Scan barcode
theothertyler's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
coffee_cake's review
Was listening at work, this book is like a poorly remembered daydream in my head. Might pick it up in paperback one day and try again.
mvilly's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
ihateprozac's review against another edition
4.0
I love sensory horror, military horror, and impossible music so everything about this just *spoke* to me!
It’s so creepy and unsettling, which is a huge feat for a book that takes place in direct sunlight in the middle of the damn desert. I was thoroughly creeped out from start to finish and needed to know more about this unsettling sound.
Horror endings often let me down, but I liked this one! Could have used a bit more elaboration and time spent absorbing that final reveal, but I’m not mad about it.
It’s so creepy and unsettling, which is a huge feat for a book that takes place in direct sunlight in the middle of the damn desert. I was thoroughly creeped out from start to finish and needed to know more about this unsettling sound.
Horror endings often let me down, but I liked this one! Could have used a bit more elaboration and time spent absorbing that final reveal, but I’m not mad about it.
elysareadsitall's review against another edition
3.0
"Black Mad Wheel" is an odd book with an interesting concept. I would have liked the story more without the time jumps, but I see what the author was going for. This book was intriguing but not a new favorite.
ratgrrrl's review
2.0
This has been a ride. Ultimately, an unpleasant one.
I thoroughly enjoy the way Malerman writes. There's a machinegun staccato of short, punchy sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. It's engaging and engrossing and hard to put down. It's inspiring and infectious.
I absolutely adore Bird Box and Malorie, for different reasons, and plan to read everything Malerman has written. I am not letting this put me off, but it has made me recalibrate my expectations.
I liked the initial concept of a devastating, unknown noise and the tension between the army wanting to own it and the rock band they sent to find it.
Pretty much everything else in this book, in my incredibly humble and ignorant opinion, for want of a more erudite and respectful word, sucked!
This is Malerman as bad Stephen King. Self insert fan fiction musician protagonist and everything. The army hospital is cartoonishly evil and reeks of King's Institute, but with added 'Americans in Squid Game' and an even more cartoonishly, ludicrously one dimensional 'mad' doctor.
There is zero depth to any character here and a sprinkling of insta-love to really spice things up. Obviously, the love interest has a vaguely relevant tragic backstory that is painfully obviously set up and paid off in the most miniscule and artificially inflated tension towards the climax.
A great deal of the is book takes place in and revolves around the Danib desert in Africa, but African people barely exist in the story. There's a guide and the tragic backstory of his wife. That's pretty much it. This book came out in 2017, and while it isn't horrendously racist, it's not not racist, and seems to have been considered from a post colonial perspective about as much as the late 50s in which it's set.
The central thesis, and it does very explicitly and very clumsily announce and tell its thesis, is that war, war never changes and war bad. Creation is better. But creation also dangerous.
I really wanted to like this. I consider myself a bit of a Malerman fangal, I like how he writes, and I was intrigued at first, but it just kept losing me along the way. I felt as if it kept bringing me back and my updates on here say as much, but this has nowhere enough nutritional value or flavour or anything to be as eeked out and stretched for so long.
The tragedy is that this really could have been something, but it's not even half baked. This needed so very much more cooking and should have almost definitely been a short story that eschewed pretty much everything in the hospital. Nothing about the hospital resonates (badum tish) or makes sense in actuality or thematically, beyond US military/ government bad--absolutely indeed they are bad, but so is this while half of the book.
The themes and imagery also fall flat in an M. Night Shyamalan-esque, dressed up for the big job at the meaning and metaphor factory, but wearing absolutely nothing under that trenchcoat of pretention. Again, the imagery is all American baybee! Which, fine, the author and protagonist are American, but Africa is used as a politically, socially, and historically neutral setting that is solely the birthplace of humanity...It's truly wild that the magic of creation discovered under the dunes of Danib that has a lot to say about war and conjuring ghosts from conflicts across time and space has NOTHING to say about Africa...
Ultimately, there are some nuggets of what could be some really interesting stuff to explore and Malerman's prose is effective, but this ends up being some real mid Stephen King fanfiction with big JJ Abrams Mystery Box nonsense. Look, I love King, Lost, and Malerman, but this...really sucked.
If you pick up this book, you will not believe this review. The opening is really impressive and Malerman is a magician with prose and slight of hand. You might even get to right near the end and tell your partner about the story and that you want to give it a four, despite the perplexed look they give you. But once you finish, you will likely feel just as exasperated and deflated.
Honestly, the more I think about this book, the more I hate it. I can't go lower than two because I do like Malerman's writing and I was inspired to try to write in his style and came up with a a fun idea for a story, and I am truly appreciative for that.
But yeah...this sucks.
I thoroughly enjoy the way Malerman writes. There's a machinegun staccato of short, punchy sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. It's engaging and engrossing and hard to put down. It's inspiring and infectious.
I absolutely adore Bird Box and Malorie, for different reasons, and plan to read everything Malerman has written. I am not letting this put me off, but it has made me recalibrate my expectations.
I liked the initial concept of a devastating, unknown noise and the tension between the army wanting to own it and the rock band they sent to find it.
Pretty much everything else in this book, in my incredibly humble and ignorant opinion, for want of a more erudite and respectful word, sucked!
This is Malerman as bad Stephen King. Self insert fan fiction musician protagonist and everything. The army hospital is cartoonishly evil and reeks of King's Institute, but with added 'Americans in Squid Game' and an even more cartoonishly, ludicrously one dimensional 'mad' doctor.
There is zero depth to any character here and a sprinkling of insta-love to really spice things up. Obviously, the love interest has a vaguely relevant tragic backstory that is painfully obviously set up and paid off in the most miniscule and artificially inflated tension towards the climax.
A great deal of the is book takes place in and revolves around the Danib desert in Africa, but African people barely exist in the story. There's a guide and the tragic backstory of his wife. That's pretty much it. This book came out in 2017, and while it isn't horrendously racist, it's not not racist, and seems to have been considered from a post colonial perspective about as much as the late 50s in which it's set.
The central thesis, and it does very explicitly and very clumsily announce and tell its thesis, is that war, war never changes and war bad. Creation is better. But creation also dangerous.
I really wanted to like this. I consider myself a bit of a Malerman fangal, I like how he writes, and I was intrigued at first, but it just kept losing me along the way. I felt as if it kept bringing me back and my updates on here say as much, but this has nowhere enough nutritional value or flavour or anything to be as eeked out and stretched for so long.
The tragedy is that this really could have been something, but it's not even half baked. This needed so very much more cooking and should have almost definitely been a short story that eschewed pretty much everything in the hospital. Nothing about the hospital resonates (badum tish) or makes sense in actuality or thematically, beyond US military/ government bad--absolutely indeed they are bad, but so is this while half of the book.
The themes and imagery also fall flat in an M. Night Shyamalan-esque, dressed up for the big job at the meaning and metaphor factory, but wearing absolutely nothing under that trenchcoat of pretention. Again, the imagery is all American baybee! Which, fine, the author and protagonist are American, but Africa is used as a politically, socially, and historically neutral setting that is solely the birthplace of humanity...It's truly wild that the magic of creation discovered under the dunes of Danib that has a lot to say about war and conjuring ghosts from conflicts across time and space has NOTHING to say about Africa...
Ultimately, there are some nuggets of what could be some really interesting stuff to explore and Malerman's prose is effective, but this ends up being some real mid Stephen King fanfiction with big JJ Abrams Mystery Box nonsense. Look, I love King, Lost, and Malerman, but this...really sucked.
If you pick up this book, you will not believe this review. The opening is really impressive and Malerman is a magician with prose and slight of hand. You might even get to right near the end and tell your partner about the story and that you want to give it a four, despite the perplexed look they give you. But once you finish, you will likely feel just as exasperated and deflated.
Honestly, the more I think about this book, the more I hate it. I can't go lower than two because I do like Malerman's writing and I was inspired to try to write in his style and came up with a a fun idea for a story, and I am truly appreciative for that.
But yeah...this sucks.
caramel_peaches's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
alienclans's review against another edition
2.0
I feel like Malerman wanted to write a book about a band but either felt pressure to write more horror or wasn't able to think of an interesting story that prominently featured a band without reusing the idea of an ambiguous threat focused on one of the five senses. The story just felt watered down. I didn't get a feeling of suspense or danger or even curiosity at any point while they were exploring the desert. Also the Ellen/Phillip relationship reminded me of Buster and the nurse on Arrested Development so I didn't care about that aspect of the novel either.
I'll still check out his next work but I recommend reading Bird Box instead of this one. It's one of my favorite horror novels.
I'll still check out his next work but I recommend reading Bird Box instead of this one. It's one of my favorite horror novels.
helgamharb's review against another edition
4.0
Strange and terrifying
Maybe it’s because people can’t see the end that they agree to begin.
It was sort of a gig. An opportunity to make some money and at the same time have the adventure of a lifetime.
The former soldiers of World War II and current band-mates wouldn’t be playing any music in the Namib Desert. In fact, they wouldn’t be making any noise. They will be listening for a particular sound. A sound they have never heard. A sound which makes people sick, which renders nuclear weapons useless.
A malevolent sound.
They would be searching for its source.
-“There are things worse than a new weapon…”
-“Like what?”
-“Like the kind of person that would build it.”
But when the group arrives at the site, they realize that the empty and vast desert has secrets of its own; that even the darkness has eyes; that there is more to the sound of wind in the desert; that they are going to encounter the nightmare of their lifetime.
You never know what you’ll find if you keep digging.
Maybe it’s because people can’t see the end that they agree to begin.
It was sort of a gig. An opportunity to make some money and at the same time have the adventure of a lifetime.
The former soldiers of World War II and current band-mates wouldn’t be playing any music in the Namib Desert. In fact, they wouldn’t be making any noise. They will be listening for a particular sound. A sound they have never heard. A sound which makes people sick, which renders nuclear weapons useless.
A malevolent sound.
They would be searching for its source.
-“There are things worse than a new weapon…”
-“Like what?”
-“Like the kind of person that would build it.”
But when the group arrives at the site, they realize that the empty and vast desert has secrets of its own; that even the darkness has eyes; that there is more to the sound of wind in the desert; that they are going to encounter the nightmare of their lifetime.
You never know what you’ll find if you keep digging.