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

CARRIER WAVE by Robert Brockway

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Just when you think you might be jaded reading a particular genre, along comes a great book that blows you away. The latest example for me being CARRIER WAVE by Robert Brockway. It’s goddam extraordinary.

The novel is about a frequency that once heard infects you with an alien intelligence, an intelligence that wants to consume humanity. It turns you into a machine of destruction, one that can take one of several horrible forms. Once it appears, so does the black spot in the sky, a spot that grows larger with each passing day. This is the story of humanity’s destruction, desperate struggle for survival, and possible salvation. Picture THE SIGNAL (2007) or Stephen King’s CELL meets Lovecraft, and you’re in the ballpark.

It’s not so much a novel as a collection of short stories, each story having its own protagonist and dealing with a different aspect or phase of the apocalypse. This was hard for me to get used to, since as soon as I truly invested in a character, that particular story was over and it was on to the next one. The convention took some getting used to. By the end, all the surviving characters end up in the same place in the same storyline, though by then I’d forgotten some of their names. Some of the writing is indie rough, with favorite phrases like, “he fell like a puppet with its strings cut.”

But that’s pretty much my only criticism. Otherwise, I found the novel roaring fun, if you consider watching humanity flounder in its own blood to be fun, as, uh, I do. Brockway’s characters are ordinary people facing an impossible horror, and they’re all quickly likeable and people you can root for to survive. Their battles to survive are dramatic and rarely predictable. The horror element never grows stale but remains interesting and occasionally surprising to the end, particularly as the black spot and the things that inhabit it are revealed.

In the end, CARRIER WAVE accomplishes something difficult to do–carve out its own identity and stand out in a very popular and therefore packed sub-genre. It has great ideas and a terrific premise, loads of violent fun, touches of comedy, plenty of humanity, and just enough hope. I’m happy to recommend this one to apoc fiction fans.

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT by Walter Tevis

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I’d read THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH many years ago and remember it as a wonderfully literary sci-fi novel, though a bit meandering and even frustrating. (The movie adaptation with David Bowie stars out well but then loses its mind.) After watching THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT on Netflix, I was surprised to learn Tevis wrote the book on which the series was based, along with some other great adapted stories like THE HUSTLER and THE COLOR OF MONEY. So I checked it out, and here’s the short review: I loved it. This guy can really write.

If you’ve seen the series, you’ll be impressed at how faithful the adaptation is from the written story, though with some significant differences where they made things more dramatic or simpler for the show. After reading a couple of Tevis’s books now, I have to say it’s his best. Beth is a singularly driven woman and a fantastic protagonist, as strong as the show if not stronger, and the descriptions of her chess games and Moby Dick-like fascination with beating Borgov are fascinating to read, even if you don’t play the game yourself.

Overall, like the show, the novel is a great character study and a gripping sports story every bit as riveting as a movie about baseball or hockey.

REMINA by Junjo Ito

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I love Japanese manga creator Junjo Ito, particularly his longer graphic novel work like UZUMAKI, and I was thrilled to receive a surprise gift from my partner Chris Marrs this Christmas: REMINA, hot off the press. Like his other work, it’s wonderfully weird, dark, bleak, Lovecraftian, and beautiful.

The story focuses on Remina, whose father detected a mysterious planet that has emerged from a wormhole he discovered. He names the planet Remina after his beautiful daughter, who becomes a pop star in the tide of fame.

Alarmingly, however, the planet appears to be sucking everything around it into itself, and it’s now coming toward Earth.

I won’t say more about the plot, as you should check it out for yourself, but I really enjoyed this manga. There isn’t a lot of depth in terms of character, with the story being driven by its fantastical plot elements rendered in Ito’s distinctive creepy artistic style. What Ito delivers is pure spectacle, a great creep factor, and a bleak feeling that leads you to conclude character change and development kind of don’t matter when people are confronted with horrors too vast for human influence or meaning.

Overall, I loved it, and it proved horror does indeed make a great gift!

THE WARLORD CHRONICLES by Bernard Cornwell

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I didn’t so much read Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Chronicles as devour it. Wanting more, I discovered his Warlord Chronicles (THE WINTER KING, ENEMY OF GOD, and EXCALIBUR), a retelling of Arthurian legend. I normally don’t go for Arthur stories, as the basic legend is overly familiar, but wow! Cornwell did again. He made the characters larger than life, made the legend feel like history, and interpreted the legend in a fresh and exciting way.

The story is told in first person by Derfel, now old and a monk living in a British kingdom under threat by a fresh Saxon invasion in the 500s. His reminisces cover all of Arthurian legend from his perspective as a young man who becomes one of Arthur’s most valued friends and warriors. Through him, we meet Arthur, a warlord who is unbeatable in battle but idealistic to a fault; Merlin and Nimue, who are seeking to restore the Old Gods of Britain; Guenevere, who is clever and beautiful but ambitious; Lancelot, a prince of Brittany who is revered but vain; Mordred, the malevolent child king who grows up to become a monster; and more.

Their Britain is under constant threat from political and religious disunity and the Saxon invaders, and Arthur’s mission is to unite them all in a kingdom ruled by peace and fair justice. But its real ruler and threat is passion–love, vanity, and spite. The result is a riveting retelling of Arthurian legend that is both magical and believable. “Of all the books I have written, these are my favorites,” Cornwell said of this series, and no wonder.

THE WINTER KING by Bernard Cornwell

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After reading all 12 books of the Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell, I picked up his Warlord Chronicles with a little trepidation. On the one hand, I was hopeful as the books appeared to offer as much fun as Utred’s story. On the other hand, the Warlord trilogy is a retelling of Arthurian legend, which I find overfamiliar and boring. I was pleasantly surprised to find the first novel, THE WINTER KING, is his best yet, offering everything I loved about the Saxon Chronicles while offering a story of Arthur that is totally fresh and engaging.

In THE WINTER KING, the High King Uther dies after designating Mordred, his infant son, as his heir. His bastard son Arthur returns from Brittany in France to protect the kingdom until Mordred comes of age. He forges what appears to be a lasting peace between all Britons in the hopes of uniting them against the Saxon invaders, but the peace doesn’t last, resulting in endless war culminating in a final climactic battle. The story is told in the reminisce of Derfel, an orphan raised by Merlin, who becomes a great warrior serving Arthur.

This is classic Cornwell, a lived-in world that is the product of thoughtful research, fantastic characters, incredible action, and in this case an entirely new telling of Arthurian legend.