Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP By Edward L Beach

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run silent run deepA chance encounter with Captain William Ruhe’s WAR IN THE BOATS, his reminisces of fighting aboard submarines in the Pacific during World War 2, inspired me to write CRASH DIVE and its upcoming sequel, SILENT RUNNING. During my research, I read a lot of submarine books, mostly nonfiction.

I also read a few fictional works, most recently RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP by Edward L. Beach, which inspired the 1958 film of the same title starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, one my favorite actors.

The novel is touted as the American DAS BOOT, but I didn’t enjoy that particular novel nearly as much as I did the movie. RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP is a fantastic movie but the book is very different and far better. Beach (who sadly passed away in 2002 at the age of 84) fought in the Pacific for the entire war, and he knew his subject inside and out. Lucky for us, he was also a fantastic writer, writing a book that features great characterization, intense action, high stakes and a terrific villain in Bungo Pete.

I’m proud of CRASH DIVE, but Beach puts the rest of us to shame when it comes to writing about men and submarines. Highly recommended if you can find it, as it’s out of print. Some enterprising publisher really should buy the digital rights and bring it to Kindle.

In short, if you like submarine fiction, this one’s a must.
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NOD By Adrian Barnes

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nod by adrian barnesEvery so often, an apocalyptic novel comes along with literary aspirations. Some fantastic global event occurs, and human nature is explored as ordinary people now must cope with their world suddenly changing. BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago and THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS by John Wyndham come to mind. I wrote SUFFER THE CHILDREN with that specific apocalyptic flavor in mind.

Adrian Barnes’s NOD is such a novel, based on a simple premise: What if almost everybody in the world stopped sleeping? One night, insomnia strikes. The next day, the world discovers that everybody shared the same affliction. The next night, the same. And the next, with no end in sight.

After six days of sleep deprivation, psychosis sets in. In four weeks, the body dies. In the interim, the world goes mad.

The story centers on Paul, a writer and misanthrope, who is one of the few who can sleep; his partner Tanya, who can’t sleep; Charles, a kooky vagrant who becomes a cult leader in the new world; and Zoe, a mute child they find who can also sleep. Those who can sleep will claim the world and rebuild it, but first they must survive the long die-off of those who come to resent and hate the sleepers.

In a nutshell, I loved the premise and enjoyed both the story and Barnes’s rich prose. There are a lot of great concepts here. The narrative is very clever, though the story tends to meander in tangents. Paul, the narrator, doesn’t seem particularly upset or terrified most of the time; since he’s the primary stand-in for the reader, the reader is left with a feeling of watching the apocalypse from the comfort of a cozy couch. The ending provided virtually no answers. I didn’t need to know why the insomnia occurred, but there were several LOST-like elements that went unexplained, and Paul didn’t seem to care much about finding those answers. One of the greatest literary elements of the apocalypse is the human search for meaning in tragedy, but that element went largely unexplored.

I’m realizing now this is sounding like a bad review, but it really isn’t. I liked the book. A lot. I just didn’t fall in love with it the way I could have.
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Anthony Burgess Discusses A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

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After Stanley Kubrick’s classic A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, came out, a British TV program hosted Burgess and actor Malcom McDowell, who plays Alex in the film, to talk about it.

Burgess had a lot of interesting things to say about the ideas that informed this powerful dystopian book and the choices he made while writing it.

Note the interview starts with a complete synopsis of the film, so if you haven’t seen it yet or read the book, you know, spoilers.

Check it out:

TOUCH By Elmore Leonard

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touchWhile at Crypticon earlier this year, Chris and I found a terrific little bookstore in downtown Seattle, where I lucked into finding TOUCH by Elmore Leonard.

The premise looked terrific. Originally published in 1987, TOUCH tells the story of a young man who has the ability to heal people by touching them. While the man doesn’t claim to be any Messiah-like figure and has no particular message, he draws religious hucksters, fanatics and media leeches who all want to either destroy him or make him a symbol of their own particular beliefs.

While TOUCH is different than Leonard’s other works, it’s still classic Leonard, containing the elements Leonard fans expect, from crackling dialogue to going deep with interesting characters. The story plays out fairly predictably, at least until the end, which I found surprising, though the journey is a deeply enjoyable ride.

Recommended.
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WILDWOMAN By Chris Marrs

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Front_Cover_Image_Frozen_ShadowsWILDWOMAN by Chris Marrs is now available from JournalStone here and here. This dark fantasy short novel is published with FROZEN SHADOWS, a short novel by Gene O’Neill, as part of JournalStone’s “double down” series of flip books. Full disclosure for this review: Chris is my girlfriend. In fact, it was our mutual love of writing that initially brought us together.

WILDWOMAN tells the story of Julie, a bullied young girl who meets a giant hairy girl in the forest named Yani. These two outcasts form a special bond that summer until Yani disappears. Then another girl in the town disappears, and another. Then they stop.

Front_Cover_Image_WildwomanYears later, Julie moves back to her hometown with her daughter, and the disappearances begin again. And Julie suspects that Yani, whom she’d begun to remember as an imaginary friend, has returned.

Chris writes from the heart on this character-driven story. You really feel Julie’s pain and isolation from childhood to adulthood. Chris accomplishes something I believe is difficult for many writers, which is portraying a life via snapshots over a short work. Time jumps ahead repeatedly to reveal a sad life punctuated with painful and happy moments, and the reader makes those jumps easily without losing interest.

The dark fantasy element of the story is revealed in pieces and remains a tantalizing mystery until the climax, where Julie truly finds out who she is, what’s important to her, and what she’s made of.

I’ve read all of Chris’s work, and I have to say, WILDWOMAN impressed me the most. Check it out.
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THE FOLD By Peter Clines

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the foldHappy to review THE FOLD today by Peter Clines. Proud of the disclaimer for this review, which is Peter is a friend of mine and somebody I admire a great deal.

THE FOLD is a sidequel to Peter’s runaway hit 14, a sidequel being a standalone story that follows in the footsteps of another. In 14, the tenants of an apartment building discover strange clues that leads to an astonishing discovery and possibly the end of the world. It’s like Scooby Doo meets LOST, though without LOST’s more annoying aspects.

In THE FOLD, Mike is a genius with a photographic memory. An old classmate and bigwig in the government, Reggie, has been trying to recruit him for years to work on secret government projects, but Mike has found happiness and peace being a schoolteacher, and wants nothing to do with it. Then Reggie presents him with an irresistible mystery–a project in which a small group of scientists have invented an inter-dimensional portal that allows teleportation. It works, the scientists insist, and it’s safe. But something’s wrong. Something feels wrong.

As Mike investigates, he realizes the machine isn’t what it seems. That it may, in fact, destroy the world.

In some respects, Peter reprises 14, but with new characters, additional lore and some new surprising twists. So if you’re already familiar with 14, this standalone novel still offers great twists and surprises, and made for very quick and satisfying reading. Otherwise, it contains the same basic elements that made 14 so successful–endearing characters, humor, an intense mystery that is slowly revealed, easygoing writing style and good pacing. The pages flew by, something hard to accomplish with this jaded reader with limited time.

The sky’s the limit for Peter Clines. Can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
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