Michael LangloisRezensionen

What can I not say good about this book?!? The beginning drew me in, and wanting to find out more. Without throwing spoilers (for those who have not read it) I was wrapped up in it before I hit the 5th chapter. I started reading this thinking it may be a Young Adult book, (not my regular reading genre) but if it is classified that way, it is WAY wrong! I was spending way too much time thinking about the story, when I was not reading it, and when I got back to it, it was like - NO! Really? F'ing A!!

Seriously, this is one of the better ones I have read in quite a long while. I look forward like crazy to the second book, "BAD LIARS" I think it is called....

I also am looking forward to "WALKER" the start of another series Langlois is working on.

In the midst of WWII, a small band of soldiers interrupted a dark ritual. They never knew just what it was supposed to do; all they knew was that after they stopped it, one of them was immortal. Decades later, Abe is still as strong and youthful looking as ever. When his old comrades start being murdered, he and one of their granddaughters seek the answer why. What they find is more horrific than they could have ever imagined. A man driven insane by the atrocities he witnessed is trying to destroy the world by opening up a portal to the Devourer and its kin, merciless feeding and killing worms. The story really won my interest when it started dropping clues that Abe didn't just get eternal youth in that ritual all those years ago--his personality also started changing. Since the story is told in the first person, that means that we, the reader, are trapped audiences to a man realizing how little he knows himself any longer, and how scary he's gotten. Not where I thought the story was going!

Abe is surprisingly easy to relate to as a main character, and he and his colleagues are a wonderful mix of competent and totally out of their depth. The plot is super creepy, the magical creatures even creepier, and the action scenes are exciting. Definitely worth a read, not least because it's currently free on Amazon!

I enjoyed parts, but overall it really wasn't a great read.

This book was about people possessed by worms. I do not enjoy books about demons, vampires, etc. I only read it because you do not know what it is until you are half way through. The ending was very weak.

Bad Radio is most definitely a thriller, but otherwise could be categorised as fantasy, supernatural, horror and/or science fiction. It’s unusual. The protagonist, Abe, is a second world war veteran; he’s over eighty years old but he still has the body of a man of barely thirty. All his army colleagues are dying of old age, his own wife died a few years ago, and he’s ready to move on himself.

But just as he’s preparing to end his life, the granddaughter of one of his closest comrades appears at his door, asking him to visit her grandfather. In doing so, he discovers that some very old business has come back to trouble him again. With Anne’s help, he must track down and eliminate one very dangerous old man…

This was a quick read; I went through it in an afternoon. The pace is pretty frantic and it’s hard to put this one down. Abe and Anne are in constant danger and up against some terrific odds in their fight against Piotr and his world-threatening plans. They get ample opportunities to be incredibly heroic. Incredibly. Is it possible for human beings to be so relentlessly brave?

Luckily, Abe may be superhuman but he isn’t perfect. He suffers anger management issues… more than a little. Anne’s task (along with everything else) is to try to keep him from losing it completely – and he certainly has some provocation. Their friendship is an interesting and a complex one. I’d have liked to learn more about Anne on a normal level – what does she do when she isn’t being a crack shot and insanely courageous? What was her life like, other than being trained as a top gunwoman by her grandpa? Perhaps we’ll learn more about her in a future book.

The enemies are suitably scary – this is where the horror part comes in – and there’s oodles of tension. The ending came a bit abruptly; I would’ve liked to see Abe and Anne breathe a bit after all that relentless action and take a moment to reflect. But otherwise it’s hard to criticise this book. A great read, and – as I have demonstrated – not necessarily limited only to those who thrive on thrillers.

Bottom line:

Fast and compelling read for any fan of contemporary fantasy. Great elements of a thriller thrown into every chapter.

Premise:

Abe Griffin obtains eternal youth during a secret mission in World War II. Now, sixty years later, an old enemy returns to kill Abe's surviving squad members and reclaim the relics obtained during that secret mission.

Likes:

o Loved the bait bags. They're the perfect enemy.
o While Abe is immortal, he's not impervious to pain. Several times throughout the book, his weaknesses are shown.
o Virtually every chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Each one is well done.
o Good use of foreshadowing and slowly revealing layers of truth throughout the story.
o Overall, very smooth writing style, and plot points flow smoothly from one to the next.

Dislikes:

o Very few. Only a few places of confusion, caused in part because I was reading too fast, wanting to find out what happened next. This book definitely kept me up late a few nights.
o There were a couple of points that were over-explained or hit just a little too hard. However, this didn't take away too much from the overall story.

Full disclosure:

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. When the paperback becomes available, I plan to purchase a copy.