Book Review: In the Garden of Rusting Gods by Patrick Freivald
Title: In the Garden of Rusting Gods: A Collection
Author: Patrick Freivald
Release date: September 12, 2019
If you’ve followed any of my reviews over the last few years, you’ll have seen that I’ve mentioned I’ve been burned out on reading collections and anthologies for some time. Well, that was the case. Things have started to slowly take a turn towards me getting back into them. Typically, I have 4-6 books on the go at one time. I bounce around from them, until one steals my attention wholly and I can’t put it down, before returning to the others. I also like to have a collection/anthology mixed in there, to break up the space between each book. So, what I mean is, I’ll read one book for say, thirty minutes, then a short story in a collection/anthology, then jump to another book for thirty minutes and repeat. I paused that for some time, but have now began to return to that practice and it’s been great returning to that again.
I’ll also make an admission here and this might be slightly embarrassing, but also a complete reflection on the fact that I can’t kick some of my super small town upbringing.
My admission – if you’re an author who has been nominated/won a Bram Stoker or a Shirley Jackson Award, I kind of consider you writing royalty. (Long breath out… fix my imaginary tie… adjust my imaginary glasses… let the flush of embarrassment slowly fade… and continue). It’s true. It blows my mind when I interact with anyone who has those accolades (amongst many others – looking at you Huge and Nebula etc etc) and I’ll make a note to check out their work when I can.
Case in point, is the author of today’s book – Patrick Freivald. I’ve had this collection on my Kindle for a few years now, taken hard by the cover when it was revealed, but up until reading this collection, I hadn’t read any of Patrick’s work, but knowing he’s a multiple Stoker nominee, I figured I’d be perfectly assaulted with each story. In fact, up until reading this, I knew Patrick more from his work moderating the HWA Facebook page than anything else! So, this was a refreshing change!
What I liked: If I throw these titles out, where does your brain immediately go? Alien. Predator. Event Horizon. Splice. Terminator. My brain processes this as horror/sci-fi and both in movies and in fiction, this mashing of the two genres are some of my very favorite things I’ve ever watched or read. Reading this collection felt like I was reading Ridley Scott’s unreleased movie ideas. Freivald, time and time again, created these dark, intricate, horrific slabs of sci-fi infused stories that had me completely captivated and enthralled. Where I started this collection as a break between switching books, it quickly took over and I had to read it without setting down.
While each story was really well done – looking at the back-to-back punch up of ‘Twelve Kilos’ and ‘Foam Ride’ as an example, there were some stories that stood out as my favorites above the others.
‘Trophy Hunt’ involved werewolves trying to survive while being hunted. It was a fast-paced, solid story that flipped the script and really filled this lycanthrope loving readers heart with joy.
‘The Extermination Business’ read like an old time detective story, where a hired gun seeks out wererats and has to navigate his personal feelings with the job he’s been hired to do. Felt like this would be a great movie done in the same format as ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit.’
‘Forward Base Fourteen’ was a claustrophobic story of the last remaining survivors trying to make contact with another base, but when things go south, decisions need to be made. The atmosphere in this one was pristine.
‘In the Garden of Rusting Gods’ was a behemoth of a story. Maybe twenty pages long, this encapsulated an entire novels worth of narrative within. In the future, humans have gone underground as Lovecraftian-AI-Robotic alien beings arrive and invade. It was so cinematic in scope and the way Freivald told this one might make some of you hyperventilate.
Saying all of that, my favorite story hands down was, ‘A Taste for Life.’ This might’ve been the shortest story in the entire collection, but this one was a juggernaut and within only a few pages showed one scientist descend into madness while also showing progression in the subject being studied. Also set in the future and underground (but unrelated to the title story), zombies have taken over and those who have survived are now trying to find a way to cure them, or at least dampen the desire to kill all of the living. This one was just outstanding.
Throughout, Freivald goes from strength to strength and even the last story, ‘Taps’ takes us out on a high note. Each story also is accompanied by really great artwork, which is always a bonus.
What I didn’t like: As with every collection, each story will connect differently with each reader, but this one is so very solid.
Why you should buy this: From start to finish, this might very well be one of the best written collections you’ll ever read. Each story jumps in, pulls the reader along and then finish with a bang, a flourish of storytelling magic. I was drawn in slowly with the title story, but by the middle of ‘Forward Base Fourteen,’ I knew I was reading something special and soon thereafter abandoned all pretense that I wouldn’t be devouring this collection in a few sittings.
Amazing batch of stories.
5/5
