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Wild, Dark Times

Austin Case (Goodreads Author)

4.36 · Rating details · 14 ratings · 11 reviews

It's the summer of 2012 and Elizabeth Megalos is a disillusioned art-school grad getting by as a bank teller in St. Louis. One evening, she’s attacked by a possessed coworker and saved by a mysterious, wise-cracking sorcerer named Eddy. He drags Elizabeth and Hugh—a skeptical scholar of the occult—to Europe, where he introduces them to his three magical celebrity friends. ...more

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Kindle Edition, 192 pages

Published July 23rd 2019 by Liminal Books (Between the Lines Publishing)

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Jul 23, 2019 Austin Case rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author)

Shelves: fantasy, horror, occult-fiction, urban-fantasy, weird, speculative-fiction

This is my baby and I love my baby: 5 stars!

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Oct 18, 2019 Dave Higgins rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed

Case filters Abrahamic dualism through the lens of post-modern subjectivity to create a religious thriller that both relies on artists rather than academics and treats the mystery at the heart of things as genuinely magical rather than merely political.

Elizabeth Megalos works as a bank teller in St. Louis, another art-school graduate who gave in, copped out, and joined the system. However, when a previously overfriendly colleague almost kills her in an feral rage, only for a man claiming to be a Case filters Abrahamic dualism through the lens of post-modern subjectivity to create a religious thriller that both relies on artists rather than academics and treats the mystery at the heart of things as genuinely magical rather than merely political.

Elizabeth Megalos works as a bank teller in St. Louis, another art-school graduate who gave in, copped out, and joined the system. However, when a previously overfriendly colleague almost kills her in an feral rage, only for a man claiming to be a sorcerer to save her, she discovers that adult life is a mask over a more brightly coloured world; a world that allegedly includes her being the key to defeating an ancient near-god from obscure Christian mythology before it ends the world.

While the core of the plot is almost pure gnostic Christianity, the route it takes is decidedly more syncretic, layering Native American, Mayan, and other mythologies—traditional and modern—over a framework of cyclical time common to most Western paganisms.
While Case does both draw upon postmodern magical theories of acting as if something is true being more important than its truth, and have more rational characters mention the apparent conflicts, smoothing the joins without ignoring the issue, his mixing of multiple paradigms and mystical styles may irk readers who prefer the challenges of magic to be more predictable.

Case reduces the nebulousness of this “anything imaginable might be possible” universe by narrating some scenes from the perspective of a scientist in thrall to the apocalyptic forces; thus, while the actual trajectory of the events remains subject to unexpected alteration, readers have signposts of where some obstacles might be.

Despite the narrative viewpoint being that of a twenty-first century Westerner, with the starting point of Abrahamic faith and Graeco-Roman logic that pervades it, Case strives to avoid exoticism in his forays into non-Western metaphysics, granting them—if not equality of page time—a sense they would be an equally valid primary image of wider reality if the plot were not based around so quintessentially an Abrahamic myth.

Case’s prose style can be divided into two distinct parts. His description of “mundane” matters inclines toward the objective over the emotive, giving some paragraphs—during the opening chapter in particular—a subtle flavour of a statement rather than the experience of events. Conversely, his description of the “mystical” foregoes strict rules of grammar in favour of shifting hypnogogic imagery that resembles the pronouncements of Edward Kelley or the stream-of-consciousness of James Joyce. Although this contrast strengthens the feeling of magic being other than so-called reality, and the prose is not confined to extremes, it might make the book less accessible to some readers whose preferences sit toward either end of the reportage vs. immersion spectrum.

Elizabeth is a sympathetic protagonist, carrying enough normality from her previous life that her sceptical reaction to mystical truths seems plausible, yet open enough to magic that readers are unlikely to become irritated at her refusal to change her mind in the face of evidence.

The major supporting cast are an interesting mix of sceptics and magicians of various styles, each with a personality that aligns with their metaphysical viewpoint without being perfectly aligned with it. This creates a tension between their potential ability, their conception of what is possible, and their desires.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel greatly. I recommend it to readers seeking an urban fantasy or theological conspiracy thriller where the mythological themes are firmly at the heart of the plot rather than set dressing or flavour.

I received a free copy from the author with a request for a fair review. ...more

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Aug 28, 2019 Kimberly rated it it was amazing

Wild, Dark Times by author Austin Case is fascinating. Opening my eyes to a world that I had not paid much attention to before, this book grabbed me by the soul and held on for dear life. It was as if the Demiurge had taken over my mind and forced me to read until I sobbed big ugly tears. I could not put this book down.

I will admit that I was in a perpetual state of confusion for the first few chapters until Eddy became clearer as a character, but it was worth the wait. Wild, Dark Times is at ...more

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Nov 10, 2019 Kim Napolitano rated it it was amazing

Magic! Where does it comes from, what does it mean if you can control it? Elizabeth’s life becomes upended when she is intruded by a sorcerer by the name of Eddy. He saves her life from a mad co-worker gone zombie like and spills a tale of how she’s necessary to stop the oncoming apocalypse. It only gets weirder from there and more fun. Cross country globetrotting, rock star magicians and an angel race to solve the clues and save the world! So engaging, funny and down right terrifying, this mad ...more

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Sep 27, 2019 Josh Timbrook rated it it was amazing

I loved Wild, Dark Times. It has everything you want in a book. It is a great adventure story with likable characters. The story takes the protagonist and a group of magicians to several places around the globe starting in St. Louis. I love the details about places I have been before and how it is set around the wiccan harvest festivals. I also learned a lot about real magick and wrote down several notes to look up later. The end has a great twist that wraps the book up well. The author Austin ...more

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Oct 26, 2019 Jenny Gaitskell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed this esoteric, globetrotting adventure.

When, at midsummer, dark spirits come for Elizabeth, she's adopted by a group of friends who've bonded over their interest in the mystic and occult. The end of the world is coming in the form of a demigod - they need to to figure out how to stop it, and why Elizabeth is so important. Travelling to the places they see in psychedelic visions, learning more through rituals performed on each of the key dates of the ancient calendars, they ...more

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Aug 21, 2019 Patrick D'Orazio rated it really liked it

Wild, Dark Times by Austin Case is a very trippy journey into a world of magic and monsters that had my head spinning at times. Elizabeth Megalos is a bank teller and a former art student who is bored with her life until one of her coworker friends shows up at her doorstep and attacks her. She doesn’t just attack like a normal person, she attacks like a possessed lunatic. Moments later, in steps Eddie, who saves Elizabeth from the assault and then claims he is a sorcerer. Bewildered and somewhat Wild, Dark Times by Austin Case is a very trippy journey into a world of magic and monsters that had my head spinning at times. Elizabeth Megalos is a bank teller and a former art student who is bored with her life until one of her coworker friends shows up at her doorstep and attacks her. She doesn’t just attack like a normal person, she attacks like a possessed lunatic. Moments later, in steps Eddie, who saves Elizabeth from the assault and then claims he is a sorcerer. Bewildered and somewhat stunned, she reluctantly follows Eddie as they flee and later head to a local native American burial ground. Here is where she witnesses more solid proof that Eddie does have magical powers and his urgent believe that she has something to do with stopping the impending apocalypse might possibly be true. Later, they meet up with Hugh, a college professor who is even more skeptical than Elizabeth about Eddie and his claims of magical powers, though he too is saved from certain death from a magical assailant. Things continue to get even crazier when they jet off to Europe to meet with some of Eddie’s magical friends, all in an effort to discover what apocalypse they are supposed to prevent and to figure out what role Elizabeth has to play in stopping it from happening.
The author keeps things moving along at a rapid-fire pace in a story which is described as occult fiction or urban fantasy. While those terms do a good job of describing the book, another descriptive word is the one I use in the first sentence of this review: trippy. The author clearly has an extensive knowledge of the occult and a history of magic from a wide array of ancient cultures, but he also knows his hallucinogens. That a variety of intoxicants would be used in tandem with magic to achieve desired results perhaps isn’t very surprising-communing with other planes of existence and the supernatural likely requires a much more fluid and open mind. Acid, mushrooms, and other hallucinogens play as much a role here as the magic itself and Elizabeth’s initial and a later experience with these drugs provide us with some very existential stream of conscious poetry that had me tripping just reading it.
The characters in this story are well developed-Eddie’s magical friends are musicians and artists who each have their own unique perspective and unique magical talents. Eddie is the only one who seems to have skills not restricted to a specific area of magic. He is also a mystery. He does not remember anything about himself before he met up with his friends a few years earlier. Each one of these friends encourages Elizabeth to regain her lost passion for art and to overcome the fear and self-doubt that challenge her at every step as she is coming to grips with being a potential savior of humanity. Especially since she has no magical abilities of her own.
Overall, this is a fun story with a far dose of humor peppered in with action, drama, and horror. While it was enjoyable, some of the dialog was awkward and stiff and occasionally the motivations of certain characters seemed a bit off. And if you are turned off by the use of hallucinogenic drugs, this probably isn’t a story you will fully appreciate. Otherwise, it is a magical adventure filled with some wild occult oddities.
...more

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Sep 26, 2019 Jessica Belmont rated it it was amazing

Wild, Dark Times plunged me into a world that is horribly dark, yet so compelling, I absolutely could not put this book down until I finished. I fell in love with Austin Case’s writing. He writes in such a captivating and enchanting way, it is unlike any Urban Fantasy/Parnormal novel I have ever read.

There is a lot if drugs and sex in this novel, and if that is off-putting to you, I still urge you to give this novel a shot. The characters are brilliantly written. I felt as if I was in this ...more

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Jan 17, 2020 Gloria rated it really liked it

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

Extract from full review on gloriamcneelywriter.com-

Wild, Dark Times isa story about enjoying life while you have it, discovering your own magic and really loving what you love. A huge theme in the conversations the characters have is to appreciate the art of others, even if it isn’t your favourite thing, never to put other people down for the things they love or how they love them – and that’s something I can get behind. Would recommend ...more

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Aug 21, 2019 Kim Lo rated it really liked it

Wild Dark Times takes a magical twist set in the few months with a group of people with various magical powers joined together to stop the apocalypse set to happen on December 21, 2012. Taking a more enchanted and dangerous adventure towards how to stop it all, the premise itself is intriguing because with fantasy of these types, there is always its own little twist on its own magical world of creatures and elements and how magic works in this urban fantasy reality. Due to those adventure Wild Dark Times takes a magical twist set in the few months with a group of people with various magical powers joined together to stop the apocalypse set to happen on December 21, 2012. Taking a more enchanted and dangerous adventure towards how to stop it all, the premise itself is intriguing because with fantasy of these types, there is always its own little twist on its own magical world of creatures and elements and how magic works in this urban fantasy reality. Due to those adventure elements, Wild Dark Times is quite a page-turning experience, more so as the novel dives deeper and further into each location that it moves to and the next event that happens as they approach doomsday itself, the stakes are higher just as the characters developed have taken a certain level of importance to the story as a whole as well.

As each of the characters chases down one location to the next and figures out one clue to the next, each of this group has their shine in the spotlight and their worth in the group especially the two people acquired throughout this who initially seem like they don’t quite fit into any particular use in this whole equation. One of such is the the female leading character that somehow gets pulled into this and seems like it is way over her head because of her lack of knowledge and yet the group keeps her and the other more educational fellow along. It gives these characters a space to develop and they do work out quite well despite the fact that perhaps at times, it does feel like for the length of this novel, some of the characters in this group feel a little underdeveloped and some of them don’t quite leave quite the impression making it at times hard to track who is who at the beginning except for some of their more specific uses.

Wild Dark Times is pretty clever with the pacing of the whole story. While some of the characters are quite used as they should, the constant string of things happening does help to keep it very intriguing to follow despite it feeling slightly like its going through a formula for this magic to work as they figure out one place to the next and when and where which feels like it might need a little more back story but somehow still manages to tie it together in the end. What also does work well here is the stakes do seemingly increase as it moves along as the forces they fight against also creep closer as well. Overall, everything balances out between the urban fantasy and the paranormal along with the magic elements and whole saving the world from the apocalypse take in a fun and adventurous way. ...more

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Aug 26, 2019 Liliyana Shadowlyn rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019-reads

Great plot, a lot of trippy episodes, but mediocre execution. I liked the characters, but I wish there had been more development of the main ones. The descriptions of the psychedelic bits were brilliant and interspersed throughout the plot at appropriate points. Unfortunately, the order in which some plot points and characters were introduced was confusing and made them seem less important than they were. Overall a fun but very confusing read.

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About Austin Case

Austin Case

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Austin Case received a Master's Degree from the University of Amsterdam in Western Esotericism and Mysticism. His academic knowledge of the occult and other peripheral phenomena has given him a unique take on fantasy and other speculative fiction.