IN THE SEASON OF BLOOD AND GOLD: STORIES by Taylor Brown

It's always a great feeling when you feel like you've discovered a new author that's on the cusp of blowing up. When you feel that great privilege of knowing that not only is there still a whole career's worth of material to look forward to, but also once he/she gets hugely successful, you can say, "I was a fan from the beginning." In The Season of Blood and Gold (released last year in 2014) is Taylor Brown's debut, a collection of hard-hitting short stories, some of which have already won awards. 

"In a world gone white, ghosts must be the color of shadow."

I'm here to tell you that Brown is the real deal. His writing is some of the very best that I've read all year. He has a real mastery of language, using it in expressive ways, evoking both atmosphere, character, and emotion with impressive economy. There are some stories that seem like they could have been written by a young Cormac McCarthy, where Brown uses words like a mallet and chisel, making sure they stick with you long after reading. Here's the opening line of the award-winning story "Kingdom Come":

"The boy dropped the knife into the stone mouth of the well and watched the blade glitter into the depths, blood from its edge red-clouding its wake, haunting the blade like tidings of its history."

The stories take place in a wide variety of places and times, ranging from the Old West past to even a post-apocalyptic future. A big similarity that I noticed in the stories were the characters, all of which seem to be adrift in their respective worlds, searching for connections, their identities defined by what they do, whether it be a poacher, a soldier, a piano player, a moonshiner, a tattoo artist, or even an alligator wrestler.

My favorite story in the collection, "Whorehouse Piano," blew me away with it's efficiency in the way it illustrates the fascinating character of Lucy and how hard it hits emotionally in just five pages. It's about a former whore who now plays piano in her brothel, her complex and bittersweet relationship with the owner, and her journey to see her estranged father.

"They drove all night into bayou darkness, low-hung moss and the scarce reflection of blackwater amid the mangroves. Highway signs reared before them, bleary and wayward-tilted. Red-flattened carcasses of small mammals littered the road. Whoreson crossed himself when he saw them, reborn. Her hand retreated when he tried to hold it. They never touched, not since the night he slit her throat."

Other standout stories include "Sin-Eaters," set in an apocalyptic future, where one young man decides to buck the system once he finds beauty in a terrible world, "Bone Valley," about a lonely guy who wrestles gators for a living, as well as the beautiful title story, about a young Civil War soldier who risks everything after he meets the love of his life. This story also seems like it might be the basis for Brown's upcoming debut novel, Fallen Land, which I will be scooping up like a hotcake as soon as I can. So excited to read more from this guy! 

GRADE: A-

SUFFER THE CHILDREN by Craig DiLouie

YO. I gotta tell ya'll, this is one fucked-up little book!

Let's start with this book's awesome premise. Out of nowhere, a worldwide event (later dubbed Herod's Syndrome) causes all pre-pubescent children to drop dead. Then, after three days, it resurrects them, but in order to stay resurrected, they need to ingest a certain amount of human blood. The novel follows three families as they navigate this new reality. 

Craig DiLouie takes this crazy concept and really milks it for all it's worth, delivering a creative twist on vampire fiction and on end-of-the-world fiction as well. He delivers horror in the way that Stephen King does with Pet Sematary, feeding on the terrifying concept of a parent dealing with the sudden death of their child, and the lengths that a dedicated parent would go to in order to keep their children alive.

One of the clever things is that it's not even the bloodthirsty children that are scary in this. In fact, when their hunger is satisfied, they're essentially their old child-like selves again. What really brings the horror is watching what the parents have to go through after the children die (like the horrible notion of having to deliver your rotting 8-year-old for burial in a mass grave) and then see what happens when the children come back and the parents realize that it's possible to keep their children alive by feeding them human blood, that one simple thing that can make them whole again. That's what's truly terrifying: watching how this discovery slowly breaks down society, and realize that it's actually really believable. That grocery store sequence? Damn. That's one of the most unnerving and horrifyingly effective sequences I've read in a very long time! And there are other similar scenes in this one that really gave me the willies!

Another clever thing about this concept is that DiLouie can have the parents do anything in this book and it would be believable. Because what parent wouldn't do anything to be with their kids longer?

As I mentioned, DiLouie milks his ideas for all their worth and delivers a truly unsettling story with interesting characters, cinematic prose and some surprising twists of the fucked-up variety. While writing this, I thought to myself: am I really giving this book a full A? But I really have no complaints with this bad-boy, so yep, there you go! It's an engaging mix of science-fiction and horror and is everything that end-of-the-world/apocalyptic fiction should be.

"There were so many times I was too tired to play with him. Too distracted by work to really listen. Too irritated by his tantrums and sickliness to be present. Understand? But not now. I look back sometimes, and I can't believe what used to matter to me. The things I used as excuses to get away. Not now. This is a different time. A purer time. I've never known such clarity. The only thing that matters is blood."

GRADE: A

THE BORDER by Robert McCammon

With The Border, Robert McCammon goes back to his roots! His new novel harkens back to his 80's sci-fi/horror classics like Swan Song and Stinger, and mixes in some War of the Worlds with a story

about our Earth becoming a battleground between two hostile alien civilizations and humanity trying to survive in the wake. Although it was enjoyable to an extent, I was disappointed with discovering that I wasn't as into it as I would've expected, given that McCammon is one of my favorite authors. 

McCammon can be long-winded and wordy at times, but sometimes I have found it endearing, showing just how excited he is to be telling his story. Plus, he's the type of writer where you just enjoy reading his wordsmith-ing. But here, I felt that it made for an uneven pace and the book felt a little long and repetitive. And there are so many things, all the way until the ending, that just feel too convenient. Also, the main character of Ethan was a problem for me. He's already introduced as the overused trope we've seen tons of times: the mysterious, gifted kid that is the key to saving the world. But there are many developments that happen with him that just never felt right to me. There's also a missed opportunity where McCammon could've really delved into the idea of this little boy who is trying to deal with the fact of not remembering who he is and being gifted with these powers and responsibility he doesn't understand, and how terrifying that must be for him, and how he must eventually learn to grow past that and become the hero he's destined to be. That would've been cool to witness. But instead, from the start Ethan never really feels like a kid, and seems to just take everything in stride, which, yes, it makes him unbelievably strong, but also pretty boring.

But aside from these issues, the book is still a superficially entertaining summer blockbuster, with plenty of sci-fi action scenes, aliens, guns, and Transformers...a cool book to read on vacation.

She began to sob, to weep for the dead and for the living, for those who had long ago given up hope and for those who still hung on to what tomorrow might bring...

 GRADE: C

BLACKOUT by Tim Curran

GRADE: B-

These DarkFuse novellas are like tasty little gummi bears that I munch on in between the bigger meals. So far, they've all been fun, quick and easy reads that I can get through in a day or two. This latest one is by horror writer Tim Curran and in it, a science teacher wakes up to an immense blackout and his wife missing. He groups up with his fellow neighbors on what is usually a quiet neighborhood street and try to figure out what's happening. Then the shiny, black tentacles start dropping from the sky...

The story is fast-paced and told from the point of view of an everyday guy that could be any one of us, trying to make sense of the chaos. Even though I got the sense that the author was making up the story as he went along (with a bungled third act and the rules of the creatures not being entirely consistent), it's still an enjoyable book and reads like an homage to H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds laced with Stephen King's incredible The Mist.

JOHN CROW'S DEVIL by Marlon James

GRADE: B

"Come now, church, who is ready to be violent for the Lord?"

There's something about organized religion that can be really terrifying at times, with the way it can feed on fear and trump all logic and decency. This is illustrated to the nth degree in the unsettling debut novel by rising star Marlon James. The book tracks the downfall and destruction of the small Jamaican village of Gibbeah, in the wake of a religious battle between two evangelical preachers for the control of both the Holy Sepulchral Full Gospel Church of St. Thomas Apostolic as well as the very soul of Gibbeah. It all starts on the day that Hector Bligh (the "Rum Preacher"), a drunk priest who's lost his way, is kicked out of the church by a charismatic new arrival, a fire-and-brimstone preacher calling himself Apostle York, who has intentions to purify Gibbeah, even if it means Old Testament judgement. 

The Pastor now drank day and night. He was spiraling downward and would have taken the village with him were it not for the other, who lead them instead to a light blacker than the thickest darkness.
He came like a thief on a night colored silver.

Many might consider this novel magical realism and they would be right. But maybe there should be a sub-genre of "black"-magical realism, for a book like this one, so filled with Obeah and omens of black vultures (john crows). And do I dare call this a satire? Because at times I wanted to chuckle, but mostly to keep myself from being so horrified at the events that I would chuck the book across the room. Maybe that's what makes a great dark satire! And James is a confident and terrifically skilled writer who handles this balance perfectly. One of his effective techniques is the occasional passage that uses a point of view that seems to come from the collective gossip of the village itself, sort of a small-town Greek chorus in a Jamaican tragedy play showing the mob mentality that can come from a town gripped in religious fervor. I loved the way that the town's hypocrisy and secrets slowly began to be revealed and ultimately lead to its downfall. James also created a couple of well-illustrated female characters in the Widow Greenfield and especially the tragic Lucinda, who was endlessly fascinating to read.

Lucinda was to be the bride of Christ but her ring finger got lost in a thatch of pubic hair. It was that damn Apostle. Him and those bold red books and the bold red tip of his circumcision.

I really enjoyed this one, although at times the author's wordsmithing got in the way of narrative pacing. But I was engaged throughout and would definitely recommend it. It really made me want to revisit his epic novel from last year, A Brief History of Seven Killings. I read that long book while shooting a movie last year, which I think was a mistake. I read John Crow's Devil when I had lots of time to focus my attention and get lost in the story. With three respected novels, Marlon James is definitely an author to watch and wait for what he does next.

God judgement a no play-play judgement. God not romping with we.

WHEN THE NINES ROLL OVER & OTHER STORIES by David Benioff

GRADE: B+

Many know David Benioff as one half of the team that created the stellar Game of Thrones HBO series adaptation. And no problem, that show is awesome and it's one of the most impressive film adaptations I've seen of fiction. But I originally was a fan of Benioff's work as an author, with both of his fantastic novels (the New York crime drama The 25th Hour and the WWII coming of age adventure, City of Thieves) on my list of favorites! Now I've finally completed the author's short list of fiction work with this solid collection of short stories.  

Each story is a slice of life tale, not featuring large moments of action, but instead focusing on each character at a critical turning point in their lives or at a time when they have to make the hard decisions. As usual, Benioff writes with a poetic ease and injects each story with a tangible atmosphere. My favorites in the collection were "De Composition," about a man struggling with his sanity after hunkering down in a survival bunker during the end of the world (I love how Benioff is intentionally vague with what is possibly an awesome reveal), "Garden of No," about a young waitress/wannabe actress in Hollywood about to hit her big break, and the heartbreaking final story "Merde for Luck," that follows a gay couple in New York City as they struggle with AIDS during the mid-90's.

"So many die without our caring, decline to silence in rooms beyond hearing. We honor the dead and abhor the dying."

As much as I love Game of Thrones, a hope that Benioff returns to write more awesome books, he's up there on my list with Scott B. Smith as being overdue for another great novel!

Favorite Novels by Stephen King

My Top 10 Favorite Novels by Stephen King

*excludes novellas, short stories, and collections*

1. The Stand

2. The Green Mile

3. The Long Walk

4. The Dead Zone

5. 11/22/63

6. Pet Sematary

7. Under The Dome

8. 'Salem's Lot

9. Misery

10. The Dark Tower Saga

THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells

GRADE: A-

“Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future.” 

One of the most timeless classics in the world. The story begins with a scientist describing his latest invention to a group of his dinner friends. They are naturally skeptic when he describes a machine that can travel through time. One of his friends is curious though and when he returns to visit the scientist, he finds him haggard and spent, and sits and listens to the "time traveller's unbelievable story. This is the classic novella that arguably gave birth to science-fiction as we know it. And it is still incredibly readable, imaginative, engaging, and thought-provoking. Not to mention ahead of its time!

SWAN SONG by Robert McCammon

GRADE: A-

In this epic novel, after the world is devastated by a nuclear apocalypse, a group of survivors travel to find a town in Missouri that might  offer a new beginning. One of them, a young girl named Swan, might hold the key to mankind's salvation!  
This is an exciting and addictive book! Great characters, fast-moving but never rushed action, and a detailed story. And McCammon's prose makes the long page-count zip by.

The sad thing is that it will always be compared to Stephen King's superior novel, THE STAND. Anyone who says that this novel isn't uncomfortably similar is in serious denial. SWAN SONG does stand on its own merits, but there are still way too many close similarities to ignore. I mean come on, don't try to deny that the harrowing trip through the Holland Tunnel out of New York wasn't EXTREMELY similar to Larry's trip through the Lincoln Tunnel in Stephen King's book? Just with more water?

But anyways, aside from that, the book is still great! This was my first read from Robert McCammon and I was very excited to read more!

THE STAND by Stephen King

GRADE: A

One of my favorite novels, this book truly earns the overused label of EPIC. The premise, in which a deadly superflu wipes out more than 90% of the world's population, and the survivors fighting a battle between good and evil for the remaining civilization, is enough to warrant a reading.

The novel has the most well-drawn ensemble of characters in any novel I've read, great prose, and more memorable scenes than you can count. It has a great mix of action, drama, romance, science fiction, and fantasy. At first, I held off on reading this because of the hefty page-count (over 1100 pages), but after I picked it up, I flew through it, and it never felt like a page was wasted.

Like many others, I was a little disappointed in the climax, even though I understood the meaning and reasoning behind it. But there are so many other awesome things about this book and it still continues to be one of my favorites! You know you've got a great book that will stand the test of time when you can still name most of the characters by first and last names years after reading it.