Audio Book Review: Star Trek: Picard Second Self by Una McCormack

Star Trek: Picard Second Self by Una McCormack

320 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 19, 2023 (I didn't realize it wasn't available in paperback yet)

Listened to this on Audiobook. Kinda sorta of regretted that decision.  Nothing to insult the production of the audiobook.  The woman who read did a wonderful job, but Dr.McCormack's Star Trek books are my favorites and I wanted to really live in the language. In this modern era there are several talented writers working on ST properties. Greg Cox, Dayton Ward and David Mack for example are great at making you feel a  part of the tapestry of it all.  Una McCormack's Star Trek novels take on a weight unmatched.

I wrote a very long review and interviewed Una about her Prequel novel to the series Picard. I felt that the book had an understanding of the politics and dynamics that elevated not only that book but Picard Season One.  I can't say this novel helped season two, that mess really couldn't be saved. However, this story is set before the events of that season.

It is not McCormack's fault. She does a wonderful job with the Picard characters including Raffi who is a character I enjoy.  I am still not sure Picard had enough weight to hand-pick a retired officer the chair on The Stargazer but whatever - not this novel's fault.

The idea of Raffi and Elnor on an undercover mission to find a Cardassian war criminal is just a wonderful idea.  Look you can consider this a spoiler, but anyone who knows Dr. McCormack's work saw a mile away who Raffi was tracking down and I think he should've been on the cover, to attract more readers.

Una and I share many Star Trek interests, one of which is our favorite all-time Trek character Elim Garak. There was one moment in the book where she nailed Garak so well, that In my head I not only knew what he would say but I totally pictured Andrew Robinson physically acting the scene so well that I was unreasonably excited about it.

This book rules for many reasons, the weight it gives to Bajor, Cardassia, the occupation, the Dominion war, the Romulan supernova, Raffi's internal conflict and time in Romulan affairs, Garak's character, Elnor's decision to join the academy. All this is given weight, and meaning.  I was listening on a walk one day, and a throwaway dialogue about how many centuries Bajorans were traveling the stars before Cardassia made me think the rest of the night about the relationship between these two fictional species.

Star Trek: Picard Second Self does a wonderful job of telling a Star Trek story that adds weight and depth not just to Picard but the entire Star Trek universe. If that sounds hyperbolic oh well. It was great.  Una sees the Trek world in way I do she thinks about the cultural stuff, the political  science meeting people, she does world building the way I like mentioning the point in the day of ships to high a reality. All good stuff. 

Also Lots of F-bombs for Star Trek, I had no problem with most of them, the only I cringed at was when Raffi did one on a open comm to the Stargazer. Minor nitpick. 

Book Review: Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi

 Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi

  352 pages, Hardcover

July, 2023 by Tor Nightfire

One of the evils those of us in this writing and publishing game that authors just have to deal with is the sad and unfortunate marketing of books. I almost vomited when a pop-up ad for a science fiction novel promoted itself as Barbie meets Oppenheimer in one of the grossest examples of a book being marketed as this meets that I have ever seen. So let's take a moment to say that this book which is marketed as “The Exorcist meets Lord of the Flies, by way of Midnight Mass…” is exactly that. Those three things are a fantastic way for someone to understand the Boys in the Valley.

I picked up my copy on the Mysterious Galaxy event for Philip Fracassi’s crazy book tour, he is absolutely a road dog for this book and I respect that. He added a lot of weight to the experience, as I enjoyed hearing Philip talk about the writing and research for this book. I go to as many of the book events as I can at MG, and it gives you a connection to an author or book that can’t be underrated. I was rooting for this book.

The good news is that it is a super fantastic novel. I have read Frcassi before, my main experience was his short story collection, which included a story Fail-safe that I remember knocked my socks off. I don't know why it took me so long to circle back to Fracassi but I am so glad I did.

I am not an enormous fan of novels set in this era, which would have been the turn of the 19th to 20th century, but I am not against historical novels, just not my favorite era. That said Fracassi did a great job of hooking me into the novel from the outset. I knew the basics that the bulk of the novel was set in this era at an orphanage. The opening chapter is a powerful and frightening example of domestic violence. I knew what was coming because of the setting and still, it was unsettling and went wonders creating a dark and cold tone.

I say dark and cold for good reason as I felt those two things dripping off every page. I am very close to calling it a full masterpiece, in total it is a fantastic, must-read horror novel. The quality of the writing and research is beyond terrific, and if you think I am being hyperbolic I will get out of the way the one nitpick I have with Boys in the Valley. You may consider this a feature and not a bug, but the novel has an interesting format. Anyone who has read my reviews knows I am not a fan of first-person narratives, and here the book opens in first person. When the novel switches point of view, the novel then becomes third person, and when it comes back to Peter’s point of view.

I think most non-authors would not even notice this, and certainly, I am the only person on Goodreads to mention it. It took me out of the narrative a little bit. Once I was 70 or 80 pages in I had totally forgotten about it. I mention it partly because I totally got engrossed and stopped paying attention to anything but the story. As someone who can’t help but see the zipper in the monster’s rubber suit narrative-wise it was good that  I forgot all about it. Most readers won’t notice, most will be under the book’s spell.

Peter is our point of view. He witnesses his father murder his mother in the opening pages as a very young boy. Too young. “For a moment, I see myself as a spector – a thin Shadow shaking before fiery dragon – crotch-stained and whimpering.” It won’t be the last time Peter experiences evil, but it puts him in a place where he can’t escape it. This perfectly executed prologue gives the reader compassion for Peter who is part of the structure of the story. We have to feel for him, we have to feel that he is trapped for the book to work.
 
Once the novel moves into the catholic orphanage the horror continues to flow off of the adult characters as much of the early tense is built off this group of boys, without families and little hope except for the one boy who wants to be a priest. Ideally, that is what all the boys will choose as the only “family” to adopt them is the church. Peter develops an important relationship with a priest Brother Johnson who understands Peter might interested in other things, like the local farm girl Grace- the first female he has ever met. There is excellent character work and world-building in the first one hundred pages. We understand Peter very well but all the boys, Grace, and her father are all excellent characters who leap off the page.

When the violence starts the source of the horror for this reader often comes from the lack of understanding of the adult the first scene that hits hard after the prologue is in chapter 24. When the first victim of possession or murder is found in the sanctuary murdered and hanging on the cross. Father Poople refuses to give last rites.

“Father you think he did this to himself?”
“I do.” Poole’s stoic face remains unmoved. “And suicide is a mortal sin, brother Johnson. Now…”
“He’s just a child…”
“He’s a sinner!”

So here’s the thing does religious horror work for you, or demonic possession stories? The loss of innocence in a child, and a young person out of control from evil is something I find freaky, but only my imagination believes in it. My mind rejects it, not enough to turn me off. If a story of demonic possession works for you, Boys in the Valley is a high-level execution of the concept.  The effect on kids comes out in a powerful example of perfect set-up and payoff. The priest is planning to bury the child that Father Poole accused of suicide and Bartholomew has a question.

“I would like to know if Basil will be buried in the St. Vincent’s cemetery. In consecrated ground I mean.”

I thought this set up a subtle theme of the book, the corruption of these boys is not only by the demons. The lack of compassion for his dead friend was fascinating to me and one I think some readers might not focus on. I did and I thought the parallel of the influence of these angry, and disconnected priests at times didn't seem any less evil. That is when I was reminded of the word cold, and how it influences the atmosphere.  As the weather turns and the world grows colder the heart of this one boy mirrors this. Soon evil will take many of their minds. Being raised to serve the church did nothing to protect them.

If elevated horror is a thing, Boys in the Valley applies because it works on multiple levels. I can only read from my point of view, but I think this story transforms in the eye of the beholder. A religious reader and a non-religious reader will have different valid experiences.  

The job of the horror reader is to put yourself into the shoes of the main characters. The job of the horror writer is to make it impossible not to. Fracassi does a masterful job,  not just with the details that show his ability as a researcher. This novel also excels in moments of traditional horror mechanics - the nuts and bolts of building tension.
 
“…the doors were thrown open as if by a strong wind. The cross…it fell to the floor. It was as if…”
Andrew waits, trying to temper his own apprehension.
“As if something entered that room, Father, Peter says, his eyes no longer delirious, or frightened, or feverish. They look at Andrew steadily. Cold. Assured. “as if something had come inside and settled there.”

I was not kidding about the cold, here Fracassi uses the cold like a weapon Tangible fear. undeniable for anyone who makes that deal with the author and gives themselves up to it. This reminds of the last moment when the novel got it's hooks into me. This terror inducing description of the feeling of demonic possession.

“One moment, his head is bursting with the swarm, an infinite number of angry flies battering the inside of his skull, countless black legs pressing against the back of his eyes, crawling through the deepest reaches of his ear canals, climbing up the back of his throat. So loud so dense, so heavy…he can do nothing, think nothing but for the instructions.
The command to kill is simple. Direct.
He wants nothing more to comply.”

Damn.

Boys in the Valley will be one of my top reads of the year. I respect Philip Fracassi's work ethic on the page and in the world. The passion for writing and creation shows up on his tour but most importantly it shows up in every page of his work. Boys in the Valley has everything it needs to become a bonafide historical horror classic.

Audiobook Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The High Country by John Jackson Miller

 

 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The High Country by John Jackson Miller

Audiobook, First published February, 2023

Of all the authors writing Star Trek, there are many voices the publishers of modern ST novels could’ve gone with for the first spin-off novel with the Strange New Worlds crew. John Jackson Miller is a good choice since he has written Captain Pike and the Enterprise before filling in the important gap of where the flagship was during the Klingon War. He’s written comics and prose for Star Wars, Halo, Iron Man, Simpsons, Conan, Planet of the Apes, and Mass Effect, with recent graphic novels for Battlestar Galactica, Dumbo, and The Lion King. Dumbo huh? I do want to check out his Conan and BSG.

I listened to his last ST novel on audiobook last year and had a wonderful experience so why enjoy this novel on audio during the last two weeks of SNW season two. An interesting thing about this novel is that it is a sequel to the Enterprise third season episode North Star.  (wouldn’t hurt to re-watch that episode)

One thing the novels do well that the show just can’t do is use time and space a little bit more accurately and I really like that the events of this mission take place over weeks and months, meant to be between episodes of season one in the timeline…I like that.

Pike and a small team of the command crew are testing a new shuttle, in the search for a lost starship, when they lose power and chief engineer Hemmer has to pull a miracle to beam all four on the shuttle (Pike, Number One, Spock, and Uhura) to the planet, each in a different location. It would be easy to see this novel as constant push and pull with the prime directive, but each crew member figures out slowly that the Prime directive is hardly the issue here at the moment. The people on this random planet look like they are from the old West, and Pike knows Jonathan Archer and his enterprise found a similar situation.

The structure of the novel is quite good, each of the four has their own adventures and plans a role in eventually helping them escape. Something that doesn’t look likely is the technology doesn’t seem to function on this world. Also on the planet an old flame of Pike’s who he didn’t know was on the ship they were looking for. Uhura and Spock have the best stories.

Really the coolest part is Spocks and I hesitate to give that away. So trust me if you are a Strange New Worlds fan this audiobook is well performed and the novel is very good, so reading, or listening I recommend the experience to Star Trek fans….

WARNED…

The story of the Vulcans who had been stranded on the planet more than 150 earth years earlier in the process of sneak attacking Andoria is a really cool way to further tie this novel to Enterprise. Also imagine of Spock and the Vulcans showing up being master sea farers with the old Earth ocean ship was just cool as hell.

Book Review: The Person on the Other Side of this Book by Samuel J. Tanner

 The Person on the Other Side of this Book by Samuel J. Tanner

 265 pages, Paperback

 May, 2023 Quoir

Each and every book we read and consume is a relationship between two people on each side of the book.  The time you really get a feeling for that is when you personally sell books at book signings and talk directly to that person. You can’t help but think about that when you are reading a book with a title like this one. Much like the absurdists of the 20th century Tanner constantly rips down the wall between author and reader.

There are hints throughout this book that Tanner is influenced by the early more science-fictional works of Vonnegut. There are spices of new wave sci-fi that intentionally or maybe unintentionally remind me of the more experimental new wavers most famous of which being your Ellison or Dick, but willingness to break the fourth reminded me of the more obscure works of Malzberg. You’ll laugh as much as Sheckley or Douglas Adams book, at least this person on the other side of the laughed that much.

 All of that may be an accident, I don’t know if Tanner has read Sheckley or Malzberg but that is my way of saying yes I like all this. If you are looking for a modern comparison Tanner is a good spiritual cousin to Dickheads co-host D.Harlan Wilson’s early novels, in fact, this Dr. Identity would fit nicely on the shelf together.

“This is only a moment,” I said. “A small dot on an infinite journey. Imagine a spiral.”
“I don’t want to an autobiography,” Talia said smiling eyes. “I want to write about these dying people.”
“It’s impossible not to write autobiographies. The stuff that comes out of us is the stuff inside of us. Around us.”

I have no idea if this book is actually autobiographical any more than any other book, as of course, it seems like that was the point Tanner was making right. Look this is a hilarious absurdist way to express that point with a whole bunch of funny and weird science fictional concepts.  The book’s narrator/her/point of view is a professor named Sam. Oh shit, The author of this book is a professor named Sam. I doubt the real professor named Sam is having a conversation with an intelligence deep under the ice of the Jovian moon Europa, but I am not here to judge his friendships. I am here to judge his book, so I suppose I might have to blur those lines eventually.  

Inside the book Sam is talking to this alien fish dude, he has a nemesis named Arvin Bingleking. Outside the book Sam couldn’t have known this but I know an Arvin. Weird accident but it made me trust inside the book Arvin more than maybe I should have. Maybe I should talk less about the plot.  It is fine, but I have plenty of reasons to tell you to read this book most have nothing to do with the plot.

By the way, I am way too lazy to retype it but pages 70-71 were a very funny conversation. It is one of the times this book takes the piss out of science fiction, with a little back and forth I really enjoyed. Since it is funny and it is.  You might think is all fun and games. Tanner is very good at doing that absurdist thing where the prose feels like clothes turned inside out but there are moments of straight prose that poke through and show his other strengths as a writer. Consider the opening of chapter 7.

“And so yes, I rested in my tiny apartment in a dying city on a dying planet.  But I also traveled. Things are multiple, stupid.
And there, I called you stupid one last time. And we’re only on chapter seven! I bet you thought I would wait till the epilogue. No, I wanted to get my stupid jokes about calling you stupid out of the way. And we’re about halfway through this thing. Whatever this thing is.”

Damn it. OK, he had me fooled with that first sentence. I feel like I deserved the rest of it.  I swear it gets Science fictional with spaceships, Jupiter, and alien stuff.

“And so the clumsy human spaceship finally entered Europa’s atmosphere.
Patel and Bingleking silently monitored their screens as the ship’s engines rumbled. Bingleking’s euphoria was tempered by Patel’s weariness, though neither of the scientists turn astronauts paid much attention to effect.
Cameras filmed the small craft’s descent. Filmed Patel and Bingleking’s anxious silence. Billions of people watched this voyage to Europa on tiny screens. This technological feat was made possible by the Bingleking Drive. By the NBA and by Starbucks and by the National Space Society and by this sponsor and by that donor and Whatever.
“Who knows what you’re capable of? The owner of the Los Angeles Lakers asked as his face gave way to an image of Europa which gave way to a Nike swoosh. Jupiter’s moon was a pleasant distraction from thickening smog and drier coughs.”

I have sold you this book now, right? This is a very fun book. It is long for an absurdist book. Sometimes with surreal books, I start to get over it. I never did, there are plenty of ideas and fun to be had here. I laughed all the way to the end. I thought a lot about what Tanner was doing and trying to say, so as a reader I enjoyed that. Top Notch stuff.

Book Review: Dreck by Cliff Jones Jr.

 

Dreck by Cliff Jones Jr.     

133 pages, Paperback 

June 13, 2023 by Fractured Mirror Publishing

One of the best things about punk rock fandom, is that punk rockers have always felt that they were one step from their favorite bands. The fans are the creators have very little separation.  Cyberpunk happened in part because creators like John Shirley were wearing dog collars to the punk shows he was playing at and at the Science Fiction conventions he read at.  

Philip K. Dick barely saw punk in his life, but many of his fans think of punk. Cyberpunk, hopepunk as an actual punk rocker my whole life I generally roll my eyes when yet another genre picks up the punk tag. As the author of punk rock-themed horror I have to point out that my books have actual punks, I know I may be a hypocrite here. Aynhoo here we have an author who defines his work as Dreampunk/ surrealist.

Cliff Jones Jr. is an author whose inspiration comes straight off the pink beam as like many of us one of his favorite writers is one Philly K. Dick.  That is how we met each other.  I really enjoy Cliff’s company and talking with him. I was nervous I might not like the book my pet peeve about punk as genre tag aside I LOVED this book.

Dreck has enough weird concepts in the slim 131 pages to out idea science fiction novels with triple the page count. For those of us looking for modern works of SF that have that pink beam feeling of a story just a few beats away from reality, this is a great novel to dig into. Smart glasses that learn you and create ghostly algorithms, Virtual hyperrealities, intense dreams, and higher realms of thought to combine modern technology with surrealist spiritual musings. The narrative is carefully crafted to give a neurodivergent view of the spectrum, at least that is the sense I got.

There is a sense that Flip and the characters in this novel are constantly slipping inches from everyone else’s reality and the technology that is weaponized to learn us and exploit us through capitalism is ever-present. I wondered if the insect on the cover of represented tiny things crawling on us leaving little bites. There is a trade-off to all the knowledge the internet puts at our touch, the Faustian deal is the vast knowledge we have access to is used against us.

Was this the mission statement of Dreck, at least it seemed so to me. If I made it sound preachy or depressing it is not.  The book is fun, routinely hilarious, and made me laugh multiple times. Each chapter has little pieces of art that I believe are meant to represent the big data system learning about the characters. That of course is at the heart of the concept.

“Lots of Companies pay MeFirst, but not for that.  And not just private companies but political groups, government agencies…they pay for your information…”

Wayne frowned. He felt more comfortable ignoring this obvious downside to Big Data. He’d have to tamp down his enthusiasm around Flip, ever the idealistic hacktivist. The guy knew his stuff, but he was kind of a buzzkill.”

MeFirst is a fictional technology but it works like most of the real stuff.  Data collection meant to figure out what we need to buy, is the abyss staring back at us. It could be played for horror, and you are having fun so much of this zooms past without a thought to consequences.I love that about effective Sci-fi satire.
 
In the second half of the book, the technology is escalated with second-sight lenses/ glasses that project data in ghost memories.  Is it the technology or are people losing their minds?

“Second Sight is a scam,” Laila snapped back at her. There are no ghosts! It is all in the lenses. They show you shadows and then give you a shock just to keep you scared, well I am not falling for it anymore.”

Dreck blurs the lines. “Dreck: Part Drug, part nanotech, part biological material…all the taste and appearance of black strap molasses.”  It may be that I know Cliff is a PKD  fan but there sly easter egg-ish references to a fictional Phil. I am not complaining this is a feature, not a bug. I would say Dreck: Part Surreal, Part humor, part science fictional material… all the taste and appearance of a PKD nightmare all wrapped into a unique and modern voice. Is it dreampunk? If Cliff says so I can live with the label because I was a big fan of this novel.

Audiobook Review: Star Trek: Discovery: Drastic Measures by Dayton Ward

Star Trek: Discovery: Drastic Measures by Dayton Ward 

 304 pages, Audiobook

 First published February, 2018

Prequel to the prequel! 

I have trouble writing deep and thought reviews of audiobooks, I consume them during walks, bike rides, doing dishes, or cooking. Rather than sitting down to focus attention on them. It is impossible to pull out passages or parts where I was impressed with the writing. Dayton Ward is a writer I greatly enjoy following online. I have been overdue to check out one of his books.

I use the libby library app for audiobooks and I sorta spun the star trek books at random and this one came up. Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou and Jason Issac's Gabriel Lorca are two characters who came and went with Star Trek Discovery's freshman season - they are characters I was very interested in.

I knew the novel was about them, but had no idea going in that Ward would be tying their back story the infamous Kudos the execution from James T. Kirk's back story. It was an incident when Kirk was a boy when Kirk's mother and two sons were witnesses to one of the worst crimes in the early Federation. An aggressive contagion is ravaging the food supplies of the remote Federation colony Tarsus IV, the colony’s governor, Adrian Kodos, employs an unimaginable solution in order to prevent mass starvation. He kills a good half of the population because he believes Starfleet can't help for some time.

Lorrca is there as Starfleet security and Georgiou is a part of the Federation ship that responds. The events of this disaster would be key to Federation history in universe, but in relation to Captain Kirk this is also an important event in Star Trek. It is exciting to hear Ward's storytelling abilities and deep Trek knowledge applied to this back story. The characters we know from Discovery get a really fantastic backstory that adds depth to their

Georgiou and Lorca end up with the job of hunting down “Kodos the Executioner” who Star Trek fans will know escapes, despite this Ward gives the story depth and realism that expands the Star Trek universe. Big thumbs up. This was a fun audiobook listen. The performance was solid but it is the storytelling that really makes it work. Great Stuff!

Book Review: Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences by Bev Vincent

 

Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences by Bev Vincent

 Locus Award Nominee for Non-Fiction (2023) 

240 pages, hardcover     

October 4, 2022 by Becker & Mayer! Books

Interviewed Bev right after he finished this book so first things first...


Listen to my interview with Bev


Watch my interview with Bev

This book was timed with Stephen King’s 75th birthday on September 21, 2022, and there are few people in the world that know SK's work than Bev  Vincent whose long-time column in the Magazine Cemetery Dance was the best source of King news after the passing of Castle Rock Newsletter. For those of us that have spent decades reading King some of the information here is old news. I didn't learn a lot, that is because I have loved and respected King forever. Still, I read it cover to cover and was happy I did.

 Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences has tons of archival photos, and personal documents from King’s personal collection. So even those of us who are long-time readers are going to see pictures and things for the first time. Mixed up King's personal stories and notes of how his novels, novellas, short stories, and adaptations were created.

Bev did a fantastic job, and this coffee table-style book is an all-around fun book.  $30 is not cheap but everyone should make sure their library has it, if not request it. This is where this book was meant to be. Huge thumbs up for this one.

Book Review: The Destroyer of Worlds by Matt Ruff

The Destroyer of Worlds by Matt Ruff

305 pages, hardcover

Harper publishing, February, 2023 

 Sorry, this review will be a little shorter than I normally do. I just finished the final stages of my first non-fiction book and my brain was a little fried when I read this.  The good news is this was an excellent escape from the craziness of that experience. Destroyer of Worlds is a sequel to the novel Lovecraft Country that if my memory serves me was set in the late forties. This novel despite having a 40s event on the cover is set in the 1950s. Summer of 1957 to be exact.

I was a fan of The Mirage Ruff’s underrated alternate 9/11 novel, and I read the first novel during the period that the HBO TV show was announced and before it aired. They are both a little different from each other and TDOW is different still. Ruff doesn’t try to outdo the first book in creepiness or Lovecraft easter eggs.

Thankfully Howie is not really haunting this book like the first one. That is a reason why the book is not called Lovecraft Country 2: Lovecraftier. It is a sequel set in the same world and characters like Montrose, Atticus, and Hippolyta are the main characters.

Much like the first book The Safe Negro Travel Guide and the road trips of the main characters drive the narrative. Pun was intended, forgive me. Threads from the first book are woven into the events throughout. It opens with Atticus and Montrose tracing their ancestor's escape from Slavery which we see in flashbacks.
 
Hippolyta’s story is the one I found myself most interested in.  First off she travels west something the first book didn’t do, then she gets the device that helps her and her son travel to another world.  I love the scene when Horace and Hippolyta first go to this other world and see different stars for the first time.

“Yeah, it makes perfect sense when you see it set. It looks real close, doesn’t it? Like you could reach up and touch it.  But’s not. It only seems that way because it’s so big.”
“How big?”
“To measure it would take a lot of time on Ida’s telescope. But on our milky way is about a thousand light-years across, and Andromeda, which is the biggest spiral galaxy we know of spans almost twice that.”

The cosmic horror of this moment is a mother trying to explain the wonders of the universe only highlights how small we are. The scene is several pages before Horace before…

“We’ve got to bring Ida and Mary back to Earth,” he said “They need to go home.”
“They do, and we will Hippolyta promised.” But first, we’re going to get ourselves out of this fix we’re in. And we’re going to take back what’s  mine.”

My favorite moment of this whole book. The book also returns to Rudy and her days passing as a white women, the resurrection of the dead and plenty of supernatural events that highlight the casual and not not so casual racism of the day.

More than the first book which felt like a collection of stories that eventually wove together, this book feels a bit more whole.  More tone, and vibe than moments of outright horror.  I really enjoyed this book and Ruff is 3/3 for me so far. There was nothing that blew my socks off, in that sense I think The Mirage is Ruff's most incredible work.  Still, I like I enjoyed the skin-crawly goodness of The Destroyer of Worlds.

Book Review: Our Black Hearts Beat as One by Brian Asman

 

(podcast interview coming up. so stay tuned...)

Our Black Hearts Beat as One by Brian Asman

145 pages, Paperback

October 2023, Mutated Media
 

First of all shout- to the author of this book local San Diego author Brian Asman. He will be coming on the podcast. When he offered me a copy of this book he was able to drop it off on the porch and shout out to my dog Barney who didn't bite Brian when he came on the porch. Shout to Dracula, Brian’s foster failure doggie, hey we were supposed to foster our dogs too. I think the front door was shut, if it had been open I would have totally gotten Brian bit. I felt bad about it. Brian is a person I like seeing at book events around San Diego. He is a fun person to talk to because his energy is infectious.  His gonzo semi-bizarro style of horror is not exactly my personal favorite style but I enjoy reading it in small doses.

Our Black Heats Beat as One is a punk rock horror novella, short in page count, not unlike your typical punk rock song. The book also has that energy. One thing that is fun for me personally is how much of Brian's personality seeps into his fiction. That is generally true of every author, but in this case it is a strength. When you are most known for writing a haunted house novella with the great title  Man, Fuck This House, you know the man has his own style.

Misfit romances are a genre I greatly enjoy, and if you like off-beat original horror and misfit romances this is a great book to read. From the back cover: “Michael Mallory's living the dream as the lead singer of a hot, up-and-coming band, Modern Love. When a sudden breakup shatters his world, he plunges headlong into the city's occult underbelly in a desperate bid to salve his pain. Lost amidst wayward souls and brutish killers, godlings, and grotesqueries, Mike's about to learn one incontrovertible There's nothing more terrifying than love.”

Romance is not just as straights and normies. Reality is the love and passion punks feel for their music has raw energy that is hard to explain to anyway who has never been swept up in a circle pit. The adjacent romance often has the energy of slam dance, joy, and pain in equal measure. That balance, mixed with occult weirdness and a little subtle humor is the reason the one hundred and forty pages fly by.  

We know Mike mostly as the singer of modern love a punk band who I saw as the touring business side of punk, no the sweaty basement struggling type.  He leaves it all out on stage, he burns hot so when his girlfriend Kara wants a break – he spirals. The passion Mike feels makes the break-up crashed into the weird underbelly of occult Boston. Strange history and stories haunt the strange characters who float into the novel are super interesting.  "I don't think this entity I encountered was this man, transmutated by death into a strange new form. I've seen all death can do. But maybe this creature was the ghost of what happened to him..."

I know a thing or two about writing Punk fiction, capturing that energy for people who have never experienced it is not easy. If there is a weakness in this book, the fast pace will lose some readers. The mythology was explained enough for me but I could see a few readers having to double back or feel lost.  It is natural in a book like this. I am OK with it but I would bet a Gorilla Biscuits colored vinyl 7-inch that reviews will complain that they wanted more.

Indie-published novels cut both ways. You get fierce original stuff, but an outside editor might push an author to head off those complaints. That said if you are reading Brian's work you don't want cookie-cutter stuff. The raw energy is the point. It is the strength. "Hearts break, but they don't just break, they explode destroying everything around them."This novel is about the dark corners that broken hearts expose. The tale and the message wrapped around a broken heart is one you know but the characters and setting are fantastically Brian Asman.  

More than anything this made me excited to see what Brian does with Good Dog,  his coming werewolf novel. Black Heats Beat as One is a fun, not-for-everyone read. The people it is for will love the shit out of it.