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Book Review: I Dream of Mirrors by Chris Kelso

I Dream Of Mirrors by Chris Kelso

Sinister Horror Company, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1912578078

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

File this short novel under the “mind-blowing, mind-boggling, weird horror” category. There. It’s done. Attempting to classify I Dream of Mirrors is nearly impossible to explain or put into a genre box.

It’s one of the cool stories of weird fiction, which can include horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi, or bizarro fiction. Readers who crave the out-there settings and characters of Jeff Vandermeer, Neil Gaiman, and John Langan will find plenty to lose themselves in here, with a tale that, while heady and intelligent, keeps itself grounded.

Kurt wakes up to an apocalypse caused by Dunwoody, a manic billionaire who has changed the world through technological brainwashing.”People” who have been affected at first appear to be zombies, but are actually willing participants in Dunwoody’s new world order, that harkens back to an 1984 motif. The ones who resist are the outsiders: those who have crushing pasts that leave them strugging to survive. Kurt teams up with Kat to battle the People and Dunwoody, along with a bevy of other odd characters, each with his or her own mind-bending backstory.

At the heart of this story is a search for identity, as Kurt has no recollection of his life before the change– who he was, or what he did. The transmissions from Dunwoody’s tower and hallucinations attempt to convince him that he’s merely a part of the system, a figment of humanity’s imagination that never existed in the physical world. What could be considered an exercise in finding one’s identity morphs into something that reaches much deeper, yet still can be completed in one surreal sitting.

What raises I Dream of Mirrors above the mass of weird fiction floating through the stratosphere is Chris Kelso’s writing. He crafts every sentence into something that both engages the reader and detaches them from reality. Add him to a very short list of newer authors to place on the “must read” list. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on June 21, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Wardenclyffe by F. Paul Wilson

Wardenclyffe by F. Paul Wilson

Journalstone. 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1947654594

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Audiobook

It’s time for F. Paul Wilson to return to the Secret History of the World. That should be enough reason to pick up this short novel about the plant where eccentric genius Nikola Tesla conducted some of his most dangerous experiments. This should serve as an appetizer to the return of Repairman Jack sometime in the very near future (yes, it’s actually happening). For the many fans of both Jack and the Adversary Cycle, Easter eggs abound everywhere, adding to what is a thrilling story on its own.

On Wardenclyffe, Long Island, Charles Atkinson begins an internship working for the enigmatic inventor, choosing to forgo a lucrative job at General Electric for a shot at making history. Charles carries a secret from England that is kept hidden from society, one that changes the dynamic of a character who could have been a mere bystander in this story to one with great depth.

Tesla has plans for a worldwide wireless energy source, but unfortunately has run out of funding. He has trudged onward, hoping for a savior to help him after the criminal acts of Thomas Edison against him. Tesla’s attempts have some strange and dangerous results, such as fish jumping out of the river to their deaths, and the disappearance of other animals, while succeeding in lighting up bulbs several miles away.

For those familiar with the otherworldly forces in the Adversary series can sense that the experiments just might open up something much more dangerous than corrupt businessmen.  Beneath a tower, something has come forth, something that threatens to alter fate of humanity.

Enter the mysterious Rudolf Drexler, representative of the Septimus Order, an ancient organization that has its tendrils in the mechanisms of major events in the scope of human history. He offers Tesla everything he needs to succeed… for a price. When the inventor accepts, the experiments lurch forward in dark steps, and Charles finds how devastating the efforts are. Something has crept forth from beyond: something that is changing everyone who ventures beneath the tower.

What results is a thriller that is a welcome addition to the canon of F. Paul Wilson, a tale that will enthrall  fans of The Keep and Nightworld, whetting the appetites of those jonesing for the return of readers’ favorite Jack.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

 

Posted on June 20, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: The Red Death by Birgitte Margen

 

The Red Death by Birgitte Märgen

Self-published, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1729311196

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

The Red Death is a thrilling tale of a deadly pandemic. The Red Death is caused by an unknown bacterium that caused an ancient pandemic before Pasteurella pestis and the Black Death, and now it has re-emerged in New York City. The Red Death causes hemorrhagic nodules in the lungs; its victims vomit blood as their lungs fill with it, and death follows within days of infection.Starting off with a few deaths, the story traces the spread and exponential growth of the epidemic.

The cast of characters includes a team of local CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) investigators in hazmat-suits, a rebuffed bacteriologist at the CDC national headquarters and a has-been paleoanthropologist in Las Vegas. What links the early victims? How is the disease spread? These are some of the questions they face.

Decades ago, the paleoanthropologist wrote about an ancient pandemic and an indigenous Amazonian tribe that was resistant to the disease.  His work was ridiculed, and he retreated into the bars in Las Vegas, but he has a sample of a rare plant that might have protected the tribe from the disease. Why won’t the CDC director authorize research on a vaccine?

Just as the number of victims increases exponentially, the action in New York City, Milwaukee, and the Amazon intensifies. Rival leaders of the Motombu tribe face off in a fight to the death, with the fate of the research team hanging in the balance. Will the leader of the breakaway cannibal faction win, dooming millions to the Red Death? Or, will the researchers’ friend triumph and lead them to the plant that could end the pandemic?

The author describes the problems CDC investigators and researchers face and their techniques. However, I think that her use of the term “vaccine” might not be appropriate. Vaccines usually contain attenuated microbes or their antigens that stimulate the recipient’s immune system, but in this book, a CDC investigator is infected and saves herself by injecting the paleoanthropologist’s decades-old plant extract. The extract might contain an antibiotic or an adjuvant to activate the immune system, but it probably doesn’t have bacterial antigens. Nevertheless, The Red Death is a worthwhile read. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

Posted on June 19, 2019 by , Reply
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