Nick Harkwaway’s novels are always unique. He has a wild imagination, and he knows how to make very twisty and convoluted plots that manage to give thNick Harkwaway’s novels are always unique. He has a wild imagination, and he knows how to make very twisty and convoluted plots that manage to give the reader a satisfying ending – and reading experience. So at the risk of voicing what might be an unpopular opinion, can I just ask what happened here? OK, granted, I haven’t read Mr. Harkaway’s entire catalogue, I am basing my opinion of ‘Titanium Noir’ on how I felt about ‘The Gone Away World’ and ‘Angelmaker’, but if you had told me the same guy wrote all those books, I would be skeptical.
Cal Sounder is an investigator who specializes in Titan technology related crimes. In this strange world Harkaway has conjured, Titans are humans who have undergone a sort of gene therapy that makes them virtually indestructible, incredibly strong but also physically massive – which makes them dangerous sometimes simply because of their size. Those individuals are obviously noticeable, but they also tend to be from extremely wealthy backgrounds, as the therapy that turns humans into Titans is extremely expensive. So when Cal is called to a crime scene to investigate the death of a Titan who seems to have been from a very modest background, he finds himself with more questions than answers very fast.
I browsed a few reviews and my take on this is clearly the unpopular opinion, but this was just… weird. And I say that as someone who eats weird for breakfast. The hard-boiled detective vibe is spot-on, with violent encounters, a dame and plenty of double-crossing, but where, oh where is the (for lack of a better world) enchantment I had gotten used to from Mr. Harkaway? Certainly, his technology bordering on magical is there, love lost is a strong motivator for many characters in the story, and there is a not-so-subtle wink at class warfare, but it all felt kind of sterile and colorless compared to my experience of his other works, which were lush and baroque and shiny.
It’s also quite short, and that makes me wonder if he was rushed in any way, because the other books of his that I have read were sprawling tapestries that took readers all over the world. Would this book have been better if it had been longer? Maybe; provided the richness of his other work had been given room to bloom here, but somehow, I don’t think that this is what he was going for here.
I am going to dust off my copy of ‘Gnomon’ and read it to see if this one was the fluke, or if my first two reads were the fluke. Since I seem to be in the minority in not being crazy about this book, you should check it out if you enjoy weird noir detective stories with a strong sci-fi streak....more
(Totally fictional conversation that never happened)
Jonathan Hickman: What would you say if I told you Wall Street is actually an eldritch cult and th(Totally fictional conversation that never happened)
Jonathan Hickman: What would you say if I told you Wall Street is actually an eldritch cult and that the inconceivably rich families at the top of the pyramid are there because they had made pacts with demons and Old Gods that demanded blood sacrifices on a regular basis?
Me: I’d say that makes as much sense as most economic theories I’ve read. Go on…
My friend Skot clearly has my number, because he recommended this graphic novel to me, and I was instantly riveted. I mean, secret societies, Lovecraftian monsters and noir detective stories are some of my favorite things, so it wasn’t a hard sell, but this graphic novel is not only a solid blend of those elements, but a well-written and beautifully illustrated murder mystery. It is unrelentingly dark, bleak and it gets really gory, so be warned that if this isn’t your cup of tea, don’t pick it up. However, if you can stomach that sort of thing (or are as deranged as I am and nod appreciatively at well-staged crime scenes), you will love this story of power, betrayal, occultism and murder.
I ordered the second volume as soon as I had finished the first, if that tells you anything about how eager I am to see what happens next!
Merged review:
(Totally fictional conversation that never happened)
Jonathan Hickman: What would you say if I told you Wall Street is actually an eldritch cult and that the inconceivably rich families at the top of the pyramid are there because they had made pacts with demons and Old Gods that demanded blood sacrifices on a regular basis?
Me: I’d say that makes as much sense as most economic theories I’ve read. Go on…
My friend Skot clearly has my number, because he recommended this graphic novel to me, and I was instantly riveted. I mean, secret societies, Lovecraftian monsters and noir detective stories are some of my favorite things, so it wasn’t a hard sell, but this graphic novel is not only a solid blend of those elements, but a well-written and beautifully illustrated murder mystery. It is unrelentingly dark, bleak and it gets really gory, so be warned that if this isn’t your cup of tea, don’t pick it up. However, if you can stomach that sort of thing (or are as deranged as I am and nod appreciatively at well-staged crime scenes), you will love this story of power, betrayal, occultism and murder.
I ordered the second volume as soon as I had finished the first, if that tells you anything about how eager I am to see what happens next!...more
I was so excited when I finished reading the first volume of Jonathan Hickman’s “Black Monday Murders” that I immediately ordered volume 2 and impatieI was so excited when I finished reading the first volume of Jonathan Hickman’s “Black Monday Murders” that I immediately ordered volume 2 and impatiently waited for it to be delivered: I just had to know what happened next!!
It is hard to summarize without spoiling either the first of second volume, but I thought this was a great continuation of Hickman’s story of occult conspiracies, betrayal and murder. The muted color palette and clean but detailed illustrations are perfect for this bleak and creepy story. Gregoria’s plan to avenge the crimes committed against her family and Detective Dumas’ fall down the proverbial rabbit-hole are spine-chilling and riveting.
This book gets 4 stars because it’s the last one, which may or may not be a fair rating, but dammit, what do you mean, this is it?! We don’t get to know more about this creepy world Hickman created, or what happens to the characters after the last page? I am in a huff about it, so I docked a star off. I love those books, they are so dark and weird!...more
Laird Barron is one of those authors for whom I will drop everything else I am reading when his most recent work pops into my mailbox. I had been tracLaird Barron is one of those authors for whom I will drop everything else I am reading when his most recent work pops into my mailbox. I had been tracking the shipment on this one for what feels like weeks, and it is here, at last!
The latest installment of the Isaiah Coleridge series follows Barron’s mob goon-turned P.I. on what should have been a simple missing person gig: a film-maker has been trying to license a piece of music from a band, but when time comes to sign the contract, the musicians seem to have vanished. Isaiah is tasked with finding them and getting them to sign, but this little game of chicken gets weird fast. It is a Laird Barron novella, after all…
Barron’s mastery of the noir genre is incredible, from the one-two punch-style of his prose to the eeriness of his characters and settings: his love of the genre and his wild, extremely weird and dark imagination make for a powerful cocktail that I gulped down greedily. As usual with his books, I flipped the last page wondering why it isn’t longer.
There are subtle nods to the previous novels and to Barron’s other works, but also to works by some of his friends (John Langan, in particular: if you don’t know his books, check him out!), I loved stumbling on each wonderful little Easter egg.
A must-read for fans of this amazing writer!...more
So this book should have been a home-run. In theory. A sleuthing, very tattooed former punk turned nun in New Orleans. Doesn’t that just sound perfectSo this book should have been a home-run. In theory. A sleuthing, very tattooed former punk turned nun in New Orleans. Doesn’t that just sound perfect? And look at that super cool cover art! Damn.
I have to assume that this is a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ situation because I really struggled. I could not get invested in the mystery, I didn’t feel any particular attachment to Sister Holiday, I didn’t really care about why she was so invested in figuring out who was behind the arson. And I really think it’s me, because the book is objectively well-written – it’s not prose to fall on your knees for, but it’s solid, and clear. The weaving of the current mystery and Holiday’s backstory told in flashbacks is well executed, leaving you wondering up until the end about why this is such a big deal for her.
I just didn’t really feel invested. I found most of the characters, including but not limited to Holiday, to be annoying, abrasive and not especially interesting. I wonder if I would have felt differently had this novel been longer, if the author had taken more time to really flesh-out those characters. Maybe I would have had time to develop more complicated and nuanced feelings for them then just eye-rolling irritation. Maybe if the backstory had been explained differently and I had known why this crime touched such a nerve with our main character, I would have been more excited to watch her deal with it.
I really have no idea. And I am not sure if I am more disappointed in the book or myself in this particular case. I feel like I have gotten terribly picky, and I am sorry ‘Scorching Grace’ didn’t hit the spot. I really wanted it to.
You go ahead and read it, you’ll probably like it if you enjoy mysteries and weird main characters who aren’t terribly good at sleuthing but do it anyway....more
The concept of a book like this one is really exciting to me: in police procedural and noir novels, an atmosphere of paranoia and shiftiness is a key The concept of a book like this one is really exciting to me: in police procedural and noir novels, an atmosphere of paranoia and shiftiness is a key ingredient to make it work, and what place in the world felt that more deeply than Leningrad in the 1930s?
Murder victims arranged in strange displays, colleagues that may or may not be spying on you, a government that will dispose of you if you are no longer useful, an entanglement with someone who isn’t telling you the whole truth about themselves and who won’t tell people the truth about you… This is the sort of jam Vasily Zaitsev finds himself in. And then of course, his own past comes to haunt him, as he tries to stay alive and safe in this minefield that it Stalinist Russia.
I fully admit that I am not crazy about the police procedural genre in general, but my curiosity was really piqued by the setting and the idea – shamefully spoiled by the blurb on the back of my copy – of the parallel mysteries of the bizarre murders and missing paintings. The pacing really picks up around the halfway mark, and after that, it was a quick ramp up to a conclusion, that was - again given the context - both interesting and frustrating.
A fun book, that would certainly appeal more to readers who are fans of that genre than it did to me, but I am quite glad I read it!...more
I really enjoy Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work: while I can see the influences that shaped her clearly reflected in her style and choice of subject matterI really enjoy Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work: while I can see the influences that shaped her clearly reflected in her style and choice of subject matter, the fact is that I love the same stuff she does, so it just makes me happy to read! Her books also always feel educational: I don’t know much about the history of Mexico, but I always close her books having learnt something new.
“Velvet Was the Night” is a lovely noir novel, full of strange and unique characters who live in a country shaken by political upheaval and cultural changes. Maite is a wallflower, she works a secretary in a law firm and spends her time and her meager income on romance comic books and imported records. Elvis is the paid muscle of a small operation he believes to be government funded, who mostly spends time squashing student protests and listening to American rock and roll. Their paths should not have crossed, but… One day, Maite agrees to look after her beautiful neighbor’s Leonora’s cat while the young woman is away. When Leonora doesn’t come back, Maite stats digging to try to find her and give her back her damn cat. Little does she know Elvis is also trying to find Leonora, at his boss’ request. There is more to this disappearance than a pretty young woman skipping town with a boyfriend…
This was just plain fun! A noir mystery devoid of the traditional misogyny, set in a time and place I knew little about and was excited to explore through the book. The pacing was sometimes a little slow, but when the action picked up, it absolutely made up for it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the open ending, which is an unusual way to wrap up this kind of story, but was perfectly fitting for this one.
Maite is such a weird but interesting character: odd, lonely, struggling with real life vs. the wildly romantic and unrealistic stories she consumes like candy. It is refreshing to come across a so-called heroine who is frumpy and unlikable. It’s easy to be annoyed with her: she whines about her life but does nothing to change it, she lies, she steals just to feel like she belongs to other people’s lives. But once she finds herself stuck in a the kind of adventure she never imagined herself being a part of, she is forced to come out of her shell in surprising ways.
But like everything else I read by Moreno-Garcia, I enjoyed it while wishing she would have pushed the envelope further. I wished for more political intrigue, more background on Leonora and Elvis’ mysterious boss, more development to see Maite really change her life. I wish she would let her stories and characters breathe more deeply, until they were the larger-than-life things they could become.
I have read quite a few books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and through those readings, I have established something beyond any doubt: her and I would probI have read quite a few books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and through those readings, I have established something beyond any doubt: her and I would probably get along really well because we clearly love a lot of the same stuff. Lovecraft, the Bronte sisters, vintage horror and noir movies, classic sci-fi, interesting and multilayered heroines. However, I had always finished her books with the feeling that there was just a little something that I was still craving when her story was over and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what that was.
Until “Silver Nitrate”, which was THE Silvia Moreno-Garcia book I was waiting for. I read it over Christmas weekend, and there is a picture of me with the book in my hands on the couch of my in-laws’ living room while everyone else is playing card games (next to my nephew, who was delighted to learn that ditching the game to read was an acceptable option).
Set in Mexico in the 90s, “Silver Nitrate”, as the title implies, deals with old movie reels and their very peculiar brand of magic. Monserrat is a talented sound editor, but her less than cuddly personality – and her gender – put her at a disadvantage in her line of work, which is still heavily male-dominated. Her childhood friend Tristan is a former soap opera heartthrob who was disfigured in a car accident that claimed his girlfriend’s life, and still haunts him. When Tristan moves into a new apartment building, he realizes a famous director of classic horror movies, Abel Urueta, lives in the same building. They become friendly with the old man, and enjoy his stories, especially about an infamous unfished film of his, “Beyond the Yellow Door”. Abel tells them that there is more to this movie than they thought, and soon, Monserrat and Tristan are caught in a story of Nazi occultist, curses, ghosts and very real magicians hell-bent on bringing their master back to life.
You guys, this was so much fun, and exactly what I wanted from a book that has this sort of premise. Monserrat is a great leading lady, weird, flawed, devoted, stubborn and clever, and the bond between her and Tristan is a great non-stereotypical love. I love the way the story goes from mundane to gradually weirder and weirder, in a wonderful boiled-frog sort of way. It was totally worth sitting out that cribbage game for!
If you enjoy stories about creepy old movies, cultists and ceremonial magic in a fresh and unusual setting, this book is absolutely for you. It might be a bit slow, but once it gets going, it won’t let up, and the characters are probably my favorite and most complex of the ones I’ve encountered in Moreno-Garcia’s work before. Very recommended! ...more
Isaiah Coleridge’s third investigation since he relocated to the Hudson Valley cranks the darkness factor a solid notch, and had me reading way past mIsaiah Coleridge’s third investigation since he relocated to the Hudson Valley cranks the darkness factor a solid notch, and had me reading way past my bedtime. It also had me chuckling: this investigation takes Isaiah to Western New York, and I never thought I’d read a references to “white hots” is a mystery horror novel…
Still reeling from the fallout of his investigation about the Croatoan, Isaiah is trying to figure out two things: how to handle the possibility of moving in with Meg, and how to make a lot of dirty cash a bit less dirty. But he’s not given much time to mull those things over: an ex-cop turned bodyguard for a senator with a weird background gives him a retainer to look into the death of his nephew. While it was ruled a suicide by the powers that be, the bereaved mother is not so sure, and a quick look at the original inquiry shows that some corners were cut rather sloppily. Isaiah’s curiosity is snared further by the dramatic setting of the death: a shaft on the construction site of a large particle collider, the building of which was halted rather abruptly soon after the so-called suicide took place with zero explanation for the workers or the community. Not that the community is anything less eerie without factoring in the strange abandoned site…
More intelligent, and certainly very carefully and thoughtfully written that your average murder mystery, the Isaiah Coleridge novels bring to mind eating dark chocolate and chasing it down with some smokey bourbon: not everyone will like it, but those who do will relish it. If you have read some Laird Barron short stories before, you know that very rarely do any of his characters fall into holes by accident… As usual, his distrust of large corporations (which he obviously sees are carnivorous monsters) and corrupt and insane politicians is on full display here, along with his wordy dialogue and unnerving side-characters. He had cracked the door open for his cosmic mythology in “Black Mountain”, and here, they push the door wide open and made themselves comfortable just at the corner of Isaiah’s vision – and I loved it!
This installment also has Isaiah confronting something potentially scarier than cheerleaders who like to eat rancid meat: his own inevitable vulnerability. He is not getting any younger, and a life of violence and abuse has taken a massive toll on his body, which he finally has to recon with. For the first time in a long time, his future – both having one and having to prepare for it – becomes a real concern to Isaiah, and I appreciate that in spite of the intense masculinity of his work, Barron has enough guts to admit that big tough guys also have softer spots, whether or not they are any good at dealing with them.
If you have enjoyed this series so far, and if you like it weird AF, this third installment won't let you down!...more
Written in a style that perfectly emulates the classic noir mysteries of the 30s and 40s, this little book knocked me off my feet almost from the first page. I had really enjoyed Tidhar’s delicious steampunk novel (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) but I hadn’t heard of this book at all, until a GR friend recommended it, if I had enjoyed “The Bookman”; well, thank you Paul, this was, as you described, insane and unique in the best possible way!
A man who goes by the name of Wolf scrapes a living as a private investigator. He could have had an easier and more comfortable life, but it would have meant compromising his pride and his integrity. As things are, he gets by. One day, a Jewish woman asks him to find her sister, who was smuggled out of Germany a few weeks before and has since vanished, and despite Wolf’s insistence that he won’t work for Jews, he takes the job anyway. Like in any good noir novel, the case is anything but as simple as it seems, and Wolf will soon be stuck in a complicated web of human trafficking, Zionist terrorists, old allies turned enemies and extremely weird BDSM. But in a very different world, a former pulp writer by the name of Shomer dreams of revenge, as only a writer of crime novels can, while being imprisoned in Auschwitz...
Of all the alt-WWII books I’ve read, this actually reminded me the most of “La Part de l’Autre” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), as what Tidhar is saying that sometimes, a watershed moment of history really hinges on something very small going one way or another, that those we know as the monsters of history are just as dependent as we are on sheer dumb luck at time, that WWII was probably inevitable regardless of who was in power at the time, and that, as Geoff sings in his beautiful version of “Zog nit keyn mol”, it is absolutely OK to kick a Nazi in the pants. I’ve read a review that mentions that as WWII Jewish revenge fantasies go, this has a lot in common with “Inglorious Basterds” (arguably one of my favorite movies): I can see that, but like Schmitt’s book, “A Man Lies Dreaming” speculates specifically about Hitler’s personality, something both fascinating and repulsive to think about. As Tidhar points out in the historical note at the end of the novel, despite all the books written on the subject, there is little that is known with much certainty about Hitler, making it easy to fill in the blanks- in this case, as luridly as possible.
A very well written, completely twisted story of what might have happened. Weird as fuck, but worth every star....more
Another review describes this book as a mash-up of “X-Men” and “Inglorious Basterds” (to which I had also compared “A Man Lies Dreaming” in a previousAnother review describes this book as a mash-up of “X-Men” and “Inglorious Basterds” (to which I had also compared “A Man Lies Dreaming” in a previous review), as if I wasn’t already totally in love with Lavie Tidhar’s work, that would have sold this book to me just as much as the blurb on the cover of my copy, which says: “Like Watchmen on crack”.
Tidhar is one of those writers who never lets me down, who writes weird books that always keep me on my toes, glued to the page and squeaking excitedly all at once. He can definitely be a challenge, and I get why not everyone enjoys books like this: timelines that hopscotch around, short (sometimes to the point of abrupt) sentences, moral grey areas that makes everyone feel a little uncomfortable. But the rewards of pushing through and letting this pulpy WWII/superhero/spy thriller novel take you on a ride are absolutely worth the effort.
Tidhar writes a lot of alt-WWII stories, always tackling a different angle, and in “The Violent Century”, he took the infamous concept of Ubermenschen, interprets it as “superheroes” and runs off with it, creating the Marvel-like (but also, absolutely not Marvel-like at all) story of Oblivion and Fogg, two men with very peculiar abilities who are recruited by the British government at the beginning of the war. While their mission is originally only to observe, they inevitably get involved, and the consequences have terrifying ramifications.
I really enjoyed the way Tidhar approaches the question of how these super-humans came to be, and the distinct way they are treated depending on the country in which they were born, making an interesting statement about how different cultures view the concept of “greatness” and how it should be used. As is often the case in his books, I wish there were a few more female characters front and center, but the ones who are there are not to be under-estimated; I wish wished they had more page-time, but he sticks to the noir, hard-boiled thing where you see the dames but they aren’t the heroes.
I had a busy work week, and was very annoyed that there was no real way for me to hide under my desk with the book, because that is totally what I wanted to do. Tidhar’s characters are not often endearing, but you want to know what will happen to them, how far will they have to go, if they’ll actually make it to the end of the book unscathed. I absolutely love the ride, and if you are a fan of his books, get this one immediately! For newbies, this one is not a bad place to start!...more
With this collection of interconnected short stories, I feel like Laird Barron pushed the envelope of his weird, cosmic horror even further. The way hWith this collection of interconnected short stories, I feel like Laird Barron pushed the envelope of his weird, cosmic horror even further. The way he had played with non-linear narrative in "The Croning" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) is kicked up a notch with "Swift to Chase".
Mostly set in his native Alaska, these stories are loosely centered around Jessica Mace, a rather enigmatic dame who flees the isolation of Anchorage, the complications of a fractured family... and the notoriety of having survived a strange mass murder. Barron gives us a glimpse of her formative years, but also of her parents' teenage involvement with a party gone wrong and the long-reaching fallout of said-party.
While Barron plays with classic tropes like werewolves and the Huntsman, his own mythology is all over these stories: the Children of Old Leech, the Tooms family (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), mad scientists and secret service agents lurking around... It's noir, it's pulp, but with the creep factor on 11. He does not paint a very nice picture of either growing up or living in Alaska, and plays up how unsettling a desolate landscape can be if you have a morbid imagination.
I love Barron's work and recommend him to everyone, but this one is not a good place to start: I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it had I not already been familiar with his strange world-building - and the post-modern, non-linear storytelling adds a layer of complicated that might confuse readers who aren't used to his weird style. But if you have enjoyed any of his previous short story collections (such as this one: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), do not skip "Swift to Chase"! I am already planning on re-reading it, as I am sure a second visit will let me pick up on a few details I might have missed on the first pass....more
“Do you think it’s possible for something beautiful to come out of an awful thing?”
Holy. Cow.
I had seen this book bounce around my GR feed for a while“Do you think it’s possible for something beautiful to come out of an awful thing?”
Holy. Cow.
I had seen this book bounce around my GR feed for a while. It had caught my eye because of the title: I do love lake monster stories, but I think I was a bit miffed this wasn’t a compendium of such stories, and ignored it for a bit. Then, I saw Laird Barron blurbed it, and because I am basically a sucker for books my favorite authors recommend, I put a copy on my Spooktober pile. And now I am sitting here, a little stunned and in awe of the beautiful writing and bone-chilling stories I have just read.
I love that Ballingrud only gives his readers a tiny glimpse of the supernatural in these stories: monsters are scary, sure, but the fucked up things that dwell in the human heart and mind are way, way more terrifying – and he knows that. His protagonists are usually the working poor that America wishes it could hide better, and the bleak lives they lead, where desperation and fear pushes them into the darkest corners of their being. What is a monster, really, if not a person who’s humanity was stripped away slowly over time until they can’t even see themselves as human anymore?
As pointed out by some reviews, there is a recurring theme of masculinity, or rather what does it mean to be a man in some extreme circumstances: aren't they supposed to be strong, to protect, care for and provide for their families and friends? What does it mean when they can't do that?
The prose is beautiful, the atmosphere of each story cloying and claustrophobic, the characters' anxieties palpable, the open endings deeply unsettling. Thank god these are short stories, because dragging them on any longer would give you road rash. If you like bleak stories, existential horror and enjoy the kind of stuff that Thomas Ligotti, Laird Barron and John Langan write, do yourself a favor, and get a copy of this book immediately. 5 dark, devastating stars.
**
I watched the Hulu series "Monsterland", based on and inspired by the stories in this collection, and if you enjoyed this book, you should definitely check it out. There are few exact adaptations to the stories ("You Go Where it Takes You" and "The Good Husband" are adapted fairly faithfully), but the other episodes are just as powerful, bleak and disturbing as the Ballingrud's writing. The use of the supernatural as a simple highlight of the human monsters is used skillfully in every episode, from the one about how easy it is to radicalize disenfranchised young people online to the one about the oil magnate responsible for a devastating spill. The villains are human, and the creatures are only there to make them realize it. This show is not always easy to watch (it gets graphic and some of the situations are incredibly depressing) but it is beautiful in the same way these short stories are, because they are raw and intense and force you to think....more
Gabrielle (Reading Rampage)
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