Z. M. Wilmot

This post has been long in the making. A month or two ago, I received an offer from a friend of mine – the estimable Thomas Brown of Hell’s Water, and Revive fame – in which I would receive an electronic copy of his new book, Lynnwood, before its release in exchange for my thoughts on it. Naturally, I leapt at the chance, having loved both of his previous novels (and eventually I’ll get around to his short stories, I promise!). Unfortunately, just after having received my copy, my last semester of university hit me like a truck and I was laid low for several weeks, only last week finally having the time to pick the book up and read it properly, after it has been released as an eBook.

And how glad I am I did! It very quickly reminded me of Hell’s Water, in that the book focuses in a very particular sin. Because of that similarity, as well as the presence of a Church in a rather central part of the story, I was expecting Christian theology in the same manner as the previous novel. To my delight, there was almost none of that, and Mr. Brown took off in a completely different, wild direction. Lynnwood was filled with many twists, turns, and surprises, and forced me to read the second half of the book in one sitting!

Lynnwood grabs you starting with its opening line, which, fittingly enough, involves a dead pig. The entire novel is perfectly encapsulated in the very first sentence, in which the corpse of a pig stirs strange feelings within the protagonist, the poor Freya. Freya lives in the titular town, Lynnwood, which slowly goes mad as winter approaches. The descent of the town into madness perfectly mirror Freya’s own descent into madness, so that the two seem like one and the same, which in many ways they are. For a very brief period, Lynnwood seems like a pleasant and wonderful place, in which everyone is happy and contented. The fast pace of the novel soon changes that, however, as everything that the town and the reader holds dear is ripped from them.

Lynnwood showcases Mr. Brown’s greatest strength as a writer, talents which manifested themselves in both Revive and Hell’s Water, but have really blossomed in Lynnwood. Mr. Brown is a master of character development and psychology; he is able to almost literally place the reader inside the heads of the characters, so that you are not reading their thoughts, you’re thinking them. The fast-paced and very accessible writing really help the reader become one with the characters, until it does not feel like you are reading the story, but experiencing it.

Along with this naturally comes a set of well-developed central characters who are extremely believable and seem very real, from their first, sane appearances until their final howls as primal madmen. I felt sympathy for each and every one of the characters, and felt their feelings almost as acutely as my own. Mr. Brown did a superb job of portraying the effects of the horror of Lynnwood on the main characters, and through them made me wonder what effect it would have had on me.

Mr. Brown also makes a sparse and very effective use of poetry and diary entries to add to the effect, and makes the world come even more to life. Even more impressive, however, was his command of epicurean language. His subtle descriptions of every item of food consume add a sense of horror and revulsion throughout the entire novel, and through them he manages to evoke the very hunger he writes about in his readers. The food becomes an unnoticed yet absolutely essential part of the story, and serves to demonstrate Mr. Brown’s mastery of the language.

My one, sole criticism of the novel is its lack of explanation. By no means does horror need to be explained, and in many – if not most – cases a lack of explanation enhances the fear. However, in this case, I was left slightly unsatisfied with the ending, as very little was explained. These explanations are by no means critical, and the story works very well without them, but I think it could have been more effective if the horror itself – the primal madness of the Forest – had been explored more, in addition to its effects on the characters.

But that minor point in no way takes away from the brilliance of Lynnwood. It is superbly written, superbly paced, and deeply unsettling. It is a very quick read, and thoroughly enjoyable. I very highly recommend it to any fan of horror. Visit Thomas Brown’s website here and then go buy yourself a copy of Lynnwood from one of the many links provided here!

So I just finished Vernor Vinge’s latest Zones of Thought book, Children of the Sky. I went in with some trepidation, as my father wasn’t too happy about it, but I loved it! It tied up a lot of loose ends from the preceding book, A Fire Upon the Deep, and introduced a whole new cast of characters, whose actions I eagerly await in the next book!

Vinge was unafraid to plunge off into unexpected directions in this book, and it was, for the most part, absent of cliches. It was thoroughly involving and engaging, and I had trouble putting it down! Perhaps the most interesting aspect of both this book and its prequel are the major “aliens” that appear in it; the Tines.

The Tines are a wolf-like race – in fact, they look almost just like wolves – with special tympana that allow them to hear each other’s thoughts (often called “mindsound”). Their tympana also give them the ability to merge into “packs,” combining their mental abilities and consciousnesses together to form one conscious individual from a group of usually 4 to 8 “singletons,” who are scarcely brighter than a real wold. In effect, this means that each Tinish character’s body consists of multiple organisms, linked together by their tympana and mindsound. Other Tines nearby can break the links between a pack, and sometimes even dissolve them!

Children of the Sky took this concept further, and introduced the idea of the Tropical Choir: a pack that consists of thousands of individuals, with mental waves that ripple along its massive area. With that many members, the pack’s mind becomes overly fragmented and incoherent, but it attains some unique attributes and possibilities that Vinge explores in his latest book.

If you haven’t read any of his Zones of Thought books – or any of his other works – they’re well worth a read!

Hello everyone! I just finished playing/reading/adventuring with Andy Kirschbaum‘s interactive novel Verdigris on my Droid, and wanted to share my thoughts on it. I should go into this saying that I have an astonishing lack of experience with this kind of narrative; I read a few choose-your-own-adventure books when I was younger, and played a few text-based multiple choice adventure games, but other than that, my experience with forms of electronic interactive fiction is very limited.

As such, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Verdigris, but I went with the expectation of finding a text-based adventure game. I was wrong. Verdigris is truly best described as an “interactive novel,” and far surpassed the expectations I had held of an interactive narrative. Most overtly, Verdigris did away with the inconveniences of many text-based games, making it very simple to follow and a pleasure to use.

Instead of having to do all of the traveling yourself, hopping from place to place, once you began an adventure hook, you were kept within that storyline until it’s conclusion, which delighted me. I had expected to have to trudge around finding clues to solve the mystery, but what I ended up doing was starting on a plotline that seemed interesting, and then just making the choices for how the character solved the plot, solving the plot, and then moving onto the next one. The organization was very simple, which resulted in the story itself coming to the forefront, rather than the “gameplay.” And the story was really where thisVerdigris shown.

The world of Verdigris is extremely rich and well-developed, with deep characters, interesting locations, and complex plots. I was immersed in the world throughout the story, and couldn’t stop trying to figure things out. The world itself was a fascinating blend of steampunk, magic, science, social and political commentary (which often had me smirking, especially the game’s references to bureaucracies), industrialism, robots, and the undead. The characters in the world were all very well-thought out, and I enjoyed interacting with them. The plot was also extremely intriguing, and I genuinely wanted to find out what was going on.

Unfortunately, when I had completed 11/12 of the story’s “missions,” a bug caused me to have to restart. However, this was actually not a bad thing; it gave me the chance to go through the story again, choosing different options, and opened up a whole new set of narrative possibilities that I enjoyed going through again. In the end, my one complaint with the game was that I wish there was more! A lot of interesting avenues for further exploration into the world of Verdigris were opened, and I would love to learn more about it – particularly the pneumatic tube system and the August Lord in Jade.

I highly recommend Verdigris to pretty much anyone. It’s a worthy purchase, and I good way to pass the time – though be careful in case you can’t stop! It is available here on iTunes and here on Google Play. Also be sure to visit Andy’s website and blog.

Hey everyone! Just a short pointer towards a story I think everyone would enjoy – Neil Gaiman writing about Cthulhu. What’s not to love? The Cthulhu Mythos from Cthulhu’s point of view.

I, Cthulhu, or, What’s A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9’ S, Longitude 126° 43’ W)?

I just finished horror author Thomas James Brown’s latest novel, Revive, a zombie novel with an interesting twist. After finishing the entire work, I think a more accurate classification would be a coffee shop novel with zombies. The heart of the story is, I would argue, made of three characters: Tammy Becks, a young adult struggling to keep her sick mother and rambunctious younger brothers fed through her job at the eponymous coffee shop; Phil, an ex-construction worker trying to keep his only family alive by working as a mall Santa and a regular frequenter of the coffee shop Revive, and the coffee shop itself. The zombies, to me, seem like a secondary element meant to demonstrate certain things about the above three mentioned characters.

This is not to in any way degrade the structure of the novel or the portrayal of the zombies; it was all masterfully done, and presented zombies in an entirely unique and different, fascinating light. I was pleasantly surprised at the logic behind the zombies; Mr. Brown clearly demonstrated his creativity in thinking them up.

As with his previous novel, Hell’s Water, Thomas Brown’s latest work showcases his character development skills. Every single character that appears in Revive is well-thought out; there are no caricatures, and every character adds something to the story that no one else does. Even the peripheral characters, such as the guests in the coffee shop, really come to life, and you can feel their pain as the horror unfolds. The character development that goes on with regards to Tammy Becks is phenomenal, and Phil’s is almost as good. In Phil’s case, I wish that Mr. Brown had spent more time on the character’s past, though even without that, he was still a very well-done character.

I don’t want to say too too much more in order to avoid spoiling the plot, but if you’re reading and expecting zombies from page one, think again. This is not a zombie apocalypse novel; it is a horror novel. It is paced like a horror novel; a lot of suspense (and, unusually for horror, character development) fills the first three-quarters of the book. The ending seemed a little bit rushed, and I think the novel could have benefited from expanding the last thirty or so pages into a longer sequence in order to more fully explain the events behind what happened at the coffee shop; as it was, it took a re-reading to catch some details.

Overall, Revive was a very, very, very enjoyable read, and extremely difficult to put down. Mr. Brown manages to draw you into the novel very quickly, and you feel for Tammy, Phil, and everyone else as if they were your own friends. He inserts just the right amount of humour to contrast with the horror, and effectively uses the zombies to illustrate human nature. And the twist at the end left me horrified, shocked, appalled, and applauding Mr. Brown’s cleverness – all good things in the horror genre.

If you have the time and money, definitely consider picking up a copy here.

Visit Thomas James Brown’s site here.

Somehow, despite all of the work I need to do, I managed to finish reading another book –  a Terry Pratchett book, no less! Thief of Time was, by far, my favorite work of his that I have ever read. Death, while playing a less prominent role than in the other books in his cycle, was as deep and fascinating a character as ever, and the Death of Rats was up to his usual antics even more than usual. I enjoy the prevalence of the Death of Rats in the book, though his uncertain fate at the end made me slightly unhappy, but oh well. The changing personalities of the four/five horsemen of the apocalypse was also very well-done; who knew that War would get married and become a weak, submissive do-nothing? It was certainly an interesting examination on what changing currents in history can do to anthropomorphic personifications!

Susan Sto Helit was also, as always, amazing, and I particularly enjoyed her in her new schoolteacher role – Pratchett’s observations about life were, as always and as exemplified in this novel by Susan – dead-on. The depth given to the Auditors of Reality in this book was also pleasing, and their antics in the second half of the book had me smiling constantly, and almost identifying with them.

Almost.

However, the real star of the book was definitely Lu-Tze. With his many witticisms and observations about society and life, he made me laugh harder than I have reading any other book, while at the same time making me think ( ”Do unto otters as you would have otters do unto you.” ”Yeah, I know all about practicing procedures for emergencies,” said Lu-Tze. “And there’s always something missing. You always leave out the damn emergency.”). He is perhaps my favorite character from any book so far.

Lastly, I would be amiss without touching on Pratchett’s perception of Time, as the universe destroying and recreating itself very interesting. It was just fascinating and well-though-out – definitely the best of his books I’ve read yet.

Also, who would imagine chocolate could be so deadly?

P.S. If you like Tarot cards, please check out my whopping reading about the Occupy Wall Street Movement on EsoTarot here.

In between researching cultural changes in Persia due to the Arab Conquest of the Sassanian Empire, drowning in ordinary coursework, editing TLOB, and writing Astral Tide, I have managed to find some time to read for pleasure! My latest book of choice was Thomas James Brown’s debut horror novel, Hell’s Water. The novel follows the exploits of a group of (mostly alcoholic) university students and housemates in Southampton, UK; of particular interest are cricketer Nick Roach and the “main” character (by “main” I mean most of the story is told from his point of view) Adam Houldey. These two experience something terrible when something is slipped into Nick’s drink, and together try to work to beat whatever is going on, with varying degrees of success throughout the book.

The novel did an absolutely wonderful job of creating a rich setting, complete with characters, organizations, places, and common activities. It should be said here that I have touched alcohol once in my life, when I was very young (my father had decided to let me sip his beer), and I have never tasted the stuff since. As such, I can not speak to the validity of the experiences of the housemates in the novel, but it certainly seemed realistic, and I was drawn into them despite my strong aversion to alcohol.

Due to my very different experiences with university life (different country, different habits), it was at first difficult for me to get to know and like the characters, let alone understand them (Mr. Brown’s dialogue is very natural and flowing, exactly like you would hear it spoken, but again my background made it very strange to me). If you’re a partying englishman (or woman), I am sure that it would be extremely accessibly to you, however.

Once I got past those barriers – the foreign culture and realistic dialogue – I found myself thoroughly enjoying the way the narrative flowed. The story is about alcoholism and daemons, and many times I felt as if I was staring out at the world as though possessed – sometimes by a daemon, and sometimes by alcohol (or at least what I would imagine alcohol does to you). The book was very fast-paced, despite nothing truly “horrifying” happening until about two-thirds of the way into the book – but when it did happen, ir really was horrifying.

I must confess that when I started the book, I was skeptical about it, due to my unfamiliarity with alcohol, the club and party scene, and indeed many of the types of people Mr. Brown discusses. However, over the course of reading the book, I feel like I came to know that community better, thus expanding my knowledge of it. The true strength of this novel lies not just in the storytelling – with a slow, dramatic build-up to a terrifying climax – but also in the creation of a real, living, breathing world that I could dive into. Mr Brown examined several social issues over the course of the novel as well, in addition to looking at the effects of death on an individual. It was fascinating to read about how Adam reacted to the deaths of various people.

One thing that was both very effective and at the same time mildly frustrating was the gradual revelation of something that happened at the beginning of the novel – remembering the events of a drunken night out. It was very creative and I spent the entire novel wanting to know what had happened – as was doubtless the intention – but at the same time, the constant repetition of nearly identical passages, with more and more story tacked onto it, became… well, repetitive, and I found myself skimming those parts of the story. The tactic was very effective, however, and I was satisfied with the final revelation.

The one thing I wished that there was more of was an explanation of what exactly happened. As it was, what had been going on throughout the novel was explained – but very briefly and at the very end, making the book back-heavy. This is not in any way a problem (I am guilty of writing that way myself, and so long as it’s done well – as it is in this case – it can be extremely satisfying), but I feel like more could have been said about what happened, and the events before the novel expanded upon. That being said, however, the ending did surprise me a fair bit; all of my suspicions had been extremely misplaced! I applaud Mr. Brown for managing that. It rarely happens to me.

All in all, Hell’s Water is well worth the read. I had purchased the book because Mr. Brown is an independent author like myself, and I enjoy reading and supporting independently published authors. However, I had never in the past been a fan of this kind of horror; I myself subscribe to the Lovecraftian tradition, and Hell’s Water is a far cry from that. However, despite all of the odds stacked against it, I got through the book as quickly as my studies would allow, thoroughly enjoyed it, and found it extremely difficult to put down (not to mention the ending leaves you unsure as to whether or not the problem was solved – my favorite kind!). The references to Christian theology in particular were striking, and the Christian imagery and final revelations were probably my favorite part of the whole experience.

So then, in summary, Hell’s Water was well-written, well-developed, fast-paced, terrifying story that I think anyone who likes horror will love. Go out and read it!

Visit Mr. Brown’s site here and buy Hell’s Water from here.