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Book Review: Eight Minutes, Thirty-Two Seconds by Peter Adam Salomon

Eight Minutes, Thirty-Two Seconds by Peter Adam Salomon

PseudoPalms Press, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1093780673

Available: Paperback,  Kindle edition, audiobook

 

 

Eight Minutes, Thirty-Two Seconds has a fascinating concept, and turns out to be more relevant to our times than I’m sure the author expected. Taking place in the near future, I’d say this is more a sci-fi thriller than horror. Our protagonists are L and M, the only two occupants of a gigantic bunker on an Earth where all life appears to have been destroyed. Neither L or M have any memory of their lives prior to waking up in the bunker, and the parameters of the AI in charge are set to make it almost impossible to discover what happened and who they are. Their only escape is a drug that flatlines them for eight minutes and thirty-two seconds. During that time they “jump” into the minds of one of six gifted teenagers secretly working together on a complex, mysterious, and fatal project.  L and M are only able to get short glimpses, though, and have difficulty remembering what they’ve seen once they’ve been “brought back”. It takes an extended flatlining on M’s part, and rapid repeats of inducing her death on L’s part, to piece together the six teenagers’ terrifying plan and the consequences of its results.

While the idea is interesting, and puzzling the pieces together was enough to keep me reading, the lack of character development in this book is a serious flaw. Because L and M don’t have memories, and don’t seem to have much interest in even exploring much of the bunker, it is hard to get a sense of who they are and what they’re like. It’s unclear why they have to die repeatedly to learn about the past or why flatlining would specifically take them to random parts of these specific teens’ lives. Outside of all being genius-level intelligent, it’s also not really clear why these teens would choose to work together. While their leader is clearly alienated from humanity, others seem to have positive relationships, and their willingness to participate was confusing to me.  Although I ultimately found it to be unsatisfying,  I appreciated Salomon’s creativity,  and there were enough unexpected moments to keep me reading it all the way through in an afternoon.

 

Editor’s note:  Eight Minutes, Thirty-Two Seconds  was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.

Posted on March 14, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Institute by Stephen King (Dueling Review)

 Editor’s note: We previously published a review of The Institute written by Murray Samuelson. This review, by David Simms, takes a second look. 

 

The Institute by Stephen King.

Scribner, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1982110567

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

Reviewing a Stephen King book is always a mixed bag. Love it and people think it’s favoritism, hate it and they believe you are being contrarian. Some of King’s books deserve a tepid review, but even when it’s just an okay book by him, it’s usually better than most other writers. There’s a reason why he’s had over 20 books on the bestseller lists. King knows how to draw people: he understands them, inside and outside their heads, and the minutiae that make up our everyday lives. The Institute is one of his good novels of recent times. While it’s no Salem’s Lot or The Stand, it immerses the reader in the characters’ lives in a story that is successful in everything it attempts.

The plot is relatively simple: Luke Ellis, a talented young boy, is abducted in the middle of the night. His parents murdered, he is shoved into a black SUV and driven to the titular institute where children with telepathy and telekinesis are studied. This may sound similar to Firestarter, but it isn’t: If readers must compare this to another King title, it’s closer to IT than anything else. Luke awakens in the Institute, where he meets a group of other kids who fill him in on what happens in the “front half.” Keep your head down, follow directions, and earn tokens for everything from television to candy to other treats. Mrs. Sigsby is the evil woman who runs the institute with an iron fist. She is quick to dole out punishment to the kids, a true caricature of evil, the only weakness of the novel. The supporting cast of the story is much grayer in nature as the staff within run the gamut from caring to apathetic to downright sadistic. The purpose of the place is nebulous which lends a deft touch to the story. What’s in the “back half?” Is it death or something better? Worse? Once children leave the front half, there is zero communication with them. Only the youngest, Avery, has the skills to sense anything about the others at a high level, and might signal a solution to their captivity. Even Luke, brilliant for his age, is still just a kid at heart. For all of his skills and ability to read people, he’s still a child, stuck in an adult’s psychopathic playground. King is a master at painting kids, and this might be his best effort yet. IT is a masterpiece, but the Losers’ Club was closer to teenagers than true children.

In a side story, a mysterious ex-cop leaves Florida and heads north, only to make a strange decision to divert into a small South Carolina town where he accepts a job as a “knocker.” His assimilation into that community is fascinating, and it is curious to see how the pieces come together.

The final product is both thrilling and touching, frightening and timely.

A welcome addition to the King canon.

Recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on February 22, 2020 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
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