a big bundle tentacles. I saw those and joked that the evening's ingredients were Cthulhu. And right away, just like that, the idea for Consumption was born - Chopped by way of H.P. Lovecraft. I wrote that story in a feverish frenzy over the course of three days, the words just pouring out of me. It was graphic, violent, with a smidgen of sexiness, and a lot of weirdness. Consumption got a 4 1/2-star review in SCREAM Magazine, and an awesome cover blurb from fellow No Way Home author S. Elliot Brandis:
"Your stomach will turn, your throat will restrict, and jaw will clench tighter than a bull's arsehole in fly season."
- S. Elliot Brandis, author of Irradiated and Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World
Thanks to Stephen King, horror has always been a bit of a first-love, even if sci-fi was where I made my initial splash (although Lucas has insisted to me before that I have always been writing horror, even if I thought it was sci-fi...I might have split the middle ground a bit there with Revolver, a book that wears it's King influences proudly on its sleeves.). My short story, Black Site, originally published in Daniel Arthur Smith's tome, CLONES: The Anthology, and due out later this year as a solo title, was definitely a sci-fi and horror infusion, and another Lovecraftian lark. I'll talk more about this at a later date, I'm sure.
Currently, I'm settling into a groove with horror. I'm reading more horror than ever before, and it has seriously become my favorite genre. I've found a number of terrific go-to authors over the last couple years, and even a few, like Hunter Shea, who have become supporters of my own work. Hunter read and blurbed Let Go, and you'll soon see that he had some ridiculously kind things to say about Black Site once I can share the cover for that story.
I certainly feel at home in the horror genre. My current work in progress is horror, with a definite historical setting (a first for me!), and I'll have a horror novel out later this year. I can't talk about this novel just yet (although I've teased it a bit to my Patreon supporters) as it is currently under review with a publisher. I have a novella also under review with a different publisher, and depending on which way the wind blows with these two titles, 2017 could certainly be my Year of Horror. If I'm lucky enough to publish with either of these presses, it'll be a huge coup in my career.
Yeah, that's right - career. I've said it a few times in this post now. I'm not doing this author gig full-time just yet, but I know for a fact I'm in it for the long haul. And that's all thanks to you. You've maybe read my work, or maybe you haven't and somehow stumbled your way here and stuck with me long enough to get this far (sorry for rambling). Either way, you took a chance. Thank you for that.
I think 2017 is going to be a year of growth for me, both professionally and personally. I've got plans for this year, and hopefully they'll keep you entertained. There will, of course, be plenty more to come in the future. I'm not done yet, and there's still plenty of stories I want and need to tell, and a fair amount of blood to spill across the pages...
Although my books are available at various retailers, I'm also giving them to my Patreon supporters in a Book of the Month style format. $1/month = 1 book/month. This is my first month on Patreon, and patrons have already received Convergence. Its sequel, Emergence, will be posted in March. Both of these ebooks retail for $3.99, so becoming a Patreon supporter is a great way to get my stories for cheap, and you'll get access to advanced reader copies of my upcoming independently published work before they launch anywhere else. Check it out!
Visit my Amazon Author Page at http://amzn.to/2lcTTaW, and click Follow for updates on new releases.
You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
February 21, 2017
Review: Exorcist Falls by Jonathan Janz
Exorcist Falls: Includes the novella Exorcist Road
By Jonathan Janz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Exorcist Falls, the latest from Jonathan Janz via Sinister Grin Press, is two books is one. The story kicks off in Exorcist Road, originally published by the now-defunct Samhain Publishing in 2014, and which gets a reprint here, leading up to the new material presented in Exorcist Falls.
I'm a pretty new fan of Janz's work, after discovering him with last year's release, Children of the Dark, and I hadn't gotten to Exorcist Road prior, so color me overjoyed to finally discover what all the raving about this particular novella was all about. Here, we're introduced to Father Jason Crowder, a priest about to serve his first exorcism, alongside his mentor, Father Sutherland. Young Casey Hartman has been seized by a malevolent force, distracting his policeman uncle, Danny, from the hunt for the savage Sweet Sixteen Killer.
Exorcist Road is a quickly paced novella and lays a lot of groundwork for the story to follow in Exorcist Falls. There's a lot of vividly portrayed harm, both physically and psychologically, against the Hartman family and the priests drawn into a battle of both spirituality and wits. If you're looking for a rock-solid story of exorcism, Exorcist Road is where it's at, and damn if this sucker isn't cinematic as all get-out.
Including both of Janz's Exorcist titles here is a bit of a double-edged sword. I loved Exorcist Road so much, that its follow-up couldn't help but pale in comparison, if only just a little. But make no mistake, Exorcist Falls is far from a bad novel. It's quite good in fact, and I'm at the point where Janz would have to make some seriously delirious missteps to produce a crap story (the dude's a natural pro, in my mind).
Exorcist Falls picks up just hours after the conclusion of Exorcist Road, and Janz pulls a huge 180 in his approach. The prior novella was a straight-forward, in your face, legit exorcism story. The sequel, however, feels at times more like a superhero horror story with Father Crowder taking on the role of crime-fighting priest. There's still plenty of gore and shocks, and a sublimely disturbing denouement, but it never quite reaches the highs of its predecessor. Still, it is a solid, gripping story of good versus evil, with some well-drawn characters and a few surprises.
And even though it didn't capture my attention as much as the sublime Exorcist Road, I have to give Janz credit for approaching the story in the way he did. The execution of the story in Falls is quite a bit different and it inhabits a larger world than its predecessor, which allows Janz to keep the story fresh and avoid repeating so much of the things that worked so well in the original. By opening up the world a little bit, Janz is able to give us more character beats, which are certainly welcome, and a climax that really ups the ante in terms of scope.
I also can't help but wonder if we'll eventually get a third book in this series. Janz leaves himself a good bit of wiggle room to return for more squirms, and I certainly wouldn't mind another go-round when all is said and done. Jonathan Janz is the real deal, and a wonderfully malevolent creator who, if his characters could speak to us, would admit he's possessed by something fierce.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, Sinister Grin Press, via Hook of a Book Media and Publicity.]
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February 15, 2017
Review: Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth by Cassandra Khaw
Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth (Gods and Monsters: Rupert Wong Book 2)
By Cassandra Khaw
Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth by Cassandra Khaw
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Earlier this week, I read the first book in this series, Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef, and dug the heck out of it, enough to give it the full five-stars. Now here I am, giving the second book the five-star treatment and digging it even more than the first book.
Right from the outset, Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth, got its hooks into me with a fantastic opening. Cassandra Khaw kicks things into high-gear with a cannibalistic Iron Chef-styled competition, which I flat-out loved. From there, Rupert finds himself on the run and relocated from his native Kuala Lumpur to London, where he's pressed into service for the pantheon of Greek gods.
As with the prior entry, there's a good dose of noir-mystery musings layered in among the urban fantasy backdrop, complete with betrayals, double-crosses, and reversals. Wong, despite largely being a coward, proves to have some steel in his spine and is a fun anti-hero with wit and craftiness, and more brains than he lets on.
With her second book in this series, Khaw seizes the opportunity to expand on the terrific world-building from the prior entry and shakes things up nicely with this crazy fish out of water play. Khaw is a hell of a creative writer, to boot, crafting wonderful visuals alongside big-budget action scenes. She's definitely an author to watch out for, and with this, the third book of hers I've read, she's made my must-read list.
My favorite part, though, are the foodie aspects. Yeah, the gore is lovely and fun and all, but when you're reading culinary horror, you have some particular dark cravings to be satisfied, and Khaw nails that here. There's some good discussion of food and drink, of both the cannibal, mystic variety and the more mundane - both of which are highly welcome.
But that ending? Oh, ang moh, you must suffer the cliff-hanger tease for Book 3. Time to binge eat away the anxiety of waiting!
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher, Abaddon Books.]
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February 14, 2017
Join the Michael Patrick Hicks Street Team!
Earlier this month, I announced the opening of the Michael Patrick Hicks Street Team to newsletter subscribers. Now, I'm opening it up to my wonderful blog readers!
The Street Team is an exclusive, members-only key to gaining access to advanced reader copies (also known as ARCs) of my work. Newsletter subscribers got first crack at this, and now it's your turn.
Street Team members will be responsible for providing honest, timely reviews of my work on Amazon (although other retailers and Goodreads are certainly welcome). In accordance with FCC rules, these reviews must state that you received a free copy of this work from the author/publisher.
Reviews are vitally important for authors, especially indie authors. Reviews are social proof for the book itself and help readers decide if it's a title they want to commit to and spend time and money on. The more reviews a book has, the more attention potential readers will give it.
I will be setting up a secret Facebook group for Street Team members interested in joining. Joining this group will not be mandatory, but it will give members a chance to connect with one another in a private setting. It will also be a place to share your reviews of my work. So, if you have a blog, Goodreads, or Amazon review posted, this will be one way of letting people know about it. Sharing one another's reviews will definitely be encouraged!
I will also be setting up a separate mailing list solely for Street Team members. This special list is how I will distribute ARCs to you as soon as they are ready.
That's it!
Street Team members will get early access to free ARCs of every ebook I publish. You'll be able to read and review my stories in advance of their official launch date, and post Day One reviews once the book is live on Amazon.
If you're interested in joining the Street Team and receiving complimentary ARCs of my forthcoming works for review, send me an e-mail now!
February 12, 2017
Review: Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef by Cassandra Khaw
Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef (Gods and Monsters: Rupert Wong Book 1)
By Cassandra Khaw
Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef by Cassandra Khaw
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Cassandra Khaw takes us into the magical underbelly of Kuala Lumpur in Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef as part of Abaddon Books Gods and Monsters series. Picture Jet Tila (a Thai chef Food Network fans should recognize) with magical know-how, acting as ambassador for the Ten Chinese Hells in between his culinary duties for a family of mobster ghouls.
Our introduction to Wong finds him tasked with locating the murderer of the Dragon King's daughter. Heady stuff, to be sure, and one that finds Wong calling upon various Chinese deities as he unravels the mystery. As is tradition with the noir tropes that have inspired, and been somewhat upended by Khaw, it doesn't take long for Wong to find himself in way over his head and under assault by various forces, living, dead, and otherwise. And holy crap, does Wong ever get assaulted... [insert maniacal laugh]
Wong is a fun character to spend a few hours with, and this novella is the perfect bite-sized serving of urban fantasy horror mayhem. Khaw does a terrific job creating some uncomfortable scenes, but is even better at bringing to life the mythological denizens inhabiting Kuala Lumpur (the God of Missing People in particular is very neatly crafted). It's this mythology that makes Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef completely aces in my eyes. The cultural and religious practices in which the Chinese honor their dead are vividly realized here, and lay a solid foundation on which to build a superb urban fantasy. I also felt that I got to know a little bit about Kuala Lumpur as a setting, and I could easily picture myself wandering the alleys and Chinatown alongside Wong and some unwelcome companions. All in all, this was a terrifically immersive read!
My only complaint is a slight one, involving my own misreading of the title. I had thought going in that Wong was a cannibal andchef, rather than a chef for cannibals. That said, I still got to read a little bit about the preparation of fat, white tourists for some ghoulish company, even if I had expected way more dishes with long pig as the central ingredient.
... It's also entirely possible I'm just a weird-o.
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