Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Author of Hex
About the Author
Series
Works by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Harland Awards 2003-2014 1 copy
Associated Works
Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2019) — Photo — 154 copies, 5 reviews
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Eight (2014) — Contributor — 116 copies, 6 reviews
The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 4 (Apex World of Speculative Fiction) (2015) — Contributor — 84 copies, 25 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Olde Heuvelt, Thomas
- Legal name
- Olde Heuvelt, Thomas Baudelet
- Birthdate
- 1983-04-16
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer - Nationality
- Netherlands
- Birthplace
- Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Places of residence
- Den Bosch, Netherlands
- Associated Place (for map)
- Netherlands
Members
Reviews
The Publisher Says: NATURE IS CALLING—but they shouldn't have answered.
Travel journalist and mountaineer Nick Grevers awakes from a coma to find that his climbing buddy, Augustin, is missing and presumed dead. Nick’s own injuries are as extensive as they are horrifying. His face wrapped in bandages and unable to speak, Nick claims amnesia—but he remembers everything.
He remembers how he and Augustin were mysteriously drawn to the Maudit, a remote and scarcely documented peak in the show more Swiss Alps.
He remembers how the slopes of Maudit were eerily quiet, and how, when they entered its valley, they got the ominous sense that they were not alone.
He remembers: something was waiting for them...
But it isn’t just the memory of the accident that haunts Nick. Something has awakened inside of him, something that endangers the lives of everyone around him…
It’s one thing to lose your life. It’s another to lose your soul.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: I can't quite believe this is a translation. Its prose rings like a crystal wineglass.
I can't quite believe I have a son named Sam (he's so much like me it's scary) who lives in a novel. By a Dutch guy. Whom I've never met.
I can't quite write a real review yet...still stunned, too scared to go back and figure out why...but it's a week ago the book came out and honestly I'm still shook that all y'all ain't got it on your nightstands yet.
What is wrong with people?! Go get this terrifying, propulsive, exquisitely personal and depressingly universal horror-adjacent thriller. Go on! March, young scalawag. show less
Travel journalist and mountaineer Nick Grevers awakes from a coma to find that his climbing buddy, Augustin, is missing and presumed dead. Nick’s own injuries are as extensive as they are horrifying. His face wrapped in bandages and unable to speak, Nick claims amnesia—but he remembers everything.
He remembers how he and Augustin were mysteriously drawn to the Maudit, a remote and scarcely documented peak in the show more Swiss Alps.
He remembers how the slopes of Maudit were eerily quiet, and how, when they entered its valley, they got the ominous sense that they were not alone.
He remembers: something was waiting for them...
But it isn’t just the memory of the accident that haunts Nick. Something has awakened inside of him, something that endangers the lives of everyone around him…
It’s one thing to lose your life. It’s another to lose your soul.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: I can't quite believe this is a translation. Its prose rings like a crystal wineglass.
Every year, climbers—sometimes entire teams—disappear into deep glacial voids and die in their frozen darkness. If the mountain is merciful, the drop is deep enough to smash them into silence in one go. Most victims, however, are trapped between blue, narrowing walls of ice, and as their body warmth melts the ice, they sink slowly deeper and deeper, until they die very consciously of asphyxiation.
I can't quite believe I have a son named Sam (he's so much like me it's scary) who lives in a novel. By a Dutch guy. Whom I've never met.
There are November mornings when the cold is clear, crackling, and crisp, but this cold was sticky, syrupy, clung to you. Like it was begging you for help. You, the first organism to have crossed its path, and would you please take it with you and protect it from what's about to happen, because that was much, much worse than the cold itself.
Jesus. The Morose hadn't even got started yet and my metaphors were already going haywire.
I can't quite write a real review yet...still stunned, too scared to go back and figure out why...but it's a week ago the book came out and honestly I'm still shook that all y'all ain't got it on your nightstands yet.
You’ve often asked me why I climb mountains. You’ve also often asked me (I wouldn’t say begged, though it’s not far off the mark) to stop. Our worst argument was about this, and it was the only time I was really afraid that I would lose you. I’ve never been able to fully explain it to you. I wonder if it’s at all possible to fully explain to someone who isn’t a climber. There’s an apparently unbridgeable gap between the thought that I risk my life doing something as trifling as climbing a cold lump of rock and ice…and the notion of traveling through a floating landscape, progressing with utmost concentration while having absolute control of the essential balance that keeps me alive and that, therefore, lets me live. Conquering that gap is possibly the most difficult climb in the life of any alpinist who is in a relationship.
What is wrong with people?! Go get this terrifying, propulsive, exquisitely personal and depressingly universal horror-adjacent thriller. Go on! March, young scalawag. show less
Nature was calling...but they shouldn't have answered.
Nick Grevers, an experienced mountaineer, is lucky to be alive following an accident which saw the death of his climbing buddy, Augustin. Nick is not in a good way, he's lucky to be alive; wrapped in bandages, unable to communicate verbally and horribly disfigured. Nick’s boyfriend, Sam, is horrified by the news and despite his love for Nick, feels unsure about their future together. But when a terrorist attack is carried out on the show more hospital Nick is in, Sam realizes that his life is and will always be with Nick. Nick’s experience on the mountain went beyond the horror to his face, his near death and the loss of his climbing partner.
I am a huge fan of believable horror and there is no better place to set the stories than in a beautiful but totally inhospitable environment...in this case...a mountain range. These are stories of people having to fight for survival against nature and everything that nature can throw at them. That is what made Echo the perfect read. It's a vivid tale of love, of loss, with a dose of supernatural horror. Chilling, creepy and everything that a horror fan wants in a spooky read. The reader will be drawn in from the incredibly eerie beginning to the devastating ending. I have to say that this was an experience that I will remember for a long time.
I didn't especially care for Sam at first. It took a while but by the third or so chapter I began to develop more affection for him. By the end of the book, I was sad to say goodbye. I wanted to know what happened to him and Augustin on Maudit, and why. Nick’s take on things is provided via his manuscript which he sends to Sam while he’s away in the states. Throughout the story sections of the manuscript are provided to the reader so the gaps can be filled in and the truth of what happened is slowly and gradually revealed. The love between Nick and Sam, despite the horror and devastation caused by the accident, is what shone through the strongest and it is almost devastating.
Would I recommend this book? Oh yes. Especially if you are a big fan of horror stories. It is a beautifully written, eerie tale of all-consuming love and heart wrenching loss. A slow burn novel which the reader can savored over the course of however much time it takes you to read it. It’s not a quick read but so worth every single moment you spend in the pages. The author builds up the suspense and increases the tension as the story moves along. Olde Heuvelt has once again created a novel that will work its way under your skin...as well as one that will stay with you for a long, long time to come. show less
Nick Grevers, an experienced mountaineer, is lucky to be alive following an accident which saw the death of his climbing buddy, Augustin. Nick is not in a good way, he's lucky to be alive; wrapped in bandages, unable to communicate verbally and horribly disfigured. Nick’s boyfriend, Sam, is horrified by the news and despite his love for Nick, feels unsure about their future together. But when a terrorist attack is carried out on the show more hospital Nick is in, Sam realizes that his life is and will always be with Nick. Nick’s experience on the mountain went beyond the horror to his face, his near death and the loss of his climbing partner.
I am a huge fan of believable horror and there is no better place to set the stories than in a beautiful but totally inhospitable environment...in this case...a mountain range. These are stories of people having to fight for survival against nature and everything that nature can throw at them. That is what made Echo the perfect read. It's a vivid tale of love, of loss, with a dose of supernatural horror. Chilling, creepy and everything that a horror fan wants in a spooky read. The reader will be drawn in from the incredibly eerie beginning to the devastating ending. I have to say that this was an experience that I will remember for a long time.
I didn't especially care for Sam at first. It took a while but by the third or so chapter I began to develop more affection for him. By the end of the book, I was sad to say goodbye. I wanted to know what happened to him and Augustin on Maudit, and why. Nick’s take on things is provided via his manuscript which he sends to Sam while he’s away in the states. Throughout the story sections of the manuscript are provided to the reader so the gaps can be filled in and the truth of what happened is slowly and gradually revealed. The love between Nick and Sam, despite the horror and devastation caused by the accident, is what shone through the strongest and it is almost devastating.
Would I recommend this book? Oh yes. Especially if you are a big fan of horror stories. It is a beautifully written, eerie tale of all-consuming love and heart wrenching loss. A slow burn novel which the reader can savored over the course of however much time it takes you to read it. It’s not a quick read but so worth every single moment you spend in the pages. The author builds up the suspense and increases the tension as the story moves along. Olde Heuvelt has once again created a novel that will work its way under your skin...as well as one that will stay with you for a long, long time to come. show less
This story will break your heart. It might be a story about how society treats people who are different, both loving and hating them too much. It might be a story about falling in love for the first time. And it might be a story about living to your fullest in the face of your inevitable death.
‘Did he die?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘He lived.’
[2013 Hugo Award Nominee]
‘Did he die?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘He lived.’
[2013 Hugo Award Nominee]
4 1/2 stars.
Black Spring is cursed. No, not some little "haven't won a 4A championship in 30 years since a bunch of kids ran over old man Mallory's goat and he he shook his hand at them and yelled something in Gaelic" type of curse. No this is a 300 year old witch with her eyes and mouth stitched shut who appears out of nowhere to scare the crap out of you cursed. From the corners of her stitched up mouth some words emerge. You can't recognize the language and if you try to listen you will show more probably shove a knife into your eyes because she likes to make people kill themselves. Also, if you ever see her you can never leave Black Spring again. Ever. That kind of cursed.
This story would be almost expected if this were 16th century England. But what do you do with a situation like this in the 21st century? Why you record her with video cameras, conduct endless experiments, use GPS to track her whereabouts, and generally high tech the whole experience, of course--because we are so advanced and scientific now, right? That is what made this story such a trip. The concept is that no matter how much 21st century tech we throw at this most medieval of problems, we ultimately realize that, despite our shiny new equipment, we really haven't changed that much inside. Our minds are still primitive and ancient thoughts, fears, and emotions still squirm around in our little heads no matter how much we think we have evolved.
We just have better toys.
Why not 5 stars? Petty, really. I took away a half star because a main character in this book really pissed me off.... show less
Black Spring is cursed. No, not some little "haven't won a 4A championship in 30 years since a bunch of kids ran over old man Mallory's goat and he he shook his hand at them and yelled something in Gaelic" type of curse. No this is a 300 year old witch with her eyes and mouth stitched shut who appears out of nowhere to scare the crap out of you cursed. From the corners of her stitched up mouth some words emerge. You can't recognize the language and if you try to listen you will show more probably shove a knife into your eyes because she likes to make people kill themselves. Also, if you ever see her you can never leave Black Spring again. Ever. That kind of cursed.
This story would be almost expected if this were 16th century England. But what do you do with a situation like this in the 21st century? Why you record her with video cameras, conduct endless experiments, use GPS to track her whereabouts, and generally high tech the whole experience, of course--because we are so advanced and scientific now, right? That is what made this story such a trip. The concept is that no matter how much 21st century tech we throw at this most medieval of problems, we ultimately realize that, despite our shiny new equipment, we really haven't changed that much inside. Our minds are still primitive and ancient thoughts, fears, and emotions still squirm around in our little heads no matter how much we think we have evolved.
We just have better toys.
Why not 5 stars? Petty, really. I took away a half star because a main character in this book really pissed me off.... show less
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