sjj169's review
3.0
Wait? This isn't tentacle porn?
This story starts off in a suburb. Normal afternoon of grilling with the neighbors, drinking a few beers and inter-marital groping.
Then it starts lightning and all the lights go off. No cell service. It begins. Of course I read the book when it's storming outside and my power is flickering.
This book reads like a Twilight Zone episode or a whacked out X-Files. Heck yes!
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This story starts off in a suburb. Normal afternoon of grilling with the neighbors, drinking a few beers and inter-marital groping.
Then it starts lightning and all the lights go off. No cell service. It begins. Of course I read the book when it's storming outside and my power is flickering.
This book reads like a Twilight Zone episode or a whacked out X-Files. Heck yes!
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
andimontgomery's review
3.0
I bought this book expecting a short novel - Amazon says it has 234 pages. But what I got was just 77 pages (counted on my iPad). That is more of a novella than a full-length novel. Be prepared for that fact if you decide to read this one.
The premise is similar to Maybe too similar in my honest opinion. But I do love science fiction, and this was certainly a quick read. The problem is, because it was so short, it was difficult to really get to know any of the characters.
I'm a little skittish on purchasing another book from this author, for fear the descriptions will be highly inaccurate, as they were here. But I did enjoy the story.
The premise is similar to
Spoiler
War of the Worlds.I'm a little skittish on purchasing another book from this author, for fear the descriptions will be highly inaccurate, as they were here. But I did enjoy the story.
fictionfan's review
4.0
It was a dark and stormy night...
The story begins in middle-class, middle-America, as the middle-aged residents of respectable, suburban Piccamore Way get together for a little outdoor party. It's the kind of place where nothing worse ever happens than the paperboy throwing the paper into the bushes, or old Iris Phelan turning her TV up too loud. But later that night our narrator Jon wakes with a bit of a hangover to find that a huge storm has blown up, full of strange strobing lightning. And then he discovers that his wife, Kathy, is missing. As he stumbles around in the dark and the rain looking for her, he comes across a strange snake-like thing in the garden. Calling on the neighbours to help him in his search, they begin to discover that the darkness is more than just the normal night, that more people are going missing every minute, and that the 'snakes' are actually something even more frightening and sinister. And then the screaming begins...
This is an alien invasion story of the school of The War of the Worlds, in that these aliens are not interested in getting to know us Earthlings – they're just out to destroy us...for a horrible (but quite credible really) purpose that only becomes fully clear towards the end. It's very well written with lots of scary description and plenty of suspense, Given the shortness of the book, Curran manages to develop his characters well, so that we genuinely care when they begin to meet increasingly gruesome ends. Jon himself has the survival instinct to the full, but we still get to see his grief over his wife as he becomes more aware of what has probably happened to her; and, like us, he watches in horror as one after another of his neighbours is...er...taken.
The rest of that paragraph becomes progressively gorier, as does the novella. Curran is very good at finding the line between telling all and leaving some of it up to the reader's imagination, but still this is definitely not one for the faint-hearted. However, it's very imaginative in a dark way, and the standard of writing is unusually high in a genre where style is sometimes sacrificed in the rush to get to the thrills. The horror and tension mount in tandem, so that even as you're turning away in disgust, you can't help looking back to see what's happening. Personally, perhaps a bit too gruesome for me and I could have lived without some of the language, but the quality of both story and story-telling kept me hooked right up to the end nevertheless. And hasn't helped in any way to rid me of my fears of either snakes or spiders...or, indeed, aliens...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Darkfuse.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
The story I'm going to tell you is about what happened after the lights went out. I'm going to tell you what happened to our beautiful green world and the people that called it home. Understand, it''s not a happy story and there is no moral. It's not that kind of story.
The story begins in middle-class, middle-America, as the middle-aged residents of respectable, suburban Piccamore Way get together for a little outdoor party. It's the kind of place where nothing worse ever happens than the paperboy throwing the paper into the bushes, or old Iris Phelan turning her TV up too loud. But later that night our narrator Jon wakes with a bit of a hangover to find that a huge storm has blown up, full of strange strobing lightning. And then he discovers that his wife, Kathy, is missing. As he stumbles around in the dark and the rain looking for her, he comes across a strange snake-like thing in the garden. Calling on the neighbours to help him in his search, they begin to discover that the darkness is more than just the normal night, that more people are going missing every minute, and that the 'snakes' are actually something even more frightening and sinister. And then the screaming begins...
This is an alien invasion story of the school of The War of the Worlds, in that these aliens are not interested in getting to know us Earthlings – they're just out to destroy us...for a horrible (but quite credible really) purpose that only becomes fully clear towards the end. It's very well written with lots of scary description and plenty of suspense, Given the shortness of the book, Curran manages to develop his characters well, so that we genuinely care when they begin to meet increasingly gruesome ends. Jon himself has the survival instinct to the full, but we still get to see his grief over his wife as he becomes more aware of what has probably happened to her; and, like us, he watches in horror as one after another of his neighbours is...er...taken.
A split second after he was hoisted into the air, an orifice opened in the center of the sack. It looked like the puckering mouth of an old lady without her teeth in. The orifice irised open and I saw a bloodred orb the size of a softball that looked as juicy as a fresh cherry. It was an evil thing like the eye of a witch or a demon...
The rest of that paragraph becomes progressively gorier, as does the novella. Curran is very good at finding the line between telling all and leaving some of it up to the reader's imagination, but still this is definitely not one for the faint-hearted. However, it's very imaginative in a dark way, and the standard of writing is unusually high in a genre where style is sometimes sacrificed in the rush to get to the thrills. The horror and tension mount in tandem, so that even as you're turning away in disgust, you can't help looking back to see what's happening. Personally, perhaps a bit too gruesome for me and I could have lived without some of the language, but the quality of both story and story-telling kept me hooked right up to the end nevertheless. And hasn't helped in any way to rid me of my fears of either snakes or spiders...or, indeed, aliens...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Darkfuse.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
books_with_tess's review
4.0
It’s a short one, but it’s a good one!
I wouldn’t mind reading this as a full novel (this one is 264ish pages)
Curran is really good at the claustrophobic feel, but also at the ET levels of horror.
I wouldn’t mind reading this as a full novel (this one is 264ish pages)
Curran is really good at the claustrophobic feel, but also at the ET levels of horror.
paulopaperbooksonly's review
2.0
Not the best work by Curran. Again, like Worm I expect a not so happy ending and Tim Curran deceived me. Rather ambiguous.
There were several characters and we follow on in particular as he is searching for his wife. One by one they died.
What it didn't click for me was the pace (quite fast -but at the same time it seems nothing happen and it was going nowhere). At the same time, it was the characters themselves. He tried to make them different but unfortunately they felt rather flat (but with a 90 page novella - what could you expect).
Then it was the plot itself, they escape going house to house, then they were swallowed and then the enemy was defeated. Not good at all.
There were several characters and we follow on in particular as he is searching for his wife. One by one they died.
What it didn't click for me was the pace (quite fast -but at the same time it seems nothing happen and it was going nowhere). At the same time, it was the characters themselves. He tried to make them different but unfortunately they felt rather flat (but with a 90 page novella - what could you expect).
Then it was the plot itself, they escape going house to house, then they were swallowed and then the enemy was defeated. Not good at all.
urlphantomhive's review
3.0
READ IN ENGLISH
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!
After seeing all the positive reviews for Blackout I a) really wanted to read it, and b) really wanted to like it. To avoid spoilers I didn't do a lot of research as to what the story was about.
I won't tell anything about the story either, it's better to let you find out for yourself. Let's just say that life gets quite tough, quite fast. At the beginning you can feel the tension is rising and something terrible is going to happen. I didn't like the ending as much, as it seemed a mash up of
at least the modern War of the Worlds movie remake (could be just me, that I don't know enough about Sci-Fi to distinguish ancient aliens invading and killing all humans stories from one another) and the fifth story of Cloud Atlas.
Would still recommend though.
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!
After seeing all the positive reviews for Blackout I a) really wanted to read it, and b) really wanted to like it. To avoid spoilers I didn't do a lot of research as to what the story was about.
I won't tell anything about the story either, it's better to let you find out for yourself. Let's just say that life gets quite tough, quite fast. At the beginning you can feel the tension is rising and something terrible is going to happen. I didn't like the ending as much, as it seemed a mash up of
Spoiler
at least the modern War of the Worlds movie remake (could be just me, that I don't know enough about Sci-Fi to distinguish ancient aliens invading and killing all humans stories from one another) and the fifth story of Cloud Atlas.
Would still recommend though.
stanwj's review
2.0
Note: Minor spoilers in the review.
Blackout uses the same broad theme as Stephen King's novella "The Mist," replacing the titular fog with an all-encompassing darkness than envelops a small town, all the better to unleash alien horrors on its citizenry. While the story moves swiftly, it never quite clicked for me. It's a fast and easy read but I felt indifferent to the fates of the various characters.
The writing is for the most part solid, but unremarkable. Passages like the following, where the main character state the obvious, are not uncommon:
One of my pet peeves--characters doing dumb things to advance the plot--is also in play here, though to his credit, Curran at least has the main character own up to his behavior:
(The cables are bad, as you may have guessed.)
If you feel the need for a bleak, hopeless tale--that's not a spoiler, as the first line of the story admits as much--you could do worse than Blackout, but I found it curiously joyless.
Blackout uses the same broad theme as Stephen King's novella "The Mist," replacing the titular fog with an all-encompassing darkness than envelops a small town, all the better to unleash alien horrors on its citizenry. While the story moves swiftly, it never quite clicked for me. It's a fast and easy read but I felt indifferent to the fates of the various characters.
The writing is for the most part solid, but unremarkable. Passages like the following, where the main character state the obvious, are not uncommon:
And being a science teacher, I knew that if the sun did not rise day after day after day, there would be no photosynthesis. The plants and trees would no longer process carbon dioxide and release breathable oxygen.
One of my pet peeves--characters doing dumb things to advance the plot--is also in play here, though to his credit, Curran at least has the main character own up to his behavior:
I don’t honestly think it was the cable’s doing, but some weird self-hypnotic thing that made me reach out and touch it. There’s no good explanation for any of it. None at all. The self-destructive urge we all feel from time to time just became so strong, and I was so weak, that I just went with it. I touched the cable.
(The cables are bad, as you may have guessed.)
If you feel the need for a bleak, hopeless tale--that's not a spoiler, as the first line of the story admits as much--you could do worse than Blackout, but I found it curiously joyless.
dankeohane's review
5.0
This was an exceptional, exceptional horror novel. Well, I guess it's actually a novella, but this short novel is very scary and fast-paced. It's an old-style invasion story, from the perspective of one small, suburban neighborhood on a night that has become preternaturally dark. Strange cables drop from the sky and begin snatching people away. Bigger and nastier terrors build from there, and I found myself gripping the book to see what would happen next. There were a few scenes in particular that were quite frightening. Curran doesn't shy away from taking victims, young or old, of this monstrous, and mysterious force stealing away the population. At times, especially near the end, it gets quite graphic, but never so much that it feels gratuitous, or just gore for gore sake.
The writing, needless to say, was tremendous all the way through. I've never read anything by the author before (to be honest I picked this up both to read an example of a work from the publisher Dark Fuse, and also the cover - loved the cover). I've definitely become a fan of Tim Curran and am going to search out more from him. Again, if you like a fast, well-done and scary horror novel, definitely this a read for you.
The writing, needless to say, was tremendous all the way through. I've never read anything by the author before (to be honest I picked this up both to read an example of a work from the publisher Dark Fuse, and also the cover - loved the cover). I've definitely become a fan of Tim Curran and am going to search out more from him. Again, if you like a fast, well-done and scary horror novel, definitely this a read for you.
ctorretta's review
4.0
This starts and I got an odd feeling right away. Seriously, Tim Curran can put that feeling into your hear without you even realizing what is going on. And the characters do not know either, which is half of the problem. Crazy shit is going on outside, do NOT go out there… I mean geezus!
For a horror most of this was pretty tame. It was the aspect of the ratcheting horror that I enjoyed though. There were a lot of characters introduced as the evening wears on but mostly it’s the main character and he is trying desperately to keep his cool through some really weird times. He loses it a few times though. And once so badly that I wanted to kill him myself! I mean, my god!! What was he thinking!?
Really though, that’s the fun of these kinds of books. You get to see if someone is going to be a hero or if that fight or flight syndrome will kick into place. As the plot progresses it does get scarier and there are some moments that are just plain gory. But it wasn’t gore just to be in your face, it matched the storyline and where things were going.
Emotionally I wasn’t totally vested with most of the characters. It’s not that I didn’t like them but there just wasn’t enough to really get to know them. Ended a little flat. I wanted just one more chapter maybe? Loved Tim’s easy writing style though. Although, I did have a little question… do guys giggle? That threw me off.
In short: Love this horror! It has given me nightmares the last two nights! Definitely is the type to stick with you.
For a horror most of this was pretty tame. It was the aspect of the ratcheting horror that I enjoyed though. There were a lot of characters introduced as the evening wears on but mostly it’s the main character and he is trying desperately to keep his cool through some really weird times. He loses it a few times though. And once so badly that I wanted to kill him myself! I mean, my god!! What was he thinking!?
Really though, that’s the fun of these kinds of books. You get to see if someone is going to be a hero or if that fight or flight syndrome will kick into place. As the plot progresses it does get scarier and there are some moments that are just plain gory. But it wasn’t gore just to be in your face, it matched the storyline and where things were going.
Emotionally I wasn’t totally vested with most of the characters. It’s not that I didn’t like them but there just wasn’t enough to really get to know them. Ended a little flat. I wanted just one more chapter maybe? Loved Tim’s easy writing style though. Although, I did have a little question… do guys giggle? That threw me off.
In short: Love this horror! It has given me nightmares the last two nights! Definitely is the type to stick with you.
frantasticmissfox's review
4.0
Alien invasion? Sign me up! This book was an incredibly fun, entertaining read that combined humour with horror in a fantastic way. The aliens worked for me, they weren't always completely visible but their presence was felt and that helped to build up the atmosphere. The book had excellent tense moments and parts of the book genuinely scared me! and even more so, .
There were only a few small gripes I had but that's to do with personal taste and is not a criticism of the author. I would've liked slightly more character development, so that I could feel slightly more attached to the characters. I also would've preferred a slightly longer ending, just so that a couple of things could be explored or maybe explained a bit more. Again, these are just to do with my personal tastes and I still really enjoyed the book.
This was my first Tim Curran book and it definitely won't be my last, I look forward to reading more of his works.
Spoiler
When everyone was being pulled up by the cables and getting stuck to them, I found that wonderfully creepySpoiler
the entire time when Jon is actually on the ship, finding the dead people and their remains was gloriously gross and also terrifyingThere were only a few small gripes I had but that's to do with personal taste and is not a criticism of the author. I would've liked slightly more character development, so that I could feel slightly more attached to the characters. I also would've preferred a slightly longer ending, just so that a couple of things could be explored or maybe explained a bit more. Again, these are just to do with my personal tastes and I still really enjoyed the book.
This was my first Tim Curran book and it definitely won't be my last, I look forward to reading more of his works.