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Strange Matter #25
Splitting Image
Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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November 5, 2025
Our ripoff round goes on with more Strange Matter. You know the drill, this series is good so I was looking forward to this. Today we have a later one so thus I had no idea what to expect. The wild cover interested me so let’s see what we got.
Alan Layne has recently moved to Farfield and is getting along decently. He’s a big video game fan who hangs out a local arcade/laser tag place a fair bit and when he isn’t there, he is usually at home getting wrapped up in pc games. He even has connections with a genius kid who got some early games that Alan sometimes beta tests. He has one friend outside of that named Ashley that sometimes blows off.
One day he gets a game named Splitting Image, ah there it is. The source is unknown which is a good sign. It’s a 3d fighting game but the most notable feature is that it ends up turning him into a monster when he sees certain glyphs. Now he’s cursed with a werewolf type deal and has to figure out who did this to him.
This was pretty solid. The last couple of this series I read were on the more mild end but this was a solid “bounce back” of sorts. It does feel like its missing something in some small areas, compared to the peaks of the series but it still works. A highlight here would be the transformations. They are well described and lead to some solid horror moments.
There’s a decent amount of action when this happens as well. It’s all even well explained. It has to yada yada one aspect but eventually we see how this happened. This is a Marty Engle one so it’s nice to see. We even get a motive rant for once! The video game aspect didn’t feel that needed but it’s not a big deal. There’s a nod to Tune in to Terror which felt fitting. Sara White, who was in Tune in to Terror, makes an appearance and Morgan Taylor from Fly the Unfriendly Skies is mentioned.
The plot is involved as they go to different locations to solve this mystery. But what brings it together is the arc Alan gets. We see early on he sometimes ditches his supposed friends to do what he wants to do and we see he has a history of this. It ties into the villain who I kind of love. This villain is corny with his monologue but it’s fun, leading to a mostly crazy and fun climax.
But anyway, it does jump into things a bit quickly so it has to tell us certain things but otherwise we get a backstory that ties things together. Alan screwed over someone in the past and they want revenge. There is some weird-ness in there that isn’t quite resolved but otherwise Alan gets a solid arc about learning to be a better friend. The emotional moments we get from him land fairly well. There’s been more of these having arcs lately, which works well.
The climax is good but the final blow is a bit underwhelming. There is a nice ending moment but it is abrupt with a few unaddressed things. Not the worst case but it’s there. I will say I wanted more of the transformations. We get enough but it could have gone further with the parts where he is a monster.
But as a whole, it’s a well rounded one. Solid concept and horror, and a decent arc on top of that. There are others that go further with emotion or action but this still worked well. It’s all fun and well written. Maybe you’re sick of me hyping up this series but is really is that solid most of the time and this is another good one for the roster.
Next time, Spinetinglers as I go for one of the few I have physically. It’s about books so it has to be good, let’s hope so. See ya then.
Alan Layne has recently moved to Farfield and is getting along decently. He’s a big video game fan who hangs out a local arcade/laser tag place a fair bit and when he isn’t there, he is usually at home getting wrapped up in pc games. He even has connections with a genius kid who got some early games that Alan sometimes beta tests. He has one friend outside of that named Ashley that sometimes blows off.
One day he gets a game named Splitting Image, ah there it is. The source is unknown which is a good sign. It’s a 3d fighting game but the most notable feature is that it ends up turning him into a monster when he sees certain glyphs. Now he’s cursed with a werewolf type deal and has to figure out who did this to him.
This was pretty solid. The last couple of this series I read were on the more mild end but this was a solid “bounce back” of sorts. It does feel like its missing something in some small areas, compared to the peaks of the series but it still works. A highlight here would be the transformations. They are well described and lead to some solid horror moments.
There’s a decent amount of action when this happens as well. It’s all even well explained. It has to yada yada one aspect but eventually we see how this happened. This is a Marty Engle one so it’s nice to see. We even get a motive rant for once! The video game aspect didn’t feel that needed but it’s not a big deal. There’s a nod to Tune in to Terror which felt fitting. Sara White, who was in Tune in to Terror, makes an appearance and Morgan Taylor from Fly the Unfriendly Skies is mentioned.
The plot is involved as they go to different locations to solve this mystery. But what brings it together is the arc Alan gets. We see early on he sometimes ditches his supposed friends to do what he wants to do and we see he has a history of this. It ties into the villain who I kind of love. This villain is corny with his monologue but it’s fun, leading to a mostly crazy and fun climax.
But anyway, it does jump into things a bit quickly so it has to tell us certain things but otherwise we get a backstory that ties things together. Alan screwed over someone in the past and they want revenge. There is some weird-ness in there that isn’t quite resolved but otherwise Alan gets a solid arc about learning to be a better friend. The emotional moments we get from him land fairly well. There’s been more of these having arcs lately, which works well.
The climax is good but the final blow is a bit underwhelming. There is a nice ending moment but it is abrupt with a few unaddressed things. Not the worst case but it’s there. I will say I wanted more of the transformations. We get enough but it could have gone further with the parts where he is a monster.
But as a whole, it’s a well rounded one. Solid concept and horror, and a decent arc on top of that. There are others that go further with emotion or action but this still worked well. It’s all fun and well written. Maybe you’re sick of me hyping up this series but is really is that solid most of the time and this is another good one for the roster.
Next time, Spinetinglers as I go for one of the few I have physically. It’s about books so it has to be good, let’s hope so. See ya then.
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