Rhiannon
4.5/5⭐, rounded up
Such a blast to read!
This was a Christmas Eve release in 2024 (Why Duncan? Why would you do that?!?), and it's been sitting on my shelves giving me the Evil Eye for many, many months now, waiting for October to roll around so I could really get into the spirit of the season.
And it did not disappoint.
Brimming with action and nostalgia and a large cast of memorable characters this girthy novel is evocative of King's classic opuses (Operas? Opi?) of the eighties. Comparisons have been made. And comparisons are accurate and apt in all the best ways.
Ralston nails it with his non-stop and wholly engrossing multi-threaded, multi-character narrative of a group of teens and high school teachers who must survive a paranormal Armageddon of epic weirdness and the literal hell that is unleashed when a group of wasteoids perform a ritual that opens a gate and unleashes Them, They, the Multitudinous glory that is Legion (and The Great Pumpkin) upon their small town.
Heroes you love and villains you despise. Crazy action that kept me fully engaged, constantly surprised, and never bored. And of course, there is Ralston's inimitable sense of humour...
A crazy ride that was absolutely worth the possible long term effects of carpal to my wrist.
4.5/5⭐, rounded up
Such a blast to read!
This was a Christmas Eve release in 2024 (Why Duncan? Why would you do that?!?), and it's been sitting on my shelves giving me the Evil Eye for many, many months now, waiting for October to roll around so I could really get into the spirit of the season.
And it did not disappoint.
Brimming with action and nostalgia and a large cast of memorable characters this girthy novel is evocative of King's classic opuses (Operas? Opi?) of the eighties. Comparisons have been made. And comparisons are accurate and apt in all the best ways.
Ralston nails it with his non-stop and wholly engrossing multi-threaded, multi-character narrative of a group of teens and high school teachers who must survive a paranormal Armageddon of epic weirdness and the literal hell that is unleashed when a group of wasteoids perform a ritual that opens a gate and unleashes Them, They, the Multitudinous glory that is Legion (and The Great Pumpkin) upon their small town.
Heroes you love and villains you despise. Crazy action that kept me fully engaged, constantly surprised, and never bored. And of course, there is Ralston's inimitable sense of humour...
A crazy ride that was absolutely worth the possible long term effects of carpal to my wrist.
3.5⭐ Ok, well, a lot to unpack here. There are three separate story streams (past, present, far future) happening here. So of course you know they have to intersect at some point. Interestingly, I found the 3 individual stories to be stronger and more engaging than the sum of their parts. It was weirdly predictable and yet frustratingly obtuse and slow in coming together. I think you don't even get any king of hint of their possible connections until the final quarter of the book, and even then they are the vaguest of story-morsels. They only really come together in about the last 5 pages of the novel, and then they weirdly and abruptly end. Most frustrating. I think the strongest storyline was that of the boy Moz, set in 70s Morocco. I wanted a whole book of just this main character and his friends, family, and life. Second strongest was a great foil to the abject poverty of dusty Marrakech, being set in the far FAR future of the adolescent, petulant Emperor of All, Zaq. Society is based on an interesting mix of ancient Chinese culture where we're not entirely sure of who and what may be human, post-human, AI, or post-singularity life. Weakest storyline was that of the ‘present' (or what was the present when the book was written in 2004) which has a pseudo-terrorist-espionage plotline that I found more frustrating than engaging. Eventually. Eventually these three storylines will tie together, but oh yeah, you need some patience for this one. And I am a huge fan of time-reality challenging plotlines (I'm looking at you [b:Cloud Atlas 49628 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563042852l/49628.SX50.jpg 1871423] and [b:Light 17735 Light (Kefahuchi Tract, #1) M. John Harrison https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389700041l/17735.SX50.jpg 295250], [b:Nova Swing 1666406 Nova Swing (Kefahuchi Tract, #2) M. John Harrison https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320499016l/1666406.SY75.jpg 295249].) Across these three timelines we have a whole host of themes... maybe too many...? Dreaming vs Reality. Extreme poverty. Child abuse. AI vs Humanity. Self-identity vs fate. Post humanity. Maybe hyper-advanced-alien-life or maybe not? Terrorism (capitalizing a bit on 9/11 fears) and America's penchant for torture. Self-determinism. Social media amped beyond our wildest dreams/fears. The Singularity. Body horror and modification. That is a lot of heady ideas going on in a single novel.So, I liked it... But.... I wanted to like it so much more.
3.5⭐ Ok, well, a lot to unpack here. There are three separate story streams (past, present, far future) happening here. So of course you know they have to intersect at some point. Interestingly, I found the 3 individual stories to be stronger and more engaging than the sum of their parts. It was weirdly predictable and yet frustratingly obtuse and slow in coming together. I think you don't even get any king of hint of their possible connections until the final quarter of the book, and even then they are the vaguest of story-morsels. They only really come together in about the last 5 pages of the novel, and then they weirdly and abruptly end. Most frustrating. I think the strongest storyline was that of the boy Moz, set in 70s Morocco. I wanted a whole book of just this main character and his friends, family, and life. Second strongest was a great foil to the abject poverty of dusty Marrakech, being set in the far FAR future of the adolescent, petulant Emperor of All, Zaq. Society is based on an interesting mix of ancient Chinese culture where we're not entirely sure of who and what may be human, post-human, AI, or post-singularity life. Weakest storyline was that of the ‘present' (or what was the present when the book was written in 2004) which has a pseudo-terrorist-espionage plotline that I found more frustrating than engaging. Eventually. Eventually these three storylines will tie together, but oh yeah, you need some patience for this one. And I am a huge fan of time-reality challenging plotlines (I'm looking at you [b:Cloud Atlas 49628 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563042852l/49628.SX50.jpg 1871423] and [b:Light 17735 Light (Kefahuchi Tract, #1) M. John Harrison https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389700041l/17735.SX50.jpg 295250], [b:Nova Swing 1666406 Nova Swing (Kefahuchi Tract, #2) M. John Harrison https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320499016l/1666406.SY75.jpg 295249].) Across these three timelines we have a whole host of themes... maybe too many...? Dreaming vs Reality. Extreme poverty. Child abuse. AI vs Humanity. Self-identity vs fate. Post humanity. Maybe hyper-advanced-alien-life or maybe not? Terrorism (capitalizing a bit on 9/11 fears) and America's penchant for torture. Self-determinism. Social media amped beyond our wildest dreams/fears. The Singularity. Body horror and modification. That is a lot of heady ideas going on in a single novel.So, I liked it... But.... I wanted to like it so much more.
Added to listFavouriteswith 109 books.
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𝗔𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁…!
The supernatural premise of this horror novel was a unique and terrifying one that, well frankly, I just hadn’t considered before. And now that it’s in my head I can’t shake it loose. Conceptually it gave me Candyman/The Ring vibes (ie, just 𝙩𝙧𝙮 to resist the idea once it’s in your head) crossed with a good old helping of sleep experiment horror-trope. The writing is great, and had some wild and deeply unsettling images.
The pacing and story kept me interested until about 80% in, where I thought it suddenly seemed rushed and lost a bit of cohesiveness. I wanted more of the history of the experiment(s). And I was left a little surprised at the ‘villain’ of the piece – just a little too one dimensional for me and could have done with more fleshing out, along with the backstory.
𝑴𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 Netgalley 𝒂𝒏𝒅 Wicked House Publishing 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒑𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘.
𝗔𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁…!
The supernatural premise of this horror novel was a unique and terrifying one that, well frankly, I just hadn’t considered before. And now that it’s in my head I can’t shake it loose. Conceptually it gave me Candyman/The Ring vibes (ie, just 𝙩𝙧𝙮 to resist the idea once it’s in your head) crossed with a good old helping of sleep experiment horror-trope. The writing is great, and had some wild and deeply unsettling images.
The pacing and story kept me interested until about 80% in, where I thought it suddenly seemed rushed and lost a bit of cohesiveness. I wanted more of the history of the experiment(s). And I was left a little surprised at the ‘villain’ of the piece – just a little too one dimensional for me and could have done with more fleshing out, along with the backstory.
𝑴𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 Netgalley 𝒂𝒏𝒅 Wicked House Publishing 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒑𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘.
