Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 31

Review: The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn

The Devil Crept In: A Novel







By Ania Ahlborn






The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An Ania Ahlborn book is always a great choice for Women In Horror Month, and The Devil Crept In is a particularly powerful and emotionally resonant novel to spend a few days with.

This is a story of a missing child, Jude, and his cousin's search for answers. Stevie, though, suffers from a number of problems, the top of which are some psychiatric disorders, including echolalia, which prompts him to repeat words and rhyme nonsensically. The status of his mental health is in constant question, and Ahlborn does a solid job using this doubt to generate a layer of suspense. We, as readers, trust Stevie and the account Ahlborn delivers, but the doubt and unreliability he possess in the eyes of others, particularly his own family, and the discounting of his claims as little more than urban legend, provide a certain dark edge of distrust.

Much of the book's first third is a slow-burn, as the author unpacks the central mysteries of her story in Deep Valley and slowly ratchets up the suspense. By the end of Part Two (of Three), this sucker is flying toward resolution, providing plenty of worthy squirmy moments along the way, and more than a scene or two that should leave plenty of folks in dismay. And given the particular nature of abuse toward children presented, particularly in the latter half of Part Two, I was compelled to hug my kid for just a little bit longer, out of love and gratitude.

Ahlborn does a masterful job of layering her story with several concepts of classic horror, taking the "less is more" approach. Her words carry a subtle guidance toward the truth of her narrative, leading us down particular paths and letting our own imagination do a lot of the heavy lifting. Alongside this is an element of creeping dread and a heady atmosphere brought on by the forested setting, and the nightmare lurking within the woods.

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



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Review: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach [audiobook]

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers



$17.95 $17.95



By Mary Roach






Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've heard a lot about Mary Roach over the last several years, but hadn't read (or in this case, listened to) her prior works. Since I have resolved to read or listen to more non-fiction titles over the course of 2017, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers seemed like the perfect place to start, and a prime opportunity to finally check out Roach's work.

Stiff may cover material that could be considered morbid by some (appropriately, I suppose), but Roach injects a fair amount of wit into the proceedings. Donating your corpse to science is certainly a noble deed, but you should probably strike out any thoughts of your being key to cancer's cure. The unlife of a cadaver is certainly not glamorous, despite its necessity for science and study.

It hadn't occurred to me that cadavers would be put through so many paces upon a person's expiration, so Stiff presents an eye-opening view of what happens to all those bodies donated to science. While there are plenty of uses for cadavers in medical research (how do you think doctors get so good at performing face lifts?), the auto industry also has a keen interest in determining the safety of their automobiles and how human bodies will be impacted by collisions and car accidents. Forensic research is a must, and fresh bodies make their way to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's Body Farm where forensic anthropologists can study decay rates in a variety of settings (buried, exposed, stuffed into car trunks) helpful in crime scenes. And, of course, somebody has to learn, first-hand, how to sew an anus shut so a corpse's fluids don't leak out during a funeral viewing.

Roach relies heavily on field investigation and interviews directly with her sources, in addition to a bevvy of research. The history of obtaining cadavers is a grisly and sordid affair, and Roach covers it all, from body snatching to guillotines and donations, either by law or decree of consent.

There's a lot of information throughout, but it's never dry or boring. Roach is a very engaging and forthright science writer who does not get bogged down in minutiae or lingo, and makes the work entirely accessible to anybody keen on the topic. Shelly's Fraiser's narration further serves the book's accessibility, and she capture's Roach's dry wit quite well. On the production-end, I did note a small hiccup in which the last two minutes of material are repeated after the publisher's final sound-clip (followed by another, different sound clip for advertising another one of Roach's titles).

After reading Stiff, I can certainly understand the popularity Roach's books engender and I'm now planning on listening to several more of her titles over the coming months.



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Review: A Perfect Machine by Brett Savory

A Perfect Machine



$7.99



By Brett Savory






My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I had two concurrent thoughts upon finishing this book. 1) That was a shit ending. 2) I wasted six days reading this thing? Honestly, I should have DNF'd this quite a while back as it was becoming clear the book just was not working for me, a feeling that grew all the stronger by the 85% mark, but by then I figured I may as well finish it. This was a poor choice, as it became awfully clear that Brett Savory had no idea how to end this book and I would have been better off setting the book down earlier and making up my own story.

Typically, I don't need all of the answers for every question raised. The biggest problem with A Perfect Machine is that these questions never rose past a blatant insert here because it soundscool.

There's a secret society of Hunters and Runners. They pursue each other through the streets, maiming and shooting, but rarely killing, one another. The lead that gets pumped into them becomes a permanent part of their bodies, which they hope will allow them achieve ascendency and become metal gods. Or at least that's what the readers are told. The characters themselves actually have no idea what happens when their body becomes full of bullets, but they play along with game anyway. If they don't, people they know start disappearing.

Who's responsible for their disappearances? The characters don't know, I don't know, and neither does Savory. This secret group has been operating like this for a century, but there's only been one prior incident of 100% metallization prior to Henry Kyllo, and that's pretty recent history at that. Before then, there's apparently no history of this ascendancy occurring, but they do it anyway just because. What reason do they have to believe in ascendancy? They don't, and Savory doesn't care to give them a reason, because he probably doesn't know or care either. People who come into contact with the Hunters and Runners quickly forget ever seeing them. Why? Just because. And no matter how much damage they inflict on one another, they bounce right back and completely heal within a matter of hours. Why? Just because. Oh yeah, and there's a couple ghosts running around town. Just because. Look - using "just because" as an answer stopped working on me quite a long, long, long time ago. I need more than that to go on, if your entire story hangs around the frame of "just because?" Yeah, no. That's not going to work for me. At all. And when you give ghosts, robots, secret societies, mayhem, and then completely cop out on the ending? Well, then you've just pissed me off.

Anyway, Kyllo has apparently been shot so many times, his body is now completely lead. So he starts growing into a giant killer machine. Sort of like The Incredible Hulk meets Transformers, but not nearly half as good as either of those properties. And the ghosts are trying to help him reach his final stage of evolution, which in itself is just another convoluted mess of a subplot. In fact, there's a couple other subplots running throughout the narrative, each of which ends in variously disappointing ways and could have been stripped out of the book entirely with little to no impact.

Pointlessness seems to be the primary theme of this book. And also "because."

On the bright side, that cover art is freaking perfect and on-point. I love the cover art. Angry Robot's designers did a stupendous job making this book look a thousand times better and more interesting than it really is. The art is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

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



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Review: The X-Files Origins #2: Devil's Advocate by Jonathan Maberry [audiobook]

Devil's Advocate by Jonathan Maberry

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


My original The X-Files: Origins #2 - Devil's Advocate audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

In my previous review of The X-Files Origins Book 1, I noted my skepticism toward a young adult series chronicling Mulder’s and Scully’s adventures as teenagers, well before they become the FBI’s Most Unwanted. I went into these books with an open mind, and having done so I don’t expect I will return to the Origins titles if any more are published.

While the books themselves are not badly written, I can’t help but feel they unnecessarily complicate the already labyrinthine and overly-convoluted mythology of The X-Files. By introducing The Syndicate as background forces in both young Mulder’s and Scully’s lives, there comes with it a degree of water-muddying predestination, manipulation, and issues of fate that put a bit too much strain on my suspension of disbelief. I also can’t help but view Origins, as a whole, as little more than a quick cash grab for the young adult market. Simply put, I much prefer the stories of The X-Files beginning with the 1993 broadcast of the show’s pilot episode, and view these the dual titles of Agent of Chaos and Devil’s Advocate as extraneous, unnecessary additions. Give me a televised season 11 and the Joe Harris comic books at IDW, and I’ll be quite content, though.

So. Devil’s Advocate. Jonathan Maberry tackles a 15-year-old Dana Scully and charts her course as a believer to a skeptic as she gets wrapped up in a serial killer investigation. As much as I enjoyed Maberry’s prior efforts in the young adult genre with his Rot & Ruin books, I found myself struggling a lot with this story. While certain elements make sense by book’s end, I just couldn’t quite make the mental leap in believing the teenage Scully presented here grows into the hardened disbeliever who shoots down every single theory developed by her future partner. This 15-year-old Scully hangs out a New Age headshop called Beyond Beyond (this store also serves as the principle form of connective tissue tying both Origins titles together), getting psychic readings in between having visions of murder and communing with dead people. While there is some precedent for her visions in X-Files canon (see season one’s Beyond the Sea), Maberry lays it on thick and heavy throughout Devil’s Advocate, far too much for my tastes, frankly.

That said, I did enjoy the burgeoning relationship between Scully and her first boyfriend, Ethan, a science club geek with aspirations of becoming a forensic scientist in the future. I also liked the callbacks to those aspects of Scully’s history that viewers learned over the course of the series, such as her talking with Ethan about holding a dying garden snake when she was younger, and her connection with her father over Moby Dick.

Emma Galvin’s narration is very well done throughout. She has a youthful sounding voice that works tremendously well for Scully, and she does a terrific reading of the material, putting in plenty of energy, excitement, and fright at just the right places. As expected with a major publisher, the production quality here is top-notch, with no noticeable hiccups.

Despite being a fan of The X-Files, the Origins titles, taken as a whole, proved to be too frustrating and unnecessary for me to fully enjoy. Neither left me deeply satisfied, and I felt both titles, in their own ways, provided too many extra wrinkles for the larger narrative these young characters will find themselves wrapped up in together during their later years. Devil’s Advocate, like it’s companion piece, Agent of Chaos, provides too little importance for too little reason.

[Audiobook provided for review by the audiobookreviewer.com]



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I Am Now On Patreon

2017 is my most ambitious year as an independent author-publisher, and it is this ambition that motivated me to join Patreon.

Patreon is an easy way for my fans to help support my work in exchange for some cool rewards. Chip in $1 each month, and you'll get access to all of my published work, past, present, and future. If you feel like tipping me a little bit more, then you'll get more rewards. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at how I produce a book, high quality downloads of cover art, a chance to read deleted scenes or compare first draft material to final edited work, you can do that by supporting me at one of the higher levels. There's even a chance for you to subscribe and receive an autographed copy of every paperback I release. Or you can send me questions to answer during a monthly Q&A.

Being an independent author-publisher is not cheap. Over the last few years, I've spent anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the nature of the final story, to produce high quality books for my readers. Short stories are quicker and cheaper to make. Novels cost more, and take longer. Audiobooks are expensive. Frankly, these costs have made it difficult for me to release new material on a more frequent basis.

Rather than try to run a Kickstarter for each new project I tackle, I decided to focus on setting up a Patreon. I don't have the time, money, energy, or resources it would take to fulfill any and every possible pledge a Kickstarter backer may support. With Patreon, I can give supporters direct access to my stories and they can download their rewards at their convenience. This makes things easier on both our lives, I think, and all the time, energy, and money I would have spent satisfying Kickstarter backers can instead be put toward producing more new material for my supporters and readers. Again, I think this is a win-win.

And, of course, supporting me on Patreon is 100% optional. If you prefer to show your support by purchasing my stories as they release, that's awesome too! You certainly don't have to become a patron, there's nothing to compel you (other than getting early access to all the brand new stories I'll be writing for you, before anyone else, and the knowledge that you'll be helping a starving artist make art), but it will most certainly be appreciated if you do choose to help. I want to make being a patron worth your time and money, so there's various reward levels for your support, which you can read about at my Patreon page. Think of these as something like Blu-ray extras, with the chance to have your name immortalized in print (which then gives you bragging rights to tell all your friends and family about the work you helped make possible!).

I also think that Patreon is a great way to help further connect artists and their fans. As a supporter, you'll be directly responsible for helping me get my work out into the world, and you'll have my eternal gratitude for that. I'll answer questions on a Patreon-only video blog, so if you want to dive a bit deeper with questions about my work, or virtually anything else, you can do that, too. Patreon provides an opportunity for our community of fans and readers to become better acquainted, which I think is pretty damn cool.

With your support, I'll be able to continue producing quality ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks. Over the next few months, I'll be releasing several short stories that were originally published in The Cyborg Chronicles and CLONES: The Anthology. I've already commissioned artwork for both of these stories, along with a cover design for a forthcoming horror novel I'm hoping to release over the summer. The short stories will be ebook-only, and I'm planning on making the novel available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook formats. As a Patreon supporter, you would get advanced access to all of these stories for as little as $1 per month. 

My long-term goal is to earn enough monthly income via Patreon that I can begin producing audiobooks for both Convergence and Emergence, as well as all of my other short stories (Revolver released on audio last year!), and all future projects moving forward. 

A lot of my future success is dependent on being successful with Patreon and having a strong base of supporters like you. In publishing, there is no One True Path to success. What works for some, fails for others. As an indie publisher-author, I have plenty of room to maneuver and experiment with new things as I seek to discover what works best for me, as well as for my readers. One of these experiments now is Patreon. There's a lot of stories to come over the next few months and years ahead. Let's get started!

Review: The Jurassic Chronicles (The Future Chronicles Book 15), presented by Samuel Peralta

The Jurassic Chronicles by Samuel Peralta

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Samuel Peralta's series of Future Chronicles anthologies always provide a solid mix of indie and traditionally-published authors who are able to present their Big Ideas in short story format. This time around, the uniting theme is ... wait for it!... DINOSAURS! Who doesn't love a spec fic dinotopia mash-up? I'm not going to cover every story in this anthology, but below are some of my favorites.

The Jurassic Chronicles gets off to a strong start with Anthony J. Melchiorri's "Fatal Mutation," a near-future story of black-market genetic mixing set in his Black Market DNA series. I hadn't read the DNA books previously, but "Fatal Mutation" is blessedly straight-forward for newbies. I dug the combination of science on top of its beat cop characters, squaring off against a unique threat in an abandoned research facility.

Harry Manners takes us on a trip in the wayback machine to a story of alien first contact with Earth in "Sczar's Trial." The premise on this one is wonderfully simple, original, and makes a heck of a lot of sense. The story is told strictly from the dinosaurs point of view as an injured raptor makes a startling discovery.

I've been meaning to read Philip Harris's Glitch Mitchell novel, but have been slagging off on that. Thankfully, I got a really good taste of his pulp action hero here in "Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror," a story inspired in equal parts by Jurassic Park, James Bond, and Flash Gordon. The villain is over the top, his plan is deliciously diabolical, and the resulting piece is a fun bit of lighthearted entertainment. Harris keeps his story firing on all-cylinders with non-stop action that reminded me a bit of a Matthew Reilly novel.

Stant Litore delivers what I thought was the best story of the collection with "The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur." Young women compete in a brutal race with dinosaurs for the entertainment of the ruling class. The premise sounds simplistic, but Litore packs a lot into ~30 pages. The writing is beautiful, and the world he's created here is one I'm eager to explore more deeply. "Screaming" is set in the same universe as his previous title, The Running of the Tyrannosaur, which I haven't read but certainly will be.

Laxmi Hariharan delivers a Bourne-esque sci-fi thriller with "Ugly," that takes from pretty sharp turns amidst plenty of WTFerey. Piers Beckley plays around with private eye story tropes in "Monsters," infusing a bit of genetic mixing and sci-fi shenanigans into a story of a missing girl.

Seanan McGuire delivers a short story with the longest title ever in "Please Accept My Most Profound Apologies for What is About to Happen (But You Started It)." Dr. Constance O'Malley saw Jurassic Park when she was 12, a film that helped her escape the world of bullying inflicted upon her in her day-to-day life. Now, as an adult, she's going to make the world pay. McGuire closes out the collection with a deep and beautiful story of a psychologically scarred villain, hitting on present-day issues of sexism inherent in our justice system (O'Malley is nearly killed by her male tormentors, who escape punishment because 'we have to think about their future' ala Brock Turner). I loved this story and it provides a wonderful outlet for McGuire to say that which needs saying, while also providing plenty of motivation for the central character.

Overall, The Jurassic Chronicles is another strong entry in The Future Chronicles canon. Not every single story worked for me, which probably goes without saying for virtually any anthology, but there were enough hits to keep me bouncing along from story to story. Of course, one of the best aspects of works like this is discovering authors that are new to me. Litore and Melchiorri have been on my radar for a few years now, and it was terrific to finally read some of their stuff. Both have whole new worlds for me to dive into and explore, and that's always worth an anthology's price of admission for such a gateway.



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My First-Ever ConFusion Convention!

So, I meant to write about this last week, but life, as it so often does, interrupted. Last week was a big, big week. We inaugurated a Russain-aided, bloviating, ignorant, walking spray tan with a bad comb-over as our forty-fifth President of the United States, and he's been stomping the shit out of our Constitution ever since, targeting women, journalists, science, intelligence agents, and immigrants with unbridled hostility. It seems like so much more time has passed than a mere week-plus, but we only just wrapped our first actual whole fucking week with the Pussy Grabber In Chief at the helm. 

Friday, Jan. 20, 2017 was a dreary, appropriately rainy, and depressing day. Thankfully, Saturday was pretty awesome, and I spent a good deal of time hanging out with the science fiction and fantasy fandom over at ConFusion 2017. This is a fan-run convention, and one of the longest running conventions of its kind, having started back in the early 1970s and celebrating its forty-third year. It's also an event that is local to me, although this year was my first time attending.

And you know what? ConFusion was a hell of a lot of fun. I arrived there at 9 a.m., spent the day in readings, Q&As, and milling about, getting books signed. I left after the 5 p.m. autograph session to return home to my wife and son (she had broken her foot, and he's been teething ferociously, so many, many thanks to them for letting me have a me-day). I learned, first-hand, what con crud feels like, arriving home bleary eyed, hungry, and in need of a shower from hanging out with a thousand-plus readers and writers. 

While I was having fun, all around the world women, and men supportive of the cause, were marching in solidarity against Trump in the Women's March on Washington. I followed the hashtag and some of the other authors I follow who were partaking in the march, and my heart was happy at the sight of what quickly became the largest act of protest in American history. According to a report at the New York Times, attendance for the march was three times larger than for Trump's sparsely-attended inauguration (a fact that shouldn't surprise anyone, since he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes), which was more than enough to put a big smile on my face. Trump would take to the airwaves, using his first full day in office, to condemn the media for accurately reporting on the sparse turnout for his inauguration, and then unleashed his press secretary to scold and lie to the media, so anything that helped get under his thin, orange skin was something to be applauded.

I had a camera face-off with John Scalzi - his Nikon DSLR vs. my iPhone 6S Plus. Notice his conveniently placed copy of his forthcoming novel, The Collapsing Empire...

Given the state of our nation, inside ConFusion John Scalzi joked that his upcoming release, The Collapsing Empire, was either the best-timed, or perhaps worst-timed, book title of his career. He read from Chapter Two of this book, and it was pretty damn amusing. I recently received a NetGalley ARC and am looking forward to diving into it soon. There's a few books ahead of it, but based on Scalzi's reading, it's going to be a grand old time for this little bookworm. He confirmed that the naming conventions of his spaceships are in honor of Iain M. Banks, so fans of the Culture books have a little extra to look forward to. There was also a wonderful amount of swearing by his potty-mouthed, ass-kicking heroine, which I always appreciate, and Scalzi recently received positive reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, so I'm certainly expecting great things. Congrats, John!

Joining Scalzi for the reading panel was Joe Hill, who read from The Fireman, a book I read and enjoyed last year, and even ordered a signed copy of. He and Scalzi argued over guitarists, which culminated in a pillow fight (which I made to sure record!) at the start of the panel. From there, they read, joked, and argued over Star Wars, Marvel movies, and music. It was such a good time, and helped set my expectations for the rest of the day.

For the mid-part of the day, I hung out with Shay VanZwoll, my editor on Extinction Cycle: From the Ashes (A Kindle Worlds Novella), and got to meet her husband. Shay's been attending ConFusion for good number of years, and she introduced to me a few people, including author Ferret Steinmetz, who wrote the 'Mancer trilogy and has a new book, The Uploaded, due out in September. He told us a bit about this forthcoming release, and it's sounds superb. Shay and I pre-ordered it soon afterward. You can read a bit about it over at Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog.

Over the course of the day, I also got to meet Delilah S. Dawson (who writes The Shadow books as Lila Bowen), during a kaffeeklatsch she hosted for writers and attendees new to ConFusion. It was a lot of fun to pick her brain and hear her thoughts on the state of writing these days. I also got to meet some local indie authors, and authors-to-be (Hi, KC!) 

Later in the day, I attended Mallory O'Meara's Q&A. As ConFusion's Media Guest of Honor, O'Meara was on hand to discuss her role as producer for the upcoming puppet film, Yamasong: March of the Hollows. I missed the special sizzle reel screening at 9 p.m., but from what I've seen online it's a pretty intriguing project with some great star power behind it (Nathan Fillion, Malcolm McDowell, Abigail Breslin, Whoopi Goldberg, George Takei). The poster is pretty awesome, and I was able to get an autographed copy from Mallory.

In terms of autographs, I did pretty well for myself, I think. Joe Hill signed the first three volumes of Locke & Key, which I had brought with me. I bought paperback copies of Ferret's trilogy (these look terrific in print, done up in matte black covers; sexy stuff!), as well as Michael Underwood's Genrenauts: The Complete Season One Collection - also a terrific looking paperback. I also got the first two books by Patrick S. Tomlinson, The Ark and Trident's Forge. 

Hey, that's me! Photo by Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek)

Angry Robot Books was well represented at ConFusion 2017.

Angry Robot Books has been one of my favorite SFF publishers over the last few years, and it was great to see them have such a strong presence in terms of author showing. In addition to Underwood, Tomlinson, and Steinmetz, Kameron Hurley and Adam Rakunas were on hand to sign books and discuss their works. My biggest regret was not being able to fit in one of the panels attended by Sarah Gailey, particularly her reading from the upcoming River of Teeth from Tor Books. I'm desperate to read that book, and with its focus on killer hippos and mercenaries how could I not be? I did get a nice little card advertising the book and showcasing the brilliant cover art, though, so not a total loss. From what I hear, it was a pretty impressive reading. 

I'd say my first ConFusion, and, in fact, my very first convention ever, was a success. I had a lot of fun, got to meet some cool people, and spend worthwhile time with authors, readers, and fans. Given the political reality outside ConFusion, spending time with a community of fans and writers provided a much-needed break from the world, as well as a good dose of sanity. I left ConFusion looking forward, already, to the 2018 gathering. I'm looking forward to diving back into this particular brand of crazy!

Review: Something Violent by Kristopher Rufty

Something Violent by Kristopher Rufty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well now, this was a delightfully F'd up read, and one I'm hesitant to say too much about (there's a book description up at NetGalley, but not here on Goodreads; the story's initial hook is all the more shocking if you don't bother with the official synopsis). Something Violent is a serial killer story of the 80s slasher horror movie mold, first and foremost, but it's also a wonderfully sick, twisted, pervy little love story to boot.

Our killers are a fun-loving couple, although their idea of fun and their practice of dating rituals are a little...um, outside the norm, let's say. The idea of blood lust has a couple layers of meaning with these two. The only problem is, their relationship has hit a bit of a slippery slope, and author Kristopher Rufty gives us a good look at the history of their relationship.

Relationships are a lot of work, you know? Couples need to be open with each other and have a good line of communication, and there's always this constant bit of upkeep to keep things running smoothly. It's a complicated series of give and take, and things get even more difficult when you're being hunted by the law, trying to dispose of dead bodies, and dealing with issues like rape, kidnap, murder, and psycho hillbillies. You know, relationship stuff.

Rufty's good at giving us two deplorable figures to root for, usually because most of the people Jody and Seth target are even more disgusting wretches. We're constantly reminded that neither are exactly humanity's cream of the crop, but there's a certain likability to this couple that proves necessary in order for the story to work. It's dark, but there are also odd moments of light, and Rufty taps into a certain Stockholm effect between readers and his depraved couple. Something Violent may not be good, clean fun, but it damn sure is entertaining and more than a little bit frisky.

[Note: I am a member of the DarkFuse Reader's Group and received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]



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Review: The X-Files: Origins, #1 - Agent of Chaos by Kami Garcia [audiobook]

Agent of Chaos by Kami Garcia

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


My original THE X-FILES: ORIGINS - AGENT OF CHAOS audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

I have to admit, I was rather skeptical at the notion of a young adult The X-Files title when the Origins book, Agent of Chaos, was first announced. And although this was a fun audiobook, with several nods toward key components of The X-Files lore, I’m not convinced it’s an indispensable chapter to the series’ ever-growing mythology despite the entertainment value.

Kami Garcia presents a young Fox Mulder, on the cusp of high school graduation and hunting for colleges, investigating the disappearance of several young children during spring break. Spring break gives Garcia a welcome opportunity to avoid the high school cliches and senior-year melodrama, while still dabbling in young love and PI-style murder investigations. The main impetus for Mulder’s involvement, though, stems from the abduction of his own sister five years prior, and the similarities between her disappearance and those of the current cases. Given Mulder’s personal history and obsession over Samantha’s mysterious kidnapping, his motivations here are natural and believable within the constraints of the story.

It is still slightly jarring and a bit odd, though, to have a teenage Mulder as the focus, after so many years of an adult portrayal on television and other various media tie-ins. To suddenly have the franchise veer into Veronica Mars and The Hardy Boys territory requires a fair amount of suspension of disbelief, even on top of the series staples of alien encounters, monsters of the week, and government conspiracies.

Another sticking point came in the portrayal of The Major, a father of one of Mulder’s friends. An ex-Air Force pilot, The Major is shell-shocked and reeling from the loss of his wife some years prior, and more than a little bit crazed with his obsession over conspiracies involving government cover-ups over alien life, all of which, he believes, is tied into secret revelations hidden in the novel, Stormbringer, written by fantasy author Michael Moorcock. The Major, as both a character and a plot device to draw Mulder into the role of Believer, is a bit too on the nose, particularly as, during their first meeting, The Major advises Mulder with well-trod nuggets like “The truth is out there.”

Will Damron’s narration is solid and serves the story well, although I thought his reading of The Major’s dialogue was a bit too gruff, bordering on over the top. His handling of Mulder was sufficient, even if this youthful interpretation of soon-to-be infamous FBI’s Most Unwanted loses the deadpan delivery David Duchovny brought to the role (but perhaps that’s an aspect the character grew into over the following years). Agent of Chaos is well produced, with the audio quality coming through cleanly and the narration itself professionally handled.

While I’m not completely sold that this YA experiment is completely integral to The X-Files canon, I am at least curious to see what the next book, a Scully-centric title called Devil’s Advocate by Jonathan Maberry, brings to the table. I’m also greatly relieved that the publisher didn’t attempt to retcon all of The X-Files history by creating a contrived young adult Mulder and Scully partnership. Giving each character their own separate books to chart their own paths toward their future FBI’s basement office is a smart move, even if, at this juncture, Origins feels largely unnecessary to the series itself.

[Note: This audiobook was provided for review by the audiobookreviewer.com.]




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Review: Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day, besides having a title that is a heck of a mouthful, is a slim novel that took me way too long to get through due to work, family issues and other commitments that limited my reading time. I only mention this because I feel some of the day-to-day life issues severely got in the way of my being able to fully enjoy and escape into this book. When you can only enjoy a chapter or two a day, and even then are unable to escape interruption, it can really mess with the story's pacing (at least in my opinion...). So, these issues are on me, but I ultimately felt this was a four-star read and I dug the heck out of it. If I were able to really sink in and inhabit the world a bit more freely, this might have been a fiver just for the writing alone. I love McGuire's word-smithing, and her prose here reaches an almost lyrical level at times.

Jenna, our lead, is a dead girl living in New York City and volunteering for a Suicide Prevention hotline when she's not working as a coffee barista to pay rent and buy cat food for the elder felines she shelters. Jenna died thirty-some years before, running away from home to escape the death of her sister. Now she's a ghost, trying to earn back enough time to reach what should have been her actual dying day.

McGuire does a terrific bit of world building, but some of the early proceedings felt a little too stuffy with info dump on the rules of haunting, dying days, and assorted lore revolving around ghosts, their physical manifestations, and relationships (or lack of) with the world's various witches. Oh, yeah, there's witches, too, like Brenda, a corn witch, who leads Jenna through a maze (maize? Get it? Ha.) of sorts in the book's latter half. It's pretty dense stuff, and makes the book feel thicker than it actually is.

There's also a good, solid emotional core behind all the plotting. I get why Jenna volunteers, and she's a good soul all around. She's a feel-good heroine without being all sugary, buttery saccharine sweet, and is, bottom line, just a really good person. I dug that, too. In order to reach her moment of legit moving on, there's all kinds of shady business she could get up to, but McGuire avoids the dark shenanigans and brooding hero with a past that often feels like a staple of Urban Fantasy. While there are elements of darkness in the story itself (this is, after all, a story of ghosts and witches, and some dark deeds as the book progresses), it never feels oppressive. Jenna is, after all, a cat lady six felines deep, and that seems to generate a measure of coziness all its own. Given some of the sort of books I enjoy reading, particularly McGuire's Mira Grant authored books, it's a bit refreshing to read a title that's just plum ol' nice.

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



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