felyn's review
4.0
I almost didn't read this, first of all because Sam's got a way of describing things that grosses me the hell out (and I mean that as a compliment, because descriptive gore is not my kind of horror at all and I STILL want to keep reading Night Marshall books) and secondly, because I despise serial/installment fiction. Neither of those stopped me in the end, because I'm that kind of literary masochist and Sam's that kind of damned fine author, dragging you back in kicking and screaming. The Apocalypse Hive looks like it's going to be more my speed: lots of tension, lots of "WTF is going on here?!", and of course, my favourite of all, it's wonderfully eldritch.
Basically what you've got here in Episode 1 is a whole lot of questions and set-up for the rest of the series. The beginning of the end. For the most part it's written first person from the perspective of a worker in a building called the Complex, and his job is monitor gauges and adjust them as necessary in order to keep creatures/beings known as Sleepers from waking up. The problem is, he's broken. I won't get into why, because it's all there in the book, but this results in him purposefully sabotaging the equipment he's supposed to be guarding in order to ratchet himself further up the ladder within the Complex. Things, to put it mildly, go about as far from the plan as possible.
The writing style is very basic and straight-forward, fast-paced and at times almost frenetic. It's perfect for the character in whose head we're living, but it will be jarring and unpleasant for some readers. I don't think I could handle it for much longer than the length of this installment, for example, which actually makes the serial format very appealing in this instance. It's compelling and bizarre and overall, I'm looking forward to seeing how things further flesh out over the next couple of installments.
This is NOT for readers who want all the answers spoon-fed to them. You're going to walk away from this book wondering what the hell is going on and why everything just happened and who the hell are these people (and those creatures)... and I can only believe it's done purposefully given the talent Sam's displayed in his other writing.
Basically what you've got here in Episode 1 is a whole lot of questions and set-up for the rest of the series. The beginning of the end. For the most part it's written first person from the perspective of a worker in a building called the Complex, and his job is monitor gauges and adjust them as necessary in order to keep creatures/beings known as Sleepers from waking up. The problem is, he's broken. I won't get into why, because it's all there in the book, but this results in him purposefully sabotaging the equipment he's supposed to be guarding in order to ratchet himself further up the ladder within the Complex. Things, to put it mildly, go about as far from the plan as possible.
The writing style is very basic and straight-forward, fast-paced and at times almost frenetic. It's perfect for the character in whose head we're living, but it will be jarring and unpleasant for some readers. I don't think I could handle it for much longer than the length of this installment, for example, which actually makes the serial format very appealing in this instance. It's compelling and bizarre and overall, I'm looking forward to seeing how things further flesh out over the next couple of installments.
This is NOT for readers who want all the answers spoon-fed to them. You're going to walk away from this book wondering what the hell is going on and why everything just happened and who the hell are these people (and those creatures)... and I can only believe it's done purposefully given the talent Sam's displayed in his other writing.
errantdreams's review
3.0
The Sleepers seem alien in nature, but they turn people into mindless zombie-like creatures. Our inadvertent villain does everything he can to undo what he’s done, but you know it won’t be that easy.
It’s hard for me to say much about this book because it’s quite short. I think maybe I expected a little more after reading Witt’s Pitchfork County tales. There are at least a couple of interesting people in this tale, largely the protagonist and the Asshole.
At the end we do see a little bit of what’s going on in the outside world, although only for a moment. Even though this isn’t my favorite short story, most books don’t pick up right away anyway, so I’m going to read the next part. Hopefully that’ll grab onto me a bit harder!
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/12/short-take-the-apocalypse-hive-1-sam-witt/
It’s hard for me to say much about this book because it’s quite short. I think maybe I expected a little more after reading Witt’s Pitchfork County tales. There are at least a couple of interesting people in this tale, largely the protagonist and the Asshole.
At the end we do see a little bit of what’s going on in the outside world, although only for a moment. Even though this isn’t my favorite short story, most books don’t pick up right away anyway, so I’m going to read the next part. Hopefully that’ll grab onto me a bit harder!
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/12/short-take-the-apocalypse-hive-1-sam-witt/
More...