Synopsis:
These are wild, dark times.
It’s the summer of 2012 and Elizabeth Megalos is a disillusioned art-school grad getting by as a bank teller in St. Louis. One evening, she’s attacked by a possessed coworker and saved by a mysterious, wise-cracking sorcerer named Eddy. He drags Elizabeth and Hugh—a skeptical scholar of the occult—to Europe, where he introduces them to his three magical celebrity friends. Once there, Eddy explains the group’s mission: preventing a Demiurge—a creature out of Gnostic Christian mythology—from fulfilling the visions of doom in the Book of Revelation. The Demiurge has been drawing power from the misguided beliefs in the Mayan apocalypse and is set to start the destruction on Dec. 21st, 2012. Through ritual magic and a series of psychedelic experiences, the group learns that Elizabeth is the key to taking down the Demiurge, though she can’t imagine how she will be the one to stop Armageddon.
Edition:
Paperback
Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of Wild, Dark Times by the author in exchange for review consideration. This does not in any way impact the contents of my review.
My Thoughts:
Wild, Dark Times is a pretty unique story. I mean, yes mystical apocalypse has certainly been done before, but I’ve never read that particular tale told quite like this. I’d say Case’s Master’s in Western Esotericism and Mysticism really had a chance to shine here. There was a whole lot of supernatural whatsits going on, which made for fairly interesting (if sometimes a bit overly expository) reading.
The dialogue was a little clunky in places, but nothing I wasn’t able to work past. I will include the one passage that made me wonder just what I had gotten myself into:
“Give me my key,” she demanded. “And by the way, if you ever call me Lizzy again, I’ll kick you in the balls so hard that you’ll sound like my six-year-old cousin, who’s a girl.”
So, I’d be lying if I said that line didn’t have me concerned about the quality of dialogue I was in for. Thankfully it appeared to get better as the book went on. I mean, at no point did it get worse than that. And that line isn’t terrible, it just feels disjointed and awkward to read.
But seriously, it does pick up about 1/3 of the way through. And I found myself absolutely flying through the back half. There are some very interesting narrative choices in Wild, Dark Times. And I mean that sincerely. They were a pleasant surprise. You’ll notice them in the places where people are having visions/getting blasted/whatever. That stream-of-conciousness approach at showing the reader what the character(s) was(were) seeing was used very effectively. Well, how was that for awkward writing, huh? Yeah. That’s why they pay me the big bucks to do this (I’m joking. Nobody pays me a fucking thing in all seriousness).
This gif is definitely applicable. Right?
I also feel like the characters could have used a bit more fleshing out. Considering it’s a story about the looming literal-end-of-the-world, it would have been nice to feel a little more invested in the outcome of each of the protagonists. Like, for those that didn’t see A+ results, I…didn’t really care. I wish I had felt a tad more invested in their well-being, collectively and individually.
I think this is simply due to the fact that for the first bit of the book, Elizabeth and Eddy were the MCs, but as the story progressed we started picking up a whole group. Each introduction carried a weight that seemed to imply that this person too was now a main character. And that weight carried through a large portion of Wild, Dark Times – I think that caused all the characters to lose a bit of their significance. Especially when the group became fractured (I won’t say why because…SPOILERS!). Things just sort of happened off-page, and where’s the fun in that?
Overall, minor bones to pick aside, this is a pretty solid and engaging pending-apocalypse supernatural adventure. And that was a mouthful. If your thing is sort of tongue-in-cheek humored supernatural adventures, I’d definitely recommend Wild, Dark Things. I thought it was a lot of fun!
About the Author:
Austin Case is the author of the psychedelic horror fantasy novel Wild, Dark Times.
He received a Master’s Degree from the University of Amsterdam in Western Esotericism and Mysticism. His academic background of studying the occult has given him a unique take on fantasy and other speculative fiction.
Rating:
Wild, Dark Things
By Austin Case
Between the Lines Publishing
Published: July 23, 2019
ISBN: 9781950502042
Paperback, E-book
265 Pages
Author's Website
