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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bleak History, hopefully not-so-bleak future., August 19, 2009
Bleak History, hopefully not-so-bleak future.
The story follows Gabriel Bleak, ex-war vet who had discovered at an early age that he had a talent for seeing into "hidden" worlds, including the spirit world. Bleak is shown early on pursued by a covert government agency, who appear to have their own conspiratorial agenda.
One new recruit to this agency is Loraine Sarikosca. Through her perspective we get a glimpse of the agency as their plans start to unfold and if she can remain loyal.
In the meantime other people are also gaining in supernatural power. The novel opens with Troy Gulcher using newfound power to initiate a prison break and going out to wreak some havoc on the world.
These all come together in obvious and not-so-obvious ways. In the meantime, Bleak tries to keep his relatively lonely life together as a skip tracer or bounty hunter of bail runners. He tries to bury his bad war memories by visiting with one of his few friends, the father of one of his team and a war survivor himself. He also keeps a distance from the rest of the Shadow Community, other people around New York who have had various powers utilizing "The Hidden". As the story continues, we learn more about some of these other characters and their powers. Meanwhile we also see into the other side of this conflict via Loraine and Gulcher. It is great to see how each side attempts to utilize people's powers to their own benefit, sometimes in disturbing ways.
This all works incredibly well to make a suspenseful story. We have a nicely developed alternate US, a developing conflict centered around Bleak and good supporting characters. We get to see into Loraine's bosses and associates and also how they interact with Gulcher. Some characters like Bleak's old associate Zwieg are not that visible but you can still get a sense of the troubled past. Love interests and family issues contribute to the story. Even some of the dead ghosts get to have their characters developed.
Interesting themes of real love, magic, afterlife, conspiracies potentially going way back and evil are placed into a gritty, realistic environment where the covert CCA given power by homeland security will stop at nothing to Contain all available power!
As the story gets more intense and a prophecy gives you a hint of what is to come, it is impossible to put the book down through the action packed ending. Definitely give it a read!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Urban fantasy with a dark edge, August 18, 2009
Gabriel Bleak is part of the Shadow Community, a group of humans infused with special powers granted from a Hidden world. Some of them can enter minds, some see the future, some carry familiars, and some, such as Bleak, control energy to make it both weapon and tool. He also has a talent for seeing and speaking to ghosts. The CCA, a division of Homeland Security, investigates people like Bleak. They are following him closely, trying to capture him and bring him into their facility. Very troubling is that the wall up North, a barrier against the flood of supernatural that could enter the living world, has weakened and is letting in things unseen before. New powers are cropping up in the hands of people who will not use them for good. A dark force is gaining strength and searching for a way to enter fully, only able to extend tendrils used to control others.
Loraine Sarikosca works for the CCA, but the more she sees them in action, the more doubts she has. She also feels a strange compulsive force towards Gabriel Bleak, just as he does to her. Locked within the fortified walls of their fortress, the CCA imprison and experiment on members of the Shadow Community. They want to capture and control, use the Shadow Community to their own wishes. But a darker plot is at hand when it is discovered that the darkness behind the wall has one of its tendrils in the CCA and his plans are quite different and far more threatening.
I very much enjoyed Bleak History because the concept is so unique. Rather, we have recently been experiencing an influx of `humans with powers' stories because of the popularity of comic book adaptations, but Shirley has managed to make a distinctive and interesting world of his own within the genre. I liked reading about the different Shadow Community members and their specific talents. I only wish that we could have entered that world a bit deeper and met more of the people, or had more people around Gabriel helping with their own special talents. Most of the Shadow Community members are secondary and have their specific, defined roles that come and go. Characters like Scribbler could be much deeper and more defined, and very interesting.
Shirley puts a lot of detail into his descriptions of the Shadow Communities powers and visions. When Shoella creates her own world, we are given a beautiful picture of it. I was fascinated, too, by the way Scribbler is portrayed in the small part he plays. His obsession and nature comes through very clear. I suspect that Shirley's knack for detail is derived from his background as a screenwriter, but it also comes from natural talent. Shirley has an easy, clear way of writing, though sometimes the lengthy descriptions, especially when they speak of more spiritual and less tangible matters, got me a bit lost.
There is a lot of action in the book between getting chased, darker forces committing crimes, and seeking out the truth of what is happening. The book barely lags or takes a breath, but there are a few moments of quiet reflection for the characters. Though there is a small love connection, the book isn't a romance at all, which is refreshing when so much of the paranormal genre is half as much romance as it is supernatural. With an open ending, we are left to wonder what becomes of Gabriel and Loraine as they embark on another journey together.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Visionary and prophetic, October 16, 2009
If you're looking for a good thriller, this is one. After all, John Shirley wrote the original screenplay for the cult movie The Crow, and he knows his job. He also wrote many of Blue Oyster Cult's songs and is himself a rocker, whose music vents much violence. But there's more to this novel than just a great horror story.
John Shirley has a talent for combining fantasy and social insight.
The story takes place in a very, very near future -- nearer than we may expect. This implies highly informed social and political critique,so acute that it sounds like prophecy -- on reading John Shirley's earlier novels, it appears that many figments of his imagination have already turned real.
As for the fantastic dimension, here it has an incredibly vivid, lively quality, as well as a visionary one that makes it subtly mystical(much more subtly than Stephen King's manicheian vision -- with all due respect for King's talent).
This curious alchemy of realism and fantasy is riveting. And you'll see which of the two you find more horrific. Let me know when you've read it!
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