Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM by Grady Hendrix

by Leave a Comment

I got a kick out of Grady Hendrix’s WE SOLD OUR SOULS and picked up MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM. The book packaging seems to promise a campy STRANGER THINGS-style nostalgia tour, but the read is better than that, a serious and character-driven dive into demonic possession and teenage angst.

The year is 1988. High schoolers Abby and Gretchen are best friends. After a night experimenting with acid goes wrong, Gretchen starts to act strangely. At first, she appears to be deteriorating in front of Abby’s eyes, but then comes back to school different. Popular. Beautiful. And evil.

Now it’s up to Abby to save her friend, as the demon possessing Gretchen seeks to isolate and destroy her in return.

This novel is a deep and heartfelt look into high school, its popularity contests, cruelty, friendships, and not feeling understood by parents and teachers. The writing is solid and focuses heavily on character, and the horror element is satisfyingly unnerving and creepy. The climax has a solution that might be considered corny but actually works for the story, and it concludes a realistic path filled with plenty of struggle.

My only complaints were the ‘80s frills, which didn’t really create a sense of nostalgia and were even distracting. I found the pacing to be a little on the slow side in the middle of the book. But these were minor complaints. Overall, I enjoyed this horror tale as something fresh and engaging.

THE ANOMALY by Michael Rutger

by Leave a Comment

Michael Rutger’s THE ANOMALY is an enjoyable survival horror tale that reminded me in a good way of Jeff Long’s classic THE DESCENT. I had a few issues with it, but overall, I liked it.

The novel starts with the crew of a web-based TV show that descends upon a hotel near the Grand Canyon. The show is nominally led by Nolan Moore, who in each episode explores an “anomaly”—a strange artifact or legend suggesting the history we all learned in school isn’t quite right.

He takes his team into the Grand Canyon to find Kincaid’s Cave, which promises evidence of a lost civilization that predates everything. After finding it, the team accidentally activates an ancient machine. Soon, they find themselves fighting for their lives, and the clock is ticking.

This was a fun story. Though it took me a while to warm up to Nolan and his crew, I eventually joined the team and started to root for them, especially when things go south. The cave offers great mysteries with explanations that inspire wonder, and the survival horror element is harrowing.

My only complaints were again it took me a while to warm up to the characters and story, and the survival horror aspect, while strong, went on a bit too long, as Rutger threw everything but the kitchen sink at his heroes every step of the way out of the cave.

Overall, though, it’s a fun ride, and as a sucker for lost civilizations, I totally got sucked into the cave’s mysteries. Recommended reading if you enjoy thrillers with a horror aspect like Preston & Child write. Apparently, the concept is being taken into a series, offering future adventures.

THE TERROR by Dan Simmons

by Leave a Comment

Dan Simmons’s THE TERROR is a sprawling, ambitious, well-researched, immersive, supernatural horror epic set in the Arctic.

In the 1840s, two British exploring ships probe the Arctic seas, searching for the Northwest Passage that promised a shorter trade route to China and India. After both ships wind up icebound in the harsh winter, the expected summer thaw does not occur. And after a native is accidentally killed on the ice, a deadly, malevolent entity in the form of a giant polar bear begins picking off the terrified crews. The expeditionary force’s captain leads his men on foot in a desperate flight across the ice.

What a brutal book. The entity is very cool, but in the end, fairly unnecessary to the real horror, which was starvation, scurvy, disease, the back-breaking labor of man-hauling heavy sledges across pack ice, and the terrible, terrible cold. In some parts, the constant difficulties of the hostile environment make for suffocating reading. Otherwise, I liked the characters and what drove them, the historical touches, the desperate fight to survive. While THE TERROR is a supernatural horror story, it’s really a survival horror story in its cold heart, a story about good and flawed men fighting to survive to the last sad gasp.

I read the book after watching the TV adaptation, and enjoyed both, though there are some significant differences. The show played the survival horror very well, particularly the idea of Englishmen struggling to do their duty until all notions of honor, country, and morality disintegrate in the face of disease, starvation, and lost hope. The book, meanwhile, did a far better job with the creature, including its explanation, and Captain Crozier’s fate. If you like the basic story, I’d recommend both.

My only criticism of the book is it’s fairly sprawling, and I found myself skimming in quite a few places. Overall, however, THE TERROR is quite a powerful tale both as historical fiction, supernatural horror, and survival horror.

WE SOLD OUR SOULS by Grady Hendrix

by Leave a Comment

Grady Hendrix’s WE SOLD OUR SOULS is a solid supernatural horror story that also has something to say about the spirit of music. I liked this one a lot.

I first read this author when I came across HORRORSTOR, a story about a haunted IKEA-type department store. I had some trouble with it, but WE SOLD OUR SOULS looked tempting enough to try, and I’m glad I did. The story follows Kris Pulaski, a washed-up, retired guitarist for the ’90s metal band Dürt Würk. The band imploded under mysterious circumstances years earlier, which she blames herself for, while the frontman, Terry Hunt, has gone on to rocket to stardom with a solo career as the “Blind King.” When Hunt announces a farewell tour, Kris seeks out her former bandmates, which sets her on a path back to Hunt, the night the band crashed, and her love of music.

The result is a solid horror story about a deal made with a Lovecraftian race and Kris’s struggle to make things right, culminating in a massive Burning Man-style Satanic concert where she must make her final stand. The straightforward story element is solid, supported by great characters you can love or hate. The story came alive for me thanks to plenty of meat and loving attention to detail about the metal scene and the life of a struggling rock band, an aspect of the novel that gives it a special personality and depth. I liked the theme related to the social forces that seek to rob us of our spirit and how music can help us reclaim it.

I had a few small criticisms, which is I wasn’t sure how the climax (while satisfying) resolved much, and there are media snippets between the chapters that interrupt more than supplement the story. But these were minor complaints for me. Overall, WE SOLD OUR SOULS is a solid, fun supernatural horror story about the power of music.

CLEMENTINE: A SONG FOR THE END OF THE WORLD by John T. Biggs

by Leave a Comment

John T. Biggs’ intriguing apocalyptic sci-fi novel CLEMENTINE: A SONG FOR THE END OF THE WORLD is fast-moving, punchy, and filled with strange ideas–a very entertaining read, though the last act diffuses to a soft resolution.

In this novel, Clementine, a teenage girl living in Oklahoma, hears voices–as if her brain were a receiver for radio signals. Only these radio transmissions are from the future, and they predict the end of the world. This attracts the interest of Carl, a government scientist looking for a way to save humanity from extinction. She runs for it, only to be killed one of Carl’s agents–and then wake up a thousand years later. Clementine but not Clementine, and as for Carl, well, now there’s two of him.

The story rolls out as juicy as this setup sounds (no spoilers there, by the way, it’s all on the back cover). Carl and Clementine are strong characters and solid antagonists, and I found their cat and mouse conflict fun. My only criticism is the last act, while strange in its own right, becomes repetitive toward a diffused conclusion.

Overall, I liked this odd sci-fi story. Biggs is fearless in his writing and knows how to create sympathetic characters. I’m curious now to check out his other work.

ALL ROADS END HERE by David Moody

by Leave a Comment

David Moody’s ALL ROADS END HERE is a very strong follow-up to ONE OF US WILL BE DEAD BY MORNING, the first in his second HATER trilogy, and in my opinion one of the strongest in the series.

If you’re not familiar with HATER, it’s about a final war spanning the human race that begins with a certain percentage of the population begins to react with terror and hate against anybody not sharing the Hater gene. The Haters, as they’re called, start killing everybody else, and the government reacts with a program of detainment then extermination. Most of the first series focuses on the Hater point of view, while the second focuses on the Unchanged.

ALL ROADS END HERE picks up soon after ONE OF US WILL BE DEAD BY MORNING leaves off, where Matt finally makes it home to his city, now turned into a massive, overcrowded refugee camp under siege by thousands of Haters. His months spent trying to get home have taught him how to be a survivor while in a constant state of extreme danger. Now he must acclimate himself to being around people again, though the struggle to survive continues. Soon, he discovers a group trying to condition the Haters to accept the Unchanged so as to broker peace, but it may have bigger, more nefarious plans.

From back in the day when Moody was self-publishing HATER and his AUTUMN series as PDFs, I’ve been a fan of his original twist on tropes and meticulous attention to realism and human psychology under stress. While his work deals with the fantastic, everything about it rings true and makes the story, characters, and action all the more compelling. With ALL ROADS END HERE, Moody once again proves he’s still got it and remains one of the best authors of zombie fiction.